Windowed (fullscreen)/Windowed borderless - Can you uncap?

[Trog]

When I play games in windowed (fullscreen), I get over 60fps, though it feels like I'm looking at 60fps. Is this just the sad fact of windowed (fullscreen) gaming, or is there a way to fix this? Can you guys see all of your frames in windowed borderless as if you were in fullscreen? I feel like I'm not making the most out of my 165Hz monitor when playing anything but CS:GO which I play in fullscreen for the extra performance.

 

For example, I play World of Warcraft in windowed (fullscreen), I get 120-170fps though it feels like I'm looking at 60fps. If I switch to fullscreen I get the exact same fps, but it is much smoother, I can clearly tell the difference, I'm seeing the frames I should be. This is the same for all windowed (fullscreen) games I play. I still play WoW in windowed (fullscreen) though for the convenience of hopping between monitors at will.

 

It would be awesome not to have to choose between performance and convenience.

 

Win7 home

Asus ROG swift PG279Q 165Hz (Had the same issue on my old BenQ XL2411T 144Hz)

i7-3820 @ 4.4GHz

12GB RAM

GTX 970 (looking forward to my free $30)

 

Sorry if this has been posted before, I can't seem to find a straight answer anywhere.

 

Cheers,

James

Edited August 3, 2016 by Trog

[GreezyJeezy]

what CPU do you have 

[Trog]

i7-3820 @ 4.4GHz, I didn't think that would be relevant , updated it in the topic

[GreezyJeezy]

6 minutes ago, Trog said:

i7-3820 @ 4.4GHz, I didn't think that would be relevant , updated it in the topic

well the cpu has to do with multitasking and having the game  borderless windowed will not make the game be taking full advantage of by the CPU becase its just windowed so its running the same as all other programs you have open. not same as in the same % just as in priority as what to give performance to, if you get what im trying to say

 

now when you run it fullscreen it makes the game the priority and it can take more advantage of the CPU, so the better the CPU usally the better youll run games windowed 

[MVPernula]

Welcome to the forum, James!

 

If you want people to see your replies I recommend quoting the post you'd like to give your answer to, you do this by simply pressing the small arrow under the posts!

 

About your topic; So what you say is that your game tells you that your FPS cap is on 120, but is only displaying 60? Sounds terribly odd. I want to ask about vertical sync, but I gess you checked that already?

[Trog]

6 minutes ago, MVPernula said:

Welcome to the forum, James!

 

If you want people to see your replies I recommend quoting the post you'd like to give your answer to, you do this by simply pressing the small arrow under the posts!

 

About your topic; So what you say is that your game tells you that your FPS cap is on 120, but is only displaying 60? Sounds terribly odd. I want to ask about vertical sync, but I gess you checked that already?

Thanks for the tip! The game's cap is 200, I run the game at around 120fps but am only seeing 60. As soon as I switch from borderless to fullscreen it feels much smoother like I'm seeing all of the 120fps.

 

Oh, and vsync is disabled. Enabling it just capps my fps at 60 even though my monitor and windows is set to 165.

Edited August 3, 2016 by Trog

[MVPernula]

5 minutes ago, Trog said:

Thanks for the tip! The game's cap is 200, I run the game at around 120fps but am only seeing 60. As soon as I switch from borderless to fullscreen it feels much smoother like I'm seeing all of the 120fps.

 

Oh, and vsync is disabled. Enabling it just capps my fps at 60 even though my monitor and windows is set to 165.

Hm this seems really weird. I really don't know much about this issue, but I guess you can try uninstalling and reinstalling the GPU drivers!

[Trog]

Just now, MVPernula said:

Hm this seems really weird. I really don't know much about this issue, but I guess you can try uninstalling and reinstalling the GPU drivers!

I have actually had one or two clean re-installs over the past year, that didn't solve it. So I should be seeing all 120fps even in windowed borderless? I only ever see all of my fps in fullscreen.

[MVPernula]

19 minutes ago, Trog said:

I have actually had one or two clean re-installs over the past year, that didn't solve it. So I should be seeing all 120fps even in windowed borderless? I only ever see all of my fps in fullscreen.

Googled this a little, seems like NVidia likes to have V-sync on in NVidia Control panel too! Look there to see if it's locked in there for some reason.

[MVPernula]

And are you sure that your monitor is set to 165Hz?

[Trog]

Just now, MVPernula said:

And are you sure that your monitor is set to 165Hz?

Yes, absolutely certain it's set to 165Hz. My global settings in the control panel for vsync are "Use the 3D application setting". It's all set to default, apart from Power management which I set to "Prefer maximum performance". I just saw the option preferred refresh rate and set that to "Highest available", but that made no difference. I also changed control panel vsync setting to "Off" just now, that made no difference either.

 

Just to clarify, should I be seeing all of my frames in windowed borderless mode? I always thought windowed mode was locked to 60 and that's the way it is.

[MVPernula]

4 minutes ago, Trog said:

Yes, absolutely certain it's set to 165Hz. My global settings in the control panel for vsync are "Use the 3D application setting". It's all set to default, apart from Power management which I set to "Prefer maximum performance". I just saw the option preferred refresh rate and set that to "Highest available", but that made no difference. I also changed control panel vsync setting to "Off" just now, that made no difference either.

 

Just to clarify, should I be seeing all of my frames in windowed borderless mode? I always thought windowed mode was locked to 60 and that's the way it is.

I play borderless windowed in almost every game title I play, displays over 60FPS to me. So I'm afriad I can't help you to be honest.. If noone else replies to this I suggest that you just keep googling.

[Trog]

Just now, MVPernula said:

I play borderless windowed in almost every game title I play, displays over 60FPS to me. So I'm afriad I can't help you to be honest.. If noone else replies to this I suggest that you just keep googling.

It displays 120-170fps in borderless, it's just not what I'm seeing, it feels like I'm looking at 60fps. As soon as I go fullscreen I get the same fps but I'm actually seeing them, it's smooth, it's how it should look at that fps.

 

Thanks for helping anyway!   If nobody else responds I think I will just put up with it until I get a new pc in a few years. At least I'm getting what I should in fullscreen.