System>Display>Graphics>Default Gph Settings?

[wBoop86]

So I have G-Sync and V-Sync on as you guys recommend! But what about these 3 settings in Windows 11?

Hardware-accelerated GPU Scheduling: ON or OFF?

Variable Refresh Rate: ON or OFF?

Optimisations for windowed games: I assume OFF? I run most of my games in Fullscreen or Windowed Fullscreen.

/ Best Regards, Viegaard

[wBoop86]

Anyone?

[wBoop86]

Bump

[wBoop86]

Bump <3

[Gias]

So I have G-Sync and V-Sync on as you guys recommend! But what about these 3 settings in Windows 11?

i recommend you stop having vsync globally on in the nvidia control panel if you're doing that.

global driver vsync on may cause vrr to trigger on apps that weren't designed for that... and cause stutter and/or flicker

on displays with MPOs at least.

i don't think the gsync101 blurbuster's guide takes MPOs into account... (and i generally wouldn't recommend disabling MPOs... having them on is generally good for gaming to ensure that your game uses the ideal independent flip presentation in more scenarios)

so i'd suggest trying in-game vsync on and/or driver vsync on in a game-specific driver profile; not the global driver profile. i keep the global one set to "use the 3d application setting"

(that and/or you could also force vsync on from special k. this software is generally not meant to be used with games that use some anti-cheat though)

Hardware-accelerated GPU Scheduling: ON or OFF?

ON (especially if you're wanting to use nvidia's dlss frame generation...), unless you run into some graphical issue and you notice that setting HAGS off prevents that on your end. I normally keep this setting ON and haven't been seeing issues.

Variable Refresh Rate: ON or OFF?

I recommend keeping this one ON. It may let you keep vrr syncing with your game properly in some scenarios where it wouldn't sync properly or at all. it may also keep gsync engaged to the game when the game is in the background; at least in some games keep in mind.

Optimisations for windowed games: I assume OFF? I run most of my games in Fullscreen or Windowed Fullscreen.

Definitely NOT off. Keep this one ON. this one is basically a very important feature for windowed/borderless (including windowed fullscreen) d3d10/d3d11 games on windows 11; it allows games using the old bitblt model for their windowed/borderless implementation to use the newer flip model (which can give you lower latency and better performance etc)

[jorimt]

i don't think the gsync101 blurbuster's guide takes MPOs into account... (and i generally wouldn't recommend disabling MPOs... having them on is generally good for gaming to ensure that your game uses the ideal independent flip presentation in more scenarios)

G-SYNC 101 indeed pre-dates Nvidia MPO support by several years, and since MPO is somewhat config-dependent, I can't provide a single recommendation for that anyway.

Further, my optimal G-SYNC settings are exclusive fullscreen-type flip models + NVCP V-SYNC (not necessarily set globally), so while they are an idealized starting point, anyone is obviously free (and will sometimes have) to deviate where necessary.

[wBoop86]

So I have G-Sync and V-Sync on as you guys recommend! But what about these 3 settings in Windows 11?

i recommend you stop having vsync globally on in the nvidia control panel if you're doing that.

global driver vsync on may cause vrr to trigger on apps that weren't designed for that... and cause stutter and/or flicker

on displays with MPOs at least.

i don't think the gsync101 blurbuster's guide takes MPOs into account... (and i generally wouldn't recommend disabling MPOs... having them on is generally good for gaming to ensure that your game uses the ideal independent flip presentation in more scenarios)

so i'd suggest trying in-game vsync on and/or driver vsync on in a game-specific driver profile; not the global driver profile. i keep the global one set to "use the 3d application setting"

(that and/or you could also force vsync on from special k. this software is generally not meant to be used with games that use some anti-cheat though)

Hardware-accelerated GPU Scheduling: ON or OFF?

ON (especially if you're wanting to use nvidia's dlss frame generation...), unless you run into some graphical issue and you notice that setting HAGS off prevents that on your end. I normally keep this setting ON and haven't been seeing issues.

Variable Refresh Rate: ON or OFF?

I recommend keeping this one ON. It may let you keep vrr syncing with your game properly in some scenarios where it wouldn't sync properly or at all. it may also keep gsync engaged to the game when the game is in the background; at least in some games keep in mind.

Optimisations for windowed games: I assume OFF? I run most of my games in Fullscreen or Windowed Fullscreen.

Definitely NOT off. Keep this one ON. this one is basically a very important feature for windowed/borderless (including windowed fullscreen) d3d10/d3d11 games on windows 11; it allows games using the old bitblt model for their windowed/borderless implementation to use the newer flip model (which can give you lower latency and better performance etc)

I always do the NVcleaninstall of my drivers and disable MPO. MPO caused issued for me in the past.

[Chief Blur Buster]

G-SYNC 101 indeed pre-dates Nvidia MPO support by several years, and since MPO is somewhat config-dependent, I can't provide a single recommendation for that anyway.

Further, my optimal G-SYNC settings are exclusive fullscreen-type flip models + NVCP V-SYNC (not necessarily set globally), so while they are an idealized starting point, anyone is obviously free (and will sometimes have) to deviate where necessary.

Great advice in this thread by y'all, that said, caveat:

Line-item exceptions definitely apply, when dealing with stubborn games!

GSYNC 101, written 10 years ago, has been shockingly durable. It's great when everything fails, e.g. games that predate GSYNC, or games that doesn't properly adapt properly to GSYNC.

The dual divergence has a good reason to exist:
- Forcing VSYNC OFF in games forces games to use asynchronous frametiming (better for VRR)
- Forcing VSYNC ON + GSYNC ON in NVIDIA Control Panel ensures you hide the tearing from the VSYNC OFF setting, but keep the VRR-friendly framepacing logic.
- Many older games were programmed pre-VRR, but still works well with GSYNC.
- Many newer games were programmed very VRR-unaware, and needs this workflow.

Sometimes you have a desire to do VSYNC OFF in some games and GSYNC in other games, but VRR-unaware games need to run the VSYNC OFF programming code logic for VSYNC OFF (tearing+lowlag) and for GSYNC (destuttering). So by having only a VSYNC ON/OFF setting inside a VRR-unaware game means you can't explicitly tell the game you really want true tearing VSYNC OFF, or whether you want true GSYNC, for that particular game.

So, that's where NVIDIA Control Panel overrides comes into play -- even if you're forcing GSYNC+VSYNC ON while also forcing game VSYNC OFF, to explicitly force a VRR-unaware game to play a beautiful tear-free stutter-free low-lag VRR orchestra song.

This still is necessary advice for SOME GAMES, even 10 years later. If you don't have any of those "stubborn games" anymore, we can try and rely on NVIDIA's autoconfigurator to decide how to automatically configure a game -- but sometimes the Auto setting doesn't work as intended. So, we get stuck when a game goes stutterfest.

I wish GSYNC 101 was more obsolete by now and GSYNC was much easier, but... Here we are -- GSYNC 101 is still super relevant today!

Even though there's newer lineitem GSYNC advice such as "purchase more refresh rate range than your game's framerate range so you don't have to worry as often about deciding on multiple different capping compromises". And of course, games that properly detect GSYNC and automatically use most of the same code path that VSYNC OFF uses (instead of fixed clocks that is more ideal for VSYNC ON code paths).

I have to give my hats off to Jorim, the writer of GSYNC 101 for such a durable FAQ. Nothing on the Internet beats it as "the metaphorical equivalent of a GSYNC bible for those damn stubborn old games".

That said, majority of advice above in this thread bats above average (so far) -- The tips in Gias reply is generally great for users who definitely want VRR+DLSS together. Most games that do DLSS usually are VRR aware, but YMMV.

[Gias]

i don't think the gsync101 blurbuster's guide takes MPOs into account... (and i generally wouldn't recommend disabling MPOs... having them on is generally good for gaming to ensure that your game uses the ideal independent flip presentation in more scenarios)

G-SYNC 101 indeed pre-dates Nvidia MPO support by several years, and since MPO is somewhat config-dependent, I can't provide a single recommendation for that anyway.

i suppose you could provide a warning or notice of some kind. no need to actually mention MPOs btw.

(you'd probably get a ton of people asking why their MPOs aren't working if you do mention MPOs somewhere in the guide. this is a whole can of worms. the topic of MPOs keeps coming up every now and then in the special k discord server since we do mention MPOs in the special k wiki and provide a way to monitor MPO planes in skif and sk. ah well. that and presentation model is pretty important for tons of modern games... and i'm glad microsoft didn't shy away from actually using the words "flip presentation model" in their official description for the optimizations for windowed games feature in windows 11. imo it'd be good for more people to realize that windowed/borderless can actually be as good or better than FSE, and the difference that a presentation model can make)

vrr with just the "enable for fullscreen mode" gsync option may trigger on any app that's using FSE / "hardware: legacy flip" or windowed/borderless with an independent flip presentation ("hardware: independent flip" or "hardware composed: independent flip").

now here's the thing: an app may be using fractional vsync (some even use fractional vsync specifically to avoid vrr since fractional vsync can prevent vrr)

and yep... those people globally forcing driver vsync on would end up overriding the app's fractional vsync (the apps's fractional vsync would basically become regular vsync), which then can result in vrr triggering in the app and causing it to stutter and/or flicker depending on the app.

people don't necessarily need MPOs for an independent flip presentation, but MPOs would basically allow an app that uses flip model to also use an independent flip presentation in more scenarios, so the issue can manifest more on displays with MPOs if the user has global driver vsync on...

anyway, you could add this:

"Note that driver vsync on in the global driver profile may cause stutter and/or flicker in some apps. You could set the driver vsync setting for such apps to "use the 3d application setting" or set driver vsync on in a game's driver profile (instead of globally)"

or something similar...

maybe below the line that says "Manage 3D settings > Vertical sync > On" ?

well up to you. i figured i'd throw a suggestion either way.

Further, my optimal G-SYNC settings are exclusive fullscreen-type flip models + NVCP V-SYNC (not necessarily set globally), so while they are an idealized starting point, anyone is obviously free (and will sometimes have) to deviate where necessary.

yeah... that's fair. i saw that the gsync101 guide does say to "Use “Fullscreen” or “Exclusive Fullscreen” mode (some games do not offer this option, or label borderless windowed as fullscreen)" also.

i guess part of the idea was to keep it as simple as possible and basically recommend the mode that'd ensure gsync...

any plans to expand the guide to cover the scenarios in which gsync can engage or not engage in windowed/borderless games that are using dxgi flip model though ? tbh recommending to stick to exclusive fullscreen made more sense years ago. nowadays there are quite a few d3d11 games that use dxgi flip model. also, there are zero d3d12 games with exclusive fullscreen... and unfortunately most people aren't aware...

I always do the NVcleaninstall of my drivers and disable MPO. MPO caused issued for me in the past.

i highly suggest that you stop doing that. try with MPOs again

[jorimt]

i suppose you could provide a warning or notice of some kind. no need to actually mention MPOs btw.

[...]

anyway, you could add this:

"Note that driver vsync on in the global driver profile may cause stutter and/or flicker in some apps. You could set the driver vsync setting for such apps to "use the 3d application setting" or set driver vsync on in a game's driver profile (instead of globally)"

or something similar...

[...]


well up to you. i figured i'd throw a suggestion either way.

Granted, anyone that comments in my article typically doesn't read it first anyway.

I already have warned of not globally setting "Enable for windowed and full screen mode" in my Closing FAQ, and to instead selectively activating it via Nvidia Inspector per app, but now that you're claiming even having "Enable for full screen mode" globally enabled can cause similar issues sends me into a state of pure exasperation.

I haven't personally run into that behavior yet (beyond maybe Photoshop on certain driver versions), but can of worms indeed.

I am not thrilled with the convolution that has developed since I wrote the article. It's seriously out of hand. I'd say, "would it kill them to consolidate and standardize?" But of course it would; they're programmers

UX is not their specialty (in fact, quite the opposite), and that will never change it seems.

Further, my optimal G-SYNC settings are exclusive fullscreen-type flip models + NVCP V-SYNC (not necessarily set globally), so while they are an idealized starting point, anyone is obviously free (and will sometimes have) to deviate where necessary.

yeah... that's fair. i saw that the gsync101 guide does say to "Use “Fullscreen” or “Exclusive Fullscreen” mode (some games do not offer this option, or label borderless windowed as fullscreen)" also.

i guess part of the idea was to keep it as simple as possible and basically recommend the mode that'd ensure gsync...

any plans to expand the guide to cover the scenarios in which gsync can engage or not engage in windowed/borderless games that are using dxgi flip model though ? tbh recommending to stick to exclusive fullscreen made more sense years ago. nowadays there are quite a few d3d11 games that use dxgi flip model. also, there are zero d3d12 games with exclusive fullscreen... and unfortunately most people aren't aware...

The intent of the article is to prime visitors on fundamental G-SYNC/VRR behavior, and to ensure two things; 1) that the average framerate stays within the current physical refresh rate so that VRR remains engaged at all times, and 2) that VBLANK adherence is enforced, so there is no tearing during VRR operation.

And that's it; anything and everything else can be discovered (and endlessly delved into) elsewhere.

That said, I consider DX12 flip models exclusive fullscreen-type. I.E. any flip model that works with "Enable for full screen mode" is essentially exclusive fullscreen (with the app window focused) in my book, adaptive DWM-behavior or not, so perhaps I will eventually add that to my Optimal G-SYNC settings, along with explicitly clarifying that my NVCP V-SYNC recommendation is not necessarily meant to be set globally.