Whats the proper way to use vsync? any alternatives?

[k4ever]

Im new to pc gaming, and I just started to understand how vsync works. I see a lot of tearing in some games when I have it off, thats why I decided to leave it on in almost every game I play. I just read that using vsync means to do a double buffering, and this has its pros and cons. I have a 60hz display so in some areas of some games I will get a respectful 60fps, but then in others I will get half of that (30fps). Its either high or low, and thats the way vsync works. I also read that triple buffering is better in the sense that the frames wont spike from top high to top low, and that the fps will be a constant average. This will come at a cost of frames and performance may get a hit. Some people totally avoid vsync because of this, and just deal with the tearing.
Suggestions I read point that I should use a gpu program to enable vsync manually (like catalyst manager?) instead of using the one in-game (if offered). If so whats the best third party software/program I may use to tweak vsync manually towards an hd radeon gpu (7870)?
Are there any kind of monitors/displays that help with the tearing issue? Maybe lower response time means lower tearing as well as ghosting?
I have heard about "adaptive vsync" as well, but I have no clue what that does. I will just google it later.

EDIT: Will getting a 120hz display make turning on vsync completely useless? (as long as the frame rate max doesnt exceed 120)

 

[Cybertox]

The program you might looking for is D3DOverrider. It can enable triple buffering and a vertical sync option which doesnt affect performance as much as in-game vertical sync does.

 

[k4ever]

The program you might looking for is D3DOverrider. It can enable triple buffering and a vertical sync option which doesnt affect performance as much as in-game vertical sync does.

What about the games that have the triple buffering option in-game? Should I use turn that option? Should I use ATI catalyst manager and force it through there? or should I use D3DOverrider? Im talking about which option will give me the same effect but dont hinder my performance too much (no frame drop).


EDIT: Will getting a 120hz display make turning on vsync completely useless? (as long as the frame rate max doesnt exceed 120)

 

[Cybertox]

The program you might looking for is D3DOverrider. It can enable triple buffering and a vertical sync option which doesnt affect performance as much as in-game vertical sync does.

What about the games that have the triple buffering option in-game? Should I use turn that option? Should I use ATI catalyst manager and force it through there? or should I use D3DOverrider? Im talking about which option will give me the same effect but dont hinder my performance too much (no frame drop).


EDIT: Will getting a 120hz display make turning on vsync completely useless? (as long as the frame rate max doesnt exceed 120)

Which games that you own have a triple buffering option in-game?
Turn off vertical sync in catalyst and in-game. Enable vertical sync in D3DOverrider only for best performance.
Turn triple buffering in catalyst and in D3DOverrider for best performance.
Vertical sync is different in many games. In some games vertical sync caps the frame rate at 30 fps while in others at 60. I dont think that there is a v sync option which syncs frames at 120 so having a 120 HZ monitor and having v sync on will only display 60 frames or 30, depends on the type of v sync being used.

 

[AntiZig]

The general rule of thumb with v-sync is to use it when your computer can generate the FPS well above your monitor's refresh rate. So for instance, since you have 60hz monitor, and your game runs at 80fps at your current settings, there's no point getting those 20 fps since you don't get to see them. So, using vsync allows your hardware to run "lighter."

However, as soon as you PC cannot handle 60 or more fps, vsync drops the rendered frames to 30, that can create some input lag in fast paced games, so generally you want to be running your game without v-sync if you computer cannot put out 60 fps.

The same rule follows with higher rate refresh monitors. Which v-sync you use, be it in-game or a 3rd party frame locker, won't really matter. If your pc can handle 60+ fps, running with vsync doesn't add any load, it only decreases it.

Adaptive v-sync is something nVidia recently put out as a software fix on the driver side, it basically turns off v-sync if you drop below 60 fps automatically or lowers the sync frame count my smaller increments than the default algorithms. It's really nothing spectacular, just less clicking for you.

 

[k4ever]

I see. I just did a test in a game (penumbra black plague) and played with vsync on in-game. Maybe it wasnt optimized properly but in-game I will get frame drops hitting 30fps and 40fps. Without vsync the tearing wa horrendous. Anyways, I instead used the catalyst control center and manually enable triple buffering and boy what a difference. Constant 60fps, and not a single frame drop.
I guess if a game is old, I can use triple buffering through the catalyst if the game supports openGL, and through D3DOverrider if the game doesnt. If a game is recent and I cant get constant 60fps with my rig, then I will just turn it off. I have a 7870 tahiti LE so its a good idea that I do that.
Thank guys for your help.

 

[bystander]

Man, lots of false or misleading info.

If your FPS are below your refresh rate, you can still have tearing. It may not be as bad, and some games may make an attempt to sync up even without v-sync on, but many still cause tearing below your refresh rate.

Triple buffering does not solve tearing. It just allows v-sync to operate without forcing your GPU to wait and do nothing if it has to wait for vertical retrace mode (the time when your monitor is not updating the image). Without triple buffering, when you are below your refresh rate, you often get stuck at half your refresh rate in FPS, triple buffering avoids that.

120hz monitors allow for 120 FPS with v-sync on in most games. I've only run into 1 game that did not allow v-sync at 120 FPS. That was Dirt 3 (maybe Dirt 2). That is a rare occurrence.