Is windowed games really run smoother?

[Trust_Me_I'm_An_Engineer]

In the description you told that most windowed games runs smoother than in full screen. However my information slightly differs - I did a research some time ago and find out that games in full screen mode actually run smoother because they use system resources more effectively. It's been told that running a game in a window take additional resources.

Can you prove your claim by providing a link to some research done on the topic?

[Stevoid]

That was my understanding also.

[Wicked Sick]

I am also interested in knowing this for I've read the same as the op.

[Isiforo.s]

Depends which game and the resolution you play at. If you play at max res (native resolution) then it'll be better to use the full screen mode instead of windowed. This tool doesn't make it smoother to play, it gives just the option to play borderless.

[that's what she said]

Depends on particular game's coding. Windowed mode is always less efficient than exclusive fullscreen mode. On the other hand there is games that doesn't have exclusive fullscreen at all. Most of games have really slight difference in performance, but yes - exclusive fullscreen mode is usually better. Throw in the mix vsync in windowed which you can't turn off (yeah, that's how it really works - in fullscreen you can turn it off and in windowed it's always on).
The most important thing - exclusive fullscreen is separated environment - most games just aren't coded to play nice along other windows and apps, alt-tab or mouse hooks. The ones that work best in windowed... they often already have borderless windowed mode.

Windowed mode is good for streaming and dual displays setups. It's more efficient and quicker than alt-tabing. Sometimes, per game basis. But it's exaggeration that a lot of games work better. It's not. I use dual displays for years, I play in windowed mode a lot of different games and I never seen resource-heavy games that work better in windowed mode. Borderless Gaming is designed to fix some notorious issues with windowed mode and still have that 'fullscreen' experience. Yeap, it works worse. But benefits are enormous. If you need them ofc.

[Wicked Sick]

I am satisfied. Thank you, guys.

[Mean.Cloud]

Additionally, a lot of the arguments supporting windowed more running smoother aren't even talking about the game itself, but the transition between alt-tabbing to applications, common for multi-monitor setups (or for those of you playing games at work).

[Trust_Me_I'm_An_Engineer]

Thanks for the answer guys. By the way, I also found out that if your desktop and game resolution match, the alt+tab process from full screen work alot better. But borderless window is still the best option for alt-tabbing, if that option is needed.

[Isiforo.s]

Originally posted by ankun:

But borderless window is still the best option for alt-tabbing, if that option is needed.

Especially if you're using just 1 screen, yep. But anyway, most pc's are pretty decent meanwhile so it shouldn't be a problem to use borderless / alt+tab even if it reduces a little bit performance. It's actually a really good solution for people who do live streaming at twich etc.

[Cocteau_Banshees]

in my personal experience and in gta 5 specifically i can confirm borderless will cripple your framerate, also is the case with dying light, i am currently having a problem where the game will not utilize 100% of the screen when playing in full screen and dont know how to solve it , i have a 3k laptop (msi gt60 with 32gb ram, 8gb gtx 880m, i7 4810qm) and i want to play at 1080p but for a strange reason it the game will show centered in the middle of the screen, only it gets fixed when i switch to borderless but as i said before it will kill about 10fps, i dont want to play 3k because is too much for this laptop, i am assuming a fix could be playing on a native 1080p external monitor but still i need to find a solution to this problem

[KeyC0de]

Bethesda games (prior to Fallout 4 - i think they fixed it for FO4) have been notoriously bad coded to be able to handle full-screen game modes. If a game is coded properly it will always run better in a fullscreen mode. Full-screen mode dedicates the GPU to that program. No other process can leach GPU resources. There are also many other tweaks in play in this dedicated environment. @that's what she said 's answer explains it very good.

[Sue]

Came to forum to look for this question. Yes the store page description is a bit misleading. Thanks for those who come up with answer.

[Aera]

I'm going just repeat everything said/wrote here above. Sorry.

TLDR: it depends on hardware and software U use. Just try and u will see.

As for FO4 - this game is playable (at least for me) only in windowed borderless.
Witcher 3 - is also run smoothly only in windowed mode with fixed (by riva turner) framerate.
But these games has own options to run in windowed borderless mode))

The almost opposite are (as already mentioned in thread) GTA5, dying light - I have them working better in fullscreen.

Dishonored 2 - in fullscreen and in windowed runs strange. :/

So, in conclusion, it depends! I can't provide links to results of researches, but from my experience I can say that some game engines can't utilize / syncronize CPU/GPU frequences, others - can.If I can't remove game lags with V-Syn, next thing I always try is windowed mode.

Other random things which may affect performance:

- OS Windows can't free "all" resources for windowed game.
- Some games like old verion of Heroes Might and Magic 3 requires strange windows theme changing - and its better (for aesthetic reasons) to run in full screen...Also take into account hardware:
- I have "old" LCD display with fixed 59-60Hz rate. How app will work with 144hz? How does your OS framebuffer-composition work at all?

For me important is following - abiility to quickly change windows tasks - from game to another program and back - in this case - windowed mode is very handy to have. Borderless just made it even better. I use it for Civ 5, Cities Skylines.