G-Sync: One Year Later

aMunster · Post by **aMunster** » 25 Jan 2015, 14:25

This is a quick note on my impressions of G-Sync / ULMB one year later.

My primary game is Quake Live. Despite it being a twitch game with no frame rate issues, I've switched away from ULMB. I prefer the smoothness of G-Sync. When I'm not using G-Sync I notice how much the game tears, even with a solid 125 or 250fps in game. ULMB also makes me a bit jumpier. Smoothness and calmness helps in Quake. I'd rather not be distracted by tearing for the chance at 2% better aim. There's some psychology to Quake that can't be solved by faster display hardware. Sometime in the future I will try playing Quake with 60hz G-Sync, to see if the smoothness makes up for the lower display refresh.

ULMB also had some ghosting issues that were distracting. "Competitive" gaming is about painting a picture. My mind never got used to looking at ghosted items. Health bubbles are yellow, not yellow and black!

G-Sync is a big step forward from ordinary 120hz. I never want to go back. I am disappointed that AMD's solution is cheaper and more elegant. I'd rather not be subject to platform lock-in. Nvidia doesn't need to do that sort of thing.

Nevertheless, modding the monitor was a cool memory. Low-latency and smooth display tech is becoming more important as head mounted displays (Oculus, Microsoft HoloLens) get more popular. It's nice to be on the cutting edge.

Keep up the good work, Blur Busters!

YouTube · Post by **Chief Blur Buster** » 26 Jan 2015, 01:17

Thanks for the compliment!

We're covering the FreeSync and Oculus stuff too, and I was at CES 2015, and was quite impressed by the Crescent Bay prototype!

flood · Post by **flood** » 26 Jan 2015, 02:47

aMunster wrote:Sometime in the future I will try playing Quake with 60hz G-Sync, to see if the smoothness makes up for the lower display refresh.

when you're running gsync, the screen's refresh rate is determined by the game's framerate. do you mean 60fps quake on gsync?

fury · Post by **fury** » 27 Jan 2015, 11:07

I just tried Gsync on Quake Live at 144hz (com_maxfps 250) and there was this terrible mouse driven stuttering. Like, if I'm walking straight through a hallway or just strafing through without turning, no biggie, it's smooth. But when I'm turning, I can see a very distinct stutter. It was bad enough to immediately quit and go back to 120hz ULMB. The problem went away when I did. What mouse are you using? Mine is an Intellimouse Explorer 2.0A USB

Trip · Post by **Trip** » 27 Jan 2015, 12:55

fury wrote:I just tried Gsync on Quake Live at 144hz (com_maxfps 250) and there was this terrible mouse driven stuttering. Like, if I'm walking straight through a hallway or just strafing through without turning, no biggie, it's smooth. But when I'm turning, I can see a very distinct stutter. It was bad enough to immediately quit and go back to 120hz ULMB. The problem went away when I did. What mouse are you using? Mine is an Intellimouse Explorer 2.0A USB

You really should try limiting quake to 125 fps and give gsync another try. I played a lot of cod4 years back and I had the exact same problem you are having right now. q3 engine games work best at frame rates which corresponds to the formula fps = 1000/n so 500, 333, 250, 200, 167, 125 etc. I believe chief once said q3 is driven by the mouse refresh rate which makes sense since 1000 fps is the absolute maximum for both the engine and the usb interface at the moment. What is happening if you try to force it to 144 fps? Well it will likely bounce between different frame rates trying to match 144 fps but it never will get to smooth 144 fps.

PoWn3d_0704 · Post by **PoWn3d_0704** » 27 Jan 2015, 23:52

Yup! For smooth GSync you need to limit your game engine to something at or around 140fps.

I run ULMB on mostly CS:Go because I like to run above 300fps.

fury · Post by **fury** » 28 Jan 2015, 00:12

Yeah, it never seemed to lock in to any particular framerate no matter what I have the settings set to during Gsync. At 144 it would bounce between 137 and 142; at 120 it would bounce between 117 and 121. Weird. I set the com_maxfps to 125 (while still at 144hz) and movement while turning the mouse seemed fine. Same with max fps 125 at 120hz. I would think not being able to reach 125 fps would be another cause for stutter if the game engine is that sensitive to (1000/whole numbers).

dmbr · Post by **dmbr** » 30 Jan 2015, 22:39

fury wrote:Yeah, it never seemed to lock in to any particular framerate no matter what I have the settings set to during Gsync. At 144 it would bounce between 137 and 142; at 120 it would bounce between 117 and 121. Weird. I set the com_maxfps to 125 (while still at 144hz) and movement while turning the mouse seemed fine. Same with max fps 125 at 120hz. I would think not being able to reach 125 fps would be another cause for stutter if the game engine is that sensitive to (1000/whole numbers).

A mouse capable of a 1000hz polling rate might help, too.

writer21 · Post by **writer21** » 31 Jan 2015, 12:59

Wait how do you get Gsync to work with Quakelive? I have the rog swift and would love to try this feature with quakelive but it doesn't enable for this game.

writer21 · Post by **writer21** » 01 Feb 2015, 13:39

No one can help me with getting Gsync to run for quakelive?

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