Insane ghosting/tearing when dekstop screen rate is set to 60hz

Understanding Screen Tearing and Ghosting at 60Hz in Dark Souls 3

Experiencing visual artifacts like ghosting and screen tearing can significantly detract from your gaming experience, especially during intense gameplay moments. Recently, I encountered a perplexing issue while playing Dark Souls 3, which differed from my experiences with other titles like Dark Souls Remastered, Elden Ring, and Elden Ring Night Reign—all of which are capped at 60 frames per second but did not exhibit similar problems.

The Issue: Unusual Ghosting and Tearing at 60Hz

The problem manifested as severe screen ghosting and tearing when I set my desktop monitor’s refresh rate to 60Hz specifically while playing Dark Souls 3. Notably, this issue was absent in other 60fps-locked titles, suggesting a potential game-specific or system-specific factor at play.

Troubleshooting Attempts and Observations

Upon researching similar issues within gaming communities and tech forums, one suggested solution was to manually set the monitor’s refresh rate to 60Hz. Although this adjustment sometimes alleviates certain display problems, in this case, it resulted in persistent ghosting and tearing artifacts—the more I used this setting, the more pronounced and permanent the visual distortions became.

Visual Evidence

For reference, here’s an image demonstrating the issue: Link to Imgur Image

Potential Causes and Considerations

Several factors could contribute to this phenomenon:

• V-Sync and Frame Synchronization Settings: Misconfigured vertical synchronization can cause tearing and ghosting. Ensuring V-Sync is enabled or adjusting frame synchronization settings in both your GPU control panel and in-game options might help.

• Display Refresh Rate Compatibility: Some monitors or graphics cards may not handle 60Hz synchronization optimally in specific games, leading to visual artifacts.

• Graphics Driver and Hardware Performance: Outdated or incompatible drivers, or hardware strain during gameplay, can exacerbate rendering issues.

• Game Engine Behavior: Certain titles may have unique rendering pipelines that interact unpredictably with system or display settings.

Recommendations

To troubleshoot and potentially resolve such visual anomalies, consider the following steps:

1. Update Graphics Drivers: Ensure your GPU drivers are the latest version provided by the manufacturer.

2. Adjust V-Sync Settings: Experiment with enabling or disabling V-Sync both in-game and via your GPU control panel.

3. **Test Different Refresh Rates