Graphics tearing

[MistaPi]

I know that tearing occurs when there is no v-sync and the gfx card is rendering frames faster than the monitor refreshes, but could not tearing also occur when the framrate is lower than the refresh rate? Is not the problem that the gfx card does not wait for the end of a monitor refresh?

 

[Simon F]

I know that tearing occurs when there is no v-sync and the gfx card is rendering frames faster than the monitor refreshes, but could not tearing also occur when the framrate is lower than the refresh rate? Is not the problem that the gfx card does not wait for the end of a monitor refresh?

Yes. It can happen whenever a framebuffer swap occurs during the refresh of the screen. That's why it is normally synchronised to the vertical retrace period.