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Rainmeter adversely affecting game fps (despite not showing on the fps counter)

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Wyse
Posts: 2
Joined: March 6th, 2017, 10:26 pm

Rainmeter adversely affecting game fps (despite not showing on the fps counter)

Post by Wyse »

Hi,
I've been using Rainmeter for a while, however recently I've noticed it's affecting performance in multiple games in a really weird way. First of all my system is pretty high end so hardware shouldn't be the problem here. I also included most of the skins I use: some of them are custom made, others are modified versions of already existing ones. I run all my rainmeter skins on a multi monitor setup, on my third monitor, so they are always visible; Rainmeter is not using any considerable amount of resources either, here's some stats taken from Process Explorer:
Image
Here's the thing: whenever I have a game open in borderless windowed mode and Rainmeter is running the fps take a considerable hit, however the fps counter shows no change: it's as if the refresh rate of the monitor itself changed (which is obviously not the case). I also tried running less skins and it seems to have little to no effect on the matter, the problem persists even if I only run two skins; I also tried disabling aero (I'm running Windows 7) and my video drivers are updated via a clean install. Let's take Overwatch on my 120 Hz display as an example: the game constantly runs at 130+ fps, but whenever Rainmeter is open if I had to take I guess (as the only way to measure this is my eyes) it drops to about 60-80 fps, and while the fps counter shows no change at all (yes, I even tried third party fps counters), the game is noticeably choppier.
So far I only found two ways to fix this: closing Rainmeter or running the game in fullscreen mode instead of borderless windowed.
Any idea on what could be causing this? I would appreciate any help.

EDIT: Okay, so, I think I found more info on the issue, and it has nothing to do with Rainmeter itself. Apparently it's a Windows/Nvidia drivers problem. A possible fix is plugging your secondary monitor into your mobo instead of the gpu. Check this out:
https://www.reddit.com/r/GlobalOffensive/comments/43ukj8/fps_stutter_when_having_programs_showing_on_my/
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