Do I need V-Sync?
When playing games, you may have seen a setting called v-sync. You may have heard from some people to turn it off and never use it. What is it and should I use it?
If you are familiar with framerates and refresh rates, you may know that a higher fps and refresh rate is better. What does this have to do with v-sync? To understand v-sync, you must first understand a phenomenon called screen tearing. Screen tearing is a visual artifact that occurs when the framerate is out of sync with the refresh rate if your monitor. This happens when two or more frames are displayed at the same time. This makes it look as if the image is spliced and half of it is moved slightly to the right or the left, hence the name “screen tearing”.
This is where v-sync comes into play. V-sync stands for vertical sync, and attempts to eliminate screen tearing. Though it is effective, it has many significant downsides as well. It removes tearing by locking your framerate to your monitor’s refresh rate. The downside is that if your graphics card cannot display a steady framerate, it will drop down to half of the refresh rate. For example if your refresh rate is 60hz, and your system cannot display a steady 60fps, it will dip all the way down to 30fps. This is a very noticeable drop and may be more disruptive to gameplay than screen tearing. V-sync also adds a noticeable delay, so for competitive games it is recommended to leave it off. If you are more of a casual gamer and prefer visuals, you may want to try v-sync.
If you are familiar with framerates and refresh rates, you may know that a higher fps and refresh rate is better. What does this have to do with v-sync? To understand v-sync, you must first understand a phenomenon called screen tearing. Screen tearing is a visual artifact that occurs when the framerate is out of sync with the refresh rate if your monitor. This happens when two or more frames are displayed at the same time. This makes it look as if the image is spliced and half of it is moved slightly to the right or the left, hence the name “screen tearing”.
This is where v-sync comes into play. V-sync stands for vertical sync, and attempts to eliminate screen tearing. Though it is effective, it has many significant downsides as well. It removes tearing by locking your framerate to your monitor’s refresh rate. The downside is that if your graphics card cannot display a steady framerate, it will drop down to half of the refresh rate. For example if your refresh rate is 60hz, and your system cannot display a steady 60fps, it will dip all the way down to 30fps. This is a very noticeable drop and may be more disruptive to gameplay than screen tearing. V-sync also adds a noticeable delay, so for competitive games it is recommended to leave it off. If you are more of a casual gamer and prefer visuals, you may want to try v-sync.
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