title: Is triple buffering really a free performance boost?
body: <p>So I've been reading a lot about openGL and gpus and graphics in general, and triple buffering is semi-frequently mentioned as giving a free performance boost. I know why it helps; in effect, you can do v-sync without being limited to a framerate choice of 60 or 30 or 20 or 15 or etc, so you can actually achieve, say, 55fps. But is there actually a cost to this? Intuitively, I'd expect triple buffering to delay output by one frame, adding a very small lag to everything.</p>