Most modern 3D games have a graphics option "V-Sync". It's usually an on/off setting. I'd like to understand settings I tweak with, and this one kind of eludes me.
What does "V-Sync" mean, and when should I turn it on?
I've tried a few things to answer my own question:
- Search arqade. There's a more in-depth question about which way to go about enabling it, another specific question about why limiting FPS to screen refresh rate won't prevent tearing, as well as several other game- or hardware-specific ones, but no real question or answer that explains what it is or when to use it at all.
- Use Google search, which leads to a decent yet very summary forum post on tomshardware. It does explain to some degree what it is, but not in very much detail nor anything about when you'd turn it on.
- A sub-entry on Wikipedia, which is (a) rather short and (b) obviously encyclopedic instead of aimed at a gamer deciding whether to use this option.
Finally I've tried messing with the setting in various games, mainly when I saw and googled about the "tearing" of images I had in some games, but a gamer-oriented explanation of the what and when still eludes me...
As a gamer to a gamer: please tell me what the option is and give me a rule of thumb of when I should (and should not) consider turning it on/off?
