What is VSync? Should you turn it on or off?

Short answer: VSync stops screen tearing by syncing your frame rate to your monitor, but it can add input lag. If your monitor has G-Sync or FreeSync, use that instead and leave classic VSync off; if it doesn't, turn VSync on only when tearing actually bothers you.

It's one of the most toggled and least understood settings in PC gaming. Here's exactly what it does, what it costs, and how to decide — including the modern setup that's better than a plain on/off choice.

What problem does VSync solve?

Your GPU and your monitor work on separate clocks. The monitor refreshes at a fixed rate — say 60 times a second on a 60Hz panel — while your GPU pumps out frames whenever it finishes them. When those don't line up, the monitor can start drawing a new frame partway through a refresh, so the top of the screen shows one frame and the bottom shows the next. That visible horizontal split is screen tearing, and it's most obvious when your frame rate is higher than your refresh rate.

VSync (vertical sync) fixes this the simplest way: it makes the GPU wait and only hand over a finished frame at the start of each refresh, so the monitor always displays one whole frame at a time. No tearing.

How VSync works — and what it costs

That "wait for the refresh" step is where the downsides come from. Holding finished frames back adds a small amount of input lag — the gap between your mouse moving and the screen reacting — which fast-game players can feel. And because VSync caps your frame rate to the refresh rate, anything above it (a GPU doing 120 fps on a 60Hz screen) is simply discarded.

There's a second catch on older double-buffered VSync: if your frame rate drops below the refresh rate, it can fall further — to half the refresh — to stay in sync, turning a small dip into a visible stutter. This is exactly the kind of inconsistency that hurts your 1% lows, where smoothness actually lives.

VSync vs G-Sync and FreeSync

Variable refresh rate (VRR) — Nvidia's G-Sync and AMD's FreeSync — flips the problem around. Instead of forcing the GPU to wait for the monitor, the monitor adjusts its refresh rate on the fly to match whatever frame rate the GPU is producing. The result is no tearing, no VSync-style lag, and smooth motion across a wide frame-rate range (BenQ). Most gaming monitors sold in the last several years support one or both, and the two standards are now largely cross-compatible.

If you have a VRR monitor, it's the better tool for the job. Classic VSync becomes a fallback, not your first choice.

So should you turn VSync on or off?

• You have G-Sync / FreeSync → leave in-game VSync off, turn on VRR, and cap your frame rate just below your refresh. No tearing, minimal lag.
• Fixed-refresh monitor, tearing bothers you → turn VSync on, or better, use the frame-cap trick below.
• Competitive shooters, latency is king → leave VSync off and tolerate some tearing, or cap frames just under refresh.
• Your FPS is far above your refresh → tearing is at its worst here, so sync or a frame cap is worth it.

The modern best-practice setup

The detail almost no one mentions: the cleanest results come from a frame rate cap a few fps below your refresh rate. With a VRR monitor, capping around three fps under the maximum keeps you inside the variable-refresh window, where there's no tearing and no added lag — the widely cited recommendation from Blur Busters' G-SYNC 101 testing. On a fixed-refresh monitor without VRR, capping just below the refresh gives a nearly tear-free image with latency almost as low as VSync off — the best of both.

So the real answer to "VSync on or off?" is often "neither, exactly" — set a sensible frame cap, use VRR if you have it, and keep classic VSync as a backstop.

All of this assumes you know what frame rate you're actually getting. If yours regularly runs above your monitor's refresh, tearing is why a cap helps; if it sits below, smoothness is the bigger concern. Check your real numbers in our FPS calculator, and see how frame rate and refresh rate fit together.