G-SYNC for windowed and fullscreen

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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dahyippur
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G-SYNC for windowed and fullscreen

Post by dahyippur » 05 Sep 2018, 01:45

I've know that true fullscreen is preferred when using G-sync. Is running with “Enable G-SYNC for windowed and full screen mode” giving people problems on the current driver and version of windows10? Sounds ideal for for games that don't have a true fullscreen mode but I dont have any first hand experience.

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RealNC
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Re: G-SYNC for windowed and fullscreen

Post by RealNC » 05 Sep 2018, 02:36

There were issues in Windows 10 1803. NVidia did claim it's fixed in the latest driver though (and the hotfix driver of the previous version.) So in theory, there should not be any issues. Although I've seen people claim they still get into a weird state where you get stutter unless you alt+tab out of the game and back in.

Note though that many of the games that seem to not have a true fullscreen mode, actually do. It's just that Windows 10 now has a new mode that is not exclusive fullscreen but works as well as exclusive fullscreen. You can still see the Windows volume bar overlay for example, since DWM is enabled for the duration of the overlay, and then disabled again once it's no longer needed. G-sync will actually treat these games as fullscreen. When DWM is enabled to display an overlay (like the Windows sound volume bar), g-sync is disabled, and then enabled again once the overlay disappears.

Windows 10 now also redirects old games that run in exclusive fullscreen mode to this new mode. Even very old games back from 2004. This feature can be disabled by checking the "Disable fullscreen optimizations" checkbox in the game's exe file properties (in the "compatibility" tab.) You usually don't need to do this though. The new mode seems to work well. It makes alt+tab faster.

Windows g-sync is only for games that use actual borderless mode. The new fullscreen mode I described above is still treated as true fullscreen mode.
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open
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Re: G-SYNC for windowed and fullscreen

Post by open » 05 Sep 2018, 11:25

I'll have to do some testing. Games that were recently adapted to use windowed fullscreen like world of warcraft behave well with g sync but do need the windowed g sync mode enabled. Sea of thieves also behaves very well despite not having a true fullscreen mode. It works with g sync. Alt tabbing in other games like overwatch does not seem to behave like it is using windowed fullscreen. I may not be on the latest version of windows. I saw fit to prevent some recent updates due to cpu performance drops. Older versions of windows did have issues with gsync as well but they were specific to certain gpu and driver combinations.

I have a strong feeling that games like rust still will still suck and not work with g sync but hey maybe I am wrong.

dahyippur
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Re: G-SYNC for windowed and fullscreen

Post by dahyippur » 05 Sep 2018, 20:32

This pc will have a wide variety of games installed including wow. Sounds like keeping windowed & fullscreen enabled may be the best option for now, its just hard to monitor since the computer is not local. I'll have to check up on it over time

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RealNC
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Re: G-SYNC for windowed and fullscreen

Post by RealNC » 06 Sep 2018, 01:58

dahyippur wrote:its just hard to monitor since the computer is not local. I'll have to check up on it over time
What does that mean? Not local?
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dahyippur
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Re: G-SYNC for windowed and fullscreen

Post by dahyippur » 06 Sep 2018, 02:31

Its just physically not local, about 40 miles away from me. I've basically setup a desktop & G-sync monitor for someone with a huge steam library that lives in a different town. From the feedback I've gotten and what I can see in teamviewer everything looks great so far, but there are many titles left to be installed.

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