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Adaptive Sync does not work on Borderless Fullscreen games

IMest
Novice
4,812 Views

I'd like to report a bug. I own a Dell 15 5511 Laptop with an i7 11800H with 11th Gen UHD Graphics and an RTX 3060 Laptop GPU with Nvidia Optimus technology. While playing games that don't have an Exclusive Fullscreen mode, Adaptive Sync does not seem to work causing stutters and judder if the FPS is lower than the monitor’s maximum refresh rate.

Steps to replicate the issue:

  1. Enable Adaptive Sync and Adaptive Sync Plus on the Intel Graphics Command Center
  2. Enable Variable Refresh Rate on the Windows Graphics Settings
  3. Launch Assassin’s Creed Syndicate
  4. Set it to Full Screen, at 165Hz and disable Vsync
  5. The game should look very smooth and without tearing because of Adaptive Sync. But in reality there will be a lot of stutter and judder, Adaptive Sync is not working because Assassin’s Creed Syndicate does not have an Exclusive Fullscreen mode and Adaptive Sync is not working on Borderless Fullscreen

Adaptive Sync seems to be working without issues on Exclusive Fullscreen games

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AndrewG_Intel
Moderator
4,767 Views

Hello @IMest

Thank you for posting on the Intel® communities.


We appreciate the information and the reports provided. However, we would like to clarify some additional details:

1- Is this a new laptop? Is the behavior occurring since the first day that you have the device or did it work fine before?

2- If this worked fine before, were there any hardware or software changes that might relate to the point when the behavior started? (For instance, Windows, driver, or software/game updates?)

3- Based on the Intel® SSU report, the system is running the previous Intel® generic graphics driver version "30.0.101.1960". The latest generic driver is 30.0.101.1994. Could you please test this driver and let us know if the behavior is the same?

4- Do you know if the behavior also occurs using the customized driver from Dell? The latest DELL* driver is version 30.0.101.1338, A05. We recommend giving it a try to see if the behavior is the same.

To install the driver, you may follow the steps on this link: Clean Installation of Intel® Graphics Drivers in Windows*.

5- Based on the Graphics Bug document, we understand that you're using the laptop's built-in display. For testing purposes, by any chance are you able to test this using an external monitor and connected through a USB-C/DisplayPort* cable? If yes, is the behavior the same?


Best regards,

Andrew G.

Intel Customer Support Technician


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IMest
Novice
4,753 Views

Hi @AndrewG_Intel

1- It is a new laptop. The behavior has been occurring since the first day

2- N/A

3- I'm unable to update to driver 30.0.101.1994 due to mobile data caps, currently I cannot download that newer driver. Although I think it won't change anything

4- I downgraded the driver to the latest customized DELL* driver, version 30.0.101.1338, A05. The behavior is the same

5- I currently don't have any external monitors that support Adaptive Sync, so I cannot test. And even if I could, the USB-C port is connected to the discrete NVIDIA GPU, and not to the Intel iGPU, so the behavior would not be the same

Another game I tried was Alien Isolation. Alien Isolation has both an Exclusive Fullscreen mode and a Borderless Fullscreen mode. I capped the game to 3 FPS below the maximum refresh rate of the display, to 162FPS, to maintain the game FPS on the VRR range. When running in Exclusive Fullscreen, the game is perfectly smooth; when running in Borderless Fullscreen, the game has stutters and judder.

I believe this is a limitation of the VRR implementation used by Intel and Microsoft on Windows 10/11. Windows 10/11 VRR does not work on Borderless Windowed games, Microsoft will add a new Optimization for Widowed Games on a future Windows 11 update that should add support for VRR and other technologies to Windowed Games. 

In the meantime, Nvidia and AMD both have options to apply G-Sync and Freesync to Windowed Games. Does Intel have any plan to add a similar option to apply Adaptive Sync to Windowed Games?

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AndrewG_Intel
Moderator
4,723 Views

Hello IMest

Thank you for your response and for all the details. Please allow us to review this further and we will be posting back in the thread as soon as more information is available.


Best regards,

Andrew G.

Intel Customer Support Technician


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AndrewG_Intel
Moderator
4,701 Views

Hello IMest


We are still working on this. However, we would like to request you to provide us with a video showing the issue so we can investigate further this behavior.

Please attach to the post the video file or provide a YouTube link.


Thank you in advance for your help with this request. We will be looking forward to hearing back from you.


Best regards,

Andrew G.

Intel Customer Support Technician


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IMest
Novice
4,672 Views

Hi @AndrewG_Intel

 

Since the issue is caused by the display not adapting the refresh rate to the game's framerate, this cannot be captured using a recording software or capture card. I tried to capture the issue by recording the laptop's screen with my phone, I disabled Video Stabilization on the phone camera app, because it was causing the issue to not show very well. I'm not sure if it can be correctly identified in the attached video. VRR should be smoothing out the changes in framerate by adjusting the display's refresh rate to the game's framerate, but it does not look smooth.

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AndrewG_Intel
Moderator
4,661 Views

Hello IMest

Thank you for the video and for the additional details. We will check this and once more details are available, we will be posting back in the thread.

 

Best regards,

Andrew G.

Intel Customer Support Technician

 

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IMest
Novice
4,495 Views

Hello @AndrewG_Intel, any new information about this? And also, does Intel have any plan to support VRR on Vulkan and OpenGL applications? I've tested a few emulators that use Vulkan (CEMU) and OpenGL (Citra), and VRR didn't work with either of them.

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AndrewG_Intel
Moderator
4,346 Views

Hello IMest

We do apologize for the delay in getting back to you.


We would like to inform you that we weren't able to reproduce the issue on our end with our systems, and we haven't found any good workarounds beyond capping the monitor's refresh rate; therefore, we can only suggest going back to DELL* Support for troubleshooting and maybe asking the community users for further input to see if more users report this behavior.


Regarding your latest inquiry "does Intel have any plan to support VRR on Vulkan and OpenGL applications?", please allow us to take a look into it and we will be posting back as soon as possible.


Best regards,

Andrew G.

Intel Customer Support Technician


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AndrewG_Intel
Moderator
4,307 Views

Hello IMest

 

In regards to your previous questions:

1- "Nvidia and AMD both have options to apply G-Sync and Freesync to Windowed Games. Question: Does Intel have any plan to add a similar option to apply Adaptive Sync to Windowed Games?".

2- Question: "Does Intel have any plan to support VRR on Vulkan and OpenGL applications?".

 

We would like to inform you that we cannot discuss about possible releases or future upgrades. Our recommendation is to stay tuned with the Intel® releases on official communication channels (e.g.: the Intel® Newsroom) or forums for discussion.

 

Having said that, and considering we weren't able to reproduce the issue on our end and what we can recommend is going back to DELL* Support for additional troubleshooting, we will proceed to close this thread now.

If you need any additional information, please submit a new question as this thread will no longer be monitored.

 

Thank you for your understanding.

Best regards,

Andrew G.

Intel Customer Support Technician

 

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