I'm looking to buy a Lenovo Legion R45w-30 ultrawide monitor, which features a 165Hz refresh rate. I plan to use it for both work with my laptop and for gaming on my PC. However, I prefer not to use the full ultrawide display. Instead, I want to utilize PbP or TrueSplit mode, which likely disables Freesync. My question is: how much of an issue is it if Freesync is turned off, especially when FPS dips below the monitor's high refresh rate? I'm accustomed to an older 60/75Hz display and have heard that triple buffering can help with this issue, but I understand it's often not available in many modern games using DirectX 11/12.
3 Answers
Ever since I switched to a 175Hz monitor, I haven’t really missed variable refresh rates. The gameplay is smooth enough even when I have occasional frame drops. Honestly, it’s often better to focus on optimizing your windows settings to minimize stuttering instead. A single dropped frame can make things choppy for a brief moment, much worse than a consistent minor stutter! Plus, I've noticed that Freesync and G-Sync have caused some stutters on my Red team card lately, but I haven’t felt the need to troubleshoot it much.
You could run your games in 16:9 mode instead of ultrawide, which would let you use Freesync. But you'll end up with black borders, which can be a bit of a hassle to look at.
Yeah, that might work, but it’s still a pretty inconvenient solution.
If you really find it bothersome, just turn Freesync off and see how it feels!
I think you might have missed the point of the question, though.
I feel you! Sometimes I notice stuttering even at 164fps on a 165Hz monitor. Once the FPS drops, it can get pretty jerky, and I don’t know how I could game without some kind of variable refresh rate—unless I'm on a super high refresh monitor, lol.