Problem with screen tearing

[FrozenYak]

Hi my younger brother has been having problems with his monitor. He regularly gets screen tearing on it and we arent sure what's causing it. He has a fairly cheap monitor so I can guess that that would do it but I honestly dont know enough about what causes screen tearing to say anything, is the video card or monitor more likely to cause this?

Thanks

 

[nullpointerus]

What type of monitor is it: CRT, LCD, plasma, etc.?

What applications experience tearing: everything, just games, just movies, etc.?

Do you have V-Sync enabled in the games' options?

 

[FrozenYak]

It's LCD, he gets it on games primarily...have to ask about the v-sync

 

[Matt2]

V-Sync FTW!

 

[FrozenYak]

well it doesnt seem to be vysnc, he has it turned on...its in WoW by the way

 

[nullpointerus]

Originally posted by: FrozenYak
well it doesnt seem to be vysnc, he has it turned on...its in WoW by the way

AFAIK, tearing only occurs when v-sync is disabled. Your friend may be using beta drivers and/or Windows Vista where v-sync seems to be not working in certain games or video cards. I'm running Vista x64 w/ a 7900 GTO, and I can't get v-sync enabled in F.E.A.R., for example. There's just massive tearing anywhere.

 

[funboy6942]

Depending on the graphics card, like ATI, you can go in advanced or Catylist, nd force the driver to turn on V-sync all the time. If his computer is on the slow side his games will take a very noticeable hit btw.