Feature: Why Is There Screen Tearing On Some Xbox Games But Not On PS5 Equivalents?
Recent analysis by Digital Foundry reveals why Xbox Series X/S games sometimes exhibit screen tearing while comparable PS5 and Switch 2 titles do not, despite similar performance capabilities between consoles.
The difference stems from contrasting approaches to frame synchronization. PS5 enforces mandatory V-sync, displaying a complete screen rendered top-to-bottom only after a new frame is fully prepared. This architecture eliminates visual artifacts by ensuring synchronized display updates.
Xbox’s approach is more permissive, allowing developers greater flexibility with framebuffer management. Developers can “flip” the framebuffer to display newer information shortly after rendering begins, rather than waiting for a complete frame to be ready. This technique enables faster display updates but produces visible tear lines—characteristic horizontal discontinuities typically appearing in the upper portion of the screen—as multiple frame states are displayed simultaneously.
While Xbox’s flexible approach may offer minor performance advantages in specific scenarios, it results in visual presentation inconsistencies compared to PS5’s stricter synchronization enforcement. This technical divergence illustrates how platform-level software architecture decisions, rather than hardware specifications alone, significantly impact the visual quality and consistency of multiplatform releases.