What is NVIDIA Fast Sync and How to Enable It

If you frequently use a traditional monitor to play games on your computer, you have undoubtedly encountered screen tearing problems. When you’re quickly panning with your mouse in fast-paced games, this is quite obvious. This occurs when the rendering rate of the graphics card is out of step with the refresh rate of the monitor. Imagine you have a 60 Hz monitor with a maximum frame rate of 60, but your GPU renders at anything higher than 60. As a result, you will see that some items are not exactly aligned, which will make your gameplay experience more difficult. If you have a GeForce GTX graphics card that is based on Pascal or Maxwell, NVIDIA has a solution for you. Let’s talk about what this technology works in detail before we show you how to turn on NVIDIA Fast Sync on your computer:

What is NVIDIA Fast Sync and How it Compares to V-Sync?

The latest offering from the firm, NVIDIA Fast Sync, fixes all screen tearing concerns while minimising latency, making it a much better alternative to the established V-Sync technology. Input lag is one of the major drawbacks of turning on V-Sync for gaming, as it detracts from the experience, especially if you’re playing fast-paced games. The majority of gamers now choose to leave V-Sync deactivated because the delay can even exceed 100 ms. That’s not the case at all with Fast Sync because the latency is greatly reduced and quite similar to what you’d experience if V-Sync was disabled.

This is made feasible by NVIDIA’s creation of a new Last Rendered Buffer that lies directly between the Front and Back buffers. A frame is initially rendered by the GPU into the Back buffer, after which it is instantly relocated to the Last Rendered Buffer. The frame in the previously produced buffer is then transferred to the front buffer as the GPU renders the subsequent frame into the back buffer. The most recent rendered buffer is currently awaiting the back buffer’s subsequent frame. The image is transmitted to the monitor while the Front buffer is being scanned in the interim. The frame is now sent from the Last Rendered Buffer to the front buffer for scanning and display on the monitor. This prevents the game engine from slowing down since the GPU can always render to the back buffer, and it also prevents screen tearing because the front buffer always has a frame storage for the scan thanks to the Last Rendered buffer. Source of the photo: Battle(non)sense

It’s important to remember that Fast Sync only functions when the GPU is generating frames per second that are higher than the refresh rate of the monitor. This means that even if the GPU is rendering at a frame rate slower than the monitor’s refresh rate, screen tearing will still be present. You’ll need a G-Sync monitor to fix this because it reduces refresh rate to match GPU rendering rate, thus eliminating screen tearing. However, if the GPU’s rendering rate exceeds your monitor’s refresh rate, G-Sync won’t completely prevent screen tearing. In conclusion, you must also enable Fast-Sync in a G-Sync compatible monitor if you want to entirely eliminate any screen tearing difficulties.

Enable Fast Sync Using NVIDIA Control Panel

You may quickly enable it in the NVIDIA Control Panel if you own a compatible GeForce GTX graphics card that is GTX 960 or newer. There is no need to instal this programme individually because it is already included with your graphics drivers. Simply follow the instructions listed below to finish this quickly.

  • Right-click anywhere on the desktop and click on NVIDIA Control Panel to open up the software.
  • Now, click on Manage 3D settings located in the left pane of the software.
  • Once done, scroll down in the right pane and click on Vertical Sync option. Now, choose Fast from the dropdown and click on Apply to save these settings.

That’s really all there is to do to enable NVIDIA Fast Sync on your machine. Fast-Sync might not function as intended if V-Sync is enabled by default in some games, thus you must make sure it is turned off in all of your games. Most games have a graphics/video options menu where it can be disabled.

SEE ALSO: NVIDIA G-Sync Setup and Configuration

Use Fast Sync To Eliminate Screen Tearing Issues

Fast-Sync will be able to entirely cure any screen tearing issues with only a small amount of lag if you have a standard monitor and a powerful GPU that can render at a frame rate higher than your monitor’s refresh rate. You don’t even need to pay a lot of money to get a G-Sync display, either. However, unless you enable Fast-Sync, you will continue to experience screen tearing problems if your GPU is rendering at a frame rate higher than your monitor’s refresh rate even if you do have a G-Sync display. By developing this new technology, which can truly help gamers who experienced a number of problems with the conventional V-Sync, we believe NVIDIA has done an outstanding job. What do you folks think of Fast Sync, then? Have you already given it a try? Please share your insightful ideas in the space provided below.