Screen Tearing Explained: Causes and Solutions

VERA Brief

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Screen tearing is a visual artifact caused by a mismatch between the graphics card's frame rate and the display's refresh rate. This can be mitigated by synchronizing these rates through methods like V-Sync or adaptive technologies such as G-Sync and FreeSync.

Key facts

• Screen tearing is a visual artifact that occurs when a display's refresh rate is not synchronized with the graphics card's frame rate.
• When screen tearing happens, the display can show parts of multiple frames at once, creating a visible tear.
• Vertical synchronization (V-Sync) is a method to address screen tearing by making the graphics card match its output to the display's refresh rate.
• Adaptive synchronization technologies like G-Sync and FreeSync dynamically adjust the display's refresh rate to match the graphics card's output.
• Adjusting in-game graphics settings, such as lowering the frame rate cap, can also help reduce screen tearing.