Screen tearing with GTX 970 and 980 when gaming

[Nahrga]

I got a nasty screen tearing issue with my Zotac GTX 980 when gaming on my 120Hz screen. It is different from game to game, some games doesn't have any screen tearing.

I've also tried with a MSI GTX 970 and a EVGA GTX 970 FTW with the same results. However, my old MSI GTX 680 and MSI GTX 560 Ti doesn't have this issue, so I guess the 900 series is more likely to have screen tearing?

Other things I've tried:
- V-sync, which fixes the screen tearing but causes stutter instead.
- Adaptive V-sync, which doesn't make any difference other than random huge frame drops.
- Tried older Nvidia drivers that actually reduced it a bit.

Is there anything I can do to reduce the screen tearing? or do I need a G-Sync monitor?
If a G-Sync monitor is the only solution, which models are recommended?

Thanks in advance 🙂

[Nate152]

Hello Nahrga

What causes screen tearing is when your frame rates exceed your monitors refresh rate. With out a G-Sync monitor V-Sync is the only solution to eliminate screen tear.

There are more and more monitors becoming available with G-Sync and 2015 is supposed to be a good year for monitors. As of right now with the limitation of display port 1.2 you either have to choose a 60hertz 4k monitor or 2560 x 1440 144hertz or the up and coming acer predator 34" widescreen 3440 x 1440 monitor with 144hertz and G-Sync which should be available in about a week or so according to the acer tech I talked to.

There is also talk of philips coming later in the year with a 32" 5k monitor.

So what it comes down to is what you want, a bigger 4k monitor with no G-Sync or a smaller monitor with lower resolution and higher refresh rate and G-Sync. As of now it's a limitation of display port 1.2.

This is the biggest 4k monitor that I know of that supports G-Sync at the moment.

http://www.amazon.com/Acer-XB280HK-bprz-28-inch-Widescreen/dp/B00O0Z5682

You will need to sli your 980's to get decent frame rates on a 4k monitor, so with a single gtx 980 something in the range of 2560 x 1440 would be good like the ROG swift.

http://www.amazon.com/PG278Q-27-Inch-Screen-LED-Lit-Monitor/dp/B00MSOND8C

[mbworldz]

Hello Nate152,

Since you are the expert in this. I have a question for setting up 3 monitors.
I have three ASUS VG248QE 144hz monitors, looking to get a decent video card that will run super smooth on three 144hz monitors.
Will this Gigabyte 980 G1 work ?

Any help will be great, I am new to this forum.

[Nahrga]

The Acer Predator looks interesting, I actually have a friend that pre-ordered that screen so I might try it out when he gets it.

I've read a bit about that screen tearing does indeed occur when the frame rate exceed the refresh rate of the monitor. However, in most of the games where I experience this screen tearing issue the frame rate doesn't exceed my monitors refresh rate.
For example games like The Crew that is capped to 60 FPS and DayZ where it is almost impossible to even reach the 120 FPS of my 120Hz monitor.

Then why do I still have horrible screen tearing even without a high frame rate? I'm a bit puzzled by this 😕

[Nate152]

Have you set the refresh rate to 120 hertz in the NVidia control panel?

[Nahrga]

Yes, and if I set it to 60 hertz I start to stutter a bit in some games.

Another thing, I had a 4790k before my 4690k. However, hyperthreading caused the same random stutter as V-Sync does now. If I disabled HT it started to screen tear where it usually would have stuttered..

I just hope a G-Sync monitor will get rid of the screen tearing 😕

[Nate152]

G-Sync will do both.

It will give smoother game play and eliminate screen tear. I'd wait and see how your friends acer predator performs and go from there.

[Nahrga]

Yea I really hope G-Sync will do the job. If it doesn't help I've really no idea what's wrong 😕

Thanks for the help Nate 🙂

[Antronman]

Stutters happens when FPS goes below Vsync.

You've got to make sure you can get 60+fps without Vsync on, ALWAYS.

Otherwise just try getting SweetFX to see if you can go below 60fps :cool:

[sectionate]

Check your pins on your DVI-D cable