I've been dealing with screen tearing in War Thunder on a monitor that's nearly nine years old. Strangely, opening the Windows screen capture tool with Win+Shift+S seems to make the tearing disappear temporarily. The problem comes back after I alt-tab a few times. Is this likely a V-Sync, graphics-driver, or Windows issue, and why would opening the capture tool affect it?
2 Answers
This sounds like a V-Sync or frame-pacing issue rather than the screen capture tool actually repairing anything. Opening the capture overlay may briefly change how Windows composites the desktop or how the game is prioritized, which can hide the tearing until you alt-tab again. Check your graphics settings and try enabling V-Sync in the NVIDIA app or directly in the game. The game’s own V-Sync implementation may not be behaving correctly, so testing both options is worthwhile.
Also try updating or clean-installing the graphics driver, checking that the monitor is set to its intended refresh rate, and testing a different display cable. If the monitor does not support adaptive sync, use a frame limit just below its refresh rate along with V-Sync. The fact that it returns after switching away from the game suggests a driver or compositor state change, not necessarily failing monitor hardware.
I checked the Windows Game Mode setting and turned it off, but the tearing still happens. I’ll test V-Sync through the NVIDIA settings next.