1440p Resolution Dual Monitors - Frame Rate Drops When switching applications?

[Sharpstick68]

Ever since I upgraded from 1080 to 1440p  monitors 2 years ago, I noticed something and I don't know if this normal or what. I notice that when I have a game open on one monitor, and say a youtube video or something else playing on my 2nd monitor..when I am actively using the 1st one, the video like stutters while its playing on my other monitor, and vice versa..basically when switching back and forth from monitor to monitor..is that normal? why does it happen? can I stop it from happening? I never noticed it when I was using 1080

[Mindovermaster Global Moderator]

That can happen. I think the refresh rate is so powerful that your system can't keep up. With 2 monitors at that.

What GFX card do you have? And are you connected with HDMI or DP?

[Sharpstick68]

I have a 3070 and I'm using DP as my connection with 165 Hz Refresh Rates on both monitors

[Steven P. Administrators]

Do you have Dynamic refresh rate set on?

[Sharpstick68]

I have this monitor right here - https://us.msi.com/Monitor/G274QPF/Specification (MSI G274QPF) and it says it has dynamic refresh rate - amd freesync/adapative sync..and it is clearly enabled in my monitor settings (see pic below) so I dont know why the setting doesnt show up in windows..

 

 

 

[Steven P. Administrators]

It might be a 24H2 feature?

[Sharpstick68]

ahhhhh ok..I am using windows 11 version 23H2

[spaceelf]

  On 01/10/2024 at 04:21, Sharpstick68 said:

Ever since I upgraded from 1080 to 1440p  monitors 2 years ago, I noticed something and I don't know if this normal or what. I notice that when I have a game open on one monitor, and say a youtube video or something else playing on my 2nd monitor..when I am actively using the 1st one, the video like stutters while its playing on my other monitor, and vice versa..basically when switching back and forth from monitor to monitor..is that normal? why does it happen? can I stop it from happening? I never noticed it when I was using 1080

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Do you have gsync enabled in the NVIDIA settings?  Section 5.4 in the release notes for the current drivers mentions this scenario.

I don't know if it applies to your setup or not but

  Quote

5.4 Windowed NVIDIA G-SYNC is Disabled for Multi-monitor System Video Playback

5.4.1 Issue Beginning with Windows 10 April 2018 Update (RS4), NVIDIA G-SYNC is disabled during active video playback on multi-monitor systems.

5.4.2 Explanation If hardware accelerated video is playing on one display and an application is launched on another display in windowed mode with NVIDIA G-SYNC or adaptive-sync enabled, the video stutters. This is the result of desktop compositing on displays with differing refresh rates. To prevent the video stutter in this scenario, the driver disables NVIDIA G-SYNC during active video playback, but re-enables G-SYNC if the video is paused or closed.

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[goretsky Supervisor]

Hello,

Out of curiosity, does the stuttering or tearing decrease or even go away if you set both monitors' refresh rates to 144, 120, 75 or even 60 Hz, or does that make no difference at all?

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky
 

[Sharpstick68]

  On 05/10/2024 at 01:06, spaceelf said:

Do you have gsync enabled in the NVIDIA settings?  Section 5.4 in the release notes for the current drivers mentions this scenario.

I don't know if it applies to your setup or not but

 

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Yes I do have G-Sync enabled in the NVIDIA Control Panel, set too 'Enable for windowed and full screen mode'

 

  On 06/10/2024 at 13:09, goretsky said:

Hello,

Out of curiosity, does the stuttering or tearing decrease or even go away if you set both monitors' refresh rates to 144, 120, 75 or even 60 Hz, or does that make no difference at all?

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky
 

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And also, The stuttering, not so much tearing but only stuttering..it does not go away if I try setting both monitors to lower refresh rates.. ie 60, 144, 120, etc Hz.

[goretsky Supervisor]

Hello,

Interesting.  From what I have read, the Nvidia RTX 3070 GPU has 8GB of RAM, and a single 1440p display (2560 × 1440) has 3,686,400 pixels, or in other words, 7,372,800 pixels (7.2GB) for two displays, so it could be that just having the two screens is consuming enough of that video card's RAM that simply changing the image is causing the stuttering effect.  The only thing that comes to mind is to perhaps try using a video card with more RAM--maybe 12-16GB--and see if that makes any difference at all, starting with lower refresh rates and working up to faster ones.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky