Will a 120hz Monitor stop Screen Tearing?

[SeaStrudel]

I don't want to be spamming threads but as I said I am getting clear lines when I launch games (And when I'm playing them). I can turn on Vsync to stop the problem but that makes horrible amounts of lag. So my question is if I got a 120hz monitor instead of my 60hz, would it make a difference? Or is my video card broken? (I have the XFX Radeon HD 7850). Please help!

 

[manofchalk]

A 120hz monitor would help with your screen tearing issue, unless your card can push more than 120FPS.

Do the clear lines look like this (if not as obvious)?

 

[SeaStrudel]

Well they are like horizontal lines that are clear. I don't know if it is exactly screen tearing but as I said Vsync worked but I bought the card to get better FPS so it's kind of a waste of money. But no they do not look like that.

 

[SeaStrudel]

It seems like whenever I go over 60 FPS I get the lines so if I get a 120hz monitor (My card won't go over 120 probably) then it would stop right? I also just tried recording with Fraps and you can't really see it in video so there's pretty much no way to visually see it.

 

[manofchalk]

Thats probably screen-tearing then. It occurs when your card is feeding more FPS to your monitor than it can display (typically 60FPS), so the monitor can sometimes glitch and display half of one frame and half of the next one. Thats why the image appears to be disjointed at the tears. Vsync limits the FPS to 60FPS so you dont run into issues such as screen tearing.
Recording the game wont show screen tearing as its a fault of the monitor, not with the card.

This video may help, though it deals more with the Adaptive V-Sync on some Nvidia cards.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAiPmazmR_M

Anyway, getting a 120hz monitor will allow you to display up to 120FPS before you will run into issues like screen tearing.

 

[SeaStrudel]

Best answer selected by SeaStrudel.

 

[SeaStrudel]

Ok thank you for your help!

 

[bystander]

Thats probably screen-tearing then. It occurs when your card is feeding more FPS to your monitor than it can display (typically 60FPS), so the monitor can sometimes glitch and display half of one frame and half of the next one. Thats why the image appears to be disjointed at the tears. Vsync limits the FPS to 60FPS so you dont run into issues such as screen tearing.
Recording the game wont show screen tearing as its a fault of the monitor, not with the card.

This video may help, though it deals more with the Adaptive V-Sync on some Nvidia cards.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAiPmazmR_M

Anyway, getting a 120hz monitor will allow you to display up to 120FPS before you will run into issues like screen tearing.

Screen tearing can happen at any FPS, when v-sync is not on. Even if you have 2 FPS on a 60hz monitor, you can have screen tears. 120hz does not solve that.

However, a 120hz monitor, due to updating the screen image twice as often, will not have as much latency when v-sync is on. When a GPU misses the window to send an image to the monitor, it has half as long to wait until it can be sent in the next window.

The reason that tearing happens regardless of FPS, is simply a matter of the GPU not caring when the monitor is updating its image unless v-sync is on. This allows the GPU to update an image at the same time the monitor is displaying it. I do have a 120hz monitor, and I get screen tearing at 60 FPS, 30 FPS, 90 FPS and 120 FPS if v-sync is not on. However, I get far less latency with v-sync on with this monitor than my previous 60hz monitor.