Curse

End · Nov 09, 2009, 08:15 PM // 20:15

I'm not really looking for help here sorry to disappoint all you helpful people. More like asking for an answer to a little question I had. Sorry if its completely stupid question.

Note quite sure how to explain it. Basically when in Guild Wars or another game turning v-sync on is supposed to limit your fps to your monitors refresh rate if i understand correctly.

Well I've been noticing lately with v-sync on in a few games I've been seeing my fps being higher like 65 when my monitors refresh rate is 60Hz.

So basically is my idea of what v-sync does to your fps wrong? does the refresh rate variable and just AROUND 60? or is it just the little fps markers being wrong? or otherwise whats going on here?

KZaske · Nov 09, 2009, 09:29 PM // 21:29

Good question, I actually had to do some research. I hunted around for a good description and found one here: http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=928593.

It does a great job of explaining not only V-Sync but also how frame buffering works.

Quaker · Nov 09, 2009, 11:16 PM // 23:16

I find there to be a few possible errors in that post. It is from 2005 though so some things have changed.

For one thing, he must be talking about Vsync being enabled in the video driver, not in the game itself. When you set vsync to ON in GW, GW itself only updates at the vertical rate (60Hz nominally), so there are no extra frames to lose. That is, if your monitor's vertical rate is 60Hz, then GW runs at 60Hz (nominally). The tearing only happens if vsync is off AND the game is (therefore) running at more than 60fps.

@OP - I think the slight variance in the reported fps is the result of small variances in ping times. Not only does the game run at a particular rate, but it also has to communicate with the game server. Whether or not the game is actually running slightly faster than vsync is a question I can't answer.