What Is Screen Tearing & How to Prevent It?

For those who are wondering what is screen tearing, a glitch in the display of any computer that causes the screen to split into two or more frames. That’s right! You get to see a torn screen that can get really annoying after a while.

Having said that, numerous reasons can cause this problem in your display. One of them is the lack of sync between the monitor’s refresh rate and the GPU’s FPS rate.

So to address all of this, we have included a guide on what is screen tearing, what are its causes, and how to overcome this thing in order to have smooth gameplay. That being said, let’s get down to it without wasting any time:

What is Screen Tearing Caused By?

If you want to become a pro gamer, you need to learn how your gaming hardware works. Especially, in the case of the monitor, you gotta do some homework on the basics, in order to have a vivid quality display of your game.

Now, what do we mean by this? To put everything simply, the foremost thing, which matters is the identification of screen tearing. And to do so, you need to know what causes this tech fault. So getting to know the reason can help you avoid it in the future.

On that note, let’s have an overview of what are the reasons that cause screen tearing in your monitor:
Starting off, the core reason for ripped screens is that your monitor doesn’t get synced with the GPU. You can identify this quite easily as your monitor wouldn’t be able to drive multiple images at a time.

Having said that, the thing to be noticed here is that it doesn’t matter if your GPU and monitor get v-sync or not; for the reason that the delay in loading the screen would cause a rip in the image. So it’s rather the response rate of the monitor that alters screen loading.

How to Resolve Screen Tearing

Now that you have identified torn screen in your monitor or game, so your next logical step should be to find a screen tearing fix.

Before we get to any other possible solution of screen tearing, let me mention that if your monitor is not good enough to run at a high FPS, then the issue needs to be resolved here. Simply get your monitor replaced with a one having G-sync to avoid the problem.

Now with that said, let’s discuss the other quick fixes to the unusual screen-tears so that you no longer have interrupted gameplay. That said, let’s get down to it:

1. Change Resolution or Refresh Rate:

As the major reason for screen-tearing is none other than refresh rate, what would get any better than starting off by fixing this one first?! So the first thing you can go for is to alter the incorrect screen resolution or the refresh rate of your monitor.

Now, this can be done by following the steps as follows: Type ‘Resolution’ in the search box of Settings. Scroll down to ‘Advanced Display Settings’ where you’ll find the ‘Display adapter properties for Display 1’ option.

Tap on that and click on ‘List All Modes’ in the next window. Now scroll through all of the resolution settings and choose the most appropriate one for your monitor. Click OK and then restart your computer to see if it works or not.

2. Turning VSync On or Off:

Another effective way to resolve screen-tearing in your game is by either enabling or disabling the VSync feature. This is because it wholly depends on the situation, for instance, if your monitor is good enough with 60 FPS, then better lock it up at this number. Or else, keep VSync on until you get the desired results.

Having said that, this can be done either by going to the Manage 3D Settings in NVIDIA Control Panel and clicking on ‘Vertical Sync’ in the Global Settings tab; or simply in the game options, turning the VSync on/off after selecting Video Settings.

3. Checking Graphic Card:

As we’ve mentioned already about the inappropriate computer monitor being the cause of screen-tearing, here comes another hardware issue that can be responsible for the problem: an old or not-so-latest updated graphics card.

So to get this done, boot your computer into safe mode, press Windows + R, and type “devmgmt.msc” in the dialogue box. Now go to the NVIDIA hardware and press uninstall. As a result, default drivers will be installed. If it doesn’t happen, then scan for hardware changes to minus the error.

Frequently Asked Questions:

Final Thoughts

Screen tearing is a tech fault that isn’t really harmful to the computer but does have its impacts on the gaming experience.

So in order to keep smooth gameplay without any kind of distortion or interruption, it’s better that you find a pertinent solution to this problem.

Having said that, go through all of the above-mentioned details to see what options you have to deal with this issue. Either you can try a GSync monitor or enable VSync in your settings, as per your convenience.

Good Luck!!!