VSync Vs. Nvidia G-Sync Vs. AMD FreeSync: What's The Difference Between These Features?

Building or buying a gaming PC is always an exhilarating experience — running compatibility checks across the various components might seem daunting, but the finished product is always worth the effort. Some of the most powerful graphics cards you can buy are capable of running the most demanding games, all the while maintaining steady high frame rates. Furthermore, you can tweak every game's graphical settings to find the perfect balance between performance and visual fidelity.

If you've ever dwelled inside a game's video settings, you've more likely than not come across the VSync option. Turning it on might not affect any graphical elements on the screen at first glance, but those who have a handy always-on FPS counter will notice that it caps your frame rate. This can sometimes result in a lower frame rate than what your GPU is capable of outputting, but in practice, VSync aims to deliver a smoother gameplay experience. 

Nvidia's G-Sync and AMD's FreeSync are similar technologies that are used to eliminate screen tearing. If all three features claim to work towards the same goal of providing smoother gameplay, why do certain monitors boast support for G-Sync while others advertise AMD's FreeSync capabilities — especially when VSync is already an option in most games? If you've ever wondered why all three technologies exist in tandem, here's a quick explainer going over the major differences between VSync, G-Sync, and FreeSync.

Vertical synchronization, or VSync for short, is a software toggle that's designed to fix a prominent issue in video games — screen tearing. This refers to the visual glitch that makes it seem as if your display has been sliced in half, with the top and bottom portions of the video displaying different frames. To understand why screen tearing occurs, let's take a closer look at how the GPU and monitor work together to display video output. 

Depending on how powerful it is, the GPU renders frames in a game at its own pace — with higher-end graphics cards yielding higher frame rates. This value fluctuates constantly, but as long as it's averaging roughly the same number of frames without major drops or spikes, the gameplay is perceived as being smooth. On the other hand, most monitors refresh at a fixed rate — such as 60, 144, or 240Hz. When the GPU delivers a new frame while the monitor is still mid-refresh, it starts displaying the new frame halfway down the screen. This is referred to as screen tearing and is a visual artifact that can get very distracting while gaming. 

VSync works by instructing your graphics card to wait until your monitor finishes its current refresh cycle — essentially setting a cap to your frame rate, eliminating screen tearing. You can find the VSync toggle in pretty much every modern game, and it's a feature that works across most monitors and graphics cards.

Despite addressing screen tearing, VSync creates more problems than it solves. The most obvious downside, and the one that hurts every gamer the most, is the fact that VSync locks your frame rate — sometimes far below what your GPU can handle. In a community where enthusiasts spend a lot of money and time picking the best parts and optimizing fan curves to hit the most frames in their favorite games, a simple toggle capping the FPS down can be disheartening. 

Fortunately, VSync's tendency to set a cap to your frame limit isn't a dealbreaker. Dropping from a potential 200 FPS to 120 FPS to match a 120Hz monitor theoretically doesn't diminish the smoothness you see, since the monitor is only capable of displaying 120 frames per second anyway. A limitation that actually affects gameplay with VSync on, is input lag. Increased latency can be a noticeable hindrance in fast-paced games, even more so in competitive titles like "Valorant" and "Counter-Strike 2." 

Stuttering will occur if the number of frames being delivered by your GPU dips below your monitor's refresh rate. This is largely a non-issue if your GPU can comfortably exceed the cap set by VSync, but random hiccups still make their way through during the demanding scenes of a game. If you're experiencing stuttering or input lag, it's best to turn off VSync to see if that's the root cause.

Despite its limitations, VSync's heart is in the right place. Both G-Sync and FreeSync accomplish the same goal of eliminating screen tearing but do it differently than VSync. Instead of capping the frames that your graphics card delivers to match your monitor's refresh rate, both of these technologies adjust your monitor's refresh rate to match your GPU's frame output. The end result is nearly the same — no more screen tearing since the number of frames being output and displayed on screen are the same.

The major advantage of going with G-Sync or FreeSync is that they deliver a smooth gameplay experience without the added input lag or stuttering of VSync. Adapting your monitor's refresh rate instead of the other way around also ensures that you're maximizing everything your GPU is capable of. 

Talking about the differences between these two options, G-Sync is Nvidia's proprietary solution, which relies on a dedicated hardware module inside a monitor. This module talks to the Nvidia GPU inside your PC and aids in syncing frames — earning the "G-Sync" sticker on certain gaming monitors. There are other tier options available, such as G-Sync Ultimate and G-Sync Compatible.

AMD's FreeSync, on the other hand, features compatibility across a wider range of displays since it works over the DisplayPort or HDMI ports on your monitor and doesn't require a dedicated chip. Like G-Sync, AMD's FreeSync also comes in different tiers, offering HDR capabilities as you scale up.