Forcing PC games to max refresh

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SeeNoWeevil
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Joined: 21 Apr 2014, 16:40

Forcing PC games to max refresh

Post by SeeNoWeevil » 05 Jun 2021, 04:40

So the Nvidia control panel setting 'Prefer max refresh' is now somewhat unreliable due to being not applicable for Windows Fullscreen Optimisations games and a few games will default to 60Hz. My display uses different processing for 60Hz and 120Hz modes, with 120Hz being superior with less processing and lower latency so I want to always use it. There are quite a few ways to override it, some methods don't work on some games;
  • Use borderless windowed mode, not always available though (Is the Borderless Gaming app reliable?)
  • Disable fullscreen optimisations on the exe with Prefer Max Refresh enabled in the CP
  • Use CRU to remove non max refresh modes, not a great idea as some games will only let you choose 60Hz modes
  • An odd one but, the keyboard shortcut (win+ctrl+shift+b) to reset the graphics driver will cause the signal to drop and return at max refresh
Are there any other options that perhaps work across everything? I did actually look into external HDMI processors to do the 60Hz>120Hz conversion so I could ensure multiple devices (even consoles) would provide a 120Hz feed but ones that can do it at 4K are insanely expensive.

Thanks all

masterblaster
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Re: Forcing PC games to max refresh

Post by masterblaster » 05 Jun 2021, 10:09

Ill be honest, I dont normally experience games running at refresh rates lower than max... Maybe you have something setup wrong. All games should always run at max refresh.

SeeNoWeevil
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Re: Forcing PC games to max refresh

Post by SeeNoWeevil » 05 Jun 2021, 13:15

masterblaster wrote:
05 Jun 2021, 10:09
Ill be honest, I dont normally experience games running at refresh rates lower than max... Maybe you have something setup wrong. All games should always run at max refresh.
Most do, for sure. I've had several though that have required one of the above to get working. Off the top of my head, Sekiro and Ghost & Goblins resurrection recently.

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RealNC
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Re: Forcing PC games to max refresh

Post by RealNC » 12 Jun 2021, 14:21

masterblaster wrote:
05 Jun 2021, 10:09
Ill be honest, I dont normally experience games running at refresh rates lower than max... Maybe you have something setup wrong. All games should always run at max refresh.
For me they never do unless I disable full screen optimizations for the game's executable. Games that offer a refresh-rate setting will switch to that refresh rate. In any event, the nvidia panel setting is always completely ignored.

Fortunately, most games don't explicitly switch to 60Hz and just use the desktop refresh rate. So what I do is simply switch to 144Hz when playing a game, and then back to 120Hz. It's a hassle, but there's no other way around it unless you're willing to disable FSO.

Unfortunately there's a few games (looking at you, Fallout and Skyrim) that switch to 60Hz and the only way to prevent that is to disable FSO so that the nvidia panel setting for max Hz can force the game to 144Hz.

Edit:
Well, there is another way, but it only works with old games that use DX9 or older. With those, you can use dgVoodoo 2. It translates old DX games to DX11, but most importantly, it can force the refresh rate and resolution. Obviously this cannot be used for modern games.
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Chief Blur Buster
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Re: Forcing PC games to max refresh

Post by Chief Blur Buster » 12 Jun 2021, 14:28

Another trick is 1920x1078 or 1920x1079 with only one refresh rate. (Create the custom resolution)

This works if you can disable scaling (so things don't go fuzzy).

Any game configured to use the custom resolution will be forced to use the only refresh rate available for that resolution.
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svarthet23
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Re: Forcing PC games to max refresh

Post by svarthet23 » 21 Jun 2021, 17:06

I simply delete all resolutions and refresh rate in cru that are not native. for my monitor the only one I have in cru is 1080p 240hz and any game I play is forced to set 240hz no matter what. I do this for about 3 years now and I don't have any problem with any game

SeeNoWeevil
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Re: Forcing PC games to max refresh

Post by SeeNoWeevil » 28 Jun 2021, 11:17

Does anyone have any idea why certain games just don't work when disabling FSO on the .exe? Sekiro is one example, if I turn off FSO, it boots and straight away I get no signal at all. It's almost like it's trying to put out a mode not in my EDID. Unfortunately I can't even determine what the game is trying to output. Desktop is set to max refresh of 120Hz and 'Prefer Max' is enabled in NVCP.

Thanks.

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RealNC
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Re: Forcing PC games to max refresh

Post by RealNC » 28 Jun 2021, 11:51

SeeNoWeevil wrote:
28 Jun 2021, 11:17
Does anyone have any idea why certain games just don't work when disabling FSO on the .exe? Sekiro is one example, if I turn off FSO, it boots and straight away I get no signal at all.
Never seen that happen. And just tried Sekiro with FSO disabled, no issues.

So something is definitely broken there.
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SeeNoWeevil
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Re: Forcing PC games to max refresh

Post by SeeNoWeevil » 30 Jun 2021, 11:46

RealNC wrote:
28 Jun 2021, 11:51
SeeNoWeevil wrote:
28 Jun 2021, 11:17
Does anyone have any idea why certain games just don't work when disabling FSO on the .exe? Sekiro is one example, if I turn off FSO, it boots and straight away I get no signal at all.
Never seen that happen. And just tried Sekiro with FSO disabled, no issues.

So something is definitely broken there.
So I did a bit of investigation with this. For some reason, at some point during startup Sekiro was trying to send 480p when FSO was disabled. Because 'Prefer Max Refresh' was set in the control panel this ended up as 480p120! Which is obviously not a valid mode. I have no idea why it tries to do this (first mode in its list?). I removed all sub-native resolutions with CRU and it now works fine at 4K120 with FSO off.

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