Nvidia G-SYNC Fixes Screen Tearing in Kepler-based Games

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Nvidia has introduced a Kepler-powered chip that fixes V-Sync problems in monitors and games.

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Kevin Parrish
Kevin Parrish
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Kevin Parrish has over a decade of experience as a writer, editor, and product tester. His work focused on computer hardware, networking equipment, smartphones, tablets, gaming consoles, and other internet-connected devices. His work has appeared in Tom's Hardware, Tom's Guide, Maximum PC, Digital Trends, Android Authority, How-To Geek, Lifewire, and others.

67 Comments Comment from the forums
  • monsta
    Gonna hold off the monitor upgrade and wait to see this in action.
    Reply
  • dragonsqrrl
    I love how Nvidia has put so much effort over the past generation into not just the raw performance of a real-time experience, but also the quality of that real-time experience. While this is a solution that ultimately eliminates micro-stutter from real-time rendering entirely, I don't think it's a practical solution to the problem, yet.
    Reply
  • Sid Jeong
    Does this mean we won't have to care about fps anymore?
    Will 20 fps on 20hz g-sync'ed monitor look as smooth as 60 fps on regular monitor?
    Reply
  • dragonsqrrl
    11748710 said:
    Gonna hold off the monitor upgrade and wait to see this in action.

    You can see it in action here:
    http://www.guru3d.com/news_story/nvidia_announced_g_sync_eliminates_stutter_and_screen_tearing_with_a_daughter_module.html
    Although from what I've heard the difference isn't as apparent in the video as it is in person. It's still pretty impressive though.
    Reply
  • Nilo BP
    Call me crazy, but the only game in which I remember getting uncomfortable with screen tearing was the first Witcher. Everything else? Just turn off VSync and go on my merry way. From humble CS:GO to Tomb Raider with everything jacked up.
    Reply
  • dragonsqrrl
    11748732 said:
    Does this mean we won't have to care about fps anymore?
    Will 20 fps on 20hz g-sync'ed monitor look as smooth as 60 fps on regular monitor?

    Of course at a certain point a game won't look smooth no matter what. At 5 fps rendered graphics are going to look like a slideshow regardless (although those will be some clean, tear-free 5 frames per second), but I think G-Sync does give you much more flexibility with low frame-rates, but again only to a certain point. I'm willing to bet you could probably go as low as ~24 fps and still have a perfectly 'smooth' experience.
    Reply
  • drezzz
    Another question is will this interfere with the lightboost hack or does this make lightboost hack unnecessary?
    Reply
  • iam2thecrowe
    11748732 said:
    Does this mean we won't have to care about fps anymore?
    Will 20 fps on 20hz g-sync'ed monitor look as smooth as 60 fps on regular monitor?

    no, 20fps is still 20fps, it can never look like 60fps. Game's fps is always variable, so with normal vsync, with a 60hz monitor for example, at 20fps, the monitor refreshes 3 times for one frame displayed, which is fine. But at 23fps, the monitor cant display this with vsync on, 23 can not be divided into 60 evenly, so it drops down to 20fps to keep frames synced with the monitor, so you get a slight delay in the game engine before the frame is released to the monitor to keep things in sync (this is how you get stutter and input lag from your mouse/keyboard). Compare this with gsync, a constant variable refresh rate synced with the frame rate there is no delay, no fps drops, no stuttering, the game engine/rendering doesnt have to slow down to keep things synced, so having similar fps will feel way smoother with g-sync. Personally, i cant wait to get a monitor that supports this, so long as they aren't ridiculously priced.
    Reply
  • iam2thecrowe
    11748905 said:
    Another question is will this interfere with the lightboost hack or does this make lightboost hack unnecessary? Very happy that I bought the Asus over the Benq in any case.
    I would say below 50hz/fps with lightboost, things would become very flickery, so it probably isn't a good idea unless fps is high.
    Reply
  • boju
    What's AMD going to do, implant their own chips as well to compete? do they have an alternative im not aware about?

    Sounds like what Gsync/Nvidia is trying to accomplish should have been done generically, no?
    Reply