Do you play your games with VSYNC?

[Jules]

Just wanted to know if you use VSYNC on your games. Do you also use Triple Buffering?

 

[apoppin]

no.... never ... and - afaik - the only reason to use triple buffering is if you are using Vsync

i notice [only rarely "in game"] occasional 'tearing' but it is far less annoying than the performance hit trying to run at 60 FPS

 

[Jules]

Originally posted by: apoppin
no.... never ... and - afaik - the only reason to use triple buffering is if you are using Vsync

i notice [only rarely "in game"] occasional 'tearing' but it is far less annoying than the performance hit trying to run at 60 FPS

why is there such a performance hit?

 

[KeithTalent]

I always use V-sync. There was one game that caused me to switch it on; the tearing was unbelievable. I just never switched back after that.

KT

 

[MarcVenice]

Sometimes I switch it on when the tearing really annoys me. If it means I have to turn down other options to much though, then I'll just put up with it. Luckily that doesn't happen to often with my 8800gts 320mb.

 

[AVP]

Apoppin if your using an lcd with a 60hz refresh rate, what is the point of all the extra fps? Also, (I have no idea) but is vsync reducing the workload of the graphics card to put out 60fps? That would be cool if it did...

 

[CP5670]

I use it in almost everything along with triple buffering (on a CRT). High framerates look much smoother that way, although the triple buffering can sometimes introduce a bit of input lag like behavior.

 

[Dethfrumbelo]

Originally posted by: AVP
Apoppin if your using an lcd with a 60hz refresh rate, what is the point of all the extra fps? Also, (I have no idea) but is vsync reducing the workload of the graphics card to put out 60fps? That would be cool if it did...

VSync will always reduce your screen fps unless your video card is putting frames to the buffer faster than your refresh rate. Triple buffering offsets this by storing extra frames in the buffer while it waits for a refresh so that it doesn't have to drop any frames in the meantime. The lower screen fps comes from the mistiming between the refresh rate and video card output, which results in dropped (lost) frames. TB does cause a lag effect as a result, so it's not perfect.

If you have an LCD at 60Hz using vsync, and your video card is putting out say, 40 fps, your screen fps will end up being around 30 fps, higher if you have TB on.

 

[EvixKeth]

I use it (LCD) and I've never noticed any performance hit. Ever since I played Prey, I've been using Vsync religiously. Without it, that game tore like nothing else. :S

 

[GundamSonicZeroX]

I use vSync when I'm playing older games that don't require the highest FPS I can get.

 

[Aikouka]

No

 

[potato28]

Yes, all the time for FPS's. I can't stand tearing

 

[clamum]

I've never used it... don't have a problem with having it off so I guess I never had a reason to turn it on.

 

[novasatori]

of course

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

I have it on since I got my LCDs, off when I had my CRT. No real reason really.

 

[JBT]

no not really. I notice to much input lag with it on.

 

[Sylvanas]

No don't use it here- I noticed a big performance hit in Bioshock with it enabled so I never used it again.

 

[Noema]

Originally posted by: Sylvanas
No don't use it here- I noticed a big performance hit in Bioshock with it enabled so I never used it again.

Same here. I'd rather put up with the (slight) tearing.

 

[ScrewFace]

I always use it. I like my FPS to look like a seamless movie.

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: AVP
Apoppin if your using an lcd with a 60hz refresh rate, what is the point of all the extra fps? Also, (I have no idea) but is vsync reducing the workload of the graphics card to put out 60fps? That would be cool if it did...

sounds good ... in theory
-and it works fine for older games

but what happens when your video card can only output 40 fps?
:Q

. . . and you triple buffer it

L-A-G

i'll take the occasional tear

 

[JAG87]

I never use use vsync with an FPS game, the input lag is unbelievable. I have never noticed any tearing either.

 

[IdaGno]

a worthwhile read re vsync

Memory Usage and Triple Buffering

Triple buffering seems like the perfect solution to cure low frame rate, however, it does not come free. Enable triple buffering also means it requires 50% more frame buffer spaces. Under certain conditions, it can also negatively impact your gaming experience. A simple example can illustrate this potential problem. Let's say we are running a game at 1600x1200 resolution. Each pixel needs 32 bits to store the information, 1600x1200x32 = 61,440,000 bits, converting it to megabytes, it equals to 7.32MB. To use double buffering, it requires 14.64MB video memories; to use triple buffering, it requires 21.96MB video memories. Heck, it's only 21.96MB, what's the big deal? Modern video cards have 256MB video rams onboard. You are certainly right, it does not seem like memory usage would be an issue. However, once we enabled 4x FSAA, the number gets inflated really fast. With 4x FSAA enabled, there are 4 times more pixels being sampled, thus you need to multiple 21.96MB by 4 and it's whopping 87.84MB! That's more than 1/3 of your total video ram. If a game requires 200MB of space to store textures, light maps, bump maps, normal maps......etc., you are going to have a very bad gameplay experience with lots of pauses caused by hard drives accesses. This is just something to watch out for, if you find the game accessing the hard drive too frequently, it can be an indication that triple buffering is eating up too much of your video memories.

 

[CP5670]

By the way, speaking of triple buffering, do the Nvidia drivers support it directly yet? It has been a while since I used an Nvidia card regularly, but I remember that DXTweaker didn't work properly in some games. One thing I like about the ATI drivers is that TB can be turned on through the drivers (for both DX and OGL games), although you need ATI Tray Tools to activate the registry flag.

 

[Dethfrumbelo]

Originally posted by: CP5670
By the way, speaking of triple buffering, do the Nvidia drivers support it directly yet? It has been a while since I used an Nvidia card regularly, but I remember that DXTweaker didn't work properly in some games. One thing I like about the ATI drivers is that TB can be turned on through the drivers (for both DX and OGL games), although you need ATI Tray Tools to activate the registry flag.

Yes they do, in DirectX anyway.

 

[CP5670]

I mean, can you force it on in some way? I know they work fine with it if the game itself requests it, but some games don't have any internal support for it.