I'm a new owner of a 144Hz FreeSync monitor, the ViewSonic XG2401 specifically. This is my first display above 60Hz, and the jump in motion smoothness and clarity is is great. The responsiveness when using a mouse is almost disconcerting at times, it's so immediate it feels almost like it's anticipating what I'll do before I do it. It's a cool feeling. However, I'm not sure I'm using it to its fullest yet. I have a few questions, and it's surprisingly hard to find any answers online, so I'm turning to GAF.

First off, Should I be turning off Vsync in every game now? I've heard that some games (mostly older ones) still need it to prevent tearing even with adaptive sync. Are there any prominent examples?

Is there any dedicated software to test FreeSync? There's that windmill demo, but it only offers set framerates with 60Hz as the highest option, so it's not that useful. Is there anything else out there?

Doing side by side tests with my old 60Hz monitor via Windows' display duplication causes tearing on the 60Hz monitor regardless of Vsync settings unless I limit both monitors to 60Hz, defeating the purpose of the comparison. Is there a way of displaying 144Hz on the new monitor while also displaying 60Hz with Vsync active on the old monitor to get a more ideal comparison?

At some point when researching adaptive sync monitors, I saw a recommendation to lock framerates at 1 below the monitor's refresh rate. Now that I actually have an adaptive sync monitor I'm happy that I saw that, because letting games run at the full 144Hz without Vsync introduces tearing, while limiting them to 143Hz does indeed eliminate tearing. Is this the generally recommended practice?

It seems that AMD's Virtual Super Resolution downsampling solution locks display to 60Hz. This is a huge downer, is there any way around it, or am I doing something wrong? A side note, VSR also ruins colors and contrast when active, I'd appreciate help with that as well.

Also, if there's anything specific to the XG2401 in particular, I'd really like to know. I followed the calibration settings from Tom's Hardware's review of the monitor here: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/viewsonic-xg2401-24-inch-freesync-monitor,4504-3.html

Finally, I'll contribute something, because it seems super important and I had to figure it out on my own. When I first set up the monitor it was limited to 120Hz, for no reason that I could discern. It turned out the way to get the full 144Hz was to select it in Control Panel>Appearance and Personalization>Display>Screen Resolution>Advanced Settings>Monitor (on Windows 7, at least). Dunno why that was as obscure as it was.

Anyway, I'm already enjoying my high framerate, tear-free game experience, but I'm hoping it can get even better. Thanks in advance for any help provided.

Ouch, nothing? I was considering just posting this in the I need a new pc thread, but I felt I had enough questions to justify a thread. The one about downsampling is the most important, so if there's one for someone to answer, that's it.

Fimbulvetr said:

First off, Should I be turning off Vsync in every game now? I've heard that some games (mostly older ones) still need it to prevent tearing even with adaptive sync. Are there any prominent examples?

Click to expand...

I believe it matters when you're outside your monitor's Freesync range. I dunno about your particular model, but say for example a Freesync monitor supports adaptive sync between 40-75Hz, that means if your framerate dips below 40 or goes above 75 you will see tearing unless you have V-Sync on. When you are within that 40-75Hz range, V-sync will not have any effect.

nVidia has a nifty pendulum demo to test out G-Sync. I believe it works for Freesync too

My monitor's range is 48Hz-144Hz, so I'll still need vsync if games drop below 48 fps, and I should cap at 144 if I'm understanding correctly. However, capping at 144Hz produces tearing, and I'm still confused as to why that is. Capping at 1 frame below refresh rate works perfectly though, but still, why?

The G-Sync pendulum demo doesn't seem to work with FreeSync; the G-Sync option can't be selected and even toggling ordinary vsync doesn't seem to work since turning it off still doesn't produce tearing even at framerates below my monitor's FreeSync range.