Hardware & Technical Question Regarding Vsync

[Faded Glory]

I have had a quick search of the forums, and found threads / posts regarding turning Vertical Sync off in graphics settings to improve FPS, and indeed, on my setup (the GPU is a GTX 960), if I turn it off my FPS goes from (seemingly) locked to 60, to way up over 200! (and way over 100 inside stations and in the galaxy map). I cannot tell any discernible difference in the quality of the graphics.

So what exactly does Vsync do, and should I leave it on and get perfectly acceptable FPS, or turn it off and get much, much higher FPS.

 

[Mike Thomas]

All Vsync does is synchronise your GPU with the refresh rate of your monitor. If your monitor refreshes its image every 1/60th of a second (60 Hz), there is little point letting your GPU go crazy.

I run a GTX980 powering a nice IIyama monitor, it's Vsync'd because there's no point flogging the GPU just because I can.

 

[Faded Glory]

Thanks for the response.

I've checked the refresh rate of my monitor (a Panasonic TV), and it's 60 Hz, so I'll stick with Vsync on then.

 

[Porina]

Agree with above, especially as there is a nice power saving from not maxing out fps. There is one exception, it has been pointed out that the system map is slow to display with vsync on, and fast when off.

 

[Tepescovir]

It can depend on the person, I always play with vsync on and adjust settings to get a constant 60fps.
With vsync off you can get higher fps and sometimes slightly faster response from controls,(only really noticeable in fast fpshooters) but the visual tearing drives me nuts so vsync on for me.

 

[Faded Glory]

Thanks both for your replies. I've not found system map too slow to load, so not really a problem.

Although I've not set FPS to be capped at 60, that is what seems to be happening, still, doesn't seem to be a problem.

 

[CMDR MAIN SEQUENCE]

If you're getting >60 FPS with Vsync off and no tearing I would consider yourself lucky! But I guess some people notice it more than others and there can be several variables involved.

 

[Faded Glory]

If you're getting >60 FPS with Vsync off and no tearing I would consider yourself lucky! But I guess some people notice it more than others and there can be several variables involved.

I certainly didn't notice it, although I was primarily in open space when I tried with Vsync off, and was getting in excess of 225 FPS. Anyway, I've put it back on now, as the display refresh rate is 60 Hz.

Not sure if it's connected, but since I tried this, when I put the PC to sleep, when it wakes up it seems not to want to display anything on the screen and I have to do a hard restart to get it going again. I've validated the game files, and it did something to the graphics card as it took longer to compute shaders than normal, so hopefully that will fix it.