Question Tearing vs input lag - is there a better solution?

I am just wondering if someone has found a better solution to this:
I've set video up in the following way:

• 59Hz in Windows
• 59FPS Lock in RTSS
• 59Hz in-game
• No Vsync, fullscreen, no gsync (don't have the possibilty)

I get low input lag (at least lower than with vsync - tested it with trying to catch an oversteer) but I get a bit of screen tearing even if FPS is constant at 59 (well it also goes to 58.7, .8 etc. - but you know a GPU can't hold it in place even if it's enough headroom... 30-40% and maybe 30°C still to go to reach the limits)

Is this the best solution possible. Would love to keep the low input lag and reduce tearing even further.

Thank you

 

I'm not sure if the FPS limit will help. In my experience, the best solution is disabling Vsync and tweaking your graphic settings until your GPU can deliver at least 90-120 FPS constantly. Both the input lag and tearing will be less distracting. The screen tearing is most noticable when the FPS value drops to around or even below 60, at least in my case.

 

yes, higher fps will make tearing less distracting, input lag will drop...but you might get an inconsistent feeling if FPS is variable between 90 and 120 FPS (in general tearing happens when the FPS are different to the refresh rate...even by 0.2 -0.3)
I will give it a try

offtopic: I hope the industry starts using frametime as measurement of the quality of the experience, not fps, because bloodborne is 30fps, but it's far worse than having a twitch in your eye. play after that horizon zero dawn (also 30fps) and you are cured of your ailment - stable frametime is fundamental to quality.

 

nvidia fast-vsync or g-sync monitor (and appropriate cabling)

For nvidia users ofc

 

I found something interesting and well done about vsync, fast sync etc:

 

Use V-Sync, input lag is negligible.

 

@majuh
Could you point to to some measurements?

 

The delay is quite significant with my GTX 960 if I enable Vsync. If I shake the wheel fast, the virtual steering wheel moves in the opposite direction. But I know, I should upgrade my PC...

 

@Balrog
don't worry...I'm playing on an GTX675MX...1080p 60fps FXAA
Your PC is fast enough

 

I find Fast Vsync an absolutely useless concept. I don't even understand why it exists. All it does is it turns off vsync if your framerate is below your refresh rate, and turns vsync on if your framerate would be above your refresh rate. So if your game is able to maintain stable framerate above or equal to your refresh rate, you might as well just have vsync turned on - you still get pretty much the same input lag, even with fast vsync, *and* you can get judder on top (because of how fast vsync works). And if your game dips below your refresh rate, you get tearing. Really, don't understand why Fast Vsync exists. It's literally "the worst of both worlds" option.

It depends on what you find more distracting. I'm limiting my FPS to 59 or 60, because it means the tear moves very slowly through the screen and is fairly often located where the sky or the car dashboard is and therefore it is pretty much invisible to me, yet the rest of the screen shows a perfectly smooth and fluid image because the framerate is still 1:1 with the refresh rate. If I disable the limiter, the tear jumps all over the place all the time, which I find very distracting, much more so than the one almost static tear, plus there's always some random judder and the image does not appear as smooth since the framerate is no longer 1:1 with the refresh rate.

It depends on your definition of "negligible" and also on the game. I've done quite a few measurements myself in various games and on average, vsync added about 2-3 frames worth of delay (at 60 fps), but sometimes even as many as 5-7. It's not much, I guess, but I still prefer to minimize any delays to my theoretical response time if at all possible.

 

Well, my right eye vision is a little bit damaged thanks to a rare disease, so maybe my sight has 'special needs', but for me it's quite the opposite, if I keep the FPS value around my monitor's refresh rate, usually there is an annoying slowly moving tear in the center of my screen, but if I let the GPU work as fast as it can, I barely notice anything distracting while driving.

 

I don't think it has anything to do with your sight, I'd say you just have different preferences on what you consider distracting and what not

(BTW, I'm completely blind in my left eye.)

 

Is there a way to cap FPS in RR?

 

Not that I'm aware of. I just use MSI Afterburner system-wide. There's also a frame limiter in nVidia drivers if you use nVidia, but it's only accessible using nVidia Inspector I believe, and my experience with it was much worse than with Afterburner.

 

@bojan.bogdanov
yes, RTSS

 

Can you explain how? I never used that

 

@bojan.bogdanov
yes.

• download RTSS
• install
• add the two .exe from the game
• in the right panel you can change the maximum framerate

 

What two exe files?

 

http://www.anandtech.com/show/2794/3

Even with Double Buffering, you only have 0.016s input lag at most.

You are talking about Adaptive Sync, not Fast Sync. Fast Sync lets the card blast through as many frames as it can, and then picking the last rendered frame to put on the screen with no tearing