Windows 10: Turn On or Off Variable Refresh Rate for Games in Windows 10

How to: Turn On or Off Variable Refresh Rate for Games in Windows 10

How to Turn On or Off Variable Refresh Rate for Games in Windows 10


A variable refresh rate (VRR) is the general term for a dynamic display refresh rate that can continuously and seamlessly vary on the fly, on displays that support variable refresh rate technologies. A display supporting a variable refresh rate usually supports a specific range of refresh rates (e.g. 30 Hertz through 144 Hertz). This is called the variable refresh rate range (VRR range). The refresh rate can continuously vary seamlessly anywhere within this range, even as a fraction.

Basically, variable refresh rate changes the refresh rate of the display during games to prevent screen tearing.

Starting with Windows 10 version 1903, Microsoft has added a new toggle in Graphics Settings for variable refresh rate. Variable refresh rate (VRR) is similar to NVIDIAs G-SYNC and VESA DisplayPort Adaptive-Sync.

This new OS support is only to augment these experiences and does not replace them. You should continue to use G-SYNC / Adaptive-Sync normally. This toggle doesnt override any of the settings youve already configured in the G-SYNC or Adaptive-Sync control panels.

This new toggle enables VRR support for DX11 full-screen games that did not support VRR natively, so these games can now benefit from your VRR hardware.

You wont see the slider unless your system has all of the following. If any of these are missing, you will not see the toggle and the feature will not be enabled for you.

• Windows 10 version 1903 or later
• A G-SYNC or Adaptive-Sync capable monitor
• A GPU with WDDM 2.6 or above drivers, that supports G-SYNC / Adaptive-Sync and this new OS feature

This feature is disabled by default, but you can turn it on and try the feature out. If you run into any unexpected issues while gaming, turn the feature off and see if that resolves the issue for you.

See also: OS Variable Refresh Rate |Microsoft DirectX Developer Blog

This tutorial will show you how to turn on or off variable refresh rate for games without native support for your account in Windows 10.



Here's How:

1. Open Settings, and click/tap on the System icon.

2. Click/tap on Display on the left side, and click/tap on the Graphics settings link towards the bottom on the right side. (see screenshot below)



3. In Graphics settings, turn on or off (default) Variable refresh rate for what you want. (see screenshot below)



4. You can now close Settings if you like.

5. You might need to restart your game for changes to take effect.


That's it,
Shawn


Related Tutorials

• How to Change Screen Refresh Rate of a Display in Windows 10
• How to Set Preferred GPU for Apps in Windows 10
• How to Enable or Disable Fullscreen Optimizations for Apps and Games in Windows 10
• How to Check What Graphics Card or GPU is in Windows PC
• How to Turn On or Off Game Mode in Windows 10

:)

 

Variable Refresh Rate

Hello William, *Smile

Does your PC meet the requirements below for Variable Refresh Rate?

You won’t see the slider unless your system has all of the following. If any of these are missing, you will not see the toggle and the feature will not be enabled for you.

• Windows 10 version 1903 or later
• A G-SYNC or Adaptive-Sync capable monitor
• A GPU with WDDM 2.6 or above drivers, that supports G-SYNC / Adaptive-Sync and this new OS feature

*Arrow Turn On or Off Variable Refresh Rate for Games in Windows 10

 

Refresh rate Problem

Hi Robert,

Thank you for posting your query in Microsoft Community.

Screen refresh rate is the rate at which the data displayed on screen is refreshed; it may be an image or some text document. Most of the users would like to set it to a higher rate but this also depends on the capacity of graphic
card and monitors. If the refresh rate is slow, the images on the display looks as flickering to the user eye and makes it uncomfortable to work.

Nowadays the latest monitors available in market will have minimum 60 Hz of refresh rate and it is very good option to set it to 70 Hz if you your monitor is compatible. Normally a high performance or quality monitors can reach
120 Hz of refresh rate. So I would suggest you to set your monitor refresh rate as higher as possible, below given steps describes how to access this feature on your Windows 8.1/10 PC.

• The default refresh rate setting is 60 Hertz (HZ); however, your monitor may support a higher setting. Check your manufacturer's documentation for information about the settings that your monitor supports.
• If you use a higher refresh rate, you can reduce the rate that your screen flickers; however, if you specify a refresh rate that is too high for your monitor, your screen may become unusable and your hardware may be damaged.
• Changes to the refresh rate affect all users that log on to the computer.

I would, as of now, suggest you to visit the computer manufacturer's support website and install the latest display and chipset drivers available for the latest operating system (currently it would be 8.1 in the list).

Hope this information is helpful. Please feel free to reply in case you face any other issues with Windows in future.

 

Variable Refresh Rate

You can run dxdiag, click on the Display tab, and the WDDM version will be under Driver Model like below.

*Arrow Check Windows Display Driver Model Version for WDDM Support in Windows

 

What is new for Windows 10 May 2019 Update version 1903

How to Turn On or Off Variable Refresh Rate for Games in Windows 10

 

Windows 10 desktop duplication broke Variable Refresh Rate (GSYNC and Freesync)

As title.

Since latest windows 10 updates, Microsoft broke Variable refresh rate on apps that uses Desktop Duplication API.

If I use an app that uses the desktop duplication API, VRR is disengaged.

I had no problems with same drivers and same app before christmas...

Many users is still experiencing the same problem.

Microsoft, please fix it.