Question about FreeSync and stuttering issue on multiple displays with differing refresh rates

[GANK_STER]

Alright. I am currently having a problem with my new AOC FreeSync display. I have two displays connected to my computer, one is my new AOC monitor (1920x1080 @ 144Hz on display port) and the other is a Sanyo 50" LED TV (1920x1080 @ 60Hz on HDMI) I like to have movies or shows playing on the TV while I play games on the monitor. Windows does NOT like this. I have read many, many, MANY posts and such from both ATI (which I have) and NVidia users describing the same issue I am getting. When you use multiple monitors with differing refresh rates, you get horrible stuttering on one or both monitors. Apparently this is due to WDM (Windows Desktop Manager) and some application of VSync to the desktop. IE whenever you have two displays with different refresh rates connected and something is moving (a video, dragging a window around, etc) with WDM/Aero enabled you will get horrible stuttering. Before I got my new monitor, I was using a standard 1080P 60Hz monitor and therefore did not get the issue because the refresh rates were matched, but as soon as I got the new monitor hooked up I started getting stuttering.

There are a few "fixes" around but they are not 100%. Most dont work for everyone, some only help a little bit and some introduce more issues. There apparently was a registry edit that fixed it completely, but it was for pre-service pack 1 and those values have since moved (and I cannot find them). The only thing that has helped so far was to disable aero entirely, and therefore the VSync, but unfortunately that makes any video tear horribly, along with just generally making the desktop look crappy (weird visual errors when dragging windows around and stuff like that). I have done hours of searching and so far I cannot find any other "fixes".

The only two options I can find at this time would be to either buy a second (cheap) graphics card and run my main display off my good one (an ASUS Radeon R290X) and run the TV off the second one, but this may introduce more issues, even buying another ATI card its always possible to get driver conflictions and stuff like that. Or I could set my main display to 60Hz in the display settings, but it seems a waste to have a 144Hz monitor running at 60Hz. Unless the FreeSync properties of the monitor/video card will override this, and that is my question. If I do set my display to 60Hz in the monitor settings, will the FreeSync feature override this when I am playing a game? It SEEMS to me that it might, depending on how FreeSync and the graphics card drivers operate. If the FreeSync portion of the drivers bypasses the set refresh rate in the settings, and I imagine this could easily be the case (since it cant really have a "set" refresh rate for FreeSync to work), then it wouldnt be a problem. But it could also be the case where the "set" refresh rate in the settings ends up being a "maximum" that applies to FreeSync as well.

So if anyone could weigh in on this I would appreciate it.

For the record my system specs are as follows:

Windows 7 Ultimate x64
MSI Gaming 970 motherboard
AMD FX-8320 x64 8-core @4.0 GHz
16GB Patriot Viper DDR3 2400
ASUS Radeon R9 290X
1000W power supply
120GB SSD for Windows, 480GB SSD for games/programs and a 3TB HDD for storage

 

[coozie7]

No idea really so just a few daft suggestions:
Set the frame rate target for the 144Hz monitor to 60 when you're not playing a game maybe that'll help sync the displays.
Turn off the monitor you're not using, taking it totally out of the equation.
Try the second card solution, you won't need a very strong part and AFAIK Win 7 onwards isn't too phased by running multiple video drivers, so you could run the R9 290X off Crimson and the other card off the older Catalyst suite.
Contact AMD through their driver report program.
Stop being such a showoff by playing a game AND watching a movie at the same time. 😉

 

[GANK_STER]

No idea really so just a few daft suggestions:
Set the frame rate target for the 144Hz monitor to 60 when you're not playing a game maybe that'll help sync the displays.
Turn off the monitor you're not using, taking it totally out of the equation.
Try the second card solution, you won't need a very strong part and AFAIK Win 7 onwards isn't too phased by running multiple video drivers, so you could run the R9 290X off Crimson and the other card off the older Catalyst suite.
Contact AMD through their driver report program.
Stop being such a showoff by playing a game AND watching a movie at the same time. 😉

So small update. Tried a separate video card (I got an HD5450 "silent" and hooked my TV up to that), and it still does the same exact thing. I could try and get an Nvidia card as my second, that way the drivers would be completely separate (as now both cards are being run by the same driver and the same Crimson software, so that may be contributing to it still having the same problem as both monitors being hooked up to the same card), but somehow I doubt that it would have much, if any, of an effect. I could also try and force install an older ATI driver for the second card, but Im not sure how that would work out (if it would even let me).

Contacting AMD/ATI would also probably be pointless. Besides the fact that I know FAR more than just about any "tech support" rep I have ever talked to, this issue is present with AMD/ATI, Nvidia and Intel GPUs so its not a brand specific problem. Apparently its also been observed in Windows 7, 8/8.1 and 10 and many people have tracked this problem to the specific application of Vsync through the Windows desktop.

UPDATE: SUCCESS!!!! Well, so far, using an older driver for the second card (which was a B*&CH to get installed btw) has so far allowed me to use different refresh rates for my monitors (144hz for my AOC and 60hz for my Sanyo TV) keep WDM/Aero enabled (and thus Vsync for the desktop, WMP, web browsers, etc) without making the video on the second screen stutter. I have NO idea why this is the case, as even though I used an older Catalyst driver (14.12 Omega drivers) it is still recognizing the second card and letting me set options for it in the Crimson software. For anyone interested, the way I had to work it in order to use the older drivers on the second card was to completely uninstall all my ATI drivers, then I used Device Manager and manually "updated" the drivers for the 5450 and pointed it to the setup folder for the older drivers (the one that the archived driver package unzips the install files to), after that I restarted and installed the newer drivers like normal and miraculously it did NOT overwrite or update the drivers for the second card. I would assume that even if it had, you could use the "roll back driver" option in the device properties for that specific card to revert it back to the driver that you first installed, but that didnt end up being necessary for me. Not sure exactly how but Windows actually did something just how I wanted it to be done, it did it intuitively and without a fight. So, for anyone who has this problem and the other workarounds dont fix it, a cheapie $40 card and an older driver apparently win the day.