Afterburner OSD is displaying higher refresh rates than 144 w/g-sync

[shmoo]

Hey,

I just got a AG271QG, and I'm seeing MSI afterburner's OSD show higher refresh rates than 144hz when I have g-sync enabled in Mass Effect Andromeda (full screen). I have the display set to 144hz, and when I go into the monitors menu, it shows "2560x1440 144hz". Should my FPS in afterburner always be below 144hz when I have g-sync enabled? Other system specs are 1080 ti's in sli, i7-6850k.

 

[genthug]

G-sync simply allows the screen to not tear in real time by using the GPU rendered scene. If you have V-sync turned on there will be a slight amount of input lag as the machine pieces together the proper frame and throws it onto your screen, this comes at a cost of latency and stutter if you aren't hitting the FPS to match the refresh rate. G-sync takes out both of those aspects so that you have virtually no stutter if you are running below the refresh rate, and takes out the input lag as it takes the image from the GPU and immediately pushes it to the screen instead of allowing something like V-sync to do any extra processing.

So, if your FPS is below 144, it is something in your machine holding it back. Not the monitor.

 

[shmoo]

G-sync simply allows the screen to not tear in real time by using the GPU rendered scene. If you have V-sync turned on there will be a slight amount of input lag as the machine pieces together the proper frame and throws it onto your screen, this comes at a cost of latency and stutter if you aren't hitting the FPS to match the refresh rate. G-sync takes out both of those aspects so that you have virtually no stutter if you are running below the refresh rate, and takes out the input lag as it takes the image from the GPU and immediately pushes it to the screen instead of allowing something like V-sync to do any extra processing.

So, if your FPS is below 144, it is something in your machine holding it back. Not the monitor.

So my question is specifically regarding my FPS going above the monitor's refresh rate (according to MSI afterburner's OSD) as an indicator of g-sync not working. Since g-sync forces the GPU and display to be in sync with whatever FPS my GPU's are able to pump out, I'd expect to never see the FPS go above the display's refresh rate given that they're "in sync" and the monitor isn't capable of going over 144hz.

FWIW I'm not noticing tearing, however there is a tiny bit of studder in Mass Effect Andromeda when my FPS are still well over 60hz, but not in the valley benchmark.

 

[genthug]

How far over 144 are we talking? Because from a quick search Newegg pops up with this ( https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824160298 ) monitor--and it details quite, quite frequently a 165Hz refresh rate. Are you ever going over that? If you take off G-sync and put V-sync on, does it stay capped at 144 or does it go up to 165?

 

[shmoo]

How far over 144 are we talking? Because from a quick search Newegg pops up with this ( https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824160298 ) monitor--and it details quite, quite frequently a 165Hz refresh rate. Are you ever going over that? If you take off G-sync and put V-sync on, does it stay capped at 144 or does it go up to 165?

Hey, the display does 165 if you overclock it, which I haven't. It shoots up well over 144 in menus, etc. Over 1000 for a second or 2. Haven't tried v-sync.

 

[genthug]

I would take a look at this: https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/962461/what-is-the-expected-g-sync-behavior-with-fps-above-a-monitors-refresh-rate-/ forum post over at NVidia. I believe it will answer your question.