X11 doesnt render windows at 144hz while using double monitor setup 144hz/60hz

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Hi, Im currently running X11 on plasma with RX5700XT but I have a problem with windows not rendering at 144hz while in double monitor setup. When one monitor is set to 144hz and the other to 60, they both run at 60hz. Is there any way to fix this other than running Wayland (Way too broken).

2

How are you checking the refresh rate?

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I can see it, only the cursor moves in 144hz when I move windows or even play games it all runs at 60hz while in wayland it works perfectly.

4

I can’t. Anecdotal evidence won’t help us help you. :wink:

EDIT: Forgot to mention I also have a 144Hz + 60Hz setup. I’m genuinely curious.

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6

What logs can I provide for you ?

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The entries for your two monitors from xrandr output would tell us what refresh rate is detected. Example from my system:

DP-2 connected primary 1920x1080+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 344mm x 194mm
   1920x1080    144.00*+  60.00
HDMI-0 connected 1920x1080+1920+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 0mm x 0mm
   1920x1080     59.93*
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DisplayPort-2 connected primary 1920x1080+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 598mm x 336mm
1920x1080 60.00 + 144.00* 119.98 50.00 59.94

HDMI-A-0 connected 1680x1050+1920+140 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 474mm x 296mm
1680x1050 59.95*+ 59.88

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As you can see, our output is the same: Primary is running at 144Hz and secondary is running at ~ 60Hz.

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Yes, but the windows move at 60hz, isnt there any other way to check the refresh rate of windows ?

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Quite possibly. That’s why I was curious how you came to that conclusion.

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Try running glxgears (requires mesa-demos) on a separate terminal on each monitor at the same time. I was getting ~ 60 FPS on both until I added the following to /etc/environment:

:arrow_down_small: NOTE: This is only for GNOME with NVIDIA:

CLUTTER_DEFAULT_FPS=144

__GL_SYNC_DISPLAY_DEVICE=DP-2

No idea what the equivalent might be for KDE with AMD.

❯ glxgears
Running synchronized to the vertical refresh.  The framerate should be
approximately the same as the monitor refresh rate.
711 frames in 5.0 seconds = 142.024 FPS
720 frames in 5.0 seconds = 143.970 FPS
720 frames in 5.0 seconds = 143.958 FPS
720 frames in 5.0 seconds = 143.977 FPS
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Im a little late at the party but thought I share my findings though:

I think you’re pointing the right way, but It’s a complex subject.

Found an old thread about hardware accelerated rendering inside the windowing manager, what not necessarily means that the window itself is rendered at the same speed. Not sure if it’s still applicable

Gnome 40 is the first Gnome version which comes fully hardware accelerated on wayland.

For KDE take a look at these options/docs

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I created an account here just to say three things:

  1. The monitors do actually seem to default to the lower resolution of the two, regardless of what xrandr reports. Apart from visual difference, you can test it at testufo dot com

  2. Your solution of adding the two lines to /etc/environment works for me on KDE

  3. Thank you for your solution.

Now I can actually use my second monitor to record the screen while gaming and actually utilize the full refresh rate(Most steam games don’t seem to run on Wayland so that’s out of the question).

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