vSync and input lag (may not be a 'solvable' question)

[RagingShadow07]

I bought a new monitor last month and it's been bugging me for a while.

It's a 1920x1080 Acer H213H monitor, and since I upgraded from my Dell 1440x900 monitor, I've actually started to notice the tearing in-game, so I'm starting to use vSync. I'm wondering, though, if there's a way to prevent or stop the input lag that comes with enabling vSync in games.

I know that it's due to the graphics card drawing more FPS than the monitor's refresh rate and having to wait to draw more frames, but is there a way to prevent it? I've tried triple buffer vSync with no noticeable improvements (although I'm not exactly sure what it does). I tried asking in the Steam forums before, thinking it was only a problem with Modern Warfare 2, and about the only useful reply I got was "get a monitor with less input lag,' but I'm not sure even that would fix it. Any input is appreciated. Thanks!

[Olin Coles]

The tearing you experienced may have nothing to do with the monitor. You've mentioned that it happens in only one game, which means it could be driver related (drivers usually have specific code for every game/engine). You could list your video card, and I could make suggestions based on that.

[RagingShadow07]

No no. I meant I went to the Steam forums assuming it was only one game. It's started happening (by that, I mean in every game I play, I notice it now. I saw it a little on my old monitor, but not nearly this bad) in basically every game. I'm stuck with a choice of screen being ripped apart, or horrible input lag.

Graphics card is an EVGA GTX 260 55nm 216.

[Olin Coles]

Ah-ha! It's your video card; it's either too-far overclocked or overheating... or both. I've seen this several times before. Now that you mention it happened on multiple monitors, and multiple games, the video card is the common denominator.

[Olin Coles]

I forgot to add... run FurMark and see if it happens right away or after it heats up. This will tell you whether its an overclock or heat problem.

[RagingShadow07]

No tearing was visible in FurMark, even with 1920x1080, 16X AA that got my GPU to 85C.

[Olin Coles]

Then I'm moving my opinion back to the driver. Have you removed/uninstalled the driver, then used DriverCleaner, restarted, and then install the latest driver? That's what I would be doing right now.

[RagingShadow07]

The tearing is still there after a whole reformat, including installing the newest drivers from NVIDIA's site each time, so I'm not so sure it's a driver issue.

[Olin Coles]

So then it's definately the video card. Better check on the advance-exchange service with eVGA.