Question What is the correct way to cap framerate in windowed borderless games?

[Fumig]

Hello everyone. So the problem is, if I cap a windowed borderless game to 60fps on a 60hz monitor, I am getting a lot of microstuttering, while I get none in fullscreen with the same settings.

I've always dismissed the problem with "this monitor must be trash" but then I realized it was happening on multiple monitors, also high end ones.

I once heard someone in a stream say that "in windowed borderless you have to set the framerate to 1 or 2 frames less than that of the screen" but I wasn't paying attention and I doubt it was an accurate statement anyway.

Regardless, that turned out to be true and with some trial and error I managed to reduce the microstuttering on my screen by setting it to 60fps and 59hz refresh.

I imagine this is common knowledge but I really can't find an explanation as to why this is needed in the first place, and what is the correct value for any given refresh rate.

Also I would like to know how this relates to vsync and adaptive sync. I never needed vsync in windowed borderless because I am never getting tearing. But maybe that depends on the game. Thank you in advance!

 

[hotaru.hino]

Normally you're supposed to set the frame rate limiter a few FPS below the refresh rate for GSync/FreeSync monitors. Also games in any windowed mode goes through DWM still, which forces V-Sync (I don't know how 3D applications can still render faster than the refresh rate)

Setting a slightly higher frame rate limit than the refresh rate likely ensures that the frame times will mostly line up with each refresh rate interval.

Also https://forums.blurbusters.com/viewtopic.php?p=63958&sid=4f1509250bed8efb6f8611614c750a25#p63958 might be something good to look at