One of 3 Monitors Blacks out for a second when alt-tabbing Full Screen Games

[JustinGayme.TTV]

Hello all,

I have a central monitor I game on and 1 monitor on each side of this to browse and do other things for my live streaming.

The past few weeks, whenever I am playing any game from steam that is full screen, alt-tabbing or clicking on another monitor screen will make the left monitor go black for a second then it comes right back.For example, i may mouseover to a side monitor to type something in my twitch chat, and this will cause the left monitor to blackout. Running all programs on the right monitor and no programs on the left monitor does not fix the issue it still blacks out.

My two side monitors are identical to one another, and they use the same cable, and plug into the same GPU. I am not much of a tech guy so i really have no idea whats going on or what to try to fix this.

Playing games in windowed mode does not seem to create this problem, so I think that is the key to figuring this out. Fullscreen applications only.

For the record, this may not be directly a steam problem, but as i only game on steam, and games are the only thing that make this problem, it is the most relevant place for me to post, I believe.


Windows 10
Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-9900 CPU @ 3.10GHz, 3096 Mhz
Nvidia RTX3080Ti
32 GB RAM
Main Monitor ASUS ROG Swift PG279Q 27" 2560 x 1440
Secondary Monitors ASUS VA27EHE 27" Eye Care Monitor Full HD (1920 x 1080)
Motherboard Intel PRIME Z390-A

[JustinGayme.TTV]

Цитата допису Schrute_Farms_B&B:

I hope you just want to know the reason of why exactly this is happening when you tab out of Full-Screen, since this isnt exactly a issue or an even worth to create a thread, tbh....

A quick Google search would have helped you within seconds.
This "phenomenon" exists since decades and is related due the Display Stream Compression on Nvidia GPUs, but it also occurs for AMD GPUs or any other brand. It could also be related to playing on lower refreshrate ingame than your native monitor resolution or even a simple in game option which would automatically change the ingame refreshrate.

To get rid of this "non-issue", and I wonder why anyone on this planet would do that, is to reduce the data rate, lower color depth, refresh rate or color format, for example, from 10 bpc to 8bpc, but again, it looks horrible and isnt going to fix much.

There is a calculator out there which lets you calculate your data bitrate (DP/HDMI 2.1, etc.) in order being able to reduce it.
Take a look on LTT[linustechtips.com] for further instructions.

Hi,

This has only been an issue the last 2 weeks for me, so something changed whether on my end or related programs' end. There is no assumption on my part that something out there was broken. I did a google search (always do before starting a discussion for help). No need to be condescending.

But i sincerely do appreciate the other helpful info about the calculator and how that may help. Thank you.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

If that is truly the case then I would have to suggest that you do some tests.
To start that use the DDU app and boot into Safe Mode with it.
Then changes its options so you are wiping out everything to do with Displays, Geforce Experience, NVIDIA everything; etc.

Then select Graphics > NVIDIA > Clean and Restart.

Then go download a slightly older GPU Driver and give that a try.
https://www.nvidia.com/Download/Find.aspx

[Andrius227]

Цитата допису Tiberius:

Цитата допису Bad 💀 Motha:

The OP doesn't have GSync enabled at all.
Please read everything before you post; it helps.


I'd start by stop using HDMI if that is the case. Use 3x DP instead.
Don't use cables that ship with Monitors; buy better ones right away.
Play games in Borderless Window Mode; otherwise WTF in the point of multi-Display setup when you can't use those extra Displays when the game is in Full-Screen Mode.

Op, i can also assure you it has nothing to do with cables. Dont waste your money

It could actually be a cable problem. I used to have monitor black outs too, usually when i walked past my pc. Eventually i discovered that my dp cable plug on gpu end was slightly too thick and it didnt go in all the way. It went in enough to get video signal, but it didnt click and lock into place.

[Phénomènes Mystiques]

I had this issue. All I did was run SFC Scan and poof, has not happened in three years. It had appeared again briefly (one time or two) but again SFC Scan worked out for me. It is not a fix as it may not work for your system as many issues are specific to systems and not two systems are ever the same even if they have all the same parts, they never run the same (just like monitors are never the same).

[BlackBloodGhost]

Doesn't windows still allow games to directly set monitor settings like resolution / sync and such? Do your games settings match your displays regular settings? The blackout could be a monitor setting change.

E.g monitor switches from 60hz back to 165hz or changes resolution for example, hence causing a temporary blackout.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Цитата допису BlackBloodRum:

Doesn't windows still allow games to directly set monitor settings like resolution / sync and such? Do your games settings match your displays regular settings? The blackout could be a monitor setting change.

E.g monitor switches from 60hz back to 165hz or changes resolution for example, hence causing a temporary blackout.

Yes of course.

One could easily experience such an issue with 1 or more Displays given that the User can set Screen Res + Refresh separately for OS vs Games.

For example if OS is set to 144Hz and the Game is set to 60; it's going to experience flicker issues when you alt+tab around. Or on some games, even when both OS + Game is set to same refresh rate but game is set to Full Screen; can experience flicker (goes black for 1-2 secs then comes back fine) when alt+tab around to other stuff.

Overall it is usually best that if you set OS to the highest available refresh rate, then set the Game to Borderless Window. Now the game uses whatever refresh rate the OS is set to without there being two setting differences. And you won't have any flickering when in-game and using OS command keys such as WINKEY, WINKEY+TAB, ALT+TAB; etc.