Why do i get screen tearing on all games on my new pc????

Levi Hurst-Keogh

Honorable
May 17, 2013
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10,510
So, i have just finished my new build, and i'm having a few issues! Ok, so i have a gtx 650. An i5 4430 3 ghz, which i can turbo boost to 3.2. A 600w cosair psu, and 8 gb of ddr3 ram. A 1tb harddrive. Also, quick side note. All of this, plus my case, operating system, disk drive, and network card, costs me £750. I'm a bit worried that maplins ripped me off, but idk.
Any way, my main point is that so far all games i have played have had some sort of issues. Im playing on a 26 inch hdtv. Its 60hz. Splinter cell ran on high, at around 40 - 58 fps, and ihad screen tearing. I have been told that vsync greatly adds mouse lag, and to be honest, i think it does. Bioshock runs on high at 50 fps, sometimes hitting 70+ in some areas, yet on this, instead of screen tear, i dont even know what it is. Its like little patches of tearing and unevenness, only sometimes, when i move my mouse slowly. Any help is great!! Thanks Levi :)
 
Solution
There is a lot of mis-infomartion about tearing and V-sync floating around. Here are a few things you should be aware of:

1) If you do not use V-sync, or G-sync, you WILL have tearing. There is no way around it. If the frames are not synced to the displays vertical blanking mode (V-sync), or the Vertical Blanking mode is not synced with the GPU (G-sync), there is tearing.

2) FPS limiting/locking to 60 FPS on a 60hz monitor will NOT stop tearing. It will amplify the problem, if anything. It will make the tear slowly move, so it is very easy to see. V-sync does more than just limit the FPS, it forces the GPU to only draw to the display during vertical blanking, which is a period of time the monitor is not updating its image.

3)...

can you explain. Frame rate doesnt keep up with refresh rate?? Surely that means anyone who gets under 60fps gets screen tear?????
 
V-Sync is for FPS *above* 60 (or whatever your montor's refresh rate is) and only if you are noticing a problem.

Some of the 600-series nVidia's support Adaptive V-Sync (that I use) to limit you to 60fps then it turns off if you ever drop below that to prevent the big dips normal v-sync causes.

Sounds like you have another issue. What kind of setting (low, medium, high) are you running those games at?
 

high mostly

 


so you're saying i need to get a monitor????
 
There is a lot of mis-infomartion about tearing and V-sync floating around. Here are a few things you should be aware of:

1) If you do not use V-sync, or G-sync, you WILL have tearing. There is no way around it. If the frames are not synced to the displays vertical blanking mode (V-sync), or the Vertical Blanking mode is not synced with the GPU (G-sync), there is tearing.

2) FPS limiting/locking to 60 FPS on a 60hz monitor will NOT stop tearing. It will amplify the problem, if anything. It will make the tear slowly move, so it is very easy to see. V-sync does more than just limit the FPS, it forces the GPU to only draw to the display during vertical blanking, which is a period of time the monitor is not updating its image.

3) You get exactly 1 tear per frame. If you have 60 FPS, you get 60 tears, except for the instances it happens to land on a vertical blanking cycle. If you get 120 FPS, you get 120 tears, etc.. This can make them more noticeable.

4) Having FPS close to a multiple or divisible of your refresh rate, will cause tearing to be more noticeable, due to the tear being close to stationary. When the tear doesn't move, it is more visible.
 
Solution