Does Vsync decrease performance?

Furiosity

Furiosity

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I know it doesn't allow your fps to go higher than your monitors refresh rate, but does it hurt your performance in anyway?

Like does it put any extra load on my GPU to therefore lower my "lowest" fps? As in if my FPS is NEVER below 30 and I turn Vsync on will my lowest "possible" FPS go below 30?

I never used to get visual tearing before, it started I think during my 3rd or 4th installation of Windows 7 RC(Same Disc). I turned on vsync to get rid of it, but I feel that I get larger FPS drops now because of it. I never used to see stuttering in TF2 before(it's rare, but annoying when it happens).
 
For me I notice a difference in lag, but not with image quality. I prefer to leave it off.
 
It's actually kind of funny that you asked this. About 15 minutes before you had posted it I was off doing research of my own because I had the same question.
 
Eh I have it on always. My video card will always produce more frames than my monitor can refresh so I get a perfect 60 frames always which is smooth as hell. No need for any more, and a felt a noticeable lag.

So imo, vsync = win

But if you have a monitor with a 120hz refresh rate and you have a crappy 9600gt and turn vsync on, that's a big nono.
 
Well I have an 8800gt and a 60hz monitor and with it on it's always caped at 60 on most games but like in Crysis the minimum frame is lower than with vsync off.
 
Correct, TF2 i must turn it on. Tearing is very bad without since TF2 gets around 150fps, and the monitor can only handle 60. Now if im playing something like RE5 and set the graphics just right to stay around 70-90, it feels good to leave it off. When it is on in RE5 with the same scenario, i will see frames drop to below 50 when stuff gets intense, and that gets ugly when vsync is on.

Simply put, if your getting too many frames- turn it on . Otherwise, leave it off. It does hurt performance, i remember playing L4D on my laptop and did not know what vsync was at the time. Having it on does reduce performance, not just because it limits frames to 60.
 
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kool, i wasn't 100% sure of its optimal setting, but now this is something to keep in mind
 
see - for CSS i have it off - its also what the recommended setting for it is - and i don't get any frame tear...
actually i've never experienced frame tearing at all in any game i've played, but when i enabled vsync for CSS ya my frames got capped to my refresh rate (60 fps) but it also seemed the gameplay got pretty glitchy
so i guess im keeping it off
 
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