Micro stutter when in windowed mode

WarMenace · Sep 25, 2013

I recently upgraded from a 60hz monitor to a 120 hz monitor (benq xl2420t). I love the monitor and the quality but I'm having a problem and have no idea what it might be from.

You see when I play games on full screen mode no vsync on I get a smooth gameplay. But when I switch it to fullscreen windowed (it doesn't matter what game they all do the same) I start to get micro stutter. Even though the frame rate stays above 60 I still see stuttering which bothers me.

So my first thought was I must have a faulty monitor so I went back to the store and exchanged it for a different one. Still same problem. So then I said it must be my GPU I took my GPU out of my PC and used my brothers and still the same problem.

So long story short when I play my games on full screen mode they all play smoothly. But when I switch them to windowed fullscreen I get stuttering. I like to play in windowed mode because I run two monitors and constantly alt+tab.

SO I was wondering if anybody here might have an idea as to what might be happening.. I have tried so many things to try to fix this but just can't come up with solutions.

I have done everything from turning both my overclocks off and running my GPU and CPU at stock speeds. I have tried turning down the graphics settings of my games. I have unistalled and clean installed up do date graphics drivers from NviDia. So please any help would be great.

My PC Specs are:
i7 3770k @ 4.4 ghz
EVGA GTX 680 4GB
16 GB kingston hyperx DDR3
1000w Corsair PSU
Asrock Extreme4 MoBO
Windows 8 OS

EDIT: forgot to mention it only happens when I have my monitor at 120 hz mode. If i switch it to 60 hz and run windowed mode I get no more micro stutter.

bystander · Sep 25, 2013

Technically, they don't normally call microstutter without SLI. Windowed mode kills SLI and you only have one anyways.

I wonder about v-sync, is v-sync on? With two different monitor refresh rates v-sync may not properly function in Windowed mode. It may also just be that at the Desktop, with two different refresh rates, problems occur. I know there have been a number of issues in the past when using a 60hz monitor with a 120hz monitor.

WarMenace · Sep 25, 2013

bystander :

Yeah I only have one GPU and trust me I used to run crossfire and I know what microstutter feels like. The thing is the second monitor is only for browsing the web and watching videos. So I have no need for two 120hz monitors. I will however try disconnecting the other monitor to see if that works. Thanks for the help.

EDIT: Ok we may be up to something now. I disconnected my 60 hz monitor and the stutter was gone. Ok so how can I fix this problem? I know alot of people run 120 + 60 hz setup without problems. So what might be the problem with me?

bystander · Sep 25, 2013

WarMenace :

bystander :

Yeah I only have one GPU and trust me I used to run crossfire and I know what microstutter feels like. The thing is the second monitor is only for browsing the web and watching videos. So I have no need for two 120hz monitors. I will however try disconnecting the other monitor to see if that works. Thanks for the help.

EDIT: Ok we may be up to something now. I disconnected my 60 hz monitor and the stutter was gone. Ok so how can I fix this problem? I know alot of people run 120 + 60 hz setup without problems. So what might be the problem with me?

Is V-sync on in the game you are getting stuttering? Try it without v-sync if so.

WarMenace · Sep 25, 2013

bystander :

WarMenace :

Is V-sync on in the game you are getting stuttering? Try it without v-sync if so.

vsync is off

bystander · Sep 25, 2013

Check out this thread, there are a couple different solutions people have used to fix the issue: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1636481

I was just having this problem as well, but my solution was simple. Today I bought a BenQ XL2410T and together with my LG I was running a 120Hz/60Hz setup as well. Running two 570 GTXs in SLI, I shouldn't be getting a problem with the displays on my end.

Of course ended up having a ton of problems. This is not a problem that is limited to only one screen either; its on both. Playing a video or a windowed game on either screen causes the video to lag up. It wasn't until I switched back to 60Hz on both screens did the problems disappear.

The fix for me was to go into the Nvidia Control Panel -> Adjust Desktop Size and Position -> and setting "Perform scaling on" to GPU instead of display.

Now I've got the computer running in a 120/60Hz setup. I can play a game in one screen and watching a show in the other with no problems.

Just to toss out some extra info: My BenQ is of course using a dual-link DVI cable, where as my LG is running on a single. Also, for some time at first, the Nvidia control panel kept saying my BenQ's max refresh was 60, even though in windows and on the monitor's information readout it was going at 120. This was fixed when I set the GPU to do scaling.

Hope this helps people with similar problems.

Someone else mentioned having issues while using an HDMI cable on the 60hz monitor.

WarMenace · Sep 25, 2013

bystander :

Check out this thread, there are a couple different solutions people have used to fix the issue: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1636481

I was just having this problem as well, but my solution was simple. Today I bought a BenQ XL2410T and together with my LG I was running a 120Hz/60Hz setup as well. Running two 570 GTXs in SLI, I shouldn't be getting a problem with the displays on my end.

Of course ended up having a ton of problems. This is not a problem that is limited to only one screen either; its on both. Playing a video or a windowed game on either screen causes the video to lag up. It wasn't until I switched back to 60Hz on both screens did the problems disappear.

The fix for me was to go into the Nvidia Control Panel -> Adjust Desktop Size and Position -> and setting "Perform scaling on" to GPU instead of display.

Now I've got the computer running in a 120/60Hz setup. I can play a game in one screen and watching a show in the other with no problems.

Just to toss out some extra info: My BenQ is of course using a dual-link DVI cable, where as my LG is running on a single. Also, for some time at first, the Nvidia control panel kept saying my BenQ's max refresh was 60, even though in windows and on the monitor's information readout it was going at 120. This was fixed when I set the GPU to do scaling.

Hope this helps people with similar problems.

Someone else mentioned having issues while using an HDMI cable on the 60hz monitor.

No Im using dvi cable with the 120 hz on display port. I just switched the 60 hz monitor from dvi to dvi dual link and it somewhat fixed the problem

ultimatebyte · Sep 15, 2014

Sorry for being late, found this by googleing. I already solved this, and this vsync question remind me how.

So : Simplest fix : Disable aero. Find a theme, eventually.
Explaination :

In windowed mode, with aero enabled, vsync is forced ON. It's good for VLC... But, at least with nvidia GPU, and one monitor at 120hz and the other at 60hz, this vsync causes stutter while dragging windows from one screen to another (sometimes) AND makes your windowed games horribly stutter.

handakes · Oct 7, 2014

ultimatebyte :

this is exactly it! i was wondering about this but now it's fixed cause of this, i knew it was the Vsync that's making all the fuss but i just couldn't get to this one on my own..thanks a million!

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Micro stutter when in windowed mode

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