V sync vs frame limiter explained

[helios411]

Hi

1. What exactly does vsync and frame limiter does?
2. What effect does each have in terms of game smoothness?
3. When one should use one over the other?
4. Is there any point using both at the same time?

 

[photonboy]

1. VSYNC - this buffers an image into memory so that the monitor can grab it to display EXACTLY when it needs to.
(prevents tearing but the delay of buffering makes the game feel slightly more sluggish)

2. Frame Limiter - Forces the GPU to only output a limited max frame rate.
(If you chose 60FPS and had a 60Hz monitor you'll still get screen tearing since the START of drawing a new frame can happen anywhere. It's not synchronized like VSYNC)

3. VSYNC has no screen tear but feel more sluggish whereas Frame Limiter has screen tearing but is less sluggish

4. Frame Limiter (or just VSYNC OFF with no frame limiter) should be used when screen tearing isn't annoying.

5. Same time?
You can't. VSYNC caps the frame rate but also buffers that to coordinate the update as I said, but frame limiter just places a cap. No buffering.

Other:
Read about GSYNC.

 

[electricsnake]

Hi

1. What exactly does vsync and frame limiter does?
2. What effect does each have in terms of game smoothness?
3. When one should use one over the other?
4. Is there any point using both at the same time?

1.2Vsync=The maximum fps will be 60 and u cant change the limit,so the GPU doesn't need to work harder when the gpu reach the 60 fps(u almost can't tell the difference between 100 fps and 60),beside that Vsync will try to sync your gpu with monitor in order to prevent screen tearing

frame limiter=Limit the fps by your own will,can cause screen tearing because GPU don't know about monitor state,""is it busy?or not?"

3.Vsync is the best so far.

4.nope.

 

[helios411]

Few more questions:

6. If you turn on frame limiter in a game when you often generate above that frame limit, would that lower the stress on your GPU?

7. I've read in a few places that settings your frame limit to 59 not 60 will limit screen tear is this true and why?

8. According to this post http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1750626 having vsync on with frame limiter at the refresh rate (60 or 120)produces smoother results? What's going on here?

 

[electricsnake]

Few more questions:

6. If you turn on frame limiter in a game when you often generate above that frame limit, would that lower the stress on your GPU?

7. I've read in a few places that settings your frame limit to 59 not 60 will limit screen tear is this true and why?

8. According to this post having vsync on with frame limiter at the refresh rate (60 or 120)produces smoother results? What's going on here?

6.It's a simple logic,If you're running 5m/s and then suddenly you slowed down your speed to 4m/s,what happen?you feel more relax right?
it works for GPU as well

7.actually there are a lot of theories,and each of them works for some case only(not all cases),so you must try it by yourself
But check this,hope this can help you alot with this stuff:http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-1887995/sync-fps-cap.html

8.If you compare a stable 60FS with a stable 120 FPS you should see no difference at all.
Example you have a 60hz monitor,so it means that the monitor refreshes the screen 60 times a second,so if you have 60 fps means that only 60 fps will be display at that time,if you have 120 fps there is 120 fps drawn at that time,but only 60 frame displayed so it means no different at all.anyway,the common monitor refresh rate now is 60hz.note that frame is like picture,1 frame representate 1 picture(example only).

 

[helios411]

Few more questions:

6. If you turn on frame limiter in a game when you often generate above that frame limit, would that lower the stress on your GPU?

7. I've read in a few places that settings your frame limit to 59 not 60 will limit screen tear is this true and why?

8. According to this post having vsync on with frame limiter at the refresh rate (60 or 120)produces smoother results? What's going on here?

6.It's a simple logic,If you're running 5m/s and then suddenly you slowed down your speed to 4m/s,what happen?you feel more relax right?
it works for GPU as well

7.actually there are a lot of theories,and each of them works for some case only(not all cases),so you must try it by yourself
But check this,hope this can help you alot with this stuff:http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-1887995/sync-fps-cap.html

8.If you compare a stable 60FS with a stable 120 FPS you should see no difference at all.
Example you have a 60hz monitor,so it means that the monitor refreshes the screen 60 times a second,so if you have 60 fps means that only 60 fps will be display at that time,if you have 120 fps there is 120 fps drawn at that time,but only 60 frame displayed so it means no different at all.anyway,the common monitor refresh rate now is 60hz.note that frame is like picture,1 frame representate 1 picture(example only).

Sorry for Q8 when i said 'this post' i meant another post that i've now linked. Especially see the last graph shown there.

 

[electricsnake]

Few more questions:

6. If you turn on frame limiter in a game when you often generate above that frame limit, would that lower the stress on your GPU?

7. I've read in a few places that settings your frame limit to 59 not 60 will limit screen tear is this true and why?

8. According to this post having vsync on with frame limiter at the refresh rate (60 or 120)produces smoother results? What's going on here?

6.It's a simple logic,If you're running 5m/s and then suddenly you slowed down your speed to 4m/s,what happen?you feel more relax right?
it works for GPU as well

7.actually there are a lot of theories,and each of them works for some case only(not all cases),so you must try it by yourself
But check this,hope this can help you alot with this stuff:http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-1887995/sync-fps-cap.html

8.If you compare a stable 60FS with a stable 120 FPS you should see no difference at all.
Example you have a 60hz monitor,so it means that the monitor refreshes the screen 60 times a second,so if you have 60 fps means that only 60 fps will be display at that time,if you have 120 fps there is 120 fps drawn at that time,but only 60 frame displayed so it means no different at all.anyway,the common monitor refresh rate now is 60hz.note that frame is like picture,1 frame representate 1 picture(example only).

Sorry for Q8 when i said 'this post' i meant another post that i've now linked. Especially see the last graph shown there.

I've read about radeon pro,that one of radeon pro features,it's called dynamic vysnc Control,it will enable you to release your graphic potential,just like an automatic on/off vysnc(http://www.radeonpro.info/features/dynamic-vsync-control/),so when the fps is below the monitor refresh rate,it will disable the vsync,the logic is why we must sync when our frame rate is below our refresh rate?just an example,there are a lot canvas available and we know that,we can use that canvas to draw another image rather than check it again then draw it(means that you waste time and well,your game looks more delayed and looks not smoother rather you thought)(IMO only)

 

[photonboy]

1) Dynamic VSYNC:
This is the same as NVidia's Adaptive VSync so just use the NVidia site as it explains very well.

The entire POINT is that if you use VSYNC (to avoid screen tear) but can't output high enough (i.e. 60FPS at 60Hz) you want VSYNC to be turned OFF. Why?

Well, if VSYNC is still on then your GPU is still trying to synchronize to the monitor. If it's not fast enough then the monitor simply skips its next update so for a 60Hz monitor this is essentially 30FPS.

The problem gets worse though since you can get severe stutter as it might HIT and MISS this target constantly. So a frame might be 16.6ms long (60FPS) then suddenly 33.3ms long, then 16.6, 33.3, 33.3, 33.3, 16.6 etc which causes a really annoying STUTTERING. Note that FRAPS will report an average however each frame is a fixed multiple of a screen refresh (again 33.3ms or 2x16.6ms is because the GPU missed the deadline so the monitor has to wait for the next refresh to display the image).

2) How to use Adaptive/Dynamic VSYNC?
a) Disable VSYNC
b) Tweak settings until you can maintain 60FPS (for 60Hz) at least 90% of the time
c) Enable Adaptive/Dynamic VSYNC
d) If screen tearing becomes too frequent (dropping below 60FPS and disabling VSYNC automatically) then DROP a few settings to raise the frame rate slightly and minimize time below 60FPS.


2) VSYNC and Frame Limiter?
I looked at your link but frankly it's confusing. Regardless, I don't see how you could even have both.

VSYNC ON simply means the monitor is drawing each frame at a fixed interval (i.e. 60X per second) timed so it is starting at the TOP not part way down (won't show part of last frame and new frame at same time...like flipping pages in a book). A Frame Limiter only caps the frame rate... does NOT synchronize with the monitor to time the screen refresh so basically it's one or the other but not both). VSYNC is either working or its not so you can't really "mix" it with anything else aside from increasing the number of frames buffered to smooth out some stutter due to missed updates (at the expense of lag).

(Not sure what the "60 or 120" display update meant but you can't update the monitor screen more than its refresh rate. Again, if you have VSYNC ON for a 60Hz monitor and can output at least 60FPS from the GPU you're going to be drawing a new screen every 1/60th of a second.)

 

[bystander]

5. Same time?
You can't. VSYNC caps the frame rate but also buffers that to coordinate the update as I said, but frame limiter just places a cap. No buffering.

Everything you wrote to the point was correct, but this is only recently correct if using an Nvidia card. You can use a FPS limiter and V-sync on AMD still, and you used to be able to with Nvidia. Although I still see some tests on Blurbusters which work, so there may be a limiter out there without an issue with V-sync and Nvidia.

People will often put a FPS limit at 1 FPS below the hz in order to prevent the high latency caused when your FPS reaches your refresh rate, causing an added frame of latency in DirectX games.