Windows 10: "Alt-Tab" impacts Gaming performance

This issue seems to be noticed and cared by very few users on Windows. Users who multitask Alt-Tab when playing games, are vulnerable to this problem. I have been noticing inconsistencies in input latency, bad frame pacing etc., regardless of "Fullscreen optimizations" disabled or enabled. Games run just fine only until Alt-Tabbing out of the game to desktop or other applications. When Alt-Tabbing back into the game, they start to suffer with frame pacing issues, altered input latency and Double buffering Vsync being overridden with Triple buffering, things like that. The game might look like it is running in fullscreen but, looks like it actually is not, but worse. In order for the game to run clean again, pressing Alt-Enter a couple of times or toggling in-game settings back to fullscreen fixes it and sometimes, it doesn't, and restarting is the only way. I personally do care a lot about good frame pacing in games and this problem interferes with the gaming experience on PC.


I used a tool called "PresentMon" to monitor what is going on behind the scenes and the tool shows, the latency being increased after Alt-Tabbing from the game and back into the game. When it is running in normal fullscreen mode by pressing Alt-Enter, the latency stabilizes. You can refer to the picture, I attached.


What could be the reason, Alt-Tab breaks the games and don't turn them back to fullscreen? Is this a normal behavior? Is this the way Windows manages applications? A nice explanation will be appreciated. Thank you.




:)

 

Weird alt-tab out of fullscreen games.

Hi Simon,

The multitasking capability of a game depends on the total memory of your computer. If you have large amounts of RAM on your computer, it can multitask heavy programs easily like high-end games. To ensure that we can provide the appropriate resolution
for your concerns with the alt-tab function, we’d like to ask you a few questions:

• What were the recent changes made on your computer before you experienced this issue?
• When did the issue start?

• Have you pressed the alt-tab key during you play Rainbow Six Siege? Or it just happen without pressing it?
  
• Does the automatic ALT-TAB behavior happens on other games?
• Do you have any other programs running on your computer while playing?
• What is the anti-virus program you're using?

• What is your device or system specifications? To know, follow these steps:
  1. Press Windows + S and type
     About your PC.
  2. Send us the information listed under Device specifications.
  
  

Moving forward, if you're multitasking while playing, we recommend that you play this game only without doing other tasks. Pressing ALT-TAB or performing a multitasking interferes with the performance of your video card, especially if you're running a heavy
game like Rainbow Six Siege. It will generate screen viewing issues like intermittently switching your game screen between your desktop environment.

For now, restart your game and do not press ALT+TAB while playing. This will allow your video card to dedicate its graphics performance on the game only instead of your desktop environment.

If you would like me to provide additional advice, simply respond to this thread. I will get notified and I’ll reply to you as soon as I can.

 

alt tabbing increases system performance?

Alt+tab often forces the game to reinitialize the DirectX renderer. It's likely an opportunity to reattempt to start SLI/Crossfire if it didn't start with the game.

Mind you, alt+tab is as likely to cause the game to crash as it is to improve performance. Some games support it, some don't, and some are somewhere in between.

 

alt tabbing increases system performance?

I've never heard that. Back when I played games a lot I occasionally alt+tab out of a game but never saw any "increase" in performance.