TL;DR version: Apologies if this is common knowledge, but I was tearing my hair out googling for a solution, and just now found it, so for all you other newbies going crazy trying to fix screen tearing with Windows 7: Enable the Aero desktop.
Long version: I am running a fairly beefy system for a single-GPU PC, but I was just not able to solve my tearing problems. Turning on V-sync inside PCSX2, or in the Nvidia control panel, or both, didn't do anything. I would get tearing both in pre-rendered cutscenes and in-game, and it was driving me up the walls. I first noticed it in Yakuza 2, but then, having once seen it, I started seeing it in every other game in PCSX2 too. Frankly, I've seen it in The Witcher 3 too, but figured that was just a foible of that particular game that I would just have to live with.
I mean, sure, my monitor is a pretty cheap 60 Hz monitor that I bought way before I considered getting into PC gaming again, it was just for work. I was starting to consider upgrading to a newer G sync monitor, but that still wouldn't really solve my problem, since most of my emulated gaming happens on my projector anyway, and not my home-office monitor.
Then for some reason while googling the same search terms over and over (what's the definition of insanity, again?), I saw somebody recommend turning on Aero and hey, what do I have to lose, right? And just like that, every single tear in Yakuza 2 disappeared. It is really weird. Now I'm just waiting for Witcher 3 to re-download, so I can test it there too.
I've seen some people claiming that Aero is a performance hog, but that shouldn't matter with a contemporary PC, right?
Long version: I am running a fairly beefy system for a single-GPU PC, but I was just not able to solve my tearing problems. Turning on V-sync inside PCSX2, or in the Nvidia control panel, or both, didn't do anything. I would get tearing both in pre-rendered cutscenes and in-game, and it was driving me up the walls. I first noticed it in Yakuza 2, but then, having once seen it, I started seeing it in every other game in PCSX2 too. Frankly, I've seen it in The Witcher 3 too, but figured that was just a foible of that particular game that I would just have to live with.
I mean, sure, my monitor is a pretty cheap 60 Hz monitor that I bought way before I considered getting into PC gaming again, it was just for work. I was starting to consider upgrading to a newer G sync monitor, but that still wouldn't really solve my problem, since most of my emulated gaming happens on my projector anyway, and not my home-office monitor.
Then for some reason while googling the same search terms over and over (what's the definition of insanity, again?), I saw somebody recommend turning on Aero and hey, what do I have to lose, right? And just like that, every single tear in Yakuza 2 disappeared. It is really weird. Now I'm just waiting for Witcher 3 to re-download, so I can test it there too.
I've seen some people claiming that Aero is a performance hog, but that shouldn't matter with a contemporary PC, right?
CPU: i7 4790K GPU: MSI GTX980
RAM: 16 GB DDR4 OS: Windows 7 64-bit
RAM: 16 GB DDR4 OS: Windows 7 64-bit