Borderless gsync doesn't work with rainmeter

[Jack.]

Hello, if i use Rainmeter with a game in borderless mode, my monitor refresh rate feels less smooth (140fps feel like 80hz), as soon as i close rainmeter it works fine.
If i put the game fullscreen with rainmeter open then it works fine, but i want to use rainmeter opened in my 2nd screen while i play games in borderless mode.
Without any games, using something like https://testufo.com/ while rainmeter is open, it works fine.

I tried using hardware acceleration on/off and doesn't change anything.
I tried forcing rainmeter to use the gpu with the nvidia panel, forcing vsync on/off, forcing gsync on/off, but nothing.
I tried all sorts of combinations but nothing works.

Im using windows 10 (up to date) with the latest nvidia drivers 516.94 and the latest rainmeter version.
These are my specs:
Monitor: ViewSonic XG2405 144hz IPS
Processor: AMD Ryzen 7 3700x
Graphic card: Gigabyte GTX 1080 G1
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-AB350-Gaming 3
Memory: 16Gb G.Skill DDR4 B-Die @3600 CL 16

Any help is appreciated, thanks.

[Alex88]

Maybe the borderless fullscreen is transparently or somehow extending onto both desktops? When you say not working, is it that Rainmeter (or the game) completely stops working (ie. crashing), or that it disappears? If Rainmeter simply disappears but is still running, possibly try setting the position of the skins to Topmost or Stay Topmost so that it goes over the borderless fullscreen, though I don't have a second screen, so I haven't tested that yet. If it's crashing, it may be something specific to the Nvidia GPU, and I haven't used Nvidia GPUs or G-Sync in a while.

[Jack.]

Maybe the borderless fullscreen is transparently or somehow extending onto both desktops? When you say not working, is it that Rainmeter (or the game) completely stops working (ie. crashing), or that it disappears? If Rainmeter simply disappears but is still running, possibly try setting the position of the skins to Topmost or Stay Topmost so that it goes over the borderless fullscreen, though I don't have a second screen, so I haven't tested that yet. If it's crashing, it may be something specific to the Nvidia GPU, and I haven't used Nvidia GPUs or G-Sync in a while.

I'm talking about 144hz monitors, gsync and refresh rate. No crashes or disappearings. The problem is still there even with one monitor plugged in, so it's not about multiple monitors.

[Brian]

While I cannot replicate this issue, it may be caused by Rainmeter still drawing in "GDI compatible" mode. Newer DirectX settings allow for tearing on variable rate monitors. Unfortunately these settings require newer swap chain settings that Rainmeter cannot use just yet.

But I am purely speculating if this is really the cause.

I tried using hardware acceleration on/off and doesn't change anything.

Did you fully restart Rainmeter when "Use hardware acceleration" was OFF ? Rainmeter really should use the software WARP rasterizer in this case (meaning most processing should be done by the CPU), but I think D2D still pushes some things onto the graphics card.

-Brian

[Jack.]

While I cannot replicate this issue, it may be caused by Rainmeter still drawing in "GDI compatible" mode. Newer DirectX settings allow for tearing on variable rate monitors. Unfortunately these settings require newer swap chain settings that Rainmeter cannot use just yet.

But I am purely speculating if this is really the cause.


Did you fully restart Rainmeter when "Use hardware acceleration" was OFF ? Rainmeter really should use the software WARP rasterizer in this case (meaning most processing should be done by the CPU), but I think D2D still pushes some things onto the graphics card.

-Brian

Yes, i fully closed and re-opened rainmeter when changing "Use hardware acceleration" between on and off the problem is still the same.

I've done further testing with other games, the statement i made before is not really correct.. it doesn't seem to "turn off gsync" but games are still less smooth when rainmeter is open.. it is hard to pin point because i don't have real measurements but only my eyes.

i did these tests:

Test 1: Game running at 140 fps, rainmeter closed, smooth 140hz
Test 2: Game running at 140 fps, rainmeter open, feels like the game is running at 80hz

I tried then capping the frames at 80 fps with rainmeter closed to do a "simulation" and it feels exactly like Test 2.

Test 3: Game running at 80 fps, rainmeter open, then it feels like 60hz
Test 4: Game running at 60 fps, rainmeter open and closed, then it still feels like 60hz