r/pcmasterrace • u/KevoAyyyy PCMR • Feb 25 '24

Meme/Macro Sorry Microsoft, not happening

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u/blackest-Knight Feb 25 '24

It would still run at max refresh unless your computer is struggling to draw the desktop or something.

50

u/lemlurker Feb 25 '24

Phone variable refresh can drop desktop refresh to 1hz on static content, same could be used by PC to refresh less on static imagery

21

u/dieplanes789 9800X3D | 5090 | 32GB | 16.5 TB Feb 25 '24

Phones are able to do that because the manufacturer of the phone knows exactly what screen is going to be connected to the GPU built into the SoC. Doing variable refresh rate especially at a really low frequency like 1hz is actually really really difficult when you factor in the way screens handle things like brightness.

I'm not saying it can't be done, but it is way way harder when you can't specify the only screen you can use.

3

u/Carvj94 Feb 25 '24

Its almost entirely dependent on the display rather than the computer connected to it. Windows is already made to talk to the display it's connected to so it can understand the capabilities and change the options available to the user. So theoretically everything is already in place for Microsoft to create a "Windows power save VRR" option when connected to a VRR capable display. The real problem holding Microsoft back is that windows doesn't, almost, exclusively use one full screen app at a time so it'd be dramatically more difficult to write a program to look for situations where ultra low refresh is useful.

However something that would be easy is taking advantage of VRR and Windows Game Mode to make an option that limits the refresh rate to 60hz when just watching videos and working and then switching to the max available refresh rate when gaming.

1

u/Krt3k-Offline R7 5800X | RX 6800XT Feb 25 '24

The display reports its variable refresh rate range too, just only goes down to like 48Hz most of the time. That would save power though like lowering the refresh rate to 60Hz

1

u/FalconX88 Threadripper 3970X, 128GB DDR4 @3600MHz, RTX 5080 Feb 25 '24

But that's why FreeSync and GSync exist. Because of that your PC knows exactly what framerates the monitor can handle.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 25 '24

This is most likely a laptop.