Strange issue with gsync - Toggling refresh rate "fixes" it

[Qtilate]

Hi there, I've been struggling to get g-sync working properly since replacing my GPU and reinstalling windows. I had a 2080ti and using the recommended settings on this site, everything was working as intended.

After getting the new gpu I set everything up the same according to the guide, but was getting fairly bad stuttering in certain games. I noticed in World of Warcraft my fps was going above 144hz despite having low latency, reflex+boost on, and g-sync enabled for example. So yeah the g-sync indicator wasn't showing up and fiddling with just about every setting the only thing that seems to get it to work is toggling my refresh rate on the second monitor to something different and then back to normal. To be clear, changing it once solves it but then I swap back to 144hz and it continues to work. When I restart my pc, it stops working. I believe it also stops working even while in game sometimes but it's hard to immediately tell.

Might not be relevant but on my old gpu I would have my main monitor at 144hz and my side monitor at 60hz and it worked fine. Trying to do that now makes the side monitor stutter fairly badly so I've had it at 144hz.

If anyone has any ideas I'd really appreciate it. Can't come up with anything else to try.

edit: Apparently adjusting monitor arrangement also has the same effect as toggling the refresh rate. I noticed pulling up a video on my second monitor while having a game open caused g-sync to stop working, I tried adjusting the monitor position thinking maybe the video was somehow overlapping onto the main monitor and yeah, g-sync starts working again.

edit2: Alright so it seems like something is causing gsync to break and it won't re-enable until I sort of soft refresh it. I'm able to reproduce the issue by just fullscreening an application on my main monitor. Doesn't matter what application or if the application is trying to use gsync or not.

Current solution is disabling global gsync and just whitelisting specific games/apps. Not sure what's behaving differently than my previous setup but this works for now. Maybe something to do with windows or some background app interfering but I can't seem narrow it down. Blacklisting pretty much everything I could think of didn't fix it.

Gpu - gigabyte 4070 eagle
Primary monitor - Asus VG27AQ 144hz "G-sync compatible"
Secondary - AOC G2460PG 144hz "G-sync module"

[RealNC]

Have you tried uninstalling the drivers with DDU in Windows safe mode and then reinstall? All of it while not connected to the internet (so Windows can't interfere with installing drivers from windows update.)

[Qtilate]

Well I had prior to the first post but I figured it couldn't hurt to do another ddu fresh install since you mentioned it, and as far as I can tell it's magically working normally again.

I'm confused as to why but yeah it appears to be re-engaging properly now after alt-tabbing and what not. Weird.

[RealNC]

Well I had prior to the first post but I figured it couldn't hurt to do another ddu fresh install since you mentioned it, and as far as I can tell it's magically working normally again.

I'm confused as to why but yeah it appears to be re-engaging properly now after alt-tabbing and what not. Weird.

I get weird behavior sometimes too after using CRU. It works fine at first, but when I was testing more things in CRU, at some point I would get weird behavior when alt+tabbing. The screen would also go black for half a second every time Windows boots. Resetting CRU would not fix it. Only DDU does.

I don't know what causes it. You're not using CRU as well by any chance?

[Qtilate]

CRU as in custom resolution utility? I haven't used that. Maybe DSR could cause a similar problem?

The only thing I didn't do after this ddu was install monitor drivers but I doubt that would change anything.

[RealNC]

CRU as in custom resolution utility? I haven't used that.

Never mind then.

Maybe DSR could cause a similar problem?

Nah, I don't think so. Never had issues with it.

The only thing I didn't do after this ddu was install monitor drivers but I doubt that would change anything.

Shouldn't matter. The only thing these "drivers" usually do, is install an ICC color profile that clamps color managed apps to sRGB if the monitor has wide gamut color (which you have to remove anyway if you use other means to do an sRGB clamp,) and also it allows Windows HDR settings to report on whether or not the display is HDR verified. But that's about it.

[sampes]

Hello! I have the same issue and untill now I have been successfully toggling refresh rate to fix it. This week this unfortunately stopped working. I am not sure what broke it, My TV has had an update but there has also been windows updates since the last time i know it was working.

I have noted that when it is not working LFC (low frequencey compensation) seems broken. If I limit a game to for example 30 fps and check my TV:s refresh rate indicator the refresh rate toggles wildly between the extremes of the VRR window, one fraction of a second it's 40 fps, the next it's 144. The expected behaviour of a stable 30fps framerate is that the screen should see 60fps due to frame doubling by LFC.

I am not able to get your other fix to work either. If I disable gsync globally and enable it for a specific game it never switches to gsync when launching that game.

I have DDU:ed and installed an older driver that I know was working but this did not fix it. I have even re-installed windows without any luck. Maybe some windows update has broken this, I have not tried going back to an older build yet.

Is anyone else still having this issue and if so, do you have a working workaround?

For reference I am using a 4090 and LG C4 Oled which is gsync compatible.