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G-SYNC 101: Control Panel

Published Jun 20, 2017 by in: G-SYNC

G-SYNC Module

The G-SYNC module is a small chip that replaces the display’s standard internal scaler, and contains enough onboard memory to hold and process a single frame at a time.

The module exploits the vertical blanking interval (the span between the previous and next frame scan) to manipulate the display’s internal timings; performing G2G (gray to gray) overdrive calculations to prevent ghosting, and synchronizing the display’s refresh rate to the GPU’s render rate to eliminate tearing, along with the delayed frame delivery and adjoining stutter caused by traditional syncing methods.

G-SYNC Demo

The below Blur Busters Test UFO motion test pattern uses motion interpolation techniques to simulate the seamless framerate transitions G-SYNC provides within the refresh rate, when directly compared to standalone V-SYNC.

NVIDIA Control Panel Retirement

As of NVIDIA driver version 610.47, the NVIDIA Control Panel has officially reached EOL:

“After 20 years of dedicated service, the classic NVIDIA Control Panel is officially retiring for Game Ready and Studio Drivers. For NVIDIA RTX PRO users, the NVIDIA Control Panel will continue to be supported until we have migrated professional features to the NVIDIA app

Existing installs of the NVIDIA Control Panel will remain on users’ systems, unless they perform a clean installation, and users who still need the NVIDIA Control Panel can continue to download it from the Microsoft Store, but we won’t be adding features, fixes, or other changes.”

While the original NVIDIA Control Panel settings locations will be retained below, the NVIDIA App settings locations are now also included for a more up-to-date reference.

G-SYNC Activation

“Full screen” / “Enable for full screen mode” (exclusive fullscreen-type functionality only) is automatically selected when a supported display is connected to the GPU. If G-SYNC behavior is suspect or non-functioning, tick off, apply, tick on, and apply.

G-SYNC Windowed Mode

“Full screen and windowed” / “Enable for windowed and full screen mode” allows G-SYNC support for legacy windowed and borderless windowed modes. This option was introduced in a 2015 driver update, and by manipulating the DWM (Desktop Windows Manager) framebuffer, allows G-SYNC’s VRR (variable refresh rate) to synchronize to the focused window’s render rate; unfocused windows remain at the desktop’s fixed refresh rate until focused on.

G-SYNC only functions on one window at a time, and thus any unfocused window that contains moving content will appear to stutter or slow down, a reason why a variety of non-gaming applications (popular web browsers among them) include predefined NVIDIA profiles that disable G-SYNC support. As such, per-profile application of this mode is optimal vs. global. See Closing FAQ #5 for instructions.

Note: this setting may require a game or system restart after application; “Show indicator” / “G-SYNC Indicator” can be enabled to verify it is working as intended.

G-SYNC Preferred Refresh Rate

“Highest available” is automatically selected when G-SYNC is initially enabled, and overrides the in-game refresh rate selector (if present), defaulting to the highest supported refresh rate of the display. This is useful for games that don’t include a selector, and ensures the display’s native refresh rate is utilized.

“Application-controlled” adheres to the desktop’s current refresh rate, or defers control to games that contain a refresh rate selector.

Note: this setting only applies to games being run in exclusive fullscreen-type modes. For games being run in legacy borderless or windowed modes, the desktop always dictates the refresh rate.

  • NVIDIA App
    Settings location

    The NVIDIA App does not expose the legacy “Preferred refresh rate” setting.

    While it is no longer directly accessible in the app, like with the NVIDIA Control Panel, it is still automatically selected when G-SYNC is initially enabled, just internally, and can alternatively be accessed via the NVIDIA Profile Inspector (download here):

    Blur Buster's G-SYNC 101: Control Panel

  • NVIDIA Control Panel
    Settings location (legacy)

G-SYNC & V-SYNC

G-SYNC (GPU Synchronization) works on the same principle as double buffer V-SYNC; buffer A begins to render frame A, and upon completion, scans it to the display. Meanwhile, as buffer A finishes scanning its first frame, buffer B begins to render frame B, and upon completion, scans it to the display, repeat.

The primary difference between G-SYNC and V-SYNC is the method in which rendered frames are synchronized. With V-SYNC, the GPU’s render rate is synchronized to the fixed refresh rate of the display. With G-SYNC, the display’s VRR (variable refresh rate) is synchronized to the GPU’s render rate.

Upon its release, G-SYNC’s ability to fall back on fixed refresh rate V-SYNC behavior when exceeding the maximum refresh rate of the display was built-in and non-optional. A 2015 driver update later exposed the option.

This update led to recurring confusion, creating a misconception that G-SYNC and V-SYNC are entirely separate options. However, with G-SYNC enabled, the “Vertical Sync” option in the control panel no longer acts as V-SYNC, and actually dictates whether, one, the G-SYNC module compensates for frametime variances output by the system (which prevents tearing at all times. G-SYNC + V-SYNC “Off” disables this behavior; see G-SYNC 101: Range), and two, whether G-SYNC falls back on fixed refresh rate V-SYNC behavior; if V-SYNC is “On,” G-SYNC will revert to V-SYNC behavior above its range, if V-SYNC is “Off,” G-SYNC will disable above its range, and tearing will begin display wide.

Within its range, G-SYNC is the only syncing method active, no matter the V-SYNC “On” or “Off” setting.

Currently, when G-SYNC is enabled, the “Vertical Sync” entry is automatically set to “Use 3D app setting” / “Use the 3D application setting” which defers V-SYNC fallback behavior and frametime compensation control to the in-game V-SYNC option. This can be manually overridden by changing the “Vertical Sync” entry in the control panel to “Off,” “On,” or “Fast.”

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3852 Comments For “G-SYNC 101”

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majkool
Member
majkool

1. So with 390Hz monitor input lag with GSYNC + VSYNC and 386fps game limitter is nearly the same like with GSYNC/VSYNC off and fps_max 0 in CSGO.
2. I know that with 240Hz monitor there is a few ms delay with these options but I think it’s still better to accustom to it and play on a pro level?

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4 years 5 months ago
jorimt
Author
jorimt

1. So with 390Hz monitor input lag with GSYNC + VSYNC and 386fps game limitter is nearly the same like with GSYNC/VSYNC off and fps_max 0 in CSGO.

Depends on how high the framerate can exceed the refresh rate with G-SYNC off + V-SYNC off + uncapped.

But yes, the latency difference @390Hz between G-SYNC on + V-SYNC on + 386 FPS and G-SYNC off + V-SYNC off + 386 FPS at crosshair-level is virtually 0, especially due to 390Hz scanout time (2.6ms).

2. I know that with 240Hz monitor there is a few ms delay with these options but I think it’s still better to accustom to it and play on a pro level?

At crosshair-level, there’s not even a few ms difference at 240Hz+, especially with both scenarios at the same framerate within the refresh rate:

comment image

The advantage of no-sync really comes into play when the framerate can far exceed the refresh rate, and even then, at 240Hz+ refresh rate, minimum achievable latency starts being bottlenecked by things such as input devices (debounce, etc):
https://blurbusters.com/gsync/gsync101-input-lag-tests-and-settings/9/

As to whether G-SYNC is viable at a pro or comp level on 240Hz+ monitors when compared to no-sync, the latency difference is small enough at achievable framerates that it becomes more preference than anything else; try both and see what feels best to you.

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4 years 5 months ago
AgentDaumer
Member
AgentDaumer

G-SYNC reverts to V-SYNC behavior when it can no longer adjust the refresh rate to the framerate, 2-6 frames (typically 2 frames; approximately an additional 33.2ms @60 Hz, 20ms @100 Hz, 13.8ms @144 Hz, etc) of delay is added as rendered frames begin to over-queue in both buffers, ultimately delaying their appearance on-screen.

I’m surprised that a framerate limit just 2-3 FPS below the monitor’s refresh rate can actually prevent G-Sync from hitting that threshold and reverting to V-Sync behaviour. Using RTSS I noticed that a 140 FPS cap (in-game) will still allow the framerate to fluctuate and reach pretty high values, often higher than 160 FPS. Even a 120 FPS cap still exceeds 144 every couple seconds.
It happens intermittently of course, the frametimes are constantly fluctuating (as they should) and the average framerate is still respecting the limit.
However, wouldn’t those big spikes mean that G-Sync is frequently engaging and disengaging all the time? Am I missing something?

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4 years 5 months ago
jorimt
Author
jorimt

Using RTSS I noticed that a 140 FPS cap (in-game) will still allow the framerate to fluctuate and reach pretty high values, often higher than 160 FPS. Even a 120 FPS cap still exceeds 144 every couple seconds.

Is the RTSS framerate readout showing that, or the monitor’s refresh rate meter? If the latter, those readouts are rarely 100% reliable, especially on FreeSync displays in G-SYNC Compatible mode.

the frametimes are constantly fluctuating (as they should) but the average framerate is still respecting the limit.

If you’re using an in-game limiter, you will see frametimes occasionally lower than the scanout time of the display (and the current average framerate). This is part of how in-game limiters deliver frames faster over external limiters.

I.E. you can still have an average framerate of 120 FPS with the frametime of some frames reaching 160 FPS, etc.

However, wouldn’t that mean that G-Sync is frequently engaging and disengaging all the time? Am I missing something?

No. So long as an appropriate FPS limit is in place, G-SYNC will time these early frames to the start of the next scanout cycle, as to avoid tearing (unless you have the V-SYNC option off, in which case there will be partial tearing near the bottom of the screen in these instances instead).

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4 years 5 months ago
AgentDaumer
Member
AgentDaumer

Thanks for the answer.

Is the RTSS framerate readout showing that, or the monitor’s refresh rate meter?

What I did is I used the framerate graph from Afterburner + RTSS and I set the minimum to 144. This way, as long as the framerate is sitting below 144 FPS the curve on the graph will be flat, but as soon as it exceeds 144 FPS, it will show up as a spike on the graph. It can also be done with frametimes by setting a floor of 6.94 ms. Needless to say, the graph was anything but flat.

If you’re using an in-game limiter, you will see frametimes occasionally lower than the scanout time of the display (and the current average framerate).

I am well aware of this behaviour using in-game framerate limiters. However, I was still surprised to see just how much they fluctuate and I got curious.
If a 144 Hz display scans a frame every 6.94 ms, what happens to G-Sync + Vsync if two (or more) frames are sent as close together as 6.0 ms? When does the next scan begin? Do some frames get dropped or do they start filling the render queue?

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4 years 5 months ago
jorimt
Author
jorimt

Again, frametime of some individual frames can be independent of average framerate. Read the second entry of my Closing FAQ, and let me know if you have any follow-up questions:
https://blurbusters.com/gsync/gsync101-input-lag-tests-and-settings/15/

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4 years 5 months ago
AgentDaumer
Member
AgentDaumer

Let me rephrase that last bit.

If a 144 Hz display can scan a frame at most every 6.94 ms, what happens to G-Sync + Vsync when some frames are produced faster than that (due to natural fluctuations in frametimes)?

That is, if frames occasionally have to wait until the next scan and they start filling the render queue, in theory shouldn’t this create some very brief, but measurable instances of increased input latency?

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4 years 5 months ago
jorimt
Author
jorimt

My FAQ entry answers your question.

Early frames are already rendered/ready, which means G-SYNC will simply time them, in sequence, to the next scanout cycle if the previous frame is still scanning into the current.

144Hz G-SYNC completes scan of each frame in 6.9ms, regardless of the frametime of the rendered frame, so if the frame scanning in had a render time of 6.9ms, and the next has a render time of 4ms, that means that the next frame finished render after the previous frame had already been scanning in for, say, 4ms.

So instead of G-SYNC + V-SYNC letting that early frame interrupt the in-progress frame scan and scan right over it into the current scanout cycle, it holds it for an additional 2.9ms to let the previous frame finish it’s scanout (to prevent tearing), at which point the next scanout cycle begins, repeat.

Thus, occasional frames that have render times faster than the scanout cycle (aka frametime variances caused by the system) typically do not occur frequently enough (let alone in sequence) to kick G-SYNC out of its range at even -2 FPS, else that would have been reflected as latency in my testing, which began to be the case when the limiter was set above that:
https://blurbusters.com/gsync/gsync101-input-lag-tests-and-settings/5/

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4 years 5 months ago
Unneverseen
Member
Unneverseen

How is the latency for competitive fps games with 141fps limit (i have 144hz monitor) and Gsync and nvcp vsync on? should i disable fps limit and nvcp vsync for less latency? also do you set Max Frame Rate, low latency mode, and vsync globally or per game basis? also i heard that fps limit improving latency depends on the game, some it might give worse latency some its better latency. thanks for the article

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4 years 5 months ago
jorimt
Author
jorimt

How is the latency for competitive fps games with 141fps limit (i have 144hz monitor) and Gsync and nvcp vsync on? should i disable fps limit and nvcp vsync for less latency?

Depends on the game and limiter used, and how high the framerate can exceed the refresh rate without becoming GPU-limited:

comment image

There’s no one “best” answer. It can become situational and preferential, especially the higher the refresh rate, where no sync and G-SYNC become closer and closer to each other latency-wise; at 240Hz+, the latency gap between the two begins to close, regardless of how high framerate is above the refresh rate.

Bottom-line is, G-SYNC + V-SYNC + a minimum -3 FPS limit of the max refresh rate has the lowest possible latency of any tear free method; any lower, and tearing is required.

do you set Max Frame Rate, low latency mode, and vsync globally or per game basis?

That’s up to preference.

i heard that fps limit improving latency depends on the game, some it might give worse latency some its better latency.

Limiting framerate, where G-SYNC or GPU-limited scenarios are concerned, will always reduce latency over uncapped, albeit for different reasons.

In-game limiters typically have less latency than external limiters, but as a result, in part, tend to have less steady frametime performance. It’s a trade-off.

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4 years 5 months ago
Unneverseen
Member
Unneverseen

alright, thanks for the answer!

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4 years 5 months ago
jorimt
Author
jorimt

Sure, no worries.

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4 years 5 months ago
YormFatigue
Member
YormFatigue

Hello Jorimt, thanks for your article, it’s great, now I know more about this kind of Technology and am less confused of it.
But anyway, I want to confirm something, and hope you will answer it.
I use Freesync monitor 144HZ, based on what I learn, so it’s just the same as G-sync. When I play games, one thing I absolutely want to get rid of is microsutter, even after using VRR, I still have it to this day, when reading your article, I think I know the cause, and I know it may be unavoidable, but I want to be clear to it. So, these are my cases:
– When I play some games, I suffer occasional microsutter and sometime occasional tearing, of course I turn Freesync on, but it still remains as is, turning on V-sync will make that “occasional tearing” become microsutter as well, using fps limiter to limit the fps which is far lower than what point my specs can archive. My question is what makes that behavior? Is It the game’s problem that creates great frametimes variance and frametimes spikes? And additional info, some games I played have are kind of weird, that the lower fps is, the smoother the game is,
– There are also games that will present microstutter no matter what fps is, take an example of The Witcher 3, my specs can reach 60+ fps, so good idea that I should cap it just to 60 (I do it in almost game anyway) and it still has microstutter, then I tried to apply the weird way I state above, tried lowering fps, as low as I can play (well – 30fps), and still no good, microstutter is still there. So is it my system’s fault or the game’s fault?
And one last thing I want to share, based on what I’ve experienced so far (not read or learn), is I am pretty sure that fps limiter can somehow help Freesync in terms of smoothness, even it is below the targeted fps. I am talking about AMD framerate target control – FRTC for short, which is the smoothest framerate limiter (and It comes with the biggest latency), on my test, In the same game, in the same place of the game, I used 4 fps limiter: In-game, Chill with max-min equal, RTSS, FRTC, I saw that with FRTC, there is almost no microstutter no matter what fps, Chill and RTSS are pretty same as each other – comes with microsutter, but Chill does have less than RTSS and RTSS seems to have little smoother images when rotating camera, in-game is the father of microstutter.
I find that interesting, and I turn off Freesync to see what would happen. Well, with FRTC, tearing would present as one line tear which is incredibly stable, if fps can reach the target, even below tearing is still pretty stable. With Chill, tearing at almost time will present as two pretty small tearing at two position of the monitor, one upper and one lower. With RTSS, tearing gathers its power at one position of monitor and “dances” at that point. This behavior applies to almost all games, or so I’ve seen so far, and with that information, I think it is not silly to assume that fps limiters somehow affect or help Freesync or G-sync.
Thanks for taking your time to go through my long comment, there are maybe mistakes as English is not my primary Language, hope I did not make too much of it.
And Happy New Year.

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4 years 5 months ago
jorimt
Author
jorimt

Most of your comments don’t directly apply to VRR, so I’ll keep it simple for now; VRR prevents tearing within the refresh rate without causing additional latency or stutter like traditional V-SYNC does. That’s it.

It does not prevent system-side stutter, and it will show that as is.

System-side stutter is caused by a frame taking longer than a single refresh cycle to render (this can have numerous different causes), which forces the previous frame to repeat until it’s ready. This creates the appearance of stutter, and since VRR only syncs incoming frames, all it can do is display that previous frame tear-free until the next is delivered.

As for the partial tearing you’re seeing with VRR on + V-SYNC off, that combo disables a tearing-prevention component of VRR. You must have the V-SYNC option enabled with VRR to prevent all tearing, even for framerates within the refresh rate.

Finally, for VRR, FPS limiters are only recommended to contain the framerate within the refresh rate as to keep VRR active, since it only works within the refresh rate. FPS limiters do not and cannot prevent tearing on their own. And yes, in-game limiters typically have less steady frametime performance than external limiters, but this is also part of what allows them to have less latency, so it’s a trade-off.

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4 years 5 months ago
YormFatigue
Member
YormFatigue

Oh thank you. just some more questions which keep bugging me all days.
Using RTSS and Chill will “break” Freesync, I mean tearing will appear, and when I turn V-sync, “the location” that tearing appears become microstutter. So why is that? Because of FPS limiter?

And the last one – promise – is, like you said, VRR cannot handle any system-side microstutter, Taking your word and I try doing one thing, turning off Freesync and compare, to see if the microstutter I experience with VRR is system-side. And after an amount of time of comparing that makes my head and eyes spinning, it is not system-side. I admit there are some point the microstutter is because of changing area or the fluctuating of cpu or gpu, but that’s just it, microstutter with VRR is more often, and i just suspect it has something to do with the fps limiter.

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4 years 5 months ago
jorimt
Author
jorimt

Using RTSS and Chill will “break” Freesync, I mean tearing will appear, and when I turn V-sync, “the location” that tearing appears become microstutter. So why is that? Because of FPS limiter?

FPS limiters can’t prevent tearing, only the V-SYNC option can 100% prevent tearing with VRR.

As for the “microstutter,” pick your poison in these instances; a shorter stutter + tearing with no sync or VRR on + the V-SYNC option off, or a longer stutter without tearing with VRR on + the V-SYNC option on.

like you said, VRR cannot handle any system-side microstutter, Taking your word and I try doing one thing, turning off Freesync and compare, to see if the microstutter I experience with VRR is system-side. And after an amount of time of comparing that makes my head and eyes spinning, it is not system-side. I admit there are some point the microstutter is because of changing area or the fluctuating of cpu or gpu, but that’s just it, microstutter with VRR is more often, and i just suspect it has something to do with the fps limiter.

The stutter with VRR is entirely system-side. Again, VRR is a mirror of system performance, so while VRR can’t directly cause stutter, the system can cause VRR to stutter.

As for FPS limiters, yes, certain limiters in some situations can allow or increase stutter.

But even if you use VRR off + V-SYNC off with an unlimited framerate, there will still be system-side stutter. It can be mitigated in some cases, but It’s ultimately unavoidable.

You’re opening a can of worms if you think you can apply one “anti-stutter” configuration to multiple games and systems. You simply can’t. Stutter is on a case-by-case basis and the games in question are usually to blame for the root issue.

Devs have a “frametime” budget for targeted performance, and most of them usually opt to push it over the edge with eye candy rather than budget and tune their engine’s as to avoid asset load stutter and the like.

If you’re trying to prevent tearing without introducing input lag, VRR is the tool for the job. If you’re trying to eliminate or reduce non-sync stutter, look elsewhere, VRR won’t help.

Like1Vote Down 
4 years 5 months ago
YormFatigue
Member
YormFatigue

Thank you, It helps clear my head now, i had thought all the stutter i suffer all the time is of VRR, and thinking I wasted money on freesync monitor for nothing, honestly freesync does help elimiante microstutter, but that applies for not all the cases, but with you answer i finally can be free from upset.

by the way, the fps limiter I was talking about is RTSS and AMD chill, those two do not play nice with VRR, just Frame rate target control can do the opposite, it smooths out the image the best and the tearing is sill there but not often, that means the microstutter also is reduced a lot, I wonder if it is because of the method and function it has to do the job.

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4 years 5 months ago
jorimt
Author
jorimt

by the way, the fps limiter I was talking about is RTSS and AMD chill, those two do not play nice with VRR

I can’t speak to AMD Chill, because I have an Nvidia GPU, but RTSS is typically one of the most stable external limiters, so it could be system and/or game-specific in your case.

For the best frametime performance when using RTSS, make sure you’ve updated to the latest version, and that you have the framerate limiter set to “async” in the RTSS options with the “Enable passive waiting” box unchecked.

Also, FYI, any framerate limiter is only active when the limit you have set is being reached; whenever the framerate is below the limit, the limiter isn’t active.

Like1Vote Down 
4 years 5 months ago
nidzo
Member
nidzo

Hello, so I’ve been trying to get my game to run more smoothly and I have a few questions about how gsync and nvidia reflex and all that works. I’ve been capping my fps to 141 with reflex on and gsync and there’s no problem for the most part, but when my fps starts to fluctuate (100-141 fps) it feels very choppy. SO i was wondering, would it make more sense to limit my fps to something like 100 FPS so that I’m still in gsync range but my fps is more consistent or should i just keep it capped at 141 and let the game reach that fps every once in a while. I’ve been trying for a while to try to get this game as smooth as possible on my poopy machine lmao. Thanks.

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4 years 6 months ago
jorimt
Author
jorimt

G-SYNC will not make a lower frame/refresh rate look or feel higher, and if the frametime variances are great enough, G-SYNC can’t do anything to smooth them, just show them tear-free without additional delay.

Reflex can’t “fix” this when frames are fluctuating below its auto limit either, since all it does is eliminate the extra pre-rendered frames in the render queue when the GPU is maxed, which reduces latency. It doesn’t smooth frametime like a fixed limit (that prevents frames from dipping below it) will.

But yes, a fixed framerate always feels better than a fluctuating one, so a good practice is to find the 99% average FPS your system can sustain in the given game and cap just below it if you want more perceived consistency. This will also provide the same benefits as Reflex by preventing maxed GPU usage.

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4 years 6 months ago
nidzo
Member
nidzo

so i cap my fps at 80 now for consistent fps, and should I keep nvidia reflex + boost on or is it pointless to use in my case.

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4 years 6 months ago
jorimt
Author
jorimt

No harm leaving it on in that case, but it will really only kick in if the framerate drops below your manual 80 FPS limit.

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4 years 6 months ago
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