Weird Framerate Issues

[Kyrrisayo]

So I've got a 144hz monitor, a 75hz, and a 60hz connected to my main system. When I load applications in borderless windowed mode (issue doesn't happen in exclusive fullscreen) on my 144hz monitor, sometimes, even when I'm rendering at above 100fps (fps counter still reads above, but there's noticable frame reduction), my monitor locks the displayed fps to something like 40 - 70. This happens across several different applications. Once it starts happening I have to either alt-tab out of the window for a period of at least a couple minutes or restart the application for it to go back to displaying my actual framerate.

I'm not sure how, or why, this sort of thing would happen, but I've checked everything I can/know about, so I'm posting this here, wondering if anyone knows if DisplayFusion could be causing this. This has been happening for months (probably since I got DisplayFusion, but I'm not sure, cause up until recently I had thought I was just randomly dropping frames).

[Keith Lammers (Binary Fortress)]

If you exit DisplayFusion before launching the game, does it still happen?

[Kyrrisayo]

Originally posted by Keith Lammers (Binary Fortress):

If you exit DisplayFusion before launching the game, does it still happen?

I'll test it out for a while and let you know. It only happens every so often, usually when I alt tab out of the game/any fullscreen borderless application and go back in several times, but it might take me a while to be able to confirm whether or not it happens without DisplayFusion running.

After about a week of not using it, I'll let you know if it happened or not.

[Keith Lammers (Binary Fortress)]

Sounds good, thanks!

[Kyrrisayo]

So, after a (kind of painful without DisplayFusion) week I've concluded that DisplayFusion is indeed causing the problem. I haven't had the issue at all since I stopped using it.

Of course, I'd like to continue to use DisplayFusion, so I hope there's a way to solve this issue. What do you think I should be doing next to troubleshoot it?

[Kyrrisayo]

I've also been able to confirm that the applications are locking themselves to 48 fps exactly, for some reason, if that means anything to you.

[Kyrrisayo]

And, often, alt-tabbing out, and clicking around on my other monitors causes the applicaiton to unlock it's framerate from 48 when I go back into the game.

[Keith Lammers (Binary Fortress)]

If you disable just the DisplayFusion taskbars, then restart DisplayFusion and the game, does that make any difference?

[Kyrrisayo]

As before, testing this will take me a bit, since it's not something I can just make happen at will. I'll disable the taskbars for a few days (a week seemed like overkill last time) and let you know if I notice any changes. Sorry this is taking so long to troubleshoot.

[Kyrrisayo]

I guess it won't take a few days. It's happened twice now (with different applications too), and I've also discovered that, even though the framerate isn't properly displayed in Steam games when it happens, non-Steam games launched with Steam DO show the true framerate when framerate gets locked.

It always locks to 48 fps, and it's definitely related to switching focus to different windows and back, because, when I go out of focus the framerate locks to 48 while still out of focus, but then (usually) resets back to 144 fps when I give the game/application window focus again (except when it doesn't, hence the problem).

Is there anything else I can try, or any more information I could provide that would help in resolving this issue?

[Keith Lammers (Binary Fortress)]

How about disabling the DisplayFusion TitleBar Buttons? I think this is something to do with Windows locking the Primary monitor to the refresh rate of the second monitor when an application that uses DWM is open on the second monitor.

[Kyrrisayo]

Alright, I'll disable 'Enable TitleBar Buttons' and let you know if I have the issue anymore after a while. I don't really know why I had it enabled anyway, since I don't actually have any additional titlebar buttons assigned.

Also, both my secondary monitors run at above 48 fps, (which is the framerate that it gets locked to), so I'm not sure it'd be locking the Primary to the framerate of the monitor. I've also seen other posts online about programs getting locked to exactly 48 fps but for various reasons, which makes me think 48 has some sigificance in Windows.

And, finally, if it's at all helpful, the programs that I normally (almost 100% of the time) keep open without anything else on my second and third monitors are: Spotify and Steam (on the 1920x1080 60hz monitor); and Steam chat/friends list windows and Discord (on the 1600x900 75hz monitor). Do any of those use DWM, that you know of? Based on the structure of all 3, I'd assume that at least Spotify and Discord use it.

[Keith Lammers (Binary Fortress)]

I'm not 100% sure about the other apps unfortunately. When it happens again, I would try closing all applications on both monitors before closing DisplayFusion, just as a test to see if any of them are contributing as well.

It definitely sounds like a Windows thing that's triggered by something in DisplayFusion (among other apps), so if we can narrow it down to a specific feature, then we may be able to work around it somehow :)

[Kyrrisayo]

So, I've discovered that only some windows gaining priority tend to lock the framerate of my primary monitor game window to 48 fps. Discord, Firefox, Spotify, and the Windows File Explorer all cause this to happen. (Steam, Brackets, and Notepad++, to name a few, don't.) Also, it still happens whether or not the windows are on my main monitor or a secondary one. (Hence it's not locking the fps of the entire monitor, just the window.) This still happens when DisplayFusion's not loaded, but I've never had the fps of the main window lock permanently, as it does, without DisplayFusion running. (I think we may have already established most of this, if not directly, indirectly, but I'm trying to be as clear and detailed as possible, so that I don't end up missing anything that may be relevant to solving the issue.)

So far, with DisplayFusion running, but without 'Enable TitleBar Buttons' checked, fps on my main window has locked itself to 48 fps only once, even though I've been actively trying to get it to happen. (So it seems less frequent, but, of course, that's through very limited observation.)

During the one time that fps was locked to 48, I tried closing Discord and Steam chat windows in response to fix the issue. When I returned focus to the main window, the issue was indeed fixed, however, I've similarily fixed the issue before just by clicking off the main window and then returning focus to it, so I can't say for sure that closing either the Discord or Steam windows was the cause of it.

[Keith Lammers (Binary Fortress)]

Ok, unfortunately I don't think there's much we can do from our end. It looks like a pretty common problem from some searches I've been doing. This thread has a suggested possible solution but I'm not sure if it would work or not: https://www.reddit.com/r/nvidia/comments/a23n92/144hz_and_60hz_missmatching_monitor_framerate/

Disabling any features in DF that create windows (taskbars, titlebar buttons, monitor fading, alt+tab, "Enable maximized window dragging" on the Settings > Window Management tab) would definitely help, but then you're losing out on functionality too :(

It seems the only real way to resolve the issue is to make sure all of your monitors run at 144 Hz, but that's an expensive solution!

[Kyrrisayo]

It does seem to happen less frequently with some of those DF features disabled. It seems weird that it's getting locked to 48 still, when neither of my side monitor's framerates are 48, (and in the post you linked they mentioned it being locked to 60, not 48), but otherwise I think you're mostly correct that there's probably not much that can be done from your end of things.

I didn't try the method stated in the post, as I don't have enough IO for both my secondary monitors to plug into my board's integrated graphics, and I think only plugging one in would make it kind of a moot point. I'll just be disabling as many DF features as possible, that I can, without impacting my experience too heavily, to try and reduce the chance of the framerate getting stuck.

Thanks for all your help with this, and I'm sorry there wasn't a solution that we were able to find and fix.