Is it better to turn V-Sync on or off for gaming?

Screen tearing is a phenomenon in which strange artifacts appear on the screen while gaming. This usually manifests itself in the form of horizontal lines or makes it appear as if multiple images are displayed at once. It’s most noticeable when a lot of things are happening on screen, like explosions and special effects. Another scenario involves rapid movements, such as rapid camera rotations. Vertical sync (V-sync) was created to solve the problem of screen tearing.

A good rule of thumb is if you don’t notice screen tearing, turn off V-sync. Otherwise, turn it on. Screen tearing occurs when a high frame rate meets a low refresh rate. A frame rate is the number of frames the graphics processing unit (GPU) can render to the screen per second, while a refresh rate is the number of times the monitor can update per second. So with screen tearing, the graphics card would have sent multiple frames to the monitor before having a chance to refresh its screen – for example, when a GPU sends 60 FPS to a monitor with a 30Hz refresh rate. V-sync tells the GPU to wait for the screen to refresh before rendering a frame.

If you have a monitor with the right refresh rate, it can keep up with your graphics card. Otherwise, you can enable V-sync in the game’s graphics settings. You can also enable it globally on your computer if your graphics card supports it. You just need to access its control panel and you should find the option in graphics settings.

V-sync can introduce another visual artifact: stuttering. For V-sync to work properly, it must match the frame rate to the refresh rate exactly. When the frame rate becomes lower than the refresh rate, this is another lag. If stuttering isn’t an issue, you might experience input lag. In most cases the screen will hold up the GPU, but when V-sync makes the GPU wait, it can introduce input lag.

Stuttering and input lag can be a huge problem if you’re a competitive gamer. You may miss shots and react more slowly, leading to frustrating losses. These issues can be ignored in most single-player games, as you are playing alone and the enemy AI is more predictable than humans. The same goes for much slower single-player games, such as turn-based RPGs like “Persona 5 Royal” and “Baldur’s Gate 3.” However, in games that require quick reflexes and timing, like “Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice” and “Hi-Fi Rush”, this can lead to unnecessary deaths.

If input lag or stuttering is unbearable, it’s best to see if your monitor supports FreeSync instead. It will essentially dynamically adjust your game’s frame rate to match your monitor’s refresh rate (instead of forcing it to wait). If there is no FreeSync and you have an Nvidia graphics card, you can enable G-Sync instead. It does the same thing as FreeSync, but at the graphics card level. These are two types of adaptive sync technology, while V-sync is static.