after enabling gsync (either for fullscreen or f/s + windowed) in nvidia settings, do i leave vsync ON or OFF in-game?
Off45
Off and you shouldn’t see any tearing. (Sometimes you have to frame limit your games just below max refresh rate though)
‘On’ in control panel, ‘off’ in game. With a frame limiter set 3fps below your max refresh.
At least, that is the config recommended by what most consider the internet authority on the matter, Blur Busters:
Personally I’m not sure about the frame limiter, I don’t use one and I don’t see GSync disabling when at max refresh.
Also Nvidia put in a specific mode that disables GSync at frame rates past max refresh, to use this you set VSync ‘Off’ in the control panel. It’s designed for e-sports and people who want minimal input latency and don’t care about tearing.
Yeah, I have mine set to OFF because with it on it seemed to be doing some strange things on a per-game basis. Leaving it off at all times seems to have cleared this up. Tempting to put it hard OFF in control panel, honestly, instead of “leave it up to the program”.
I hadn’t seen what @Profanicus linked before, but I’m going to leave it be for now. Off seems fine for any situation I’ve ever been in so far.
Setting it ‘off’ will give you tearing at frame rates over monitor refresh.
Technically (theoretically?) it shouldn’t matter at all for most games - they’re different tech, so when gysnc is on vsync isn’t being used. The setting should be irrelevant most of the time.
But - the vsync setting does kick in when your frame rate is above/below gsync capabilities.
That means for a frame rate exceeding monitor refresh (as no-one here will be going under 30 I’d hope!) you’d want vsync ON, otherwise you’ll get tearing* in these cases.
For some games that don’t seem to play well with gsync, because they possibly implement their own non-standard vsync methods and buffers, setting ‘off’ in-game sometimes helps. So you normally force vsync ‘on’ in the control panel instead, either globally or for these specific problem titles.
As a side note, I’ve also found using ‘borderless window’ can help for occasional problem games. And some games are just screwed no matter what - looking at you Dishonored 2!
*unless you’re all about super-low latency, love tearing, or the game is running under 30 - in which case you want it forced ‘off’ in Nvidia control panel.
I know that’s the theory, but I felt like when I was playing AC:O with vsync on it was jittery like vsync was on, even at the 80-100fps (my monitor can do 165). When I turned it off it felt noticeably smoother. And when I was benchmarking Bioshock Infinite it claimed I was getting as high as 200+ fps and I never once saw any screen tearing or anything, and again I had vsync off. I’m leaving it all off for now and if I ever play a game where I do catch a tear or two, I’ll try it out on a case by case basis.
Yes, we have the same monitor if you recall. :)
With gsync activated:
- Vsync OFF in game and OFF in the the NV control panel: You get gsync <= your monitor’s refresh rate, but if your GPU delivers framerates over the monitor’s refresh, you see tearing.
- Vsync ON in game and OFF in the NV control panel: Games can perform erratically because they aren’t gsync aware. Some work fine, some don’t. Not recommended.
- Vsync OFF in game and ON in the NV control panel: You get gsync when your framerates are < your monitor’s refresh rate and your framerate is capped at your monitor’s refresh rate, so no tearing.
So basically use the last one.
Oh yeah! High five!
I’ll put vsync on in the control panel, can’t hurt to try after all, eh?
Civilization VI is a good one to test, since it generates frame rates well over 200 and allows toggling vsync in-game without restarting (unlike Paradox games). And the panning map view makes issues easy to spot.
With vsync off the map scrolling is a mess of tearing. With vsync on it’s silky - you’re basically playing this game vsynced at 165.
It also has an in-game frame limiter that you can set to 60, to see how jerky it is by comparison and wonder how you ever lived with it before… ;)