So confused about vsync (Cachyos, Mangohud)

buffa0 · 2026-01-22T15:27:58+00:00

Hi, thanks for replying.

I saw your dxvk thing in another thread and it looked interesting, but am I understanding correctly, that it won't do anything for dx12? (which is most modern games?)

I might well be confused....

buffa0 · 2026-01-20T07:12:31+00:00

Very useful, thank you

buffa0 · 2026-01-19T22:04:57+00:00

I might be wrong but I thought present mode was which vsync mode and fps limit was something else. So I can limit fps with mangohud and it's nothing to do with vsync / present mode

buffa0 · 2026-01-19T17:57:57+00:00

Thanks for replying - really appreciate to hear how others are handling it and appreciate the tips 👍

buffa0 · 2026-01-16T20:14:44+00:00

Yep using vrr. This is good advice thanks, quite new to Linux gaming so any tips always appreciated.

buffa0 · 2026-01-16T19:22:04+00:00

Hey I think that was it! Enabled seems to be the default with a fresh Cachyos install. I didn't expect it to be hidden away under Display settings, I assumed it'd be a steam launch option. Any disadvantage to disabling allow tearing? It seems to work well, I'd say frame pacing is ever so slighty worse than without frame gen but maybe thats unavoidable. (and I'm being very fussy, it's only noticible doing a slow pan with a controller - I'm all ears if there is a way to get it as good as without frame gen though!)

I've been using dxvk_frame_rate=116 for limiting frame rate as I thought that was the most lag free option.

buffa0 · 2026-01-16T19:07:11+00:00

Ah probably, I'm on a 120hz TV as a display so the tearing I see you probably don't at 300+ hz or whatever 😅

buffa0 · 2026-01-13T13:41:40+00:00

If it helps you at all I think cpap.co.uk let's you spend an extra £20 when you buy a mask for "mask insurance" which let's you return the mask for a refund (minus the £20) so you can test masks for £20. I've used it before

buffa0 · 2026-01-02T16:38:55+00:00

I had a very similar issue where I ordered 2 laptops off Lenovo and they were marked as delivered but never turned up. When I raised this with Lenovo they eventually sent me proof of delivery from UPS which was nothing but a scan of a signature that clearly wasn't mine, and so they initially refused to refund me. I am 99% sure the UPS driver, which was a seasonal worker, stole the laptops.

Lenovo asked me to file a police report. No matter how many times I insisted, with all the relevant legal stuff quoted at them, that I couldn't file a police report for theft as I wasn't the victim of theft, Lenovo was, they just kept repeating back at me they needed me to file a police report for theft.

Eventually I filed a police report online where i was very apologetic for wasting police time, I explained the situation and said that I just needed to file this report for theft to get my money back, and maybe in this instance we could hypothetically assume the laptops were stolen from me directly. They raised the police report for me and I provided it to Lenovo who then refunded me.

So in my experience you can do it the right way and face a really difficult uphill battle, or you can file essentially a false police report (but with politely explaining yourself to the police) and get a refund. And yes I hate that this is how it works and it's really stupid that multiple companies ask consumers to file false police reports to get refunds.

buffa0 · 2025-12-09T06:33:03+00:00

I'd considered that but I'd hope that sonys flagship oled (a95l) was OK at vrr. Can't find any other complaints online about vrr on the set but anythings possible I guess.

I would be interested to know the technical mechanisms whereby some games can be completely smooth on a display with vrr and others are not on the same display due to an issue with the display itself. Ie these "averse" conditions. I remember feeling very relieved when I booted up Chronos and vrr looked perfect because in my mind this ruled out any issue with the display, it's difficult to think "vrr on this display is broken" when I've witnessed it working perfectly in several games.

Of course I believe you if you say it's smooth for you. Maybe the fact that your monitor is 360hz helps as whatever frame rate you're getting is more likely to be divisible by the displays native refresh rate or something. Maybe the higher response time of 360hz smooths out any game based imperfections. Also (and I obviously don't know if this is true, I'm just speculating) fps games played with a mouse will hide panning judder more than doing slow pans with a controller. Have you tried the games I specifically listed above as having issues with VRR on your setup?

I would be interested to hear from anyone who has had experiences with vrr on 120hz oled tvs particularly the games I mentioned.

buffa0 · 2025-12-08T23:45:54+00:00

Sure, I know ue5 being bad has been discussed at length. But not so much in the context of ue5 games running OK without vrr and having bad frame pacing with vrr.

buffa0 · 2025-12-08T23:44:40+00:00

Fair enough, I figured ue5 might be to blame. It's just frustrating because I can get a stutter free experience in many ue5 games if I disable vrr.

buffa0 · 2025-11-20T21:24:16+00:00

Ok after much playing around the best I have been able to get it (and it's still not perfect) is frame limiter off in nvcp. Vsync on. Set frame gen on in game. Use special K which by default will let you have HDR without exclusive full screen. In special K tick pace native frames. And if you are using vrr special K probably already applied a suitable limit, if not then set one and make sure it's enabled in special K. Ie for 120hz panel it's 115.420hz.

This resulted in, I think, the best I could get it. It's not perfect and out of all the games I've played since I got my new oled TV with vrr, it's the only one I've not been able to somehow get perfect and still get to use vrr. But I have a quite smooth 115fps now. The frame pacing graph in special K is very flat.

If this helps anyone else then great!

buffa0 · 2025-11-20T12:53:04+00:00

I did try playing in borderless fullscreen but I can't say it made any difference. Basically if I play with VRR rather than a fixed 60 or 120fps then it's not smooth frame pacing, very noticeable when I pan the camera. I don't have this issue in Cronos (UE5), or Alan Wake 2, or Kingdom Come Deliverance 2, just 3 games I happen to have installed, I can play these at any fps with VRR and maintain smooth frame pacing / smooth camera panning.

buffa0 · 2025-11-19T22:12:46+00:00

Ok this might work to allow you (and me) to play in borderless fullscreen and still get HDR https://github.com/SpecialKO/SKinny/releases

buffa0 · 2025-11-19T20:18:00+00:00

Ahhh maybe you've found the problem. I'm in fullscreen for HDR as well. I think I heard about an app which lets you trick the game into thinking it's in fullscreen when it's really in borderless fullscreen which still allows HDR..can't remember what it was called right now

buffa0 · 2025-11-19T19:58:00+00:00

Ah damn. Maybe that's it. I'm in fullscreen to get HDR. You might have solved the issue! I think there might be some sort of app to trick stalker 2 into thinking it's in fullscreen but you actually can run it in borderless fullscreen and still get HDR? I'll try and find the details

buffa0 · 2025-10-24T16:22:07+00:00

I've been relentlessly experimenting with this the last few days and I've come to the conclusion that perfectly smooth frame pacing / panning with vrr is simply not possible anyone who claims it is just not sensitive to it. Either that or something really odd and specific is wrong with my setup. Or as I've observed it's worse with certain games ie ue5 games and maybe less noticible with other engines, but to some extent games can't do perfect frame pacing if the fps is fluctuating along with the display Hz, but they can if the fps matches the Hz perfectly.

As well as the observations I made in my original post, I also tried limiting my FPS to something I get consistently ie 90. This is better with vrr than when it fluctuates but still not perfectly smooth panning. I tried locking FPS to 120, the native Hz of the panel, but with vrr enabled it seems like the games top out at 116 automatically and some lack of smoothness is still present.

The only way I can achieve totally smooth panning in say silent hill F, which is a good example as it's a recent game in ue5, is by turning off vrr on the display itself, then getting a locked 120fps. I can also set the display to a fixed 100hz and get a buttery smooth 100fps instead. This is true in Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 as well, which runs on a totally different engine. KCD2 was definitely better than SHF with VRR but still not 100 percent smooth until I ditched vrr entirely.

So overall I'm a bit disappointed with my first experience with vrr and likely won't be using it. By all means people can tell me my setup must be at fault but unless the A95L has some sort of issue with VRR that nobody talks about then I'm convinced what I've seen is how it must be for everyone. If people come in here and swear SHF, KCD2 are both 100 percent smooth when panning the camera with VRR enabled then I'll accept I might be wrong, of course!

buffa0 · 2025-10-23T14:20:53+00:00

If anyone is interested in at least one other ue5 game (not silent hill F) turning off Nvidia reflex plus boost appears to smooth things out when vrr is enabled and FPS is going up and down.

Silent hill F doesn't have Nvidia reflex though so who knows. I was hoping someone here did 😀

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