Screen Tearing has only started to show up this year and only when in fullscreen playing games?

[Speeny]

I'm sure this question has been asked numerous times. But what's interesting is that the screen tearing has only started this year. I've had this monitor since 2013. It runs at 60hz.

It only shows up when playing in fullscreen though...

I mainly play emulators, so in my case, tearing has been an issue on Dolphin, mGBA, and other emulators.

Vsync does solve the issue most of the time, but what I really want to know is why the screen tearing has only begun this year without having Vsync on for the entire time I've owned my rig...(Since early 2015.) Is it due to age? I know for a fact that the games on these emulators are running at 60fps because I've checked using Fraps.

I'd really love to know how I can get rid of the screen tearing without turning Vsync on. It drives me absolutely crazy.

Thanks.

 

[photonboy]

You always get screen tearing without VSYNC. Either it wasn't obvious before for some reason or you had VSYNC ON but didn't know it.

You can't get rid of screen tearing without VSYNC unless you have an asynchronous monitor (Freesync for AMD, GSync for NVidia).

Best you can do is have a high refresh monitor (i.e. 144Hz) which minimizes the effects when capping a game to 60FPS (VSYNC OFF).

*So let me repeat, if you didn't observe screen tearing before it's almost certain VSYNC was actually on.

As for FULLSCREEN the answer is probably the fact that playing Windowed forces VSYNC ON to match the desktop which is always VSYNC'd.

 

[Speeny]

You always get screen tearing without VSYNC. Either it wasn't obvious before for some reason or you had VSYNC ON but didn't know it.

You can't get rid of screen tearing without VSYNC unless you have an asynchronous monitor (Freesync for AMD, GSync for NVidia).

Best you can do is have a high refresh monitor (i.e. 144Hz) which minimizes the effects when capping a game to 60FPS (VSYNC OFF).

*So let me repeat, if you didn't observe screen tearing before it's almost certain VSYNC was actually on.

As for FULLSCREEN the answer is probably the fact that playing Windowed forces VSYNC ON to match the desktop which is always VSYNC'd.

Well, here's the thing...I'm getting screen tearing with a game that is locked to play at only 30FPS. I turn Vsync on in the Nvidia Control Panel which fixes the issue, but screen tearing at 30fps? I thought if my monitor's refresh rate was higher than the games FPS I wouldn't get screen tearing even without Vsync on?

 

[king3pj]

You can get tearing any time the framerate isn’t in sync with the monitors refresh rate. It can absolutely happen when your framerate is below the monitor’s refresh rate. Basically the only way to be sure you are avoiding tearing is to use vsync or buy a Freesync/Gsync monitor depending on which type of GPU you have.

 

[Speeny]

You can get tearing any time the framerate isn’t in sync with the monitors refresh rate. It can absolutely happen when your framerate is below the monitor’s refresh rate. Basically the only way to be sure you are avoiding tearing is to use vsync or buy a Freesync/Gsync monitor depending on which type of GPU you have.

Would there be any performance drops with V-sync on? In terms of running emulators.

Specs:

Operating System
Windows 7 Professional 64-bit SP1
CPU
Intel Core i7 4790K @ 4.00GHz 36 °C
Haswell 22nm Technology
RAM
16.0GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 666MHz (9-9-9-24)
Motherboard
Gigabyte Technology Co. Ltd. Z97X-Gaming 3 (SOCKET 0) 28 °C
Graphics
27MP75 (1920x1080@60Hz)
Intel HD Graphics 4600 (Gigabyte)
4095MB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 (Gigabyte) 49 °C
ForceWare version: 399.07
SLI Disabled
Storage
238GB Samsung SSD 850 PRO 256G SCSI Disk Device (SSD) 28 °C
1862GB Western Digital WD Elements 25A3 USB Device (USB (SATA)) 31 °C
Optical Drives
HL-DT-ST BD-RE BH16NS40 SCSI CdRom Device
Audio
NVIDIA High Definition Audio

 

[king3pj]

I don’t run any emulators so I can’t say for sure. Usually vsync just locks your framerate to 60 on a 60Hz monitor if your PC is capable of putting out above 60 FPS in a given game. I can’t see any reason it should hurt performance beyond that.

One thing to keep in mind is that vsync can add a bit of input delay. If you are trying to play something like Punchout that might cause some issues.

 

[wh3resmycar]

You can get tearing any time the framerate isn’t in sync with the monitors refresh rate. It can absolutely happen when your framerate is below the monitor’s refresh rate. Basically the only way to be sure you are avoiding tearing is to use vsync or buy a Freesync/Gsync monitor depending on which type of GPU you have.

Would there be any performance drops with V-sync on? In terms of running emulators.

Specs:

Operating System
Windows 7 Professional 64-bit SP1
CPU
Intel Core i7 4790K @ 4.00GHz 36 °C
Haswell 22nm Technology
RAM
16.0GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 666MHz (9-9-9-24)
Motherboard
Gigabyte Technology Co. Ltd. Z97X-Gaming 3 (SOCKET 0) 28 °C
Graphics
27MP75 (1920x1080@60Hz)
Intel HD Graphics 4600 (Gigabyte)
4095MB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 (Gigabyte) 49 °C
ForceWare version: 399.07
SLI Disabled
Storage
238GB Samsung SSD 850 PRO 256G SCSI Disk Device (SSD) 28 °C
1862GB Western Digital WD Elements 25A3 USB Device (USB (SATA)) 31 °C
Optical Drives
HL-DT-ST BD-RE BH16NS40 SCSI CdRom Device
Audio
NVIDIA High Definition Audio

like what king3pj said, tearing happens when your gpu and monitor aren't in sync.

if you play @ 30 fps, here's what you can do to stay at a solid 30fps no matter what since you have a 60hz monitor:

nvidia control panel > manage 3d settings > scroll down to the bottom and look for the Vertical Sync option then set to adaptive (half refresh rate), this will totally lock your system at 30hz/30fps.