Screen tearing
Also searched as: screen tearing · tearing · torn frame · screen tear
What it means
Screen tearing is when the top and bottom of your screen show pieces of two different frames at once, leaving a visible horizontal 'tear' line across moving images.
More detail
It happens when your GPU sends a new frame to the monitor partway through the monitor's refresh — the display ends up drawing part of the old frame and part of the new one. It is most obvious when your frame rate does not line up with the monitor's refresh rate. …
In the Blackbook
The deeper explanation continues inside the app. The Blackbook publishes its verdicts here — the full write-ups stay in the book, on your rig, next to your own measurements.
The Compy Blackbook holds 191 graded entries like this one, judged against your hardware — and every change it does make is reversible, with the receipt to prove it.
See Compy →