Game updates affect screen refresh speed during fullscreen mode
Game updates affect screen refresh speed during fullscreen mode
Hello everyone. Essentially, I adjusted the refresh rate to 90 Hz, but when I start the game it automatically switches to a native 100 Hz display. What’s the issue? Here’s a quick background – My monitor is a Mi Gaming model with a 34-inch screen, originally set to 144 Hz. When I switched to a laptop with an RTX 3060, it couldn’t maintain 144 FPS smoothly. Plus, you might know that 95 FPS at 100 Hz feels worse than 60 FPS at 60 Hz because of timing issues. My monitor does support freeSync, but I’m not very familiar with G-Sync or HDMI setups. Even if I could, I’d rather avoid those changes. I want games to run at the refresh rate my monitor supports via Vsync. The monitor handles 144Hz, 100Hz, 60Hz, and 50Hz. I initially thought 100Hz would fix the performance gap (I had a 6700 XT that could handle it with a little buffer). So I set it to 100Hz, installed my games, but during intense gameplay—especially in PUBG—it often drops to 90–95 FPS. This causes noticeable lag when I need it most. I prefer keeping the monitor at 90 FPS/90 Hz. I created a custom resolution labeled “unsupported” which works perfectly (3440x1440 at 90Hz), but when I launch the game, the monitor briefly goes black for about 10 seconds as if switching resolutions or refresh rates. Then it restarts at 100 FPS in Vsync, showing the monitor is actually running at 100Hz. Alt+Tab brings me back to 90 Hz on desktop. How can I stop the games from altering my monitor settings? Also, windowed or borderless mode doesn’t help because switching to a mode that keeps the desired Hz still causes the game to drop another 15 FPS, pushing me into the high 70s. That means I’d have to settle for 75 Hz on desktop, which is a significant compromise. PUBG is the biggest problem right now for maintaining stable FPS.
They’re typical clock speeds for monitors as well. Just checked Overwatch—it ran at 60, 75, 100, 120, and 144 MHz.
Yes, but the issue lies in how the monitor responds to different clock speeds. On some older PCs, setting the monitor to 100 Hz caused it to stay at that speed even when the game switched to a higher resolution like 144 Hz. The game would then restart the monitor and play at 144 FPS, effectively ignoring the original 100 Hz setting. Your observation suggests this isn't an unusual problem with clock speeds, as many games handle common settings similarly.
Games operate independently of desktop configurations. You can adjust Windows, Nvidia, or AMD settings as you wish, but games maintain their own preferences over time. They disregard any desktop settings and apply the values from the game. There could be specific NCC rules that make fullscreen apps adhere to desktop settings, though I’m uncertain about the extent. The same problem arises with black screens appearing when a game uses a different resolution than your monitors.
You're experiencing black screen issues because the refresh rate changes unexpectedly. This suggests the game isn't adhering to your desktop settings. The variation between 100 Hz and 144 Hz might be due to the game defaulting to its initial settings when it starts, which can be hard to adjust.