New 4k TV is screen tearing very badly while gaming

[ArkAngel06]

So as the title says, I got a new TV a few months ago, and I have had this problem with most games I have tried to play on my TV.

The TV in question is a Vizio 50" 4k M50-C1.

The screen tearing is similar to what Vsync is supposed to fix, although it usually only happens in horizontal lines across the screen at specific points, however the points move often. Hard to explain, and I can't capture it. Enabling VSync does not fix it at all. It makes most games pretty much unplayable.

I have tried numerous configurations, and all have the same problem. I have 3 monitors. They are:

Main Display: Dell 4k P2715Q
Side Display: Acer V176L
3rd Display/TV: Vizio 50" 4k M50-C1.

Now, the Vizio TV is only one with tearing. My 4k Dell monitor plays games beautifully. I don't ever play games on the side display.

The Vizio TV has 2 types of HDMI inputs. It has a yellow HDMI port that is 60HZ, and 4 black ports that are 30hz. I have tried using both, and they both have tearing. I would prefer to use the 60hz port for my PC, because it is exclusively for gaming and yields a higher frame rate. I am using this 15ft Amazon HDMI cable that goes from my video card to my TV. All of my oither displays are using Display ports.

I figure the problem lies in refresh rates, but I don't know. I have all of my displays set to 60hz in the Nvidia Control Panel. The games also have a setting for refresh rates in the display settings, and they also say 60hz. Changing it to 30hz has no effect on the tearing.

My dream configuration would be to clone/mirror the two 4k displays and have them display the same thing, and have the side monitor always extended. I have tried to mirror, and I have tried to set my Vizio TV as the primary monitor, or extended and all configurations have the screen tearing.

Other important specs:
Video cards: SLI Nvidia GTX 980x2 (also tried just one), always on newest drivers
Intel i7 3770k CPU
16GB RAM
Windows 10

Also, I say most games have this problem, but not all. Probably 95% of the games I have tried do have the tearing.

I am currently playing Rise of the Tomb Raider, and it runs great with absolutely no screen tearing. It is also one of the only games I have seen with the "exclusive fullscreen" option. I'm not even sure what this option is, but it has to be off. If it is on, I get the horrible screen tearing again. I assume that option is similar to fullscreen borderless option in most games, but that option doesn't fix other games. Just trying to give you guys as much information as I can.

 

[CBender]

Either one of two things is happening here. Either the tv has a smaller than 60hz refresh rate or the cable that you connect your pc to the tv doesn't support 4k/60hz. I believe that you should have hdmi 2.0 or display port 1.4 (the latest version to be certain).

 

[Gingerbread]

HDMI 2.0 supports 4k/60hz but I assume he is using that. The screen tearing however should occur because his TV has a native refresh rate of 120hz while the PC tries to match it to 60hz mainly because the cable doesn't support more so what happens is tv refreshes 2 frames when it has one (running at 120hz while receiving input for 60hz). Can you try a game which runs with 120fps constantly, without using VSync and check how it goes?

 

[ArkAngel06]

HDMI 2.0 supports 4k/60hz but I assume he is using that. The screen tearing however should occur because his TV has a native refresh rate of 120hz while the PC tries to match it to 60hz mainly because the cable doesn't support more so what happens is tv refreshes 2 frames when it has one (running at 120hz while receiving input for 60hz). Can you try a game which runs with 120fps constantly, without using VSync and check how it goes?

That kinda makes sense, except that the ports themselves only say 30hz or 60hz, none say 120hz. So while the specs on Vizio's site say 120hz, I am a bit confused.

It will be kinda hard to find a game that runs at 120fps at 4k, but I will give it a shot later after work in a few hours.

Just to know, if that is indeed the problem, is there a solution? A cable that would work, or anything? The TV only has HDMI ports, no DisplayPorts.

 

[ArkAngel06]

Also, the cable I am using is here:

AmazonBasics 15ft 4k HDMI Cable

However, it does just say in the description...

"Meets HDMI 1.4 specification (48 bit/px color depth)"

Could that be the problem? I simply need a 2.0 cable? But would an HDMI 1.4 cable allow me to set 60hz? Because it does.

 

[CBender]

The 120hz is a marketing value and not a true 120hz. If that was so monitors that run 144hz wouldn't cost more than a system. What happens is that a black frame is inserted giving better feel to the viewer (again if i am not mistaken).

Yes try with an hdmi 2.0 cable and go from there.

 

[ArkAngel06]

The 120hz is a marketing value and not a true 120hz. If that was so monitors that run 144hz wouldn't cost more than a system. What happens is that a black frame is inserted giving better feel to the viewer (again if i am not mistaken).

Yes try with an hdmi 2.0 cable and go from there.

Ok, I ordered this one:

MediaBridge 2.0 HDMI 15ft

Should be here tomorrow.

 

[Gingerbread]

The TV has a refresh rate of 120hz, you can use that only if the source of the TV output is the TV itself, you can't use HDMI to transfer 120hz, only way to use the 120hz of the tv is to plug an USB memory or external hdd in the tv and watch the video from there. Getting a different cable wont change anything. Simply right now nothing can transfer 4k at 120hz, best which is achieved is 4k at 60hz

 

[nigelivey]

HDMI 2.0 is worth a try, HDMI 1.4 will only reliably handle 4k at 24hz I believe.

 

[Suzuki@1473780084@1473780163]

1) op's tv is not 120 hz, its 60 hz.

2) true 100, 120, 200, 240, 480 hz exists in tv's.

3) hdmi is indeed limiting the input, however, contrary to whats been said above, a tv doubles the frame if the native refresh rate isnt met, no black frame insertion, thats a monitor thing. the fg2421 by eizo is using black frame insertion, or bfi, to simulate a faster refresh rate than 120, making it 240.

4) according to vizio, you need to use the hdmi port 5, which is the only port that supports 3840x2160 at 60 hz.

5) its possible that post processing is enabled, you want all of this off, because it doesnt do a great job with variable frame rates and frame timings. the "game mode" is a good place to start. please see page 25 in the manual: http://cdn.vizio.com/documents/m50c1/um-m50c1.pdf

6) please stop spreading false information regarding tv's.




All the best!

 

[sizzling]

The Visio M series of TV's don't do well for gaming in reviews http://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/vizio/m-series-2015

Might just be a problem with that model TV

 

[nigelivey]

Correction to my earlier post, Nvidia uses chroma sampling to push 4k at 60hz over HDMI 1.4 (A form of compression on colour samples 4 pixels into 1). There aren't any graphics cards yet available that have HDMI 2 outputs.

 

[ArkAngel06]

So here is a pretty big update:

First off, the new cable didn't help at all.

Second, I found a fix for it, although it is very cumbersome. Here is how to completely remove the tearing on my TV while gaming, and imagine having to do this every time you wanted to play a game on the TV instead of the monitor.

1. Right click desktop and open Display Settings

2. Change Primary Monitor to the Vizio TV

3. REBOOT <<<Extremely Important

4. Launch Steam Big screen mode, or go straight to the game.

Now doing this removes all tearing whatsoever. Doing everything except for the reboot does nothing at all, and the tearing is still there. This is why I never found the solution before.

If I change my primary monitor back to my main monitor, and then again change the primary monitor back to the TV, the tearing will be back, until I reboot with the TV as the Primary monitor.

So, does this shed any light on the problem? Know of any shortcuts to my method?

thanks

 

[Suzuki@1473780084@1473780163]

Have you tried disabling all post processing? Like I said in point 5), it's known to cause this exact thing, due to variable frame rates.

 

[ArkAngel06]

Have you tried disabling all post processing? Like I said in point 5), it's known to cause this exact thing, due to variable frame rates.

You mean post processing in the individual game's graphics options, correct?

To be 100% honest, it makes it look worse. I don't know the reason for it. But it makes the tearing even more noticeable.

 

[Suzuki@1473780084@1473780163]

No. Your TV's post processing. Page 25 in your manual, game mode.

 

[ArkAngel06]

No. Your TV's post processing. Page 25 in your manual, game mode.

There are 2 ways to enable some kind of gaming mode. You can change the "Picture Mode" to "Game", and you can go into the Advanced Video options and enable "Game Mode".

I have done both with no change in tearing.

 

[ArkAngel06]

Well, it's still not optimal, but I have managed to speed up my method considerably.

Using UltraMon, I can setup display profiles to set my TV as primary @ 60hz, and another display profile as my Dell monitor as primary @60hz and switch back and forth with hotkeys. No need to reboot with UltraMon doing the switching.

For some reason the Nvdia Control Panel or Windows Display setting for 60hz doesn't work until after a reboot.

Still wish I could mirror my main display with my TV.

 

[Kalimba95]

So here is a pretty big update:

First off, the new cable didn't help at all.

Second, I found a fix for it, although it is very cumbersome. Here is how to completely remove the tearing on my TV while gaming, and imagine having to do this every time you wanted to play a game on the TV instead of the monitor.

1. Right click desktop and open Display Settings

2. Change Primary Monitor to the Vizio TV

3. REBOOT <<<Extremely Important

4. Launch Steam Big screen mode, or go straight to the game.

Now doing this removes all tearing whatsoever. Doing everything except for the reboot does nothing at all, and the tearing is still there. This is why I never found the solution before.

If I change my primary monitor back to my main monitor, and then again change the primary monitor back to the TV, the tearing will be back, until I reboot with the TV as the Primary monitor.

So, does this shed any light on the problem? Know of any shortcuts to my method?

thanks

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS. I've been pulling my hair out for weeks because my brand new Vizio 4k TV has at least 5 horizontal tears when I game, and I just want a seamless Fallout 3 experience now that I've spent over ten hours modding the game. I tried this solution and it worked the first time, and now it looks so good. So again, thank you so so much for figuring this out.