Games screen tearing without vsync

[costysmecher2002]

Hi. So i have a problem with my laptop. I experience screen tearing with every game in which i don't use vsync, i have good fps but the game is screen tearing like crazy. I looked into the problem and i saw many people saying "you don't need more frames than your monitor's refresh rate" mine is 60hz. The thing is vsync comes with imput lag which is annoying by itself. Tried locking the frames to 60 but it's like having them unlocked, still tearing. I have a pretty low laptop so in some games cause of vsync my fps starts to drop below 60. I got it last year and this problem came out of nowhere some months ago.
My specs:

Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-6006U CPU @ 2.00GHz

Video Card NVIDIA GeForce 920M

Video Card #2 Intel(R) HD Graphics 520

RAM 4.0 GB

Operating System Microsoft Windows 10 (build 16299), 64-bit

 

[AniChatt]

Sorry man it will tear as long as the GPU fps and screen refresh rate is not matching. You can turn on fast sync from nvidia control panel which will reduce screen tearing as long as fps is above the monitors refresh rate but if it dips down it will tear even with fast sync.
Options: turn on vsync and set it to adaptive from nvidia control panel. Therefore as long as it is up to or above 60, you will not see screen tearing. If it is say 55 then it will not reduce fps to 30 but it will stop but you will get tearing.
Problem is some games even with vsync off shows a bit less tearing than others. It is not your display issue. If you don't want tearing and your pc is capable to maintain 60+ fps then fast sync will help otherwise you have to bear with input lag in vsync.

 

[boju]

What are you using to cap your fps?

I'll suggest a method which ive done many times on 60Hz tvs and monitors, i get no tearing and no input lag. Try Fast sync first as said as it's just one click.

Method: Nvidia inspector to limit fps 58~59 and turn Vsync on.

 

[bigsmilingbear]

even if you match the fps with refresh rate, it would still tear, it would greatly reduce the amount of tearing but there will still be some. this is common misconception. the only way to eliminate tearing is by enabling v-sync and capping the fps.

common misconception no.2 is that v-sync will ultimately bring on the infamous input lag.
actually, input lag is present because of the amount of frame you set prerendered ahead in the driver's control panel (nvidia maximum prerendered frame).
if you set the max prerendered frame to 1, that means your GPU will queue 1 extra frame above the amount of frame needed by v-sync (1 + 60 fps for 60 hz). this extra frame is the cause of the input lag and it could be countered! by capping your fps by 1 frame below the refresh rate in-game or with 3rd party program like MSI afterburner (59 fps for 60 hz).

would this eliminate v-sync because it the fps doesn't match the refresh rate by 1 fps?
NO, v-sync will only throttle down or disabled if your fps is about 4-5 fps below refresh rate.

but, v-sync stutters when the fps drops!
yes in most case v-sync will throttle down from 60hz to 30hz if your fps is too low, this would result the infamous stutter, but you can counter this by enabling triple buffering so v-sync doesn't hog too much GPU power, and if triple buffering isn't available you could always enable adaptive v-sync! adaptive v-sync will automatically turn off v-sync whenever your FPS drops too far below the refresh rate so it wouldn't stutter, and once back to target fps it would reenable v-sync automatically.
or if you're sure your GPU can perform 2x fps needed for v-sync, you can use nvidia fast sync.
but if you don't have enough GPU juice, it's always preferable to adjust lower graphic settings to get atleast constant fps near refresh rate.

but my GPU could only perform 60 fps and my monitor refresh rate is 120hz! how do i do this v-sync?
there are 2 ways to do this:
1. lower your monitor refresh rate to 60 hz in monitor properties.
2. nvidia adaptive v-sync half refresh rate.

so there you go! i hope more people learn about the benefit of using v-sync the right way.

just to encourage you, i play CSGO with max settings and triple buffering v-sync enabled. no input lag whatsoever.
1060 3GB, 120hz monitor, capped at 119 fps using MSI Afterburner. constant 119 fps, smooth like butter on glass.

in depth reading about v-sync and input lag:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=668808553

 

[boju]

^ triple buffering does work but only in Opengl games which Csgo uses.

Limiting fps lower than refresh with Vsync on has the same effect in Dx games by manually creating a phantom buffer without the pre renderd frames.

 

[bigsmilingbear]

^ triple buffering does work but only in Opengl games which Csgo uses.

Limiting fps lower than refresh with Vsync on has the same effect in Dx games by manually creating a phantom buffer without the pre renderd frames.

amen to that brother!

 

[introaether]

bigsmilingbears has it sussed.

Screen tear is caused when the GPU delivers more than one image in the time it takes for the monitor to refresh. It ends up drawing say, an image and then half of the next image on top...

Although limiting to 60fps seems to be the same thing as vsync, its not. Vsync directly syncs the new render with the refresh rate. Just limiting the FPS doesnt gauatantee that each frame is rendered with the smae exact time interval required to match the refresh rate.

 

[costysmecher2002]

Thx for everyone who responded in such short time. I can't tun on fast sync neither adaptive vsync cause they dont support my gpu.
So i tried to lock the fps to 59 from nvidia inspector as mentioned by boju. I've only played with it for like 15 minutes and it seems like the imput lag is mostly gone. Thx again and have a nice day everyone !