Graphics problems. Ripples/Waves in game?

It depends on what these Ripples/Waves look like. If they seem like they are actually "meant" to be there, there could be a weird setting switched on in your monitor or NVIDIA control panel. If it looks like an actual glitch, then the refresh rate your computer's outputting might not be supported by your monitor. Try changing it around in "Screen Resolution" settings in windows and/or the game you're playing and see what happens.

Having issues with screen tearing? If you're having the gpu and the monitor refresh at different rates, then it causes the picture to do some… Odd things. The gpu sends more frames to the monitor than the monitor can handle at once. Therefore you sometimes end up getting 2 frames stuck into one. Due to the fact that your view in the game changes rather quickly, these two frames can be showing what you saw from two different viewing angles and it makes the picture look distorted. Vsync fixes that issue, but by lowering the refresh rates of the graphics card to that of the monitor, which works some of the time. But if your framerate drops below the refresh rate of the monitor, then vsync cuts down the fps that your gpu outputs to 50% of the refresh rate of the monitor. Basically if you have a monitor with a 60Hz refresh rate and your gpu outputs 80fps then vsync with knock down your gpu fps to 60, but if your gpu dips below 60 fps during any situation, then vsync would force it to output 30fps instead, which would make the game look sluggish and laggy like you said. Gsync is a great new way to fix this issue. It does the exact opposite of vsync. It makes the monitor refresh at the rate that the graphics card refreshes, giving you a smooth, tear-free experience. I would definitely try that. You should have a much nicer gaming experience after trying that out.