How to set refresh rate?

Hi, I have two monitors. My primary monitor is 144hz with freesync and my secondary with 60hz without freesync. Where can I find option to set 144hz for my monitor? If I set 144hz in display settings then my cursor is smooth like 144fps but everything else is laggy at 60fps

Hi @Bagetak, and welcome!

I also have two monitors on KDE plasma and the refresh rate can be set in System SettingsHardwareDisplay and MonitorDisplay Configuration.

Hope this helps!

I changed refresh rate in System SettingsHardwareDisplay and MonitorDisplay Configuration to 144hz on my primary monitor but I don’t see any difference on desktop. Like moving and dragging windows, scrolling in browser is same as 60hz. Only cursor is smooth at 144fps.

Welcome to the forum! :wave:

Please post your system info as outlined here:

System:
  Kernel: 5.10.38-1-MANJARO x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 11.1.0 
  parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-5.10-x86_64 
  root=UUID=5418c255-59ab-4065-b0c4-4cb2a1705476 rw quiet apparmor=1 
  security=apparmor udev.log_priority=3 
  Desktop: KDE Plasma 5.21.5 tk: Qt 5.15.2 wm: kwin_x11 vt: 1 dm: SDDM 
  Distro: Manjaro Linux base: Arch Linux 
Machine:
  Type: Desktop Mobo: Micro-Star model: B450M BAZOOKA (MS-7A38) v: 3.0 
  serial: <filter> UEFI: American Megatrends v: H.E0 date: 06/11/2020 
Battery:
  Message: No system battery data found. Is one present? 
Memory:
  RAM: total: 15.65 GiB used: 2.66 GiB (17.0%) 
  RAM Report: permissions: Unable to run dmidecode. Root privileges required. 
CPU:
  Info: 6-Core model: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Zen 2 
  family: 17 (23) model-id: 71 (113) stepping: 0 microcode: 8701021 cache: 
  L2: 3 MiB bogomips: 86424 
  Speed: 3600 MHz min/max: 2200/3600 MHz boost: enabled Core speeds (MHz): 
  1: 3600 2: 2057 3: 2196 4: 2199 5: 2053 6: 2200 7: 2200 8: 2197 9: 3596 
  10: 2050 11: 2056 12: 2200 
  Flags: 3dnowprefetch abm adx aes aperfmperf apic arat avic avx avx2 bmi1 
  bmi2 bpext cat_l3 cdp_l3 clflush clflushopt clwb clzero cmov cmp_legacy 
  constant_tsc cpb cpuid cqm cqm_llc cqm_mbm_local cqm_mbm_total cqm_occup_llc 
  cr8_legacy cx16 cx8 de decodeassists extapic extd_apicid f16c flushbyasid 
  fma fpu fsgsbase fxsr fxsr_opt ht hw_pstate ibpb ibs irperf lahf_lm lbrv lm 
  mba mca mce misalignsse mmx mmxext monitor movbe msr mtrr mwaitx nonstop_tsc 
  nopl npt nrip_save nx osvw overflow_recov pae pat pausefilter pclmulqdq 
  pdpe1gb perfctr_core perfctr_llc perfctr_nb pfthreshold pge pni popcnt pse 
  pse36 rdpid rdpru rdrand rdseed rdt_a rdtscp rep_good sep sev sev_es sha_ni 
  skinit smap smca sme smep ssbd sse sse2 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 stibp 
  succor svm svm_lock syscall tce topoext tsc tsc_scale umip v_vmsave_vmload 
  vgif vmcb_clean vme vmmcall wbnoinvd wdt xgetbv1 xsave xsavec xsaveerptr 
  xsaveopt xsaves 
  Vulnerabilities: Type: itlb_multihit status: Not affected 
  Type: l1tf status: Not affected 
  Type: mds status: Not affected 
  Type: meltdown status: Not affected 
  Type: spec_store_bypass 
  mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl and seccomp 
  Type: spectre_v1 
  mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization 
  Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Full AMD retpoline, IBPB: conditional, STIBP: 
  conditional, RSB filling 
  Type: srbds status: Not affected 
  Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected 
Graphics:
  Device-1: AMD Ellesmere [Radeon RX 470/480/570/570X/580/580X/590] 
  vendor: Micro-Star MSI driver: amdgpu v: kernel bus-ID: 29:00.0 
  chip-ID: 1002:67df class-ID: 0300 
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.11 compositor: kwin_x11 driver: 
  loaded: amdgpu display-ID: :0 screens: 1 
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 3840x1080 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 1016x285mm (40.0x11.2") 
  s-diag: 1055mm (41.5") 
  Monitor-1: DisplayPort-0 res: 1920x1080 dpi: 82 size: 598x336mm (23.5x13.2") 
  diag: 686mm (27") 
  Monitor-2: DisplayPort-1 res: 1920x1080 hz: 60 dpi: 82 
  size: 598x336mm (23.5x13.2") diag: 686mm (27") 
  OpenGL: renderer: Radeon RX 570 Series (POLARIS10 DRM 3.40.0 
  5.10.38-1-MANJARO LLVM 11.1.0) 
  v: 4.6 Mesa 21.1.1 direct render: Yes 
Audio:
  Device-1: AMD Ellesmere HDMI Audio [Radeon RX 470/480 / 570/580/590] 
  vendor: Micro-Star MSI driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 29:00.1 
  chip-ID: 1002:aaf0 class-ID: 0403 
  Device-2: AMD Starship/Matisse HD Audio vendor: Micro-Star MSI 
  driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 2b:00.4 chip-ID: 1022:1487 
  class-ID: 0403 
  Device-3: C-Media Blue Snowball type: USB 
  driver: hid-generic,snd-usb-audio,usbhid bus-ID: 3-2:3 chip-ID: 0d8c:0005 
  class-ID: 0300 serial: <filter> 
  Device-4: COOLING.PL Zdziech Spolka Jawn VIRO Plus type: USB 
  driver: hid-generic,snd-usb-audio,usbhid bus-ID: 3-3:4 chip-ID: 3299:4e4e 
  class-ID: 0300 
  Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.10.38-1-MANJARO running: yes 
  Sound Server-2: JACK v: 0.125.0 running: no 
  Sound Server-3: PulseAudio v: 14.2 running: no 
  Sound Server-4: PipeWire v: 0.3.28 running: yes 
Network:
  Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet 
  vendor: Micro-Star MSI driver: r8169 v: kernel port: f000 bus-ID: 25:00.0 
  chip-ID: 10ec:8168 class-ID: 0200 
  IF: enp37s0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter> 
  IP v4: <filter> type: dynamic noprefixroute scope: global 
  broadcast: <filter> 
  IP v6: <filter> type: noprefixroute scope: link 
  WAN IP: <filter> 
Bluetooth:
  Message: No bluetooth data found. 
Logical:
  Message: No logical block device data found. 
RAID:
  Message: No RAID data found. 
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 2.95 TiB used: 461.58 GiB (15.3%) 
  SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required. 
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 maj-min: 259:0 vendor: Kingston model: SA2000M81000G 
  size: 931.51 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 31.6 Gb/s 
  lanes: 4 rotation: SSD serial: <filter> rev: S5Z42105 temp: 38.9 C 
  scheme: GPT 
  ID-2: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: Kingston model: SA400S37240G 
  size: 223.57 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s 
  rotation: SSD serial: <filter> rev: 5A scheme: GPT 
  ID-3: /dev/sdb maj-min: 8:16 vendor: Western Digital model: WD20EZRZ-00Z5HB0 
  size: 1.82 TiB block-size: physical: 4096 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s 
  rotation: 5400 rpm serial: <filter> rev: 0A80 scheme: GPT 
  Message: No optical or floppy data found. 
Partition:
  ID-1: / raw-size: 223.27 GiB size: 218.71 GiB (97.96%) 
  used: 94.06 GiB (43.0%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2 maj-min: 8:2 label: N/A 
  uuid: 5418c255-59ab-4065-b0c4-4cb2a1705476 
  ID-2: /boot/efi raw-size: 300 MiB size: 299.4 MiB (99.80%) 
  used: 296 KiB (0.1%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/sda1 maj-min: 8:1 label: NO_LABEL 
  uuid: 7D87-9456 
  ID-3: /mnt/windows raw-size: 930.91 GiB size: 930.91 GiB (100.00%) 
  used: 367.52 GiB (39.5%) fs: ntfs dev: /dev/nvme0n1p3 maj-min: 259:3 
  label: N/A uuid: 027A82FD7A82ED2B 
Swap:
  Kernel: swappiness: 60 (default) cache-pressure: 100 (default) 
  ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 512 MiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2 
  file: /swapfile 
Unmounted:
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1p1 maj-min: 259:1 size: 100 MiB fs: vfat label: N/A 
  uuid: 387D-31F5 
  ID-2: /dev/nvme0n1p2 maj-min: 259:2 size: 16 MiB fs: <superuser required> 
  label: N/A uuid: N/A 
  ID-3: /dev/nvme0n1p4 maj-min: 259:4 size: 500 MiB fs: ntfs label: N/A 
  uuid: CA18F70118F6EAF9 
  ID-4: /dev/sdb1 maj-min: 8:17 size: 1.82 TiB fs: ntfs label: N/A 
  uuid: 368EAD708EAD28F7 
USB:
  Hub-1: 1-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 10 rev: 2.0 
  speed: 480 Mb/s chip-ID: 1d6b:0002 class-ID: 0900 
  Hub-2: 2-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 4 rev: 3.1 speed: 10 Gb/s 
  chip-ID: 1d6b:0003 class-ID: 0900 
  Hub-3: 3-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 4 rev: 2.0 
  speed: 480 Mb/s chip-ID: 1d6b:0002 class-ID: 0900 
  Device-1: 3-1:2 info: Itron iONE TESORO GRAM XS type: Keyboard,HID 
  driver: hid-generic,usbhid interfaces: 3 rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s 
  power: 500mA chip-ID: 195d:2058 class-ID: 0301 
  Device-2: 3-2:3 info: C-Media Blue Snowball type: Audio,HID 
  driver: hid-generic,snd-usb-audio,usbhid interfaces: 3 rev: 1.1 
  speed: 12 Mb/s power: 100mA chip-ID: 0d8c:0005 class-ID: 0300 
  serial: <filter> 
  Device-3: 3-3:4 info: COOLING.PL Zdziech Spolka Jawn VIRO Plus 
  type: Audio,HID driver: hid-generic,snd-usb-audio,usbhid interfaces: 4 
  rev: 1.1 speed: 12 Mb/s power: 100mA chip-ID: 3299:4e4e class-ID: 0300 
  Device-4: 3-4:5 info: Razer USA RZ01-0265 Gaming Mouse [Basilisk Essential] 
  type: Mouse,Keyboard driver: hid-generic,usbhid interfaces: 3 rev: 2.0 
  speed: 12 Mb/s power: 500mA chip-ID: 1532:0065 class-ID: 0300 
  Hub-4: 4-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 4 rev: 3.1 speed: 10 Gb/s 
  chip-ID: 1d6b:0003 class-ID: 0900 
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 49.9 C mobo: 0 C gpu: amdgpu temp: 44.0 C 
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A gpu: amdgpu fan: 1023 
Info:
  Processes: 328 Uptime: 2m wakeups: 0 Init: systemd v: 248 tool: systemctl 
  Compilers: gcc: 11.1.0 Packages: pacman: 1375 lib: 410 flatpak: 0 
  Shell: Bash v: 5.1.8 running-in: konsole inxi: 3.3.04

You’re not the first to have more trouble on KDE than say on GNOME. See related posts.

I have this on all desktop envoriments. I tried Gnome, Xfce and Cinamon.

On GNOME you can try this:

I found 2 solutions:

  1. Use wayland.
  2. On Xorg I manged to get working by enabling tear free rendering even if I have no tearing. I also added option for variable refresh rate. Now my desktop is finally smooth. It works on Gnome, Xfce and Cinamon too.
    /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-amdgpu.conf
Section "Device"
     Identifier "AMD"
     Driver "amdgpu"
     Option "TearFree" "true"
     Option "VariableRefresh" "true"
EndSection

But I have still problem with Google Chrome = all chromium based browsers.
Chrome won’t run at 144fps even on Wayland. I tried enabling native wayland support with hwdec and nothing. Only solution I found is to use Firefox but I don’t like Firefox.

I found something interesting. Enabling VRR and TearFree rendering fixes that windows are rendering at 60 fps. But still I had in all chromium apps 60 fps anyway. I don’t needed anyway.

Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 3840 x 1080, maximum 16384 x 16384
DisplayPort-0 connected primary 1920x1080+1920+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 598mm x 336mm
   1920x1080     60.00 + 144.00*  120.00   119.88   119.98    99.93    74.97    50.00    59.94  
   1680x1050     60.00  
   1280x1024     75.02    60.02  
   1440x900      60.00  
   1280x800      60.00  
   1280x720      60.00    50.00    59.94  
   1024x768     119.93    99.99    75.03    70.07    60.00  
   832x624       74.55  
   800x600      119.93    99.86    72.19    75.00    60.32    56.25  
   720x576       50.00  
   720x480       60.00    59.94  
   640x480      119.80    99.83    75.00    72.81    66.67    60.00    59.94  
   720x400       70.08  
DisplayPort-1 connected 1920x1080+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 598mm x 336mm
   1920x1080     60.00 +  50.00    59.94* 
   1680x1050     60.00  
   1600x900      60.00  
   1280x1024     75.02    60.02  
   1440x900      60.00  
   1280x800      60.00  
   1152x864      75.00  
   1280x720      60.00    50.00    59.94  
   1024x768      75.03    60.00  
   800x600       75.00    60.32  
   720x576       50.00  
   720x480       60.00    59.94  
   640x480       75.00    60.00    59.94 
   720x400       70.08  
DisplayPort-2 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
HDMI-A-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DVI-D-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)

If I unplug my 60 hz monitor (DisplayPort-1) from my graphics card and connect it back than all my issues are FIXED = chromium renders at 144 fps and windows renders at 144 fps. But if I am booting with both monitors connected than issues are here = only mouse is 144 fps. How can I have set correctly refresh rate without unplugging and plugging back my monitor from graphics card on each login.

I also tried put this in /usr/share/sddm/scripts/Xsetup

xrandr --output DisplayPort-0 --rate 144 --primary --mode 1920x1080 --output DisplayPort-1 --rate 60 --left-of DisplayPort-0 --mode 1920x1080

than login screen renders 144 fps and left and right monitor is set correctly but I still need to unplug and plug my monitor to get like “full” 144 hz refresh rate.

So if I unplug and plug my monitor from gpu then all is fine.
But after I run kwin_x11 --replace than issues are back I need to replugin monitor again.

The 60 hz somehow bottleknecking my 144 hz monitor.

I found this on wiki

Utiliser VSync

VSync allows you to synchronize the rendering with the screen. Unless there is good reason to change, this setting should be enabled. Even if the setting is disabled the Compositor tries to use the frame rate the screen supports and by default a frame rate of 60 Hz is used.

For multiple screens it is important to know that the rendering can only be synchronized with one screen. In case the screens have a different frame rate it might be valid to disable this option and to set a manual frame rate.

I think that kwin syncing my refresh rate to my 60 hz monitor for some reason. The only way that I found to force sync to 144 hz is unplug my 60 hz from gpu and plug it back.

Unpluging and pluging back my 60 hz monitor makes kwin vsync to 144 hz but it’s not permanent. After I open some program in fullscreen it is again vsyncing to my 60 hz monitor and I need to unplug and plug my monitor back. I found that I can do it with xrandr too

xrandr --rate 144 #only active 144 hz monitor
kwin_x11 --replace & # replace and start vsync to 144 hz
# turn on my second monitor
xrandr --output DisplayPort-0 --rate 144 --primary --mode 1920x1080 --output DisplayPort-1 --rate 60 --left-of DisplayPort-0 --mode 1920x1080

This topic was automatically closed 15 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.