Primary monitor settings in BIOS makes difference for GSYNC

Talk about NVIDIA G-SYNC, a variable refresh rate (VRR) technology. G-SYNC eliminates stutters, tearing, and reduces input lag. List of G-SYNC Monitors.
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gogolathome
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Primary monitor settings in BIOS makes difference for GSYNC

Post by gogolathome » 29 Jul 2020, 05:53

Hi,

I am looking for an explanation with my first post on this forum with experts.
I have a brand new computer and was wondering why I had stuttering games after my computer resumed from sleep.
I had my primary monitor set to PEG and observed this behavior. I could solve that by installing by installing and running a program "restart64.exe" which resets graphics. WIN+CTRL+SHIFT+B combination could not achieve that. After this restart from graphics card I could put my computer to sleep again and all was well, so I had to do this after the first system sleep.
In my search I tested also setting my primary monitor to PCIE in BIOS and to my surprise I didn't have these GSYNC stutters after system sleep. Only problem is that I can't access the BIOS screen with that setting ( I have to do a trick by connecting a cable from my IGPU to one of the monitors).

Now I am wondering if this could be a NVIDIA driver thing (I am on latest 451.67) or an ASUS BIOS problem (also on latest 0607).
Please experts shine a light on this...
Display: 3x Asus PG279Q OS: Windows 10 Pro MB: ASUS ROG Strix z490 Gaming-E CPU: i7-10700k GPU: Gigabyte Aorus Extreme 2080ti RAM: 32GB Corsair Vengeance LPX @3733MHz

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Re: Primary monitor settings in BIOS makes difference for GSYNC

Post by Chief Blur Buster » 29 Jul 2020, 13:11

I have seen this problem before -- VRR not reinitializing properly upon exit from sleep. It plagues a lot of setups, including mine. I often simply reboot the computer in these situations. It affects both a MSI and ASRock motherboard too, so it's not ASUS specific. It also affects a 1080 Ti too.

It's quite possibly a Microsoft issue, or the NVIDIA drivers not correctly reinitializing G-SYNC upon exit from sleep, and quite possibly the monitor firmware too, in that it wakes up but takes longer before its G-SYNC feature is ready to be reinitialized (the "NVIDIA DRM" feature fails, possibly). Because my monitor "went to deep sleep too", my G-SYNC monitor goes a full powerup reboot cycle (about 5 seconds) before it responds to DDC commands, so I wonder if the NVIDIA drivers is querying of the monitor (of the G-SYNC feature) is happening too early after a wake.

Older G-SYNC monitors remained powered even in sleep (power hogs), but newer G-SYNC monitors have the ability to go into deep sleep (almost 0 watts on a Kill-a-Watt, fully Energy Star Certified) and requires a full power-up reboot cycle upon waking up from sleep (the monitor branded boot screen shows, just as if I powered up the monitor or plugged the monitor back in) -- my sleep mode of some of my G-SYNC monitors, the wake behavior fully tantamount to simulating the press of the monitor's POWER button simultaneously with computer resuming from sleep.

I wonder if the NVIDIA drivers aren't properly reinitializing the newer models of slightly slower-waking G-SYNC monitors that undergoes a full powerup cycle behavior upon wake-from-sleep. It's a pro/con, you get near 0 watt in sleep, but monitor takes longer to reinitialize from sleep when the desktop/laptop resumes faster than the monitor can.

There might be multiple causes of this problem, but it plagues a lot of systems where I'm getting stutters from wake from sleep, open the monitor menus and see ("GSYNC OFF"), and this prompts me to reboot to get the "GSYNC ON" back. Sometimes multiple setting/mode changes and input switching restores things properly -- but there were times where GSYNC stubbornly stayed off for some reason and I just often say "screw it, I'll just reboot". Thanks for the tip, next time I'll try the ToastyX restart64.exe trick, and see if that saves a reboot.

I'll ping my contacts at NVIDIA about the "G-SYNC doesn't reinitialize on wake from sleep" feature. This includes situations where
- I sleep the computer while a game is running (GSYNC Native turns off and stays off in monitor OSD)
- I sleep the computer at desktop and launch a game after. (GSYNC Native turns off and stays off in monitor OSD)

This does not always happen consistently, but I've been rotating a lot of monitors on my desk so I haven't had much time to catch certain patterns -- except it happens with monitors that takes time to reinitialize from sleep.
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gogolathome
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Joined: 29 Jul 2020, 05:18

Re: Primary monitor settings in BIOS makes difference for GSYNC

Post by gogolathome » 30 Jul 2020, 05:34

Before this motherboard I had a Asus Maximus IX Code and no problems with my monitor. Asus is recommending to set Deep Sleep to "off" on the PG279Q so I don't have them in deep sleep. I can try it though.

I am in doubt if it is an NVIDIA thing, but you never know as it is complicated.
What I am sure of is that there is a difference between PEG and PCIE setting in BIOS for primary monitor. So the motherboard sends different signals to the NVIDIA card or is the difference between the PEG lanes and PCIE lanes?

When on PEG and after first sleep and a restart64.exe run everything is good and stays good with resuming from sleep until the next reboot. This could also be a Windows 10 thing or ASUS, again not NVIDIA I think.
I can see that GSYNC is still "on" then because the FPS counter is jumping around with the stutters.

When on PCIE in BIOS everything is OK, so that rules out NVIDIA and Windows again, but you never know what is happening ;)

So I am more interested what the difference is on the Asus motherboard between the two settings. I did some reading about PEG lanes and PCIE lanes as it seems they take a different route on te motherboard.
I am suspecting more ASUS than Microsoft (windows) or NVIDIA but they all could be blaming each other. ;)
Display: 3x Asus PG279Q OS: Windows 10 Pro MB: ASUS ROG Strix z490 Gaming-E CPU: i7-10700k GPU: Gigabyte Aorus Extreme 2080ti RAM: 32GB Corsair Vengeance LPX @3733MHz

gogolathome
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Joined: 29 Jul 2020, 05:18

Re: Primary monitor settings in BIOS makes difference for GSYNC

Post by gogolathome » 04 Aug 2020, 12:42

Chief Blur Buster wrote:
29 Jul 2020, 13:11
I'll ping my contacts at NVIDIA about the "G-SYNC doesn't reinitialize on wake from sleep" feature. This includes situations where
- I sleep the computer while a game is running (GSYNC Native turns off and stays off in monitor OSD)
- I sleep the computer at desktop and launch a game after. (GSYNC Native turns off and stays off in monitor OSD)
GSYNC isn't "off" after resuming from sleep. The red light on my monitor still shows that GSYNC is "on" and also the OSD tells that. Also the FPS counter shows the refresh rate. But there are big hiccups (stutter) and you see the FPS counter on the monitor jumping from max to around 50 and back.

And I wonder why I have to do only a restart after the first system sleep and then everything is OK for multiple sleep.

I am also observing INVERTED behavior:
If I run "restart64.exe" immediately after boot I see stuttering and when the computer resumes from system sleep GSYNC works correctly. So exactly opposite from first observations.
Display: 3x Asus PG279Q OS: Windows 10 Pro MB: ASUS ROG Strix z490 Gaming-E CPU: i7-10700k GPU: Gigabyte Aorus Extreme 2080ti RAM: 32GB Corsair Vengeance LPX @3733MHz

Chili
Posts: 1
Joined: 14 Nov 2020, 15:59

Re: Primary monitor settings in BIOS makes difference for GSYNC

Post by Chili » 14 Nov 2020, 16:09

I also notice this problem with my Asus PG35VQ monitor. I've read a lot of solutions in the past few days, multiple DisplayPort cables, tried every port but can't seem to figure it out. The monitor has a Deep Sleep mode, which I could disable but its fans continue to run even when switched off so it's not really an option.

It's not just G-Sync, the top refresh rates of the monitor also disappear and the display output resets itself to YUV422 and 8bc with no way to correct it.

The Restart utility with CRU works well, but I was hoping it is something that can be solved with a driver tweak. It feels like some sort of handshake failure.

I also have an Asus motherboard, and I did wonder if the PCIe power settings may be to blame. There are a few options, but hardly any information out there about what they do.

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