V-Sync: Driver or Game?
Posted: 24 Mar 2015, 22:12
I was wondering what downsides there are to using using driver-level V-Sync compared to in-game V-Sync options.
Is this potentially going to add a lot of input lag?
Disabling in-game v-sync and forcing v-sync in the NVIDIA drivers often seems to fix or greatly improve frame-pacing issues.
Playing through the second episode of Life is Strange really emphasized that. The default frame-pacing is terrible, which seems to be a common issue with games running on Unreal Engine 3.
If I set the maximum number of pre-rendered frames to 1, frame pacing is greatly improved:
If I do this and also disable the in-game v-sync, forcing v-sync in the driver instead, I get excellent frame-pacing:
The difference in fluidity is staggering on this 60Hz display.
It proved to be a perfect demonstration of how your framerate can appear to be great, but the game itself is a stuttering mess.
I should point out that these results were with a single card - an old 570 - though I had similar problems with the first episode when I still had a 970.
Input lag does not matter for this game because I'm playing it on a TV with a controller, but I wonder whether it would be a problem in other games if I'm using the driver-level v-sync instead of the in-game v-sync.
To have such smooth frame pacing, I have to imagine that NVIDIA are buffering the frames.
This also raises other questions for me:
Is frame-pacing an issue with G-Sync at all, or does it bypass that altogether?
Do AMD have similar options that will improve frame pacing in games?
Is this potentially going to add a lot of input lag?
Disabling in-game v-sync and forcing v-sync in the NVIDIA drivers often seems to fix or greatly improve frame-pacing issues.
Playing through the second episode of Life is Strange really emphasized that. The default frame-pacing is terrible, which seems to be a common issue with games running on Unreal Engine 3.
If I set the maximum number of pre-rendered frames to 1, frame pacing is greatly improved:
If I do this and also disable the in-game v-sync, forcing v-sync in the driver instead, I get excellent frame-pacing:
The difference in fluidity is staggering on this 60Hz display.
It proved to be a perfect demonstration of how your framerate can appear to be great, but the game itself is a stuttering mess.
I should point out that these results were with a single card - an old 570 - though I had similar problems with the first episode when I still had a 970.
Input lag does not matter for this game because I'm playing it on a TV with a controller, but I wonder whether it would be a problem in other games if I'm using the driver-level v-sync instead of the in-game v-sync.
To have such smooth frame pacing, I have to imagine that NVIDIA are buffering the frames.
This also raises other questions for me:
Is frame-pacing an issue with G-Sync at all, or does it bypass that altogether?
Do AMD have similar options that will improve frame pacing in games?