What Is Vsync And When To Use It

Did you encounter lags while doing gaming at home or in any e-sport competition? Video games like Minecraft, fallout4 are such big games that require very big pc specifications. Although they still might get into lagging problems because of screen lag which always happens when there is a gap in frame rates of GPU and monitor. To give all the gamers a smooth experience while gaming Vsync is brought into the gaming industry.

Vsync
Users should enable or not V sync respect to their need.(Image By: BRANKO GAPO from gpumag.com)

What is Vsync?

V-Sync stands for Vertical Synchronization which is an in-game setting that is common among FPS games. It is an awesome setting that you can use to optimize your gaming experience when the FPS capacity of your PC or any platform that you use. 

It is a software technology that is brought into GPU to prevent screen tearing. Vsync helps the gamers in providing a smooth gaming experience by harmonizing the frame rates of a game with monitors.

The technology of Vsync was introduced in the year 2010 as Isis2.

It stops the GPU to provide more frames than the monitor’s capacity of rendering the frames. You need a graphic card that supports Vsync technology. In modern times both NVIDIA and AMD have separate options of Vsync in their respective driver’s settings.

What does it do?

Vsync does quite a few things to revamp your gaming experience. The first thing they do is to put a full stop on the frame rates produced by GPU to the monitor’s refresh rate. However, this feature does not put pressure on the monitor by not giving additional frames to render.

Additionally, Vsync cannot help you out in improving colors, resolution, brightness level. This technology only implies resolving peculiar problems rather than solving your entire gaming experience.

vsync uses
Vsync does work by lowering processor’s frame rate with desktop’s refresh rate.(Image from: Benchmark Lab from youtube.com)

The feature is limited according to the monitor’s capabilities because it does not allow GPU to perform at its maximum setting.

Due to this problem, it can escort to lessen input lag. And also influence your competitive skills. This is far better the most complete solution for your problem. But unknowingly it can hamper the gaming experience.

If there is a problem in syncing the game and monitor, then Vsync automatically reduces the frame rate, and tries to find a point where they can put a full stop. Stuttering cases increases and screen tearing can also be seen.

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Screen Tearing

It is a most common problem that happens in every game if the monitor or GPU are not syncing together then the problem of screen tearing arises. It generally happens when the monitor receives more frames from GPU. And monitor is not able to render the frames correctly.

This thing results in a mixture of images in which frames are overlapped on each other. This overlapping of frames results in screen turning.

It does not matter if you have a low-end GPU or monitor, the only thing that is the main concern is the difference of speed between GPU and monitor frame rate.

What is Screen Tearing
The gameplay pic showing screen tearing effect.

Screen torning and screen tearing are the same thing.  A torn screen will have some setbacks that are easily noticeable. You can easily notice that the images are glued to each other, distortion in color and the image will not look good.

Pros and Cons of Vsync

Pros

  • The foremost advantage of Vsync is that it helps in avoiding screen tearing.
  • It also helps the graphic card from not being overused and not so over-heat issues.
  • If it is used correctly it can prevent your monitor from taking more burden for rendering the images faster.
  • There are also some other options for Vsync which are adaptive sync, AMD free sync, and NVIDIA G sync which we are going to discuss later in this article.

    vsync pros and cons
    The bad thing about vsync is the keypress delay.(Image By: Bobby Segura from neogamr.net)

Cons

  • By using virtual synchronization software, which lowers downs your GPU capabilities to perform more advance because of your monitor refresh rate.
  • You easily see lags in your game and your mouse or console response time will be a little slow.
  • Especially if you are in an e-sport competition then this will be a major setback in your performance and might push you last in the leaderboards.

However, this delayed response time is so frequent that you end up losing the game.

Vertical Sync On or Off? 

Knowing more about “what is Vsync”, whether to keep it on or off?  

This question is more difficult to answer. But the answer is “It depends entirely on your system and the games you play”. 

If you are playing a single-player game and you want to have the best gaming experience with no screen tear and lags, you better turn it on. Because on a single-player mode, if you feel stutters and lags you can pause the game and let the FPS back to normal.  

Now, if you ask about online games, again it depends on the game you play. Battle royale games require more FPS. So, it is better to turn it off, as it reduces stutters and FPS drops.  

How To Turn On Vsync? 

Turning on Vsync for a game depends on the game itself, if you could find the settings as shown in the first image, nothing to worry about. Just go ahead and turn it on. If you cannot find it there, you should do that in your graphics card’s control panel.  

Go to Start and search for your specific graphics cards control panel. Once you find it, look for the word “Vertical Sync”.  

For NVIDIA graphics cards there are two methods available.  

Method 1: 

Use this if you want Vsync to be turned on globally (to all the applications). The below image shows how to do this in the NVIDIA graphics card.  

Best way to Turn On Vsync

 

  1. Go to manage 3D settings.
  2. Make sure you are in the “Global Settings” tab. 
  3. Scroll down to find “vertical sync” and left-click it and set it on. 
  4. Now click apply.  

Method 2: 

This method could be used if you are interested in a specific application only.  

How To Turn On Vsync

  1. Go to manage 3D settings. 
  2. Make sure you are in the “Program Settings” tab. 
  3. Select the particular application you’re interested in. 
  4. Scroll down to turn on Vsync and click apply. 

The above kinds of stuff can also be done on other graphiccard drivers on the control panel settings. 

When to turn on vertical sync?

If the graphic card is giving more frames than the monitor is able to render, then it will be absolutely fine to turn on Vsync. Because you don’t want to face screen tearing and color delusion.

How to turn off Vsync?

The steps to turn and turn off vertical sync are the same, there is just one difference.

When you want to turn it on you simply click Force On, however, if you want to turn off vertical, then you simply click Force Down.

When to turn off vertical sync?

While you playing if you encounter slow response time and a lag while playing, then you need to turn off this feature. And one more thing, if the monitor is able to process more frames given by the GPU then you just turn it off. It will be good if you push your GPU potential to maximum output.

How does Vsync Works? 

Hope the above passage gave you some idea about “What is Vsync”. It works in a strange way when turned on. If Vsync is enabled it keeps an eye out for the FPS bumps that can occur while you are gaming.  

And once it identifies any peak in the FPS, Vsync tries to reduce the excess FPS and reduce the screen tears that you get. This is possible by reducing the FPS.  

Example: For instance, let us say you get around 60 FPS mostly, if that dropto nearly 20 and fluctuates around 30 Vsync stopthe default 60 FPS rendering and sets 30 FPS as default. 

How does Vsync Works
The procession of FPS with Vsync on and off.

This makes the game laggier and besides, there is another big issue under Vsync which is studders. The above image explains what is Vsync and how it triggers stutters. 

Adaptive Synchronization

It is another name for virtual synchronization, but they both are very different from each other. This synchronization easily adapts itself from the monitor’s frame rate.

When the GPU delivers more frame rates in a game to the monitor, then this feature is activated. And when there are low fps then this feature will turn off. Adaptive Vsync will automatically turn on or turn off according to the fps rendered by the monitor.

Most importantly it does not show any input lag, which is a good thing for gamers. In this mode, adaptive vsyn will be on or off every second. A smooth flawless gaming experience is given through adaptive Vsync.

FreeSync By AMD

Free synchronization, released in January 2015.  It was developed by A-M-D. They are generally for liquid-crystal displays.

This technology is based on VESA adaptive Vsync. What makes it so special is that it reduces the battery life by not giving any new frames to render. This simple technology gives monitor low latency output and a seamless gaming experience.

This software will also easily work with NVIDIA graphic cards and on consoles also. AMD technologies divide freesyn into three parts. Mention below are the three main parts of it.

AMD (FreeSync)

FreeSynchronization Premium. They put a requirement of 120hz of refresh rate on FHD displays.

FreeSync Premium Pro

They generally use protocols available publicly to provide low latency and tearing-free gameplay.

Vsync Vs Gsync

vsync vs gsync
Vsync and Gsync both have similar role but latter comes in higher prices.(Image By: Anand Tech from youtube.com)

Gsync is an additional setting available for NVIDIA users that takes care of the above-discussed problems on its own. When you feel more stutters and also you want not screen tears along with stable FPS you should consider using NVIDIA Gsync. 

The Gsync is an advanced feature that helps you by turning on and off Vsync whenever possible. 

There are different types of NVIDIA syncs that are exclusive only for NVIDIA users; 

  1. NVIDIA adaptive Vsync. 
  2. NVIDIA smooth Vsync. 
  3. NVIDIA G-Sync. 

G-Sync By Nvidia

G-sync is also an adaptive synchronization technology created by NVIDIA.  Their main is to remove screen tearing. In this output of frame rates both in GPU  and monitor screen work simultaneously.

gsync by Nvidia
Gsync by Nvidia, the best cure for screen tearing.(Image from: nvidia.com)

They have made a chip called g-sync which is placed inside the monitors they produce. Freesync and Gsync both are the same technologies, but there is a difference which is that AMD is royalty-free.

Some of the products which are developed by gsync are.

G-sync Notebook

Big Format g-synchronization

And, Compatible displays.

It is also known as display technologies, which works on Tv screens. gaming monitors or gaming laptop screens.

G-sync which is established by NVIDIA is a restricted technology, which is not available for free. This hardware can only be developed by them only. For Example, like Android operating system is free and any developer can use it according to his needs unlike Apple IOS which is not free,

That is why G-SYNC is costlier than freesync technologies.

Conclusion

Now all the gamers out there easily understand that how virtual synchronization work, what are its benefits, and what are its disadvantages.

We are here to help you guys with any topics. You all understood what you have to do when you face such problems.

One thing to keep in mind is that next time you purchase anything regarding GPU or monitor, check the refresh rate.

Frequently Asked Questions

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