Screen tearing while gaming?

[cadillacchad]

I am running my PC to my 32 inch LCD TV and I can play most games on high settings with no problems, but in some games I see unbearable lines going vertically through the screen. It mostly happens during parts of the game where there is intense flashing light. Most noticeably in Metro 2033 (like when a machine gun muzzle is flaring in the dark) even on low settings It also happens in Crysis.. Some other games are affected too. I realize that my LCD (Samsung LNT-3253h) is 720p with a 8 ms response time. So I hooked it up to my 50 inch 1080p plasma to see if it helped but got the same results. I don't own an hd computer monitor so I couldn't try that. After that I swapped my cpu to an AMD Phenom II x4 925 2.8ghz. I also tried a different video card (HIS 5770). I have updated drivers. I tried v-sync, Crysis doesn't have the option, but Crysis warhead does and I don't get tearing in warhead anyway (weird?)

phenom II X4 925 cpu
ecs gf8200a motherboard
cougar sx700 psu
4gb ddr2 1066 kingston memory
XFX 5830 gpu

Could it be some settings in ATI CCC? Are TV's inferior to computer monitors in some way that could cause this even on a 600hz plasma? Could it be a cable? (I run an HDMI to DVI). I've tried everything I can think of except for a monitor. My friend told me it doesn't look like tearing to him because it doesn't scale down the screen from top to bottom. I know this is a crazy mess of stuff, but I am lost. Any ideas or someone who has had a similar issue would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Unolocogringo]

Screen tearing is almost always related to V-sync.
You can force V-syncin the CCC panel.
It is normally caused by the video card sending another frame to the monitor or tv before the last frame has been fully drawn on screen. You visually get part of one frame and part of the second frame displayed at the same time.
Manufacturers "Cheat" on response times. Stating grey scale response times instead of color response times.

 

[Herr_Koos]

You can try turning V-sync on as Rick suggests. This will limit your framerate to the maximum refresh rate of the screen (probably 60Hz), thus eliminating any tearing effects.

 

[Lian]

I have a very similar problem, only diff is it tears horizontally for me. I have yet to find a solution 🙁

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/306480-15-overlapping-frames#t2290141

And i have no tearing in Crysis either. I do have in most other FPS games though. Especially games where its dark with flashing lights.

AND ITS NOT V-SYNC! Maybe i should bold and underline this bit for everyone that reads the topic header and replies without reading the actual post.

I have an old 22" LCD Monitor with a D-Sub to DVI converter as the monitor doesn't have DVI or HDMI running a ATI 6870. I recently noticed it in Windows as well, after the login screen (windows 7) when the screen goes dark and then fades into your actual desktop.

[edit] Any chance you tested this on Heaven Benchmark? I found it very noticeable on that.

 

[cadillacchad]

How do I force v-sync in CCC? Also I notice this at the beginning of windows 7 as well Lian..

 

[cadillacchad]

I have tried 3dmark11, but I'm not sure about heaven. Is heaven a different benchmarking software? I haven't noticed much if any tearing in 3dmark11. Just a lot of slow down, but that is expected. I also used fraps during gameplay to test my fps to see if I was getting good speeds. The frames look good, but I'm not sure about how accurate fraps is?

 

[bystander]

I have a very similar problem, only diff is it tears horizontally for me. I have yet to find a solution 🙁

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/306480-15-overlapping-frames#t2290141

And i have no tearing in Crysis either. I do have in most other FPS games though. Especially games where its dark with flashing lights.

AND ITS NOT V-SYNC! Maybe i should bold and underline this bit for everyone that reads the topic header and replies without reading the actual post.

I have an old 22" LCD Monitor with a D-Sub to DVI converter as the monitor doesn't have DVI or HDMI running a ATI 6870. I recently noticed it in Windows as well, after the login screen (windows 7) when the screen goes dark and then fades into your actual desktop.

[edit] Any chance you tested this on Heaven Benchmark? I found it very noticeable on that.

First off, if it was v-sync for the other guy, the line goes horizontally. I assume he's mistaken by his use of vertical.

And why are you so sure it's not v-sync?

I had the same issue with Heaven in particular, and v-sync does fix it.

 

[Lian]

And why are you so sure it's not v-sync?

I had the same issue with Heaven in particular, and v-sync does fix it.

Well Heaven @ 1620x1050 on my system I rarely get above 60 FPS as my average with normal settings are around 45'ish FPS, so that alone cancels out v-sync as the only time it comes into play is at 60 or above. Ye its true some scenes do get up to 85+ as my Max FPS is 89 (Tessellation off btw), but it still happens at 40 FPS.

 

[Lian]

How do I force v-sync in CCC? Also I notice this at the beginning of windows 7 as well Lian..

Seems we might have the same problem then.

You can force V-Sync in CCC by going to the 3D Application Settings and set the bar on "Wait for vertical refresh" to the far right (Always On)

And as we both notice it at the start of Windows 7 after the login screen that also indicates a fault somewhere else other than v-sync.

I think it might be my monitor. Going to test out a different monitor setup later and post what I find on my Post, will update it here as well.

 

[bystander]

Well Heaven @ 1620x1050 on my system I rarely get above 60 FPS as my average with normal settings are around 45'ish FPS, so that alone cancels out v-sync as the only time it comes into play is at 60 or above. Ye its true some scenes do get up to 85+ as my Max FPS is 89 (Tessellation off btw), but it still happens at 40 FPS.

You do know that tearing can happen at FPS below your refresh rate, don't you?

There is nothing to prevent tearing at even 30 FPS. The only difference between tearing below 60 FPS and above 60 FPS, is that not every frame will tear.

 

[bystander]

The tear you see during the windows screen at start up is likely a change in your video card clocks. Perhaps because you are overclocking. Mine will also tear once at start up due to overclocking. It only happens the one time as the memory timings change.

 

[Lian]

The tear you see during the windows screen at start up is likely a change in your video card clocks. Perhaps because you are overclocking. Mine will also tear once at start up due to overclocking. It only happens the one time as the memory timings change.

Good observation and I did consider this. My card is not overclocked though 🙁 Was thinking it could be the "low power" memory clock speed switching to "normal" or visa versa, 300 - 1050 on the memory so I updated my cards bios yesterday and set the "low power" - clock info 01 - to 1050, same as normal operating clocks. Had no effect 🙁. I used TechPowerUp.com RBE to do all this. Only reason I hard-coded it into the cards bios was so I could be sure the Ram clock doesn't fall to 300 as it still might do when overclocked.

 

[MetallMann]

This image tearing problem is especially observable on big screens when playing games (X3...) and not so much in films.

You can simply observe this problem if you just open a .jpg image and move it around (with mouse, of course , and you even don't need to be fast to see this naggy distortions.

Turning on V-Sync dosen't cancel it, it makes no difference.
I don't know if this happens on CRT-s too, coz I haven't noticed it so far.

 

[s1kb45trd]

vsync is really unbearable. some games just don't work well with it and simply stutter. i'd rather have tearing than that to be honest.

what bothers me is that older cards can produce similar FPS (above screen's refresh rate) yet still give smooth gameplay (no tearing). is it cus older drivers are "better" in a way? or are newer ones not as optimised yet?

 

[gamerk316]

You can simply observe this problem if you just open a .jpg image and move it around (with mouse, of course , and you even don't need to be fast to see this naggy distortions.

Turning on V-Sync dosen't cancel it, it makes no difference.
I don't know if this happens on CRT-s too, coz I haven't noticed it so far.

Thats a different problem, mainly the shoddy Response Time on most moniters not being able to keep up with a fast moving image. And forcing Vsync through CCC only works for applications, not the underlying OS.