[jb_]

I just upgraded to a Philips 240PW9EB/75. It's a 24 inch 1920*1200 with an LG.D H-IPS panel, (badly) overdriven to 5ms.

I've never had vsync issues before, but since upgrading to this monitor, I get a small amount of tearing even with vsync on. My screen tears in one spot, which starts off at the bottom of the screen and slowly moves to the top over about 30 secs, then continues from the bottom.

Vsync is definitely working, as tearing is terrible with it off. This is also definitely has the exact same appearing as tearing (whether is actually is or not, not 100% sure yet). This happens in Vista's Aero, videos and D3D games.

I've tried every possible setting I can think of on my PC, I've tried a different DVI cable, different DVI plug on my video card and analog, all without a change. I even have two monitors plugged in, the Philips shows tearing, the other does not. I reinstalled Vista, tried three different Nvidia drivers and tried installing XP 64.

I tried this monitor on two other PCs, both produced the exact same effect on the Philips, but were 100% without tearing on their own displays.

I've pretty much narrowed it down to the display, but my understanding of how vsync actually works, by updating the framebuffer during the vblank period, really makes me wonder how a monitor could cause tearing. The video card is driving the monitor and therefore knows exactly when the vblank period is.

As a qualified and experienced IT tech by trade I would usually fix my problems myself, but this one has me stumped. Any help would be much appreciated...

 

[Riskyone101]

Hello and Welcome to TSF,

Have you considered the monitor to be defective by chance?

 

[jb_]

I have indeed, but do not want to admit it since in the quest for the perfect monitor I'm onto my fourth

Edit: It's not so much I don't want to admit it, I just don't want to consider that it might actually be the monitor. My general experience with technology these days is that it's very far from perfect and half the time some piece of hardware will have a serious design flaw that no amount of swapping out will fix. The simple fact is most consumers are too ignorant to notice or understand so manufacturers just don't take care.

 

[Riskyone101]

NEVERMIND MY FIRST POST.

Hello and Welcome to TSF,

1. Turn on VSync
2. Set VSync to "application preference" (or similar) in your graphics
card control panel.
3. In games, VSync will vary in different games, FPS needs to remain below the refresh rate, now if you are not in a game then remember that even if
FPS is equal to or just below refresh rate there can be some tearing.

Note: If you find the FPS is halved, then try tripple buffering.
as that the 1st vram and 2nd vram are being used up, then it may require a third vram for the new information. You can force the 3rd if necessary on the game and see what happens if need to be.

Note: Tearing will not damage the video card or the monitor either.

More info: Video card has a primary and secondary vram, the primary is for
storing the information from the monitor that is being sent and the secondary
is for building new information for the next screen, thus in order for VSync
to be successful here, the secondary needs to beable to handle the new screen before the primary can be refreshed with the new information, now if
it fails to build the secondary then the primary cannot dump off info until new
information is delivered in full from monitor to video card, so as knowing this
every screen refresh it is multiplying into the negative exponentially, and this is where you will recieve tearing being displayed on the monitor. This is the best that I can explain this here, (complicated to explain).

Let me know if this helps you or solves the problem?

 

[Riskyone101]

You are very right in what you are saying also jb_

 

[jb_]

Thanks Riskyone101, but I've tried all that without luck.

 

[Riskyone101]

Sorry to hear that, one last thought try lowering the refresh rate of the monitor?
under control panel, display, settings, advanced, monitor.

Did this help? only other thing I could think of here for you to try, if you have tried this too then I dont know of any other thing you could try, other than trying a different video
card with that monitor.

 

[jb_]

Tried 3 different PCs and all refresh rates it exposes.

I was sorta hoping someone might pipe in with "oh I've had this problem before, all you need to do is this", but I guess not. I'll swap out the monitor and see what difference that makes. I pretty much expect now to be in for a long fight with Philips because chances are all of this model will be the same but they probably wont acknowledge a fault. Wish me luck.