[SOLVED] Games freeze on a single frame after alt-tabbing until I alt-tab again ?

[Averath]

When I purchased Total War: Warhammer 3 (after it had mostly been fixed) I noticed that while playing the game in Borderless Window, alt-tabbing out of the game and then returning to it would cause the game to freeze on a single frame. I could press Esc and the sound would play for the main menu opening, but the screen would not change. The only way to fix this would be to alt-tab out, and then back into the game. However, this wasn't a guarantee and sometimes the game would just CTD instead.

I thought this was unique to TW:WH3 until I played Hearts of Iron 4 and that game experienced the same freezing on a single frame after alt-tabbing. I never experienced a CTD, but it would consistently freeze after an alt-tab. Alright, so strategy games only, right?

Then it happened in Terraria of all games. That game doesn't crash, either. But it does freeze on a single frame.

I have absolutely no idea what is causing this. I am fairly certain that it isn't my Nvidia software, as this has been going on for a very long time, and I've used DDU before to completely uninstall and reinstall my GPU drivers over the course of half a year or longer. I do not use GeForce Experience. I do use MSI Afterburner for a custom fan curve to prevent an annoying start-stop sound from my GPU fans.


CPU: i5-12600K
RAM: 32GB DDR4 3200
GPU: EVGA RTX 3060 Ti [this should be 3060 Ti ?-- moderator]
OS: Windows 11, build 22621.4037

 

[Averath]

Not sure if I should delete the thread or just leave it here, but I discovered the issue. It was Nvidia's "Fast" v-sync setting. Once I swapped to "On", everything stopped crashing. I do not know why that setting would have this big of an impact, but I have since disabled it and things seem to have improved immensely.

 

[Phillip Corcoran]

Hi Averath and welcome to our forums.

I've marked your thread as "Solved" but leaving it here for the benefit of others who may have the same problem.

 

[Mefungpoo]

@Averath

You literally saved me from troubleshooting the heck outta this issue.
Thank you so much for the help on this.

Disabling "Fast-Vsync" completely fixed this issue.

Thank you so much!!