You turned on G-SYNC, and a guide told you to turn on V-Sync too, the setting you were told to leave off. Or FreeSync is on and the game still tears. Both make sense once you see what each setting is for.
Tearing, and what V-Sync costs
A display refreshes on its own clock. When a new frame arrives in the middle of a refresh, "the top half of your screen will show one frame while the bottom half shows another", in Valve's description of tearing. When the game runs faster than the display, the two also drift apart until the game renders two frames before the display shows one, and the picture jumps forward: microstutter.
V-Sync makes the game "sleep" after each frame until the next refresh, which Valve says "usually eliminates" both. The cost, in the same article: while the game sleeps it is not processing your keyboard and mouse, so your input waits for the next frame, which "results in higher input latency". NVIDIA's latency guide is blunter: V-Sync "causes back pressure from the display that reverberates through the entire system", and NVIDIA recommends turning it off "if you are willing to tolerate tearing".
A fixed refresh rate has a second cost: at 60 Hz, a frame that misses its 1/60th of a second leaves the display showing the previous frame again, which "looks like a 30 Hz mode" (Valve).
What variable refresh changes
Variable refresh rate (VRR) turns this around: the display follows the game. In Valve's example, a game can render "at 59 FPS or 58 FPS or 57 FPS, etc." and the display matches it.
The names on the box are labels for the same idea:
- G-SYNC monitors feature "a NVIDIA G-SYNC processor", in NVIDIA's words. G-SYNC Compatible monitors do not use NVIDIA processors, NVIDIA says, but are "validated by NVIDIA to deliver a good, basic variable refresh rate (VRR) experience".
- Adaptive-Sync is the VESA standard underneath; AMD's FreeSync page calls DisplayPort Adaptive-Sync "an addition to the DisplayPort 1.2a specification".
- FreeSync is AMD's certification, in three tiers, and AMD says VESA certification "may not necessarily equate" to it. As of October 2026, AMD lists a maximum refresh of at least 144 Hz for FreeSync and 200 Hz for FreeSync Premium and Premium Pro on monitors under 3440 pixels wide; Premium Pro adds HDR.
- HDMI VRR is HDMI's own variable refresh; FreeSync ran over HDMI "long before HDMI 2.1 was released and HDMI VRR was adopted", AMD notes.
The range, and what happens outside it
Every VRR display has a range, and inside it the refresh follows the frame rate. Below the bottom, low framerate compensation (LFC) shows each frame more than once: AMD's example runs a 40 FPS game on a 60-144 Hz display at 80 Hz by doubling each frame. On G-SYNC Compatible displays, NVIDIA says its driver "will multiply frames below the minimum refresh rate".
Above the top, VRR stops. Blur Busters describes what happens next on a G-SYNC display: with V-Sync off, "G-SYNC disengages, tearing begins display wide"; with V-Sync on, G-SYNC "reverts to V-SYNC behavior", adding 2 to 6 frames of delay, typically 2 (about 33.2 ms at 60 Hz, 13.8 ms at 144 Hz).
Why VRR is paired with V-Sync and a cap
Blur Busters' optimal G-SYNC settings have three parts:
- VRR on.
- V-Sync on in the driver, off in the game. Inside the range, V-Sync off lets sudden frame-time changes tear; V-Sync on lets the display hold such a frame until the current refresh finishes. Set up this way, Blur Busters concludes, G-SYNC "provides input response that rivals high framerate V-SYNC OFF, with no tearing". The driver's switch is preferred because some in-game V-Sync adds its own buffering.
- A frame cap at least 3 below the maximum refresh: 57 at 60 Hz, 117 at 120 Hz, 141 at 144 Hz. Should you cap your FPS? explains the margin.
NVIDIA Reflex can do the third step itself. NVIDIA says V-Sync with Reflex on a G-SYNC display "will automatically cap the framerate below the refresh rate", and Blur Busters lists those limits as about 59 at 60 Hz, 116 at 120 Hz, 138 at 144 Hz and 224 at 240 Hz. Valve recommends V-Sync, G-Sync and Reflex together for CS2 and calls the trio "usually the smoothest-looking and lowest input latency settings combination". AMD's FreeSync advice is shorter: when the frame rate regularly exceeds the refresh rate, "turn on V-Sync or cap your framerate".
Blur Busters tested with a G-SYNC module and notes that G-SYNC Compatible implementations "may vary"; its closing FAQ says the cap and V-Sync advice still applies to officially certified G-SYNC Compatible monitors.
Where the sources disagree
Not every source calls the combination free:
- NVIDIA says the auto-capped V-Sync and Reflex method "will result in slightly higher latency than just letting your FPS run uncapped with NVIDIA Reflex enabled".
- Blur Busters measured V-Sync off ahead of G-SYNC by "up to a 1/2 frame" at the same frame rate, and concluded that "for competitive players, V-SYNC OFF still reigns supreme in the input lag realm, especially if sustained framerates can exceed the refresh rate by 5x or more", adding that even then it "can't match the consistency of G-SYNC frame delivery".
- Valve calls the trio "usually" the lowest input latency combination for CS2.
So it is a trade: an unbroken picture, or the last fraction of latency with tearing and less even frame delivery. w0a's NVIDIA profile leans to the second side: when written, it sets cs2.exe to fixed refresh, with V-Sync off unless V-Sync is on in CS2's own settings. To use VRR in CS2, turn it back on in the NVIDIA panel, or run the NVIDIA profile card on the Fix page, which deletes the settings w0a wrote so CS2 follows the driver defaults again.
Where each switch lives
NVIDIA. NVIDIA retired the classic Control Panel for Game Ready and Studio drivers in May 2026 (driver 610.47); where it is still installed, the switches are Set up G-SYNC and Manage 3D settings > Vertical sync. In the NVIDIA app, as of October 2026, G-SYNC is in the System tab and Vertical Sync is under Graphics > Program Settings, the screen NVIDIA says replaces Manage 3D Settings. A monitor missing from NVIDIA's validated list "may work, it may work partly, or it may not work at all", NVIDIA says; to try it in the classic Control Panel, tick "Enable settings for the selected display model" under Set up G-SYNC. NVIDIA lists a GTX 10-series card or newer for VRR over DisplayPort, and a GTX 16 or RTX 20-series card or newer with an HDMI 2.1 display over HDMI.
AMD. AMD says to enable FreeSync in the display's own settings, then check it in AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition "under the Gaming/Display tab". Valve adds that CS2 needs a restart after the change.
Windows. The Display information panel under Settings > System > Display > Advanced display shows whether the display supports VRR. Optimizations for windowed games, under Settings > System > Display > Graphics, moves compatible DirectX 10 and 11 games in windowed and borderless modes to flip-model presentation, which Microsoft says enables VRR on supported displays.
Windowed games and laptops. NVIDIA's latency guide (2020) says driver V-Sync "will only work for Fullscreen applications" and that MS Hybrid laptops do not support it; there, use in-game V-Sync. Valve notes G-Sync "can introduce visual glitches when playing non-fullscreen windowed" on some systems.
Checking it works. Blur Busters verifies G-SYNC with the "G-SYNC indicator" setting in the classic Control Panel, or the built-in refresh rate meter on monitors that have one. Since June 2024, CS2's Frame Pacing settings have an "NVIDIA G-Sync" row showing whether G-Sync is active.
What VRR does not fix
- Stutter. G-SYNC "can only mirror what the system is outputting": a late frame is still late, and the display repeats the previous one while it waits (Blur Busters). If spikes are the problem, read high average FPS but bad 1% lows.
- Frame rates above the range. There, Valve says, VRR has "no effect".
- A monitor stuck at 60 Hz. VRR works inside the refresh rate the link gives it; monitor stuck at 60 Hz covers the link.
Related
- Should you cap your FPS? Frame limiters explained
- Monitor stuck at 60 Hz
- NVIDIA profile
- NVIDIA Control Panel settings for games
- High average FPS but bad 1% lows
Did this page help?
What was missing, or what did not work? We read every one of these.
If this page did not solve it, write to us — say which article you read, and we will fix the article.