What is happening when fps is lower than refresh rate

[mesio7464]

Hello im curious what is happening while fps i lower than refresh rate...
does some frames are displayed twice or there is nothing wrong with it which means im not using full potential of my monitor?
some people suggested me lowering refresh rate to be closer to my fps(from 144hz to 100hz) but they didnt say why and then someone said that everything is okey with lower fps than refresh rate...

I been trying to get used to it (100fps with 144hz because my lowest fps is 100) but i just couldnt,sometimes it was smooth but on the other hand I felt weird stutters even when my fps was stable 100..

THX for help

 

[Dunlop0078]

With vsync off and no gsync or freesync? If so the GPU will move frames to the monitor whenever it can regardless of where the monitor is in it's refresh cycle so you will end up with tearing which is multiple frames on screen at once. A very similar thing happens when you are over the refresh rate. In this scenario the GPU cant keep up with the monitor, if you were over the refresh rate the monitor wouldn't be keeping up with the gpu, in either case both scenarios will produce tearing.

 

[mesio7464]

With vsync off and no gsync or freesync? If so the GPU will move frames to the monitor whenever it can regardless of where the monitor is in it's refresh cycle so you will end up with tearing which is multiple frames on screen at once. A very similar thing happens when you are over the refresh rate. In this scenario the GPU cant keep up with the monitor, if you were over the refresh rate the monitor wouldn't be keeping up with the gpu, in either case both scenarios will produce tearing.

if so same thing is with 240hz monitors and lower fps than 240?

 

[Dunlop0078]

With vsync off and no gsync or freesync? If so the GPU will move frames to the monitor whenever it can regardless of where the monitor is in it's refresh cycle so you will end up with tearing which is multiple frames on screen at once. A very similar thing happens when you are over the refresh rate. In this scenario the GPU cant keep up with the monitor, if you were over the refresh rate the monitor wouldn't be keeping up with the gpu, in either case both scenarios will produce tearing.

if so same thing is with 240hz monitors and lower fps than 240?

Yes but tearing tends not to be noticeable on high refresh rate panels when FPS is high. So say your game runs at 140fps (or somewhere in that area) with your 240hz monitor it will tear but it tends not to be very noticeable, I have a 144hz gsync monitor and if a game is running at around 80fps+ I cant really perceive any tearing with or without gsync enabled.

 

[mesio7464]

With vsync off and no gsync or freesync? If so the GPU will move frames to the monitor whenever it can regardless of where the monitor is in it's refresh cycle so you will end up with tearing which is multiple frames on screen at once. A very similar thing happens when you are over the refresh rate. In this scenario the GPU cant keep up with the monitor, if you were over the refresh rate the monitor wouldn't be keeping up with the gpu, in either case both scenarios will produce tearing.

if so same thing is with 240hz monitors and lower fps than 240?

Yes but tearing tends not to be noticeable on high refresh rate panels when FPS is high. So say your game runs at 140fps (or somewhere in that area) with your 240hz monitor it will tear but it tends not to be very noticeable, I have a 144hz gsync monitor and if a game is running at around 80fps+ I cant really perceive any tearing with or without gsync enabled.

ok so if my fps is stable 100 and higher i should cap it and im good to go with 144hz? for me 100fps vs 144fps difference is VERY BIG but im curious how people who has 240hz are playing with 144-240fps (streamers) without any problems the difference is almost 100fps

 

[gamerk316]

With vsync off and no gsync or freesync? If so the GPU will move frames to the monitor whenever it can regardless of where the monitor is in it's refresh cycle so you will end up with tearing which is multiple frames on screen at once. A very similar thing happens when you are over the refresh rate. In this scenario the GPU cant keep up with the monitor, if you were over the refresh rate the monitor wouldn't be keeping up with the gpu, in either case both scenarios will produce tearing.

if so same thing is with 240hz monitors and lower fps than 240?

Yes but tearing tends not to be noticeable on high refresh rate panels when FPS is high. So say your game runs at 140fps (or somewhere in that area) with your 240hz monitor it will tear but it tends not to be very noticeable, I have a 144hz gsync monitor and if a game is running at around 80fps+ I cant really perceive any tearing with or without gsync enabled.

ok so if my fps is stable 100 and higher i should cap it and im good to go with 144hz? for me 100fps vs 144fps difference is VERY BIG but im curious how people who has 240hz are playing with 144-240fps (streamers) without any problems the difference is almost 100fps

Tearing is actually more of an issue at high refresh rates, but people don't notice it since each individual frame will only be displayed for about 4ms or so; you literally don't see the tearing because the refresh is so fast.

You can also enable Vsync to force the GPU to only output complete frames, but this introduces stuttering if FPS doesn't match up with the monitors refresh rate, as frames will be either skipped or repeated because the GPU and Display are out of sync.