What is G-Sync? Gaming technology explained simply

You’ve heard the term but you’ve got no idea what in the world it means – have no fear, it’s a rather simple concept.

G-Sync is a technology developed by graphic processing giant ‘NVIDIA’, it’s incorporated into monitors in order to make your gaming experience a silky smooth one.

It solves the problem of what we call ‘screen tearing’. It’s where your graphics card and monitor aren’t communicating effectively, resulting in different frames being shown on screen at the same time – which makes for a rubbish gaming experience. Screen tearing looks like this;

Monitors that have G-Sync built into them fix this communication issue! G-Sync acts as a mediator and convinces the monitor to listen to the graphics card, getting them back on the same page.

The catch with G-Sync is that you must have both a G-Sync enabled monitor (it has to be built into the hardware) and you must have an NVIDIA graphics card.

Do you need G-Sync? No. Do you want it? Yes. If you were buying/building your first gaming computer, don’t worry about it too much unless you have the money to blow.

That’s it! That’s done. You now know what G-Sync it is and how it works. If you’re interested in the alternatives to G-Sync, they are;

V-Sync which is a software based option. V-Sync is the polar opposite to G-Sync, it forces the graphics card to follow the lead of the monitor. However this can cause issues if your monitor isn’t refreshing quickly enough, making G-Sync the superior technology. For the nerdy, V-Sync is known for causing input lag as forcing your graphics card to wait before updating the screen will make it seem like your controls aren’t getting through as quickly as you’re pressing them.

The other is FreeSync which is the rival product developed by AMD. As per the name, the technology isn’t proprietary and subsequently is a lot cheaper for monitor manufacturers to implement, which means that FreeSync enabled monitors are cheaper for the customer than G-Sync ones. While most gamers report they can’t tell the difference between the two (I know I can’t), some claim that G-Sync is superior and more consistent.