[SOLVED] Laptop to Monitor, Will i get screen tearing?

[linavengton]

So i have a Dell G7 with GTX1060 and a 60Hz Laptop display. I get a lot of Screen tearing when i run almost any game, Even GTA San Andreas. If i hook this up to gaming monitor with 144Hz or GSync enabled will this fix my issue of screen tearing while i'm playing from the Gaming monitor? If so what Display settings should i keep?

 

[iaminsensible]

There are two common causes of screen tearing. Either your GPU is producing more FPS than the Monitor can handle, or the Drivers are outdated. I recommend checking your drivers and if they need to be updated, do so. Also, try turning on VSync which will limit the FPS to 60 (And will match to your Monitor refresh rate).

For a more well-illustrated explanation check out Dell's video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5TLmD8gOr8.

If you follow the instructions and the screen tearing doesn't go away, please let me know.

 

[Solandri]

Unless you have v-sync or G-sync or FreeSync, screen tearing happens all the time. It's just more noticeable under some conditions than others. Contrary to the previous reply, it's actually more noticeable the closer your fps gets to your monitor refresh rate. If there's a large difference, the tear line jumps all over the screen from one frame to the next frame, and is easy to miss. If there's a small difference, the tear line stays in roughly the same place (usually slowly moving up or down) and becomes more noticeable.

Normally this isn't a problem on Nvidia Optimus laptops, since they're configured so the Intel GPU drives the screen, while the Nvidia GPU is a co-processor. When the Nvidia GPU finishes drawing a frame, it's transferred to the Intel GPU for display. This essentially works the same as vsync,. However, since the G7 is a gaming laptop, Dell may have designed it to work differently. It does make me wonder if what you're seeing is actually screen tearing. Can you describe it? It is happening on the laptop display, right?

But yes, if the laptop supports G-sync, and you hook up a G-sync monitor, it will eliminate the tearing. In G-sync, the monitor and GPU communicate with each other, so the monitor will only refresh the moment the GPU finishes drawing a frame. i.e. The monitor's refresh rate varies to match the fps.