G-Syng not as smooth as it should be?

Hi Heavenswake, there are a few things to address here:

1)  NVIDIA drivers currently have a known issue with G-sync in windowed mode in all versions of Windows, so the first thing to check is that your NVIDIA control panel is set to enable g-sync for full screen mode only (NV Control Panel > Set up G-SYNC > Enable G-SYNC for full screen mode).  Also ensure that you run your games in fullscreen mode, and not 'windowed' and not 'fullscreen windowed' either.  This could well be the problem you have with WoW as I know a lot of people run that game in a fullscreen window, not proper fullscreen.  This is likely to be addressed by NVIDIA in the future, but currently it is a known issue in all of the driver patch notes so do not expect G-Sync to work in any windowed applications.

2)  In the NVIDIA control panel, you can go to the File menu at the top and click "Display > G-SYNC Indicator".  This will allow you to see whether G-sync is actually working or not when you run applications/games by showing a bar on the left-hand side of the screen just above centre which says "G-sync" when it's running correctly.  If you turn this setting on and don't see the G-sync logo, then your application or other g-sync settings may not be enabled correctly and this is why you still see tearing.

3)  Finally, G-sync is one of those weird technologies that you don't really notice when it's working, but you really notice it when you've been using it for a while and you go back to doing without it.  It's not a massive revolution like some of the hype suggests, but it does improve the game experience drastically in some situations.  One of the places I noticed G-sync the most was when playing Shadow of Mordor.  If you own this game, there is a place where you can view trophies and move them around the screen in a 2d axis to look for hidden clues/text.  If you run this game with g-sync on, moving these objects around the screen is completely buttery smooth and looks fantastic, but try it after disabling g-sync and you notice all the horrible tearing and stutter as the object moves around the screen.

I hope this info helps you a bit, to be honest I expect it could be because you're running in windowed mode as point 1) suggests, and if you start running games in fullscreen then you will be able to benefit from g-sync

Let me know how you get on!

Vand

Yes, the NVIDIA drivers do not currently allow g-sync to work in anything OTHER than Fullscreen mode.  So run all your games in Fullscreen mode with latest drivers, until they fix it.

If you see the G-sync logo following point 2 above, then it's definitely working, and the stuttering will be for some other reason.  G-sync should stop tearing (as shown in the NVIDIA Pendulum demo) but won't remove stuttering or frame-rate spikes.  Perhaps you were expecting too much from it and you need to investigate why your frame rate is spiking so much as it's likely to be another cause, perhaps overheating or other programs hogging memory (like anti-virus)

Yes I should have mentioned that. My configuration is as follows. Gsync on in Nvidia control panel and off in all games. Also a good test would be to try the Nvidia pendelum test. I was having screen tearing issues with the latest Nvidia drivers but when I reverted to 358.59, the screen tearing stopped. Havent messed with other drivers because that was the latest stable driver for me so I just went back to that. Also I run all games in windowed fullscre/ borderless.

Also note, gsync windowed mode may still be broken but I def do not have any screen tearing and or stuttering. Running a i74790k with a 980Ti

Even G-Sync can't completely smoothen out a game's FPS if the game's engine causes those stutterings by having to load texture and geometry data from disk to memory or from memory to VRAM. And that could be the case in some games that use level-data streaming (in particular open-world games) in contrast to those that load entire levels behind loading screens (like regular linear shooters).

If a game's scenery is very complex, even just turning your camera 360° can cause a game to constantly load and discard texture data. Games like id's Rage were notorious for that.

The only other thing I can think of is that perhaps you've disabled v-sync entirely which is causing g-sync to get disabled when you exceed the refresh rate of the monitor.  If you follow this article you will see what I'm talking about: http://www.geforce.co.uk/whats-new/articles/g-sync-gets-even-better

"For enthusiasts, we’ve included a new advanced control option that enables G-SYNC to be disabled when the frame rate of a game exceeds the maximum refresh rate of the G-SYNC monitor. For instance, if your frame rate can reach 250 on a 144Hz monitor, the new option will disable G-SYNC once you exceed 144 frames per second. Doing so will disable G-SYNCs goodness and reintroduce tearing, which G-SYNC eliminates, but it will improve input latency ever so slightly in games that require lighting fast reactions."

I think this is what you might be experiencing, so please try the following:

1) You need to check that you turn "Vertical Sync" to "On" in the "Manage 3d Settings > Global Settings" tab of NVIDIA control panel.

I would strongly suggest to leave V-sync ON as mentioned above so that their "enthusiast" mode cr4p doesn't start disabling G-sync at random moments if your frame rate exceeds the monitor refresh (which could easily happen on your 980ti).

If this doesn't help, then if you could upload a short video to demonstrate what you mean by this "stutter" it will be a lot easier to try to diagnose it.

Cheers,

Vand

I guess it is possible that you have a defective unit then.  It certainly shouldn't be constantly stuttering or tearing when g-sync is on, especially with your hardware setup.  I have a similar setup but with a GTX780 and I certainly don't see any stuttering when I play the Witcher 3 on max settings with g-sync on.

Perhaps it's worth contacting Acer support via the phone and arranging for them to take a look at a repair under warranty?  If it's only happening when g-sync is enabled, then that would lead me to believe it's a problem with the g-sync unit, or the display port connection - and you've ruled out your rig setup as it does the same on a whole different PC too.  We seem to have ruled out other software setup issues.

Sorry that I can't help you any more with this.  I will check my monitor using the frameskip test when I get home later and post back with what mine looks like for you to compare, if that's useful, although I'm using the X34 and it seems like you're using something different as your photo shows 144hz.