There are several ‘workarounds’ for this issue in making your condition better. Some of these might fix the problem completely but that isn’t guaranteed. Start with the first one and work your way down accordingly. However, before proceeding, it should be noted that the screen tearing will not get fixed if the frame rates are out of sync because of the hardware specifications of the monitor. Here, you have to diagnose and replace the monitor accordingly (like a G-Sync monitor).
1. Changing Resolution and Refresh Rate
The first and foremost reason why the screen tearing actually occurs is the refresh rate of the monitor or incorrect resolution. This might not completely solve the problem in most cases but makes it bearable enough so you can actually work. Take a look below.
2. Enabling / Disabling NVIDIA VSync
VSync is NVIDIA’s answer to screen tearing issues and rate stuttering. The screen tearing, as explained before, occurs when the frame rates are higher than the system can handle. Vsync counters this issue with the controller the frame rates automatically without your interference. Now either you can try disabling the feature or enabling it. See what works in your case. Note: There were also cases where setting the VSync to Adaptive solves the problem.
For AMD users, there an option of Wait for Vertical Refresh. Change the option to Always on.
3. Disabling ‘Game-mode’ and Full-screen optimizations
Windows announced and released several features in its latest update. One of the ‘noticeable’ features included the ‘Game mode’. This mode helps users optimize their system and play any game more smoothly. The operating system detects the program as a game and tries to deliver maximum performance to its processing. Furthermore, this mode also allows you to record your gameplay or stream across devices. It also enables you to take screenshots with a single button. Numerous players reported that this option caused their game to crash and was the reason why they were getting the ‘tearing’. We can disable this and see if this helps our case.
If the error persists, you can try disabling the full-screen optimization of the game you are launching. This makes the situation better in some cases.
If you are using Steam as your game client and experiencing the issue there, you can also try settings the launch options “-windowed -noborder”.
4. Checking Graphics Drivers
If all the above methods don’t work, we can try either updating your graphics to the latest build or downgrade them if the problem started to appear after a graphics update. There are numerous cases where not using the latest drivers causes the issue because the game you are playing is also optimized for running with the latest one.
Now check if the error message still persists. If it still does, follow the steps listed below. First, you should try updating the hardware automatically. Right-click on your hardware and select “Update driver”. Select the first option “Search automatically for updated driver software”. Choose the second option if you are updating manually and select “Browse for driver” and navigate to the location where you downloaded.
5. Turning Off Frame Limit
Numerous games and applications make use of the Frame Limit feature in their options. Through this module, the program can limit the maximum number of frames it will output to your monitor. This is a very handy feature to use if you have low specifications hardware but it is known to cause screen tearing in a lot of cases. Hence, in this solution, navigate to whatever game you are playing or whichever application you are using and turn the Frame Limit off. The steps may differ from game to game. After making the changes, don’t forget to restart your computer before checking again.
6. Disabling Smooth Scrolling
Smooth scrolling is a feature in Windows that enables you to scroll more ‘smoothly’; adjust the graphics output in such a way that the screen doesn’t look rough when scrolling. This is a pretty nifty feature and the majority of Windows 10 users have the option enabled on their system. However, there have several instances where the smooth scrolling feature reversed its role and instead caused tearings on the screen. This seems to be a glitch that can be removed if we Disable Smooth Scrolling on your computer. Make sure to restart your computer after the changes before testing your screen again.
7. Using High-Performance Power Plan
This issue can also occur if you are not providing enough power to the game and your game is not being prioritized for rendering through your GPU. If that’s the case, you can easily resolve this issue by using a better and more performance-oriented power plan such as “High Performance” or “Ultimate High Performance”. If you are using a Laptop we don’t recommend you to do these settings as it will affect your Thermals and battery usage but if you want the best FPS and Performance out of your game you can go ahead and do this on your laptop as well. Follow these steps below:-
8. Using Another Browser
If you are experiencing screen tearing if you are doing any activity in a browser, it is recommended that you switch to another one and see if the problem is with your browser or with the system overall. There are numerous instances where only a specific browser causes the screen to tear because either it is outdated or its internal settings don’t support the architecture of your computer. This way, you will be able to narrow down the possible causes of the problem and fix it accordingly.
Bonus Tips:
In addition to the above-mentioned solutions, you can also try the following steps according to your case:
Enabling Windows Aero ThemeSetting appearance to ‘Best under 3D-settings‘.Varying the output FPS of the game you are playingPlaying around with OpenSync and G-Sync on your computer.
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