Guys,Early in the year I got my new i7 860, GTX260 rig up and running but had problems (as others have reported) with the use of VSync. Basically, with VSync disabled, I witnessed terrible "tearing" of the picture. When I enabled VSync (via Nhancer) I saw no more tearing but unless my FPS was EXACTLY 60fps, I saw bad "stuttering". This occured whether the FPS was locked or set to unlimited. The problem was reported by a few on here and also it seems on various other websites / games and I don't recall ever having seen a "fix" for it (although many never experienced it in the first place)So, a few questions to you all if I may;Can anybody who had these problems tell me if they managed to resolve them at all? What was it that solved it...."*******" tweaks, new hardware, new drivers. new monitor?!? Does anyone still suffer from this behaviour? If so, what GPU, CPU and Monitor are you using? Is this just behaviour that has to be accepted? I have read elsewhere that this will ALWAYS happen when VSync is ON and the frame rate drops below the refresh rate? Do any Nvidia users out there use FSX without VSync? Does this cause tearing? If not, what GPU, CPU, Monitor and "tweaks" do you use?I would be great to finally find a solution to this chicken and egg problem. It made my use of FSX at the time unacceptable but now 9 months later with new hardware, tweaks and drivers I'm hoping it's been resolved so I can once again try to get a decent FSX experience going

I have the same card as you and I use VSYNC. Please post your FSX settings (all of them) as well as any tweeks you are using. It could be a setting of some sort that is causing it.Jim

I had the same problem as you have.I got stutters if i had my frames to unlimited or 60 FPS.I had to lock it at 30 FPS.But for some strange reason i tried to set it at 59 FPS as many LCD monitors report 59 Hz,so i tried it just for fun and the stutters went away.I don`t know if this works for everyone,but it worked for me.Bjorn

StranexThe stuttering you see with vsync is unfortunately an side effect of enabling it. (Google vsync + stutters) You are fine whilst your fps is exactly 60 but if it drops to 50 effectively the way vsync works it reduces fps to 25 and so on.You could enable Triple Buffering - some lesser hit on fps and the stutters will be minimised.Best option buy a 120 HZ monitor (true) (or 200Hz/300Hz LCD/LED HD TV) these are usually 3D monitors and you don't usually need vsync enabled.I use a Samsung 2233RZ and no stutters and minimal tears, no vsync.RegardsPeterH :(

I have the same card as you and I use VSYNC. Please post your FSX settings (all of them) as well as any tweeks you are using. It could be a setting of some sort that is causing it.Jim

Jim, I have not yet installed FSX again......I was waiting for feedback from this befoe trying it! My experiences stem from the last install I did which were enough to put me off FSX. When I get round to reinstalling, if I see the same problems I will be sure to post.....

StranexThe stuttering you see with vsync is unfortunately an side effect of enabling it. (Google vsync + stutters) You are fine whilst your fps is exactly 60 but if it drops to 50 effectively the way vsync works it reduces fps to 25 and so on.You could enable Triple Buffering - some lesser hit on fps and the stutters will be minimised.Best option buy a 120 HZ monitor (true) (or 200Hz/300Hz LCD/LED HD TV) these are usually 3D monitors and you don't usually need vsync enabled.I use a Samsung 2233RZ and no stutters and minimal tears, no vsync.RegardsPeterH

Peter, that's certainly how I understood it too. I do remember having Triple Buffering enabled in Nhancer with no discernable effect.So if having VSync on always results it this why do not more people see it? Are people just not using it? And if so, are they seeing tearing instead? Please, let's hear you're experiences.....

Peter, that's certainly how I understood it too. I do remember having Triple Buffering enabled in Nhancer with no discernable effect.So if having VSync on always results it this why do not more people see it? Are people just not using it? And if so, are they seeing tearing instead? Please, let's hear you're experiences.....

Triple Buffering works with Open GL and some D3d games support this, but FSX doesn't.There's a tool called D3d Overrider which enables TB in D3d Games but I never got this to work with FSX.

Also Peter, are you able to explain how higher refresh rate effects tearing? Obviously it seems to work for you, but as I understood it tearing can occur no matter what the refresh rate.....it being to do with the monitor and GPU getting out of sync?

Triple Buffering works with Open GL and some D3d games support this, but FSX doesn't.There's a tool called D3d Overrider which enables TB in D3d Games but I never got this to work with FSX.

In which case, do you suffer from the aforementioned? Tearing with VSync Off or Stutters below 60fps with VSync on? Maybe I should start some kind of poll?

Also Peter, are you able to explain how higher refresh rate effects tearing? Obviously it seems to work for you, but as I understood it tearing can occur no matter what the refresh rate.....it being to do with the monitor and GPU getting out of sync?In which case, do you suffer from the aforementioned? Tearing with VSync Off or Stutters below 60fps with VSync on? Maybe I should start some kind of poll?

The tearing is caused when VSync is off, allowing FPS to be greater than the monitors refresh rate, this is what causes the tearing. To avoid this and still set VSYNC off, use the fps limiter utility, and set it to a value below but in multiples of your monitors refresh rate. Limiting FPS within FSX will also work, but because of the way it works, (Not sure if it's a bug or by design) you will lose performance (A significant amount too!) if your frames fall below the locked fps value.

In which case, do you suffer from the aforementioned? Tearing with VSync Off or Stutters below 60fps with VSync on? Maybe I should start some kind of poll?

I think it's the same you also noticed.With Vsync Off I can see tearing and with Vsync on I get stutters below 60 fps, but mainly in horizontal views like wingview i.e. or when looking out of the cockpit while turning the aircraft on ground.Sadly I have no possibility to test it on a 120Hz or 200Hz display as Peter suggests.

The tearing is caused when VSync is off, allowing FPS to be greater than the monitors refresh rate, this is what causes the tearing. To avoid this and still set VSYNC off, use the fps limiter utility, and set it to a value below but in multiples of your monitors refresh rate. Limiting FPS within FSX will also work, but because of the way it works, (Not sure if it's a bug or by design) you will lose performance (A significant amount too!) if your frames fall below the locked fps value.

Certainly sounds plausible although I did once read that tearing can also be encountered with fps BELOW the refresh rate? Anyway, can anyone else vouch for the above suggestion? What about all you guys who are running smooth at 20-30 fps? Do you have vsync on or off? Any tearing if you have it off? Do you use an external limited rather than the fsx settings?

Having read up on the subject much more I THINK I underdstand what causes the tearing and stutters but I have one question;If tearing ONLY accurs when the fps exceeds the refresh rate, and having VSync on causes stutters (or can be fixed by locking your frame rate to a lower multiple of 60), then why don't we all have VSync OFF with a fixed fps of something lower than 60 but more than either 20 or 30? Presumably this would mean no tearing (FPS is always lower than 60) and better FPS because it could be set at anything between 30 and 60 depending on performance? Or is this what you all do anyway and just aren't sharing with me?!?

StranexI think that you are starting to get the picture.In FSX frame rates are NOT steady - I recently installed FTX Pacific Fjords and experienced some stuttering so I looked at the frame rates being generated and they varied from over 150 down to 10 - This is 'normal' as having a mix of complex and 'simple' scenery you would expect the frame rate to change. The numbers over 60 are irrelevant for most standard 60Hz LCD/LED monitors. They cannot display more than 60 frames per second.The reason that a 120 Hz monitor minimises tearing (200Hz and 300Hz even better) is that you are not likely to exceed the refresh rate of the monitor for extended periods and so tearing will be minimised. Someone said that vSync may not work in FSX - that's true but you can 'force' it with nvidia inspector or earlier nHancer and I believe Hey-Sus posted a couple of lines for the fsx,cfg that would force it on. As I said earlier vSync is fine if the frame rates do not fall <60 but as soon as they do you may see vSync stutters which triple buffering should help. A lot of simmers use the FSX frame rate limiter using every value from 0 - 60 and every one has an opinion as to what is the best figure. However with vSync enabled, from what I read, you may need to set the frame rate as some integer divisor of 60, ie 12, 15, 20, 30 and 60. Therefore, as one poster said it may be that using an external frame rate limiter may be a good option.Like everything else in FSX this will vary from one simmer to another, all I can confirm is that a 120HZ monitor works on my system.RegardsPeterH

StranexThe stuttering you see with vsync is unfortunately an side effect of enabling it. (Google vsync + stutters) You are fine whilst your fps is exactly 60 but if it drops to 50 effectively the way vsync works it reduces fps to 25 and so on.

This MIGHT be the case if FSX implemented VSync wrong - but otherwise this is NOT how Vsync in general is supposed to work!Independently of the FPS a game has, Vsync tells the graphics driver/hardware to output the frame exactly in sync with the Monitor (refresh rate).It doesnt matter whether the game runs 60, 56, 37 or whatever FPS. The "tearing" comes from the fact that the frame output of the card is not in sync with when the monitor starts to display the frame.Also..there is no reason why a PROPER Vsync implementation would reduce FPS - EXCEPT that it would reduce frames/FPS to the maximum what a monitor can display. If a monitor does 60hz then this means the FPS cannot exceed 60. And if the game engine/PC hardware can only produce, say, 40 FPS..then it would simple output each frame in sync with the monitor (therefore getting rid of tearing) - but really not reduce effective FPS. You might want to experiment with driver settings, Nhancer/Nvidia Inspector etc. and try different settings, force off, force on etc..etc.. and also try different settings IN THE FSX.CFG. maybe this helps.

There is also a couple of VSYNC settings in the FSX.CFG file that may help. Here is the information on them from Phil Taylor"There are new config items to control VSYNC for fullscreen and windowed separately [DISPLAY]ForceFullScreenVSync, default is TRUEForceVSync, default is FALSE We have seen cases where when VSYNC is on in fullscreen causing major fluctuations in frame rate especially when setting the rate limiter above 45. If you run into widely fluctuating FPS in fullscreen when aiming for above 45, try turning VSYNC off or reducing below 40."

This MIGHT be the case if FSX implemented VSync wrong - but otherwise this is NOT how Vsync in general is supposed to work!Independently of the FPS a game has, Vsync tells the graphics driver/hardware to output the frame exactly in sync with the Monitor (refresh rate).It doesnt matter whether the game runs 60, 56, 37 or whatever FPS. The "tearing" comes from the fact that the frame output of the card is not in sync with when the monitor starts to display the frame.Also..there is no reason why a PROPER Vsync implementation would reduce FPS - EXCEPT that it would reduce frames/FPS to the maximum what a monitor can display. If a monitor does 60hz then this means the FPS cannot exceed 60. And if the game engine/PC hardware can only produce, say, 40 FPS..then it would simple output each frame in sync with the monitor (therefore getting rid of tearing) - but really not reduce effective FPS. You might want to experiment with driver settings, Nhancer/Nvidia Inspector etc. and try different settings, force off, force on etc..etc.. and also try different settings IN THE FSX.CFG. maybe this helps.

If your monitor is running at 60hz and you are outputting frames at 40 per second you will get massive stuttering. The only way to avoid it would be to limit the framerate to 30fps (one frame for every two monitor refreshes). The best way to implement vsync (to reduce stuttering) is to sync to refresh rate, if framerate is lower than refresh rate, limit framerate to refreshrate / 2, if its lower than that limit framerate to refreshrate / 4 etc.