Windows 11 is getting multiple monitor refresh rate improvements

[jorimt]

Interesting (and about time...if it works):
https://www.theverge.com/2023/7/31/2381 ... provements

[Kyouki]

Ugh another fix that would've worked on the supported operating system till 2025, called Windows 10.

Yet just only deploy it for 11 so we're enforced to move... Annoying.

[jorimt]

Ugh another fix that would've worked on the supported operating system till 2025, called Windows 10.

Yet just only deploy it for 11 so we're enforced to move... Annoying.

I'm sure long-time Windows 11 users will be saying the same thing about Windows 12 (or whatever it ends up being called) down the road; it's a never-ending cycle.

[Kyouki]

Ugh another fix that would've worked on the supported operating system till 2025, called Windows 10.

Yet just only deploy it for 11 so we're enforced to move... Annoying.

I'm sure long-time Windows 11 users will be saying the same thing about Windows 12 (or whatever it ends up being called) down the road; it's a never-ending cycle.

It's sad but it's true

I am making the swap to Linux lately, specifically for this. Then I can just VM Win11 and not bother with it's junkiness.

[jorimt]

I am making the swap to Linux lately, specifically for this. Then I can just VM Win11 and not bother with it's junkiness.

One way to work around Windows dependency, for sure, though Linux is still a bit limited where gaming is concerned, unfortunately. Hopefully that aspect will continue to improve.

Competition is good.

[Kyouki]

I am making the swap to Linux lately, specifically for this. Then I can just VM Win11 and not bother with it's junkiness.

One way to work around Windows dependency, for sure, though Linux is still a bit limited where gaming is concerned, unfortunately. Hopefully that aspect will continue to improve.

Competition is good.

It really isn't any-more, in-fact I think I can do just as much and if not, can just power a gaming VM with Windows through some hoops with maybe a 1-2% difference in performance. Just curious in how all the tech works with it, still got lots to experiment.

[Worstylolzs]

I am making the swap to Linux lately, specifically for this. Then I can just VM Win11 and not bother with it's junkiness.

One way to work around Windows dependency, for sure, though Linux is still a bit limited where gaming is concerned, unfortunately. Hopefully that aspect will continue to improve.

Competition is good.

It's about game what you play. I try apex legends on Linux from this video https://youtu.be/HmNCj-Ln6IY and it was more responsive on Linux and In my opinion smother than windows 10. But it has lower performance than on w10.

Some games are compatible with Linux, others not. There was some page, where are Linux compatible games, but I can't find it now.

EDIT: found it https://www.protondb.com/ and steam have some Linux filters

I'm very sad for windows and their dwm and other sad features what ruining games. Idk why Microsoft still don't do some os like "windows for gamers" without all bloat what gamers don't need.

[Chief Blur Buster]

Interesting (and about time...if it works):
https://www.theverge.com/2023/7/31/2381 ... provements

Yes, about crying damn time.

People have even quit gaming over weird stutter issues that they didn't know was traced to multimonitor.

[Chief Blur Buster]

I am making the swap to Linux lately, specifically for this. Then I can just VM Win11 and not bother with it's junkiness.

I love Linux, and I installed Slackware 1.0 in year 1993-1994 at University of Waterloo on my main computer.

But, truth to be hold, Linux stutter-free tear-free high refresh rate support is much more atrocious than Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows 10 and Windows 11 combined, all together -- toiler crapper league historically. I would not depend on the ability to properly do www.testufo.com/frameskipping or www.testufo.com/ghosting (Sync Track erratic jittering) reliably at any odd refresh rate not divisible by 60 -- for almost all distros at default settings and for most historical window managers. I've had to blacklist all non-Android Linux as not supporting true refresh-cycle-accurate VSYNC, because it had almost always been true.

However, the amazing kwin-lowlatency fork fixed a lot of problems, and... if you must use Linux with an esports display, use any window manager that builds off the beautiful kwin-lowlatency work. Much needed high-Hz open source tour de force. (The Wayland VSYNC improvements are welcome too) Beautiful high-Hz support in Linux finally with TestUFO perfection -- after a bunch of configuring.

Now some apps (like Steam + Steam optimized games) will bypass the Linux crap and just deal with the display more directly. But, you're held hostage with whatever driver you're given for your GPU (to get all that 3D graphics goodies) too -- and some don't even do VSYNC'd compositing properly -- so back to square one. If you're a VSYNC OFF guy, you have a much easier time as the headaches comes with inability to do perfect smooth motion (jitterfree and tearingfree window manager) via relatively low-latency VSYNC algorithms, until relatively recently. The smooth text scroll, the smooth window drag, the smooth TestUFO animations -- were historically not available at all on Linux at odd refresh rates.

Even with that, perfect multithreaded-VSYNC-compositing for different-Hz multimonitor is still sketchy even on Linux

I have a yet-outstanding (and now expired) unclaimed $2000 TestUFO BountySoure for seeing 5 distros (pick any popular ones, Ubuntu, Mint, Fedora, whatever) to get perfect TestUFO 144Hz or 165Hz out-of-box. With at least 1-4 out of 5, you still are guaranteed not to get that perfectly working with zero frameskip and zero framedup at those refresh rates. A single-monitor Windows system has a >95%-99% chance of properly working with TestUFO VSYNC out of the box.

[Kyouki]

-snip-

Thank you for the awesome insights once again Chief! Super helpful.

I've heard of fsync and many more things... but have yet to deep-dive into these.

I think today to use Linux as a main desktop system you can get away with it quite well but like you said the amount of window manager's, desktop composition and all of that with different display servers (Wayland/X11) differences all playing slightly different with the total desktop package can make for a pretty complex situation.

I am currently on Arch Linux / Endeavour-OS, stock (stable) kernel 6.4.7, KDE Plasma desktop with Kwin window manager and Wayland display server.
The experience is solid but I can tell a few key differences in how some programs react different with changed display server as I tested X11 prior.

Want to address this part though:

However, the amazing kwin-lowlatency fork fixed a lot of problems, and... if you must use Linux with an esports display, use any window manager that builds off the beautiful kwin-lowlatency work.

Developer Quote:

KWin-lowlatency is (was?) my attempt to reduce latency and stuttering in the popular KWin compositor used in KDE. since Plasma 5.21 the developers merged official patches which rewrite great parts of the compositing code, putting it on par with former KWin-lowlatency.

I am excited to go ahead and put this next to my Windows installation for home and gaming purposes to give it a real test drive.
Got lots to experiment and figure out but that's fun to me!