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144 Hz and vsync

PitchBlack
Grafter
Posts: 301
Registered: ‎10-01-2014

144 Hz and vsync

I am struggling to get my head around these questions I have and googling gives me some answers but not the ones I want. Hopefully someone here will be able to enlighten me.
I have a 144 Hz monitor and a 60 Hz monitor both BenQ both 24 inch  and play games with vsync off, so for example BF4 runs at 199 fps max on both, so why buy a 144 Hz monitor over a 60Hz if I play with vsync off ? Does it just make the tearing less visible ?
If I set my 144 Hz monitor to 60 Hz in the NVidia control panel and play BF4 with vsync off does it play like a 60 Hz monitor or a 144 Hz monitor.
I set my 144 Hz monitor to 100 Hz in the NVidia control panel and fired up a game, I selected 144 Hz in the games video options with vsync on and then did a benchmark. My maximum FPS in the benchmark was 143.9 why did it show 143.9 and not 99.9. if the NVidia control panel was set to 100 Hz ?
One of the reasons I am asking these questions is because my 144 Hz monitor, when set to 144 or 120 Hz goes funny when I first start my computer, just a fuzzy mess. Then after about 1 minute it clears and works as normal. If I set the monitor to 100 Hz then it starts normally without any anomalies. So basically if I set my monitor to 100 Hz all the time in the NVidia control panel am I still getting use of the 144 Hz whilst gaming.
Thanks for reading.


9 REPLIES 9
VileReynard
Hero
Posts: 12,616
Thanks: 582
Fixes: 20
Registered: ‎01-09-2007

Re: 144 Hz and vsync

If you had a CRT monitor, Vsync indicated when the electron beam was to be return from the end of scan back to the beginning. This was an extra long period.
So you could run it (within a certain range) on a variety of Hsync & Vsync values.
A 144Hz flat screen monitor will always refresh 144 times a second, regardless of frame rate.
If you can't tell the difference between a frame rate of 60 and 144, then you probably wasted your money on that high rate monitor?
Your PC should be able to auto-detect the refresh rate.

"In The Beginning Was The Word, And The Word Was Aardvark."

nanotm
Pro
Posts: 5,756
Thanks: 156
Fixes: 2
Registered: ‎11-02-2013

Re: 144 Hz and vsync

doesn't it just default to the lowest value output for split screen output on a single gpu though ? pretty sure that's what the non freesync(amd)/g-sync(NVidia)  type monitors do, for instance I have dual screened my system to the tv which has a 200hz screen but its operating at the same 60hz as my monitor, when I disabled the monitor the difference was clear (in terms of picture quality and frame lag) of course I switched it back pretty fast when the other half wanted to watch something on the goggle box....
each screen operates at its own standard sync rates but the gpu output is identical in both cases.
just because your paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you
PitchBlack
Grafter
Posts: 301
Registered: ‎10-01-2014

Re: 144 Hz and vsync

Thanks for the replies
I have similar setup nanotm, I have the 144 Hz and 60 Hz monitors on the DVI outputs and a 200 Hz TV on the HDMI output on the back of my NVidia 970 card. When I look at the refresh rate in Nvidia control panel it shows the 144 Hz monitor @ 144, the 60 Hz monitor @ 60 and the 200 Hz TV @ 60.
If I play on my 60 Hz monitor and set vsync on, then the frames are capped at 60, turn vsync off and it goes up to BF4 maximum of 200. If I play on my 144 Hz monitor with v sync on, it is capped at 144 fps, turn off vsync and it goes up to 200 fps. What I don't understand is I set the refresh rate in NVidia control panel on my 144 Hz monitor to 100, turn on vsync then I would have thought the fps should be capped at 100, but when I run a bench mark in game it is capped at 144.
So when I chose the 100 refresh rate for my 144 Hz monitor what is refreshing at 100 Hz, is it just the desk top ?
If I set the refresh rate to 60 Hz in the games video options it is like night and day from when I set it to 144 vilefox, I might just take off my second monitor and see if that fixes the start up problems, maybe the gfx card doesn't like running a 144 Hz and a 60 Hz monitor and prefers 2 with the same refresh rate.
nanotm
Pro
Posts: 5,756
Thanks: 156
Fixes: 2
Registered: ‎11-02-2013

Re: 144 Hz and vsync

chances are that's the solution to your problem,
as to the change in refresh rates between the control panel and when in game that ones a lot simpler, most modern games take direct control over the gfx card and drive the outputs, some do this by having a customised mode within the gfx card control setup some do it through a simple override mechanic, no doubt if you were to happy click your way through the NVidia control panel you would find there are custom settings for various games and you can adjust (clamp) the levels of control you get within the bf4 launcher but only if you tick the box to always use the NVidia settings or force /override game settings .... some games I played in the past that was required because of hardware changes and the software not being up to date enough (older less supported games on newer hardware) particularly for some mmo's

just because your paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you
PitchBlack
Grafter
Posts: 301
Registered: ‎10-01-2014

Re: 144 Hz and vsync

Thanks nanotm, that answers my question then that hopefully most games will run independently to what I set in NVidia control panel which mirrors in desktop display settings. So if I set my 144 to 60 then I have the same across the board, ( 2 monitors and TV all set to 60), then this should have no impact on my games which should still run at 144 and my desktop at 60, which in turn will fix the start up graphic problems.
VileReynard
Hero
Posts: 12,616
Thanks: 582
Fixes: 20
Registered: ‎01-09-2007

Re: 144 Hz and vsync

Why not get two Graphics cards?
A 60Hz won't cost you much.

"In The Beginning Was The Word, And The Word Was Aardvark."

nanotm
Pro
Posts: 5,756
Thanks: 156
Fixes: 2
Registered: ‎11-02-2013

Re: 144 Hz and vsync

your graphics cards need to be the same for SLI to work properly and you still end up with the same problem on the desktop outputs, given the price of NVidia cards it would likely be cheaper to replace the 60hz monitor with a second 144, and if the tv is a 200hz unit then setting all 3 to 144 would similarly fix the problem.
the cheap option is always to set the desktop to the slowest speed display output (60hz) and let things run automatically when in full screen mode, even movie outputs can be dedicated to single displays if you setup the system correctly in the NVidia control panel, but that's a lot of happy clicking and hair pulling to get it to work properly,
muti monitor systems don't work well unless all the dispalys have the same native settings for headache free operation (I generay run my system with the tv output switched off to alleviate this probem)
just because your paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you
legume
Rising Star
Posts: 179
Thanks: 12
Registered: ‎21-07-2013

Re: 144 Hz and vsync

How well 2 screens with different refresh work IME is down to the drivers. Using linux OSS drivers on my AMD card it's fine. I can have 60Hz on monitor and 50Hz  on the TV no problem running the same xserver both vsynced OK.
With the closed driver it just doesn't work. Of course the screens are not cloned 🙂 they have there own space.  IIRC from long ago even if they were cloned there used to be a way to choose which one xv would sync to - though xv isn't really much used for video output anymore.
PitchBlack
Grafter
Posts: 301
Registered: ‎10-01-2014

Re: 144 Hz and vsync

Ok I am understanding this more now, if I set my refresh rate to 60 in NVidia control panel on my 144 monitor and play insurgency, which has no in game option to pick the refresh rate, play with vsync on, it is capped to 60 fps. If I go into the NVidia control panel and change the preferred refresh rate to "highest available" then it plays at 144 fps, but it takes the game an age to start.
If I play Grid 2 which has a in game setting to choose 144  refresh rate then it plays @ 144 fps no matter what I chose in NVidia control panel.
Playing insurgency with refresh rate set to 60 in NVidia control panel and vsync off ingame gives me 300 fps but bad tearing, playing with 144 Hz set in NVidia control panel gives me 300 fps and the tearing is very minimal.
nanotm, I have the hdmi out from my video card going into a Yamaha amp then into my TV, so whenever the amp is switched off the TV doesn't show up in NVidia control panel which is good, I have though disabled my second monitor and will only enable it when I am editing my photos.
I will leave my 144 monitor running at 144 in the NVidia control panel and try and remember to switch it back to 60 before I turn off my computer, that way I will not get the same as I get in the above images when I first turn on my PC.