By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close

Microsoft - Screen Tearing - View Post

nightsurge on 09 April 2009
Edit Thread
WereKitten said:

^^The fact that the OP talked about v-sync leads me to think that he knows what screen tearing is. Display latency and framerate hiccups are very different from tearing to any naked eye.

And to the OP: yes, HD consoles seem to suffer from a lot of tearing, especially noticeable if you are a former PC gamer. So much common that Digital Foundry always runs an analysis on the percentage of torn frames alongside the FPS statistics.

Screen tearing is a phenomenon in video where a newly rendered frame overlaps a previously rendered frame, creating a torn look as two parts of an object (such as a wall) don't line up. This occurs when the output device sends frames out of sync with the display's refresh rate.

Screen tearing usually only happens when the framerate of the game is above the refresh rate of the device.  Ghosting, however, can happen on anything because it completely relies on the refresh rate of your device and not on the actual FPS the game can run at.  A monitor or TV with a 60z refresh rate can only produce 60 fps without tearing.  Any higher and it tears.  Screen tearing does not usually happen when the framerate is below the refresh rate (which most consoles have frame rates well below 60fps).

He did a horrible job describing the symptoms occuring, and he probably knows of V-Sync because he plays computer games as well.  Even if a console game has V-Sync, screen tearing will be stopped but it can still show ghosting due to a slow refresh rate on your display (8ms especially).