Issue with stuttering or screen tearing on a desktop with multiple monitors.
Issue with stuttering or screen tearing on a desktop with multiple monitors.
Following the update from 3080 to 9070XT, on desktop it occasionally happens that both main and secondary displays experience a drop in frame rate, even when not playing games. On display 1 (160Hz) and display 2 (280Hz), this becomes noticeable during scrolling or mouse movement where smoothness is lost. The problem appears more pronounced when watching YouTube videos, where stuttering is visible. It seems the stutter carries over into gameplay as well, causing the FPS counter to show high values even though the game runs smoothly. When switching between displays, the rate returns to normal, but this wasn’t an issue before the upgrade. To address this, I used DDU to remove the old NVIDIA driver and installed the 25.3.1 driver from PowerColor. I also enabled soft cursor in portrait mode and adjusted display settings in AMD software. Disabling certain graphics options like Super Resolution and Fluid Motion Frames helped, though the issue remains unresolved.
Desktop usually has a frame rate, but sometimes Afterburner displays low numbers like 3fps. I don’t have clear sources for desktop framerates. Check your monitor’s OS settings to see if HZ changes. If you connect just one display and restart, many GPU drivers behave unpredictably due to mismatched specs and resolutions. It can vary—some setups work fine, others cause problems. Also, consider any overclocks or undervolts, and make sure Windows uses the balanced power plan. Fast startup is usually off by default.
My screen uses OSD refresh rate but shows 160Hz even though scrolling and mouse actions feel choppy. The AMD performance overlay doesn’t display the actual frame rate when I’m just browsing in a browser. My CPU and GPU are running at their default settings, Windows is set to maximum performance mode, and I’ve enabled fast startup. I haven’t changed anything yet—only tested by disconnecting one display at a time, which still causes problems on the other monitor.
I've tested this for several hours and it appears to function smoothly without noticeable stutter when I connect just my main display (INNOCN 27M2V: 3840x2160, 160Hz HDR On, with Adaptive-Sync enabled). I also tried turning off adaptive sync on all monitors, but the same issue still occurs randomly on displays 1 and 3. This is frustrating because I've relied on multiple monitors for years, and having only one display disrupts my workflow significantly.
This appears to be the problem. Currently I turn off adaptive sync on all monitors directly, not via Windows or AMD tools. Then I adjust my Windows settings to lower the 280Hz monitor to 144Hz (below the 160Hz of my main display), and over the past few days there’s been less stutter on both 160Hz and 60Hz displays. Now the setup looks stable: ASUS TUF Gaming VG259QM at 1920x1080 with 144Hz HDR off, adaptive sync disabled, connected via DisplayPort 2; INNOCN 27M2V at 3840x2160 with 160Hz HDR on, adaptive sync also disabled, linked through DisplayPort (main display); Dell U2414H at 1920x1080 with 60Hz no HDR and no adaptive sync, connected via HDMI with portrait mode enabled. Disappointed with AMD; I’m now using “Most Stable Graphics Drivers” to address many minor issues since I haven’t had problems with NVIDIA since the 780 series until the recent 5000 lineup.
I also faced a similar problem with my 2k 60Hz (secondary) and 2k 360Hz (primary) monitors, even after updating Windows. After reviewing this article, I looked at my Display settings in AMD software, and the only adjustment I made was switching the 60Hz monitor from 10 bpc to align with my mains 8 bpc. That resolved the issues with my 2k 60Hz monitor.