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Does it mean that to avoid tearing I have to damage my eyes with 60Hz on my CRT just because the game's fps is capped at ~60? That would be ridiculous.

One of the main reasons why refresh rate still exists on LCD monitors is compatibility. LCDs don't flicker so most of them are capped at 60Hz, no need to go any higher than that, really.

But according to what you people say, all the old games developed for CRT monitors had tearing issues. That's BS. Most of the games were capped at 60 fps and most people used 85hz monitors. So they all suffered from tearing? No...

I play my PSX games at 640x480 with 120Hz, 60fps cap and I have no issues with tearing.

Some people say you HAVE to play at 60Hz (NTSC) or 50/100Hz (PAL) to avoid problems with slowdowns etc. I say what the hell, people? PSX games were not developed for LCD screens. And at that time TVs could double refresh rates.

Yes, I know it is a matter of sync between the monitor and GFX card so it doesn't matter. But I've always had lower fps than my refresh rate. I can't imagine it the other way - it's how stuff's been developed. And I've never had tearing.

Post a screen shot of tearing in a 2D PSX games at 120hz you have been talking about. I wonder how it looks like. Coz it's not supposed to happen.

 

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agree with KrossX here, tearing DOES occur below refresh rate i know for a fact:

HL2:ep2 at 35fps on a 75hz screen res = excessive, annoying tearing

vsync on = problem solved

case closed.

Half Life 2 as an example. I understand it he implies that tearing occures below refresh rate even with standards like 75/85 hz and games designed to run at lower fps.

That's not what's been said here?

That's exactly what's been said. It undermines years of PC games development. Nobody would play games forced to strain eyes at 60Hz screens to avoid tearing. LCDs changed a lot here, so vsync does make a lot of sense for frame rates exceeding 60Hz cap. The other way round, it doesn't make sense to me. Must be development flaw for tearing to happen NOT GFX-Monitor coordination issue.

 

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Tearing below refresh rate occurs because the framerate is not solid, if you suddenly drop to 10fps and then back to 40 you insert a bunch of screwed up frames into the buffer chain.

Ok, I've never seen it myself though I had experience in e.g. fast first person shooters with some fancy effects suddenly dropping fps from, say, 50 to around 10. And no tearing. But I can image in happen, yea.

However, in case of PSX emulation we're talking about constant 50/60 fps with minor fluctuation, right? In such case there is hardly any garbage in buffers. With the exception of drops during screen transitions etc.

Hell, I've even had fps freezes / inconsistency on OpenGL2 (I have a weak GF2 Ti so it's not my primary plugin) and I still haven't seen any tearing whatsoever.

And btw, yes I know you can use vsync even if your fps is below refresh rate. The point is why would you do that. You're not supposed to. I don't remember having to turn vsync on, like ever. It has some potential problems, and games are not designed specifically to be run with vsync on, perhaps with the exception of some newer next-gen stuff with LCD monitor limitations in mind etc.