You all know the issue in Vista where the graphics card control panel vsync override does not work. I use vsync on a wide variety of games to avoid tearing. Tearing is, seriosuly, the work of the devil. On my current card it's easy to fix by making a profile for the selected game in ATI Tray Tools, and force Vsync on with the built-in Vista fix. Does nvidia hardware have anything similar? Does RivaTuner, for example, have this function? I've just ordered an eVGA 8800GTX and I've been away from Nvidia since my 6800GT. So sorry this appears to be a dumb question.
The ForceWare control panel allows different profiles for games, you can force VSync with RivaTuner too. But there is no way I know to bind this to a certain application.
Does it actually work in Vista though? I'm sure I've read it doesn't work as something is very different in Vista, and that it relies on games having an in-game setting for vsync.
I've had no problems at all forcing vsync in all games on Vista using the bog standard Nvidia control panel. I have noticed that if you alt+tab the game after it's started it'll revert to non-vsync until you restart the game though, which is very strange. Unless you do that it works fine, though.
Thank you. I guess it's an ATI specific problem then. Bit of a shame on the alt+tab though, as I use that quite alot. Oh well.
Just curious, but on what games do you see tearing when VSync is off? I've never seen any tearing effects I can remember of, and I play a lot and since a somewhat long time.
You will see tearing on any game that doesn't have vsync enabled. If you can't see it, you've either trained yourself to ignore it by playing so many games with it (this is completely possible) or the game is forcing vsync without you noticing. TweakGuides has an explanation of the effect and a screenshot here: http://www.tweakguides.com/Graphics_9.html
Unfortunately, alt-tabbing seems problematic. Most of the time it works, but it definitely doesn't work every time. I hope you don't expect sleep to work perfectly either, because it doesn't (and this is a nvidia driver problem). Welcome back to nVidia!
Yeah, we'll see. All I need to know is that vsync actually works. I use it in most games, especially games that run fast on my rig. Company of Heroes is an example where vsync makes a day/night difference. It's so much smoother and nicer with vsync on. Looking forward to seeing how Nvidia's Vista drivers are. ATI's are excellent (except the Vsync thing).
I'm having VSYNC issues also with Vista Nvidia drivers. I force it on, and still see tearing in Halo 2. I even created a game profile in the CP, and still tearing.
Straight from the nvidia control panel: - In Windows Vista, turn Vertical sync on and off in the NVIDIA Control panel for OpenGL games such as Doom, Quake and Chronicles of Riddick. For applications that use Direct3D On Windows Vista, use the veritcle sync setting within the application. So sounds like it only works in openGL on vista, not D3D. Most D3D games do have the option in the game nowadays tho. Ive had some trouble with vista and vsync too, in XP game runs fine with vsync... But in vista I get a horrible performance drop with vsync on so I have to turn it off in some games, and get tearring.. Tho not all games tear, just some. Only way i can figure out to fix it is to up the games setings to make it run slower so the FPS doesnt go above my refresh rate to prevent tearing.
Sounds like it's more an incompatibility issue with the games themselves, because I've had no problems running vsync in Direct3D applications under Vista. Indeed, I've been playing Battlefield 2142 and Command & Conquer 3 without issue, both of which are Direct3D. Battlefield 2142 is the one I've observed the whole "ALT+TAB causes vsync to stop working" issue in, though. The drivers I use are 158.45, which also happen to be the most stable, the fastest, and most importantly give the sharpest image quality. If for some reason your vsync setting in the Nvidia control panel isn't working for Direct3D games, what you could do is download the bag of tricks that is Rivatuner and use its Direct3D panel's vsync tab to enable it there. Using the Nvidia control panel automatically enabled it in both the Direct3D and OpenGL panels for me, though.
Funny, I have never had the need to run with vsync, infact it's the first thing I disable both in game and in the control panel. I have always found that the games looked better with it disabled. Perhaps it's because I am running LCD tho (now 24" Benq WS). I am still running with vsync off.
Well, I'm not sure how you came to the conclusion that they look better. All vsync does is prevent tearing on the screen, and shouldn't have any graphical impact whatsoever. You can see a screenshot of what it looks like on this page: http://www.tweakguides.com/Graphics_9.html It's basically caused by two halves (or sometimes even more) of the screen becoming out of sync by part of it being rendered slightly ahead of the other part. Only by a small amount of course, but when you move the screen quickly it either sticks out like a sore thumb or it doesn't depending on your own eyes. As far as I'm aware this can only happen when your FPS is higher than your monitor's refresh rate, though. If you have particularly demanding games or a weaker system you might not see the effects. It gets worse as your FPS goes further and further above the refresh rate.
It occurs when the frame rate doesn't sync with the refresh rate, it doesn't matter if your FPS is below or above your refresh rate or even exactly the same for that matter. Tearing occurs less with a lower frame rate, with a lower frame rate the chances are the monitor might do an entire refresh without the new frame being fully rendered in which case that particular refresh is all one frame and no tearing occurs on that particular monitor refresh. As your frame rate exceeds your refresh rate you get tearing every frame and when it gets really high you start getting whole monitor refreshes made up of not just 2 images but several. With 200FPS and 60Hz you're likey to see 200/60 = 3.3 frames rendered in the time it takes the monitor to refresh so you'll probably see an image thats comprised of at least 3 different frames, thats when tearing becomes more noticeable, it's a subtle effect at low frame rates but when you have very high frame rates you percieve the "tear" between the 2 images as a line that sort of flickers up and down the screen really fast. It's also more or less noticeable depending on the type of game, you're unlikely to notice it much in a flight simulator or an RTS since the point of view doesn't dramatically change, however in an First Person Shooter when sharp 90 or 180 degree turns are done you'll definately see tearing, especially with vertically striped textures/objects in the scene.
