Quote:
Originally Posted by Flash Walken
please detail the benefits you got from a sync enabled monitor?
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Well the one I linked is IPS, which has amazing deep blacks and vivid colors. So upgrading from a TN panel from 2008 will be an instant visual upgrade even on stationary images.
The basic gist of "sync" is that the monitor has an embedded GPU-type chip which drives the monitors refresh rate. First some background on why this is necessary.
In the general sense, most PC monitors run at a 59 or 60 hertz cycle, which means they refresh the visual image at 60 frames a second. Better monitors run at 120/144/160hz cycles, which means they refresh much faster (like the “fake” 120/240 refresh rates some HD TVs have, but unless you pay 8k+ for a TV, this is “tweened” framing, which interpolates between existing frames and gives that weird soap-opera effect to non-sports or gaming).
Nearly all Gsync/Freesync monitors are 120 to 160 hz, with the exception of Gsync laptops, which usually run 75-100hz.
Now, some people will come in and say “ACKSHUALLY the human eye can only see at 22/24/30 frames a second so it’s useless to have higher refresh rates!” This of course means nothing, because the way the monitor displays the information bears more relevance than the eye’s ability to see it. It’s about smoothness of motion and proper movement between frames.
On all PCs you can enable a mode called “V-Sync” or, Vertical Sync. Non-sync enabled monitors (so, every monitor prior to 2014) and TVs drive their own refresh rate (eg they cycle at 60hz regardless of the input). So when you play a game on an older monitor, without V-Sync you might get what’s called “tearing” or “shearing”, especially in fast paced FPS or 3PS games. This happens because the video card is outputting frames at a lower speed than the monitor refreshes, eg. 42 frames to 60hz, so there are 18 “missing” frames. This doesn’t matter much for static images or slow pans, but fast movement or visually striking scenes often result in tearing. V-Sync forces the video card to run at 30 FPS or 60 FPS, but this can actually make your video card a bit crippled for various reasons (30 fps caps are pretty much what you see with lots of console games, 60 fps caps are much smoother).
Now a 144hz Gsync monitor, while it can output at 144hz at the top end, will have its imbedded chip driving its own framerate to match that of the video cards output. As a result, regardless of frames (generally if they stay above a 45 fps minimum) look realistically smooth with zero tearing and without additional “artificial” caps.
It has to be seen to be really appreciated. It’s an amazing tech.