Guide
Should V Sync be on, and what FPS cap to set? For FiveM, VALORANT and PUBG
Two settings make many players tune the whole PC and still see no more FPS: V Sync and the game's own FPS cap. Both tell the game to wait, and no Windows setting changes that.
What V Sync does
V Sync makes the graphics card wait to send frames in step with the screen. No tearing, but the FPS is locked at the screen's rate and input lag goes up. For competitive games turn it off. FiveM's VSync has a full rate and a half rate option. On half, a 144 Hz screen gets only 72 FPS.
Where to turn it off
- FiveM: Settings, Graphics, set VSync to Off.
- VALORANT: Settings, Video, Graphics Quality, turn VSync off.
- PUBG: Settings, Graphics, turn V Sync off.
What FPS cap to set
- Never cap under your screen's rate. A 165 Hz screen capped at 144 wastes FPS.
- VALORANT: Limit FPS Always in Settings, Video, General. Turn it off or set at least your screen's rate.
- PUBG: set Framerate Limit to Unlimited or at least your screen's rate.
- Also check Max Frame Rate in NVIDIA Control Panel and RivaTuner's Framerate limit. They can cap every game without you noticing.
G SYNC or FreeSync screens
These screens follow the game's frame rate, so there is no tearing without full V Sync. G SYNC users often cap about 3 FPS under the screen's rate, like 141 on a 144 Hz screen, to stay in the range the screen can follow. That does not count as wasted FPS. FiveM is a DirectX 11 game: in borderless, Windows' Variable refresh rate has to be on for G SYNC or FreeSync to work.
Let Savenz Optimizer check it
The Fixes page of Savenz Optimizer has Something wrong: pick Stutter or low FPS. It reads the settings files of FiveM, VALORANT and PUBG and says whether V Sync is on, whether an FPS cap sits under your screen's rate and whether the game runs in a window, and it checks NVIDIA's and RivaTuner's caps too. It only reads. The All graphics cards page can turn on Variable refresh rate. Questions? Ask in the Discord.