Framerate capped at 140fps in windowed borderless when using Gsync

Avanta8 · March 17, 2021

Hi, I have a 144hz monitor, but when using Gsync, some games get locked to 140fps when in borderless windowed mode. If I switch it to fullscreen, then everything works properly, and I can get much more than 140 fps. However, if I switch it back to borderless windowed, then it goes back to being capped at 140 fps.

In the Gsync settings, I have it enabled for windowed and full screen mode. I'm using a 3700x + 3080 + x570 Tomahawk. I'm currently using two monitors: an AOC 24G2U as the main monitor, and an old 60hz monitor for as the secondary one, but this issue still happens if I just use one monitor.

I've tried DDU, only using the AOC monitor, reinstalling monitor drivers, putting the GPU in the other slot, but nothing I've tried has helped. There's no cap in the Nvidia control panel, and I've reset the settings to make sure. The only way to fix this it to either disable Gsync, or play in fullscreen mode - none of which I would like to do, as I would like to be able to use the second monitor without the game I'm playing minimizing on my main monitor. I'd also like to be able to use Gsync.

This doesn't happen for every game - eg. Cod Cold War is fine. However, it does happen for games like Apex Legends or CSGO. (I know by default, Apex caps your FPS to 144, but I've changed this.)

I know technically you want to cap your FPS under 144 fps anyway, and it's what I usually do which is why I hadn't noticed the issue for ages. However, I was experiencing some stuttering, and so I uncapped the fps, but to my surprise, it was still stuck on 140. The main problem is, with this artificial FPS cap, it doesn't cap very well so the frametime graph is a little bumpy which leads to some stuttering feeling. If I put it to fullscreen (so the FPS is no longer artificially capped) and cap the FPS myself using RTSS, the frametime graph is flat, and it doesn't stutter.

Therefore, I'd be happy to see if anyone has any fixes or suggestions to fix this issue, or if anyone has experienced this issue before. Thanks