to v-sync or not to v-sync?

hey everyone, i was wanting to know what v-sync is/does so searched around the net and got myself educated on the matter but im confused. my understanding is its a limit of the graphics card to never go above the refresh rate of your monitor which equals fps, like a 75hertz refresh rate = graphics card limited to 75fps? thats my understanding of it. if im wrong someone please correct me. but my question is with dual graphics cards, is v-sync needed? should i use it? also i read that only really applies to crt monitors and not lcd even though lcd has refresh rate the article said it really doesnt apply to lcd. since ill have SLI configured graphics soulution, the image on the screen is split in half and one card does the top and the second does the bottom so i should have no tearing or ghosting issues, right? again correct me if im wrong. all replies/corrections appreciated.

hmm, well, v-sync works with all gfx card (doesn't have anything really to do with monitors) as it will not just limit your fps but rather sync the frames to the refresh rate of the monitor so you get a whole frame at a time. that is what prevents tearing although not ghosting as that is a lcd monitor limitation due to the response time of the lcd's or the time it takes them to change states.

with lcd's of course it is slightly different in that the "refresh" rate refers to what frequency of signals the monitor can accept. the true limiting factor of LCD's is the response time i referred to above, even if a lcd has a 60hz refresh rate, the monitor itself may not be able to display all those frames.


however, back to your original question, if you can maintain a solid fps above 60 or 75 or whatever, then enable it as it will provide for a much smoother experience.

Hey,

I'm not quite sure about what it does exactly, but I think it synchronizes your video card's frame output with the moment that thay are displayed on your screen, so your display will always be ready to display a frame at the same time that it gets outputted by the GFX. My explanation can be wrong, but actually it doesn't matter how it works, but more important is what the result of it is.

Probably you will already have noticed that when moving around in a game, the image gets 'torn' apart in horizontal strips. This happens when v-sync is disabled. Enabling will let that disappear, but it will cause game lag, meaning that your response will decrease. A good point about v-sync is that it also serves as a kind of frame-limiter, which can improve gameplay.
However, I recommend that you disable v-sync in games that have a build-in frame-limit, like COD2 & 4, doom3, quake4,...
If the game hasn't got that limiter (like most games) it's up to you to decide whether you want a constant framerate (v-sync on) or a high game response, which is mostly needed in first-person shooters (v-sync off).

I hope this helped

unless things have changed, never trust monitor response times even if it is grey to grey as the manufacturers usually are selective with the truth.

toms used to have the best reviews of monitors on the net but they haven't done one in a while, not sure if the guy is even still with them.

also, read my response, v-sync is not dependant on your monitor or it's type.

I never use v-sinc. I run COD4 at 130fps consistantly. I see some tearing on a rare occasion, but not anything that bothers me. I prefer to get my FPS as high as possible, so that the times it does drop, i am still above 60fps.

When i use v-sinc, i seem to notice poor quality and lower fps. Lower than the v-sinc setting.

If the tearing bothers you, than use it. If it is not a problem then dont. I would start with out v-sinc.

That's the wrong way of thinking. When you want to get the best gaming comfort, you do not want to get the highest framerate, but you want to get the most constant framerate. The human eye only detects frame drops which cause a game to stutter. So playing a game at a constant 60fps is probably more comfortable than playing at frame drops from 130fps to 70fps

Are saying you play cod4 at a minimum framerate of 130fps?

In games like that you want lots of response, so I would not use v-sync. For more info on how to get the best gameplay, read my first post.

PS: The framerate setting in the COD4 graphics menu is NOT a framelimiter. It determines at which fps v-sync must run. Disable v-sync and fps will be as high as possible (not good)