Glossary:Vertical sync (Vsync)
Graphics and video
Resolutions
Video settings
- Field of view (FOV)
- Windowed / borderless fullscreen
- Anisotropic filtering (AF)
- Anti-aliasing (AA)
- High-fidelity upscaling
- Vertical sync (Vsync)
- Frame rate (FPS)
- High dynamic range (HDR)
- Ray tracing (RT)
- Color blind mode
Hardware
For a list of games, see List of games that support vertical sync (Vsync).
Vertical synchronization is an option used to prevent screen tearing. Screen tearing is a graphical glitch which is perceived as straight horizontal lines across the monitor or as if the whole picture is stitched together by two or more separate pictures. This problem exists because the monitor and the graphics adapter normally works independently, so new frames may not be fully drawn when the monitor display them. Vsync makes the graphics adapter wait for the monitor to signal it's ready for the next frame to ensure all displayed frames are always fully drawn. This has the positive side effect of limiting the amount of frames per second the computer has to draw to the monitor refresh rate (the amount of frames per second the monitor is able to display) which saves resources. Unfortunately Vsync can also increase input lag.
Properties
Benefits
- Eliminates tearing by waiting for the monitor to signal it's ready for the next frame.
- Lower power consumption (and therefore heat and noise) by limiting FPS to what the monitor is able to display.
Disadvantages
- Introduce extra input lag. Commonly experienced as "mouse lag". The higher the monitor's refresh rate, the less input lag there will be.
- May decrease performance if FPS falls below the monitor refresh rate.
Limitations
- Only available in fullscreen exclusive mode (a borderless fullscreen window does not qualify).
- Not to be used when benchmarking since the FPS will be capped at the monitors refresh rate.
Double buffering vs. Triple buffering
- With double-buffering, the GPU waits for the most recently rendered frame to get displayed before beginning work on the next frame. With triple buffering, the GPU starts working on the next frame after that in the third buffer and if that new frame completes first, that frame gets displayed next and the other frame in between gets discarded.
- Double buffering yields the most consistent frame rate while triple buffering can be slightly more responsive.
So what's the best option?
There is none and results will vary between different games, systems and people. If you're bothered by tearing or want the best visual quality, enable Vsync. If you're bothered by input lag or have performance problems, try Triple buffering for reduced input lag or completely disable Vsync for no input lag. If you're playing first-person shooters competitively, always disable.
Note that Vsync should not be used only as an FPS limit. If you only want to limit FPS drawn, for example to minimize heat and fan noise, but are not bothered by tearing and don't want to risk input lag, simply limit your FPS to that of your monitor's refresh rate or close to it. An FPS limit is often an option available as an in-game console command or similar.
Force Vsync
Vendor agnostic solution |
---|
|
AMD only solution |
---|
Notes
|
Nvidia Control Panel solution (Windows) |
---|
|
Nvidia only solution (Windows) |
---|
|
Use Strangle (Linux) |
---|
Notes
|
External links
- Vertical sync (Vsync) on Wikipedia