Do I need to use Vsynch?

[xcorps]

I occasionally, in various games, see something like a "ripple" across the screen of different games that I play. It usually happens in in FPS games, and it's usually in the middle of the screen. It's usually a horizontal line a few dozen pixels wide, I notice it most on the left side of the screen. It never happens in videos, when I'm watching a movie, or browsing. Usually lasts a second or two. The best way I can describe it is a similiar effect that you get when you exit the map boundaries of various fps games and get that funky seaming effect. It seems to occur most often when I am panning camera/view around.
I've tried Vsynch off and on, but it happens so inconsistently that I can't be sure if Vsynch is doing anything or not.

I've never noticed it before on other computers I have had.

Games I've seen this occur:
Empire/M2 in battle mode only
Crysis
Borderlands
Warband
Company of Heroes
BloodBowl
Oblivion
Unreal Tournament (happens very often)

[DAVIDE]

V-Synch on is useful whenever in fps games you may find the tearing effect, aka the horizontal or vertical full or partial slipping and corruption of the images in game, especially when you fast move the mouse horizontally or vertically. Something like this





The activation of V-Sync limits the maximum frame rate you can have in videogames, at the refresh frequency of your monitor like 60hz 60fps, 85hz 85fps etc. for example. If the framerate goes down under the refresh values of monitor, it will be split in submultiples of the same refresh frequency. In case of 60hz for example, if the frame rate goes down to 55 or 50 fps or whatever, V-Synch takes it to 30fps. If the fr goes down again under 30fps, it will be split into the next submultiple aka 20fps. And if it goes down again, it will be taken to 15fps and so on.

[xcorps]

So Vsynch should take care of what I described?

[Top-Tier-Tech]

It's called Vsync and yes it will fix the problem at a loss of FPS (frames per second).

[davsim]

If you exceed substantially 60 fps thus having tearing enable it.

[Top-Tier-Tech]

If you exceed substantially 60 fps thus having tearing enable it.

Tearing can occur at any framerate.

[snuggans]

Tearing can occur at any framerate.

you sure about that? i was under the impression it only occurred when it exceeds refresh rate.

by the way, expect some input lag if you enable vsync with some games.

[Top-Tier-Tech]

you sure about that?

I'm 100% certain

Detailed explanation.

Now this is where the common misconception comes in. Some people think that the solution to this problem is to simply create an FPS cap equal to the refresh rate. So long as the video card doesn't go faster than 75 FPS (on a 75hz screen), everything is fine, right? Wrong.

I've experienced it before I had video cards powerful enough to run Vsync so I simply googled to find some random detailed explanation.

[xcorps]

Thanks guys.