How can you stop screen tearing without V-Sync? Screen Gaming can cause screen tearing. It can be very distracting and can make gaming difficult. You may have been recommended to try V Sync to fix screen tearing, but V Sync has its downsides.
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How You can also fix screen tearing with other solutions.
We have a few solutions you can try to stop screen tearing without V Sync. Nvidia G Sync, AMD Free Sync, Nvidia Fast Sync, or AMD Enhanced Sync are all good options. However, NVIDIA Profile Inspector, a third-party tool, can also be used to stop screen tearing if you have an Nvidia graphic card.
If you don’t want to tinker around with these options, there is always the option to buy a new monitor with a higher refresh rate. Any of these options should eliminate any screen tearing, so the choice is yours which you prefer to try.
Why Does Screen Tearing Happen?
Screen tearing happens when your graphics card and monitor fall out of sync with each other, resulting in the top part of your monitor showing one frame while the bottom part shows a different frame.
The main reason this happens is that the frame rate generated by the game you’re playing is running higher than the refresh rate of your monitor. If your monitor’s refresh rate is 60 Hz, it means that it refreshes 60 frames per second. It can display 60 frames per second.
Your game might render 60 frames per second (fps). When the game starts rendering more frames than your monitor can display, that is when screen tearing occurs.
Even if the game you’re playing has a frame rate of 60 frames per second (fps), sometimes it may render more. Some games have a much higher frame rate and may run at 120 fps or even 240 fps. If your GPU is capable of running these games but you’re using a monitor with a lower refresh rate, this puts you in danger of screen tearing.
Solution 1: Nvidia G Sync or AMD Free Sync
Nvidia G-Sync and AMD Free Sync are two adaptive sync technologies that work as an alternative to V Sync to prevent screen tearing. They accomplish essentially the same thing by constantly adapting your monitor’s refresh rate to match the fps outputted by your GPU.
For example, if you’re using G-Sync or Free Sync and your frame rate in any given moment is 45 fps, then your monitor’s refresh rate will change to 45 Hz. Once it changes to 55 fps, your monitor’s refresh rate will change to 55 Hz.
The downside of these technologies is that they only work to prevent screen tearing as long as the fps never exceeds the maximum refresh rate of your monitor.
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For example, if your game never produces more than 130 fps and you have a monitor with a refresh rate of 140 Hz, then these technologies will work for you to prevent screen tearing. Screen tearing will occur again if your game suddenly generates 150 fps. For this reason, many who use G-Sync also end up using V-Sync to throttle the GPU.
Also, note that these technologies can only be used with specific GPUs and monitors that support it. If you don’t already have a compatible GPU and monitor, getting the compatible hardware is an expensive investment for little return in terms of results.
Solution 2: Nvidia Fast Sync or AMD Enhanced Sync
Nvidia Fast Sync and AMD Enhanced Sync are alternatives to V-Sync and G-Sync/Free Sync which act essentially like advanced versions of V-Sync but without the input lagging that V-Sync creates. These technologies work to eliminate screen tearing even when your fps goes over your monitor’s refresh rate. Luckily, turning on Fast Sync or Enhanced Sync is relatively easy and you don’t need particular GPUs or monitors that are compatible like you do with G-Sync/Free Sync
Turning on Fast Sync is relatively simple. In your Nvidia Control Panel, find on the left-hand column the option to Manage 3-D Settings. Select this and scroll down to “Vertical Sync”, next to which there should be a drop-down menu with different options. Choose “Fast” and exit the window.
Similar steps are required to enable Enhanced Sync AMD GPUs. In AMD Drivers under the “Gaming” section, find the tab that says “Global Graphics”. Under the dropdown menu for “Wait for Vertical Refresh” simply select “Enhanced Sync”.
While Fast Sync and Enhanced Sync might decrease the responsiveness of your game, it should not be more than V-Sync’s input lag. Micro stuttering can also be reported if your fps drops below your monitor’s refresh speed.
Solution 3: Nvidia Profile Inspector
If you don’t like the above two options and have an Nvidia graphics card, try out the Nvidia Profile Inspector, which is a third-party tool that creates an easy solution to fixing the screen tearing on Nvidia graphics cards.
To start, you’ll need to know the refresh rate of your monitor. You may already know this but if not, you should be able to find out by opening Systems, selecting Display, and scrolling down to “Advanced display settings”. Once you select that, it should show all of your monitor’s specs including its refresh rate in Hz.
Next, you’ll need to open your browser to download Nvidia Profile Inspector. The Nvidia Profile inspector tool was designed to edit application profiles within Nvidia graphic cards. It works similarly to the Manage 3D settings page in the Nvidia Control Panel but offers more in-depth options than the normal control panel.
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You can find a download for the latest version of Nvidia Profile Inspector by searching for “Nvidia Profile Inspector” on Google. It is a third-party program so be careful where you download it. Softpedia is our preferred source. Once on the Nvidia Profile Inspector page on Softpedia, scroll down until you see the blue “Download” button. Select it and wait for the file to download onto your PC.
Once you’ve downloaded the file, double click on it and it should open the folder with your download. There will be several files in the folder. Select “nvidiainspector.exe”. The Nvidia inspector should appear as a small window.
In the middle of the Nvidia Inspector, you will see a category called “Driver Version” with a box filled out with your driver version information. To the right of this, there is a small button called “Start Profile Inspector”. A new window will open when you click this button.
On this new window, under “2 – Sync and Refresh”, you’ll find the option “Frame Rate Limiter” with a dropdown menu of many possible frame rates to choose from. Now it’s important to remember your monitor’s refresh rate. You will need to select a frame rate which is slightly smaller than you monitor’s refresh rate to prevent screen tearing.
For example, if your monitor’s refresh rate is 60 Hz, in the Frame Rate Limiter, you should select a frame rate slightly less than 60, such as 58.6 fps. Now up in the top right corner select the “Apply Changes” button and you can close the windows for Profile Inspector.
From here, you can open up a game and see if the screen tearing has resolved!
Solution 4: Buy a New Monitor
If you don’t feel like trying any of the above methods, the last option we will mention for fixing screen tearing is simply buying a new monitor with a higher refresh rate. This is not the preferred method, especially if your setup is otherwise satisfactory. There’s no reason to buy a new monitor just because of screen tearing, as you may be wasting an otherwise functional monitor that suits your purposes.
With that said, if you have been wanting a new monitor for a while, it might be time to invest in one with a higher refresh rate. If you’re doing lots of gaming, you may have found other issues with having a monitor with a lower refresh rate that makes your gaming experience less than optimal.
There are many monitors on the market with extremely high refresh rates, some even reaching 360 Hz. Even for gamers who are extremely dedicated, however, this may be too much. Monitors with refresh rates of 120 Hz or even as little as 75 Hz could certainly improve your issue of screen tearing.
Conclusion
We’ve presented some various options to prevent screen tearing without having to use V-Sync. Overall, if you have an Nvidia GPU, we recommend trying Nvidia Profile Inspector, otherwise, give Enhanced Sync a try.
All of these solutions will effectively remove screen tearing while gaming but may come with their own small downsides such as slight lagging. Ultimately it is up to you to decide which solution works best for you to produce a better gaming experience.
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