New to High Refresh Rate Gaming; Why Does Windows Cap My New Monitor to 60hz to Match the Second?

[notMateo]

So I just got my first high-refresh rate monitor and it's 165hz. It's only day two and I'm sorely disappointed to discover that in order to actually use it at 165hz I need to unplug my 60hz monitor or else windows will basically cap my new display to it's refresh rate. I'm just gonna say that's some absolute BS. Is there a fix for this? Is there some software I'm missing? I'm horribly disappointed and honestly considering returning it. Why spend all this money on this monitor when I legitimately can't use it unless I unplug my primary monitor? Why is this even an issue? 

 

EDIT: Fixed by setting the highest refresh rate panel as the primary monitor in Windows. 

EDIT 2x: Apparently TranslucentTB also causes issues. 

[vanished]

I'm pretty sure there's a way around this as I and many others have run different refresh rates before.  You may need to go into the detailed settings for the monitor.  This good ol' thing:

 

Alternatively there may be settings in your video card's control panel that need adjustment.

[JoostinOnline]

What video card do you have, and what cables are you using for each monitor?

[notMateo]

6 minutes ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

I'm pretty sure there's a way around this as I and many others have run different refresh rates before.  You may need to go into the detailed settings for the monitor.  This good ol' thing:

 

 

Alternatively there may be settings in your video card's control panel that need adjustment.

 

4 minutes ago, JoostinOnline said:

What video card do you have, and what cables are you using for each monitor?

 

Both are running off a 2070 Super
The 60hz is HDMI, the 165gz is DP

[JoostinOnline]

1 minute ago, notMateo said:

 

 

Both are running off a 2070 Super
The 60hz is HDMI, the 165gz is DP

Change the settings from the Nvidia Control Panel. You can access it by right clicking on the desktop.

[notMateo]

6 minutes ago, JoostinOnline said:

Change the settings from the Nvidia Control Panel. You can access it by right clicking on the desktop.

I did, first. 

[notMateo]

So apparently there's a ton of misinformation, or even just lack OF information surrounding this. I think it's still considerably an issue still though. I fixed it, on my end, by setting my primary display in Windows to my highest refresh rate panel, my 165hz panel. That's it. I tested this out with Overwatch and Apex (because I have to actually be in bed soon) and these games, in borderless windowed mode worked fine. Neither of them dropped down to 60fps or near. 

 

What really gets to me about this situation is that the information about it is scattered at best. Like, not once while looking up this issue (and I looked for a few hours) did I find anyone even saying anything about primary display settings. Which makes me wonder, is this the "real fix" for this issue, that happens often enough that I found quite a few hits on Google? I even saw earlier today someone had this same question. I see there are a lot display-related FAQ type posts stickied here, I think it would be awesome to have information about using mismatch refresh rates pinned somewhere (like a checklist of common hang ups like main display, nVidia Control Panel settings, using the Windows dialogs, etc).

This shouldn't be an issue imo, and I wish Windows didn't have this quirk about it, but from what I'm seeing it's preventable, but documentation on it is witch-talk at best.

 

Thanks to you two for your posts though, I really really appreciate it  
Taiwan number one and all that jazz

[vanished]

14 minutes ago, notMateo said:

snip

Very interesting, I've never considered that before.  I think most people with a high refresh rate screen probably have it as their primary and thus wouldn't run into this and wouldn't even discover this quirk (assuming that is what's going on).

[notMateo]

10 hours ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

Very interesting, I've never considered that before.  I think most people with a high refresh rate screen probably have it as their primary and thus wouldn't run into this and wouldn't even discover this quirk (assuming that is what's going on).

Yeah, and that's what  gets me about this, we have to assume this is the fix this time; there are honestly quite a few hurdles to go through to get high refresh rates going, and in some cases like mine here, even a sacrifice to be made (I actually wanted my main monitor to be my 60hz for content creation purposes). Do I smell a good TechQuickie video idea? :^)