Can vsync damage GPU?

[j_schumacher-19]

Hello,
I have an Nvidia GeForce GTX 680 and I wanted to know if turning vsync on and off all the time damage mi video card.

 

[4745454b]

No. It shouldn't.

 

[n1ghtr4v3n]

vsync is like limiting the graphics card to match the refresh rate on your monitor.

lets say you have a 60hz monitor and you have a freaking Titan which can produce 120hz (120 frames per second). Since you monitor cannot show more than 60 frames in one second its pointless for your graphics card to try to produce that 120 frames in a second. Thus turning on vsync will limit your gpu to adapt to 60hz. As a result it will improve the efficiency. And trying to produce 120 frames on a 60hz monitor will result screen tearing, meaning your monitor will skip half of the frames in this example because it simply cannot show all those frames in one second.

On the other hand, if you have a weak graphics card that can only produce 30 frames per second on a 60hz monitor. Turning on Vsync will push the card to try to produce 60 frames (which it cannot) will significantly drop its efficiency and performance.

So... it wont damage your gpu but, it will increase/decrease the performance/efficiency/powerconsumption/framerate depending on the situation.

 

[4745454b]

Sort of. As I understand it if you can't hit 60FPS, then Vsync will drop you to 30FPS. This is the only way I can see you harming your GPU is if you would normally produce 55FPS and you OC your GPU so you can hit 60. Depending on the card you might push it to hard, and damage it. But it wasn't Vsync that that damaged the card, it was the OC.

As above Vsync merely matches the frames to the monitor. There is nothing about Vsync that would harm either the GPU or the monitor.