what is flip presentation model

Optimizations for windowed games in Windows 11

Optimizations for windowed games improves gaming on your PC by using a new presentation model for DirectX 10 and DirectX 11 games that appear in a window or in a borderless window.

When these optimizations are used, games that originally use the legacy blt-model presentation can use the newer flip-model presentation instead (if the game is compatible). This results in lower frame latency and lets you use other newer gaming features; for example, Auto HDR, and variable refresh rate (for displays that support it).

To use optimizations for windowed games

Select the Start button, then select Settings .

In Settings , select System > Display > Graphics > Change default graphics settings .

Select the setting under Optimizations for windowed games to turn it On .

Restart your game.

Note:  If you turn on Auto HDR , Optimizations for windowed games will be turned on automatically. If you want to turn off Optimizations for windowed games , you’ll need to turn off Auto HDR first.

To turn optimizations off for a specific app or game

In Settings , select System > Display > Graphics .

Under Custom options for apps , select the app or game you want to change the graphics settings for, then select Options .

In Graphics preference , do one or more of the following:

If your PC has more than one graphics processor (GPU), select the graphics performance setting you want to use for the app or game— Let Windows decide (Power saving) , Power saving , or High performance .

To turn off optimizations for windowed games, select the Don’t use optimizations for windowed games checkbox.

To turn off Auto HDR for the selected app or game, select the Don’t use Auto HDR checkbox.

Select Save .

Restart your game or app.

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For best performance, use DXGI flip model

This document picks up where the MSDN “DXGI flip model” article and YouTube DirectX 12: Presentation Modes In Windows 10 and Presentation Enhancements in Windows 10: An Early Look videos left off.  It provides developer guidance on how to maximize performance and efficiency in the presentation stack on modern versions of Windows.

Call to action

If you are still using DXGI_SWAP_EFFECT_DISCARD or DXGI_SWAP_EFFECT_SEQUENTIAL (aka “blt” present model), it’s time to stop!

Switching to DXGI_SWAP_EFFECT_FLIP_SEQUENTIAL or DXGI_SWAP_EFFECT_FLIP_DISCARD (aka flip model) will give better performance, lower power usage, and provide a richer set of features.

Flip model presents go as far as making windowed mode effectively equivalent or better when compared to the classic “fullscreen exclusive” mode. In fact, we think it’s high time to reconsider whether your app actually needs a fullscreen exclusive mode, since the benefits of a flip model borderless window include faster Alt-Tab switching and better integration with modern display features.

Why now? Prior to the upcoming Spring Creators Update, blt model presents could result in visible tearing when used on hybrid GPU configurations, often found in high end laptops (see KB 3158621 ). In the Spring Creators Update, this tearing has been fixed, at the cost of some additional work. If you are doing blt presents at high framerates across hybrid GPUs, especially at high resolutions such as 4k, this additional work may affect overall performance.  To maintain best performance on these systems, switch from blt to flip present model. Additionally, consider reducing the resolution of your swapchain, especially if it isn’t the primary point of user interaction (as is often the case with VR preview windows).

A brief history

What is flip model? What is the alternative?

Prior to Windows 7, the only way to present contents from D3D was to “blt” or copy it into a surface which was owned by the window or screen. Beginning with D3D9’s FLIPEX swapeffect, and coming to DXGI through the FLIP_SEQUENTIAL swap effect in Windows 8, we’ve developed a more efficient way to put contents on screen, by sharing it directly with the desktop compositor, with minimal copies. See the original MSDN article for a high level overview of the technology.

This optimization is possible thanks to the DWM: the Desktop Window Manager, which is the compositor that drives the Windows desktop.

When should I use blt model?

There is one piece of functionality that flip model does not provide: the ability to have multiple different APIs producing contents, which all layer together into the same HWND, on a present-by-present basis. An example of this would be using D3D to draw a window background, and then GDI to draw something on top, or using two different graphics APIs, or two swapchains from the same API, to produce alternating frames. If you don’t require HWND-level interop between graphics components, then you don’t need blt model.

There is a second piece of functionality that was not provided in the original flip model design, but is available now, which is the ability to present at an unthrottled framerate. For an application which desires using sync interval 0, we do not recommend switching to flip model unless the IDXGIFactory5::CheckFeatureSupport API is available, and reports support for DXGI_FEATURE_PRESENT_ALLOW_TEARING .  This feature is nearly ubiquitous on recent versions of Windows 10 and on modern hardware.

What’s new in flip model?

If you’ve watched the YouTube video linked above, you’ll see talk about “Direct Flip “ and “ Independent Flip “ . These are optimizations that are enabled for applications using flip model swapchains. Depending on window and buffer configuration, it is possible to bypass desktop composition entirely, and directly send application frames to the screen, in the same way that exclusive fullscreen does.

These days, these optimizations can engage in one of 3 scenarios, with increasing functionality:

• DirectFlip: Your swapchain buffers match the screen dimensions, and your window client region covers the screen. Instead of using the DWM swapchain to display on the screen, the application swapchain is used instead.
• DirectFlip with panel fitters: Your window client region covers the screen, and your swapchain buffers are within some hardware-dependent scaling factor (e.g. 0.25x to 4x) of the screen. The GPU scanout hardware is used to scale your buffer while sending it to the display.
• DirectFlip with multi-plane overlay (MPO): Your swapchain buffers are within some hardware-dependent scaling factor of your window dimensions. The DWM is able to reserve a dedicated hardware scanout plane for your application, which is then scanned out and potentially stretched, to an alpha-blended sub-region of the screen.

With windowed flip model, the application can query hardware support for different DirectFlip scenarios and implement different types of dynamic scaling via use of IDXGIOutput6:: CheckHardwareCompositionSupport. One caveat to keep in mind is that if panel fitters are utilized, it’s possible for the cursor to suffer stretching side effects, which is indicated via DXGI_HARDWARE_COMPOSITION_SUPPORT_FLAG_CURSOR_STRETCHED.

Once your swapchain has been “ DirectFlipped “ , then the DWM can go to sleep, and only wake up when something changes outside of your application. Your app frames are sent directly to screen, independently, with the same efficiency as fullscreen exclusive. This is “ Independent Flip “ , and can engage in all of the above scenarios.  If other desktop contents come on top, the DWM can either seamlessly transition back to composed mode, efficiently “ reverse compose “ the contents on top of the application before flipping it, or leverage MPO to maintain the independent flip mode.

Check out the PresentMon tool to get insight into which of the above was used.

What else is new in flip model?

In addition to the above improvements, which apply to standard swapchains without anything special, there are several features available for flip model applications to use:

• Caveat: there was an issue that gave a minimum of two frames of latency in the Anniversary Update and earlier. See https://www.gamedev.net/forums/topic/686507-windows-10-dx12-low-latency-tearing-free-rendering . This is fixed in the Fall Creator’s Update.
• DXGI_SWAP_EFFECT_FLIP_DISCARD enables a “ reverse composition “ mode of direct flip, which results in less overall work to display the desktop. The DWM can scribble on the app buffers and send those to screen, instead of performing a full copy into their own swapchain.
• DXGI_SWAP_CHAIN_FLAG_ALLOW_TEARING can enable even lower latency than the waitable object, even in a window on systems with multi-plane overlay support.
• Control over content scaling that happens during window resize, using the DXGI_SCALING property set during swapchain creation.
• Content in HDR formats (R10G10B10A2_UNORM or R16G16B16A16_FLOAT) isn’t clamped unless it’s composed to a SDR desktop.
• Present statistics are available in windowed mode.
• Greater compatibility with UWP app-model and DX12 since these are only compatible with flip-model.

What do I have to do to use flip model?

Flip model swapchains have a few additional requirements on top of blt swapchains:

• The buffer count must be at least 2.
• After Present calls, the back buffer needs to explicitly be re-bound to the D3D11 immediate context before it can be used again.
• After calling SetFullscreenState, the app must call ResizeBuffers before Present.
• MSAA swapchains are not directly supported in flip model, so the app will need to do an MSAA resolve before issuing the Present.

How to choose the right rendering and presentation resolutions

The traditional pattern for apps in the past has been to provide the user with a list of resolutions to choose from when the user selects exclusive fullscreen mode. With the ability of modern displays to seamlessly begin scaling content, consider providing users with the ability to choose a rendering resolution for performance scaling, independent from an output resolution, and even in windowed mode. Furthermore, applications should leverage IDXGIOutput6:: CheckHardwareCompositionSupport to determine if they need to scale the content before presenting it, or if they should let the hardware do the scaling for them.

Your content may need to be migrated from one GPU to another as part of the present or composition operation. This is often true on multi-GPU laptops, or systems with external GPUs plugged in. As these configurations get more common, and as high-resolution displays become more common, the cost of presenting a full resolution swapchain increases.  If the target of your swapchain isn’t the primary point of user interaction, as is often the case with VR titles that present a 2D preview of the VR scene into a secondary window, consider using a lower resolution swapchain to minimize the amount of bandwidth that needs to be transferred across different GPUs.

Other considerations

The first time you ask the GPU to write to the swapchain back buffer is the time that the GPU will stall waiting for the buffer to become available. When possible, delay this point as far into the frame as possible.

Dev lead on the Direct3D team at Microsoft.

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Windows 11 Insiders now have optimizations for legacy games running in windowed mode

Usama Jawad Neowin @UsamaJawad96 · Feb 17, 2022 01:20 EST · Hot! with 8 comments

If you're playing legacy games on your Windows machine, you'll be pleased to know that Microsoft has certain optimizations planned for them, especially if you're running them in windowed mode. The company has announced that Insiders on recent Dev Channel builds can now take advantage of these features.

Essentially, many old games use the "legacy-blt" presentation model to render frames on your display. Although DirectX 12 (DX12) already takes advantage of a new presentation mode called "flip-model", Microsoft is now rolling out this enhancement to DX10 and DX11 games too. The migration will improve latency and will also open the door to further enhancements like Auto HDR and Variable Refresh Rate (VRR).

The change primarily impacts old DX10 and DX11 games running in Windowed and Borderless-Windowed mode. Modern games using DX12 already benefit from this. That said, Microsoft has cautioned that:

When your game is configured to not use v-sync, this can result in a new frame being ready before the previous frame is displayed. At high frame rates, this may lead to screen tearing when this feature is turned on. To avoid tearing in your game, you can make sure to configure the game’s frame rate to match your monitor’s display refresh rate. Another option is to turn on v-sync in your game, which is often found in the game’s settings. If neither of those options work for your gaming experience, you can opt out of this feature and the instructions on how to do that are explained below. Another way to address tearing is by using a VRR monitor which can take advantage of the lower latency. However, please note tearing is still possible if you exceed the refresh rate of the monitor.

Microsoft says that the capability is available on Windows 11 Dev Channel build 22545 or later, which means that users on build 22557, that just rolled out yesterday , can take advantage of it.

You can head over to the Microsoft blog post here to find out how to enable the optimizations globally or for specific apps. It's currently unclear when, or if, these optimizations will be rolled out generally, both on Windows 10 and Windows 11.

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It’s probably safe to assume that most PC gamers prefer to play their games in full screen, but Microsoft has added some tweaks for users on its latest operating system who, for whatever reason, prefer the less-immersive windowed experience.

As detailed on the DirectX Developer Blog, the latest insider build of Windows 11 includes new optimizations for windowed and borderless windowed DirectX 10/DirectX 11 games that the company claims can “significantly improve latency.” Other improvements for windowed games include Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) and Auto HDR.

Microsoft’s new optimizations for windowed games can be enabled via the Settings menu and going to System > Display > Graphics > Default graphics settings, which now has a toggle for “optimizations for windowed games.” Users also have the option of opting out on a specific game or application by going to System > Display > Graphics and clicking the options button on the relevant app.

Optimizations for windowed games ( Microsoft )

• You might be asking, “what are optimizations for windowed games”? Great question! Let me explain – this setting affects presentation modes used in Windowed and Borderless Windowed DX10/DX11 games. Presentation is the method for getting your game’s rendered frames on your display in the most optimal way.
• This new optimization specifically applies to Windowed and Borderless-Windowed games because when you’re running in Fullscreen, a similar optimization already exists , and this new setting brings a consistent experience no matter which mode you are running in. You don’t need to worry about DX12 games as they already take advantage of the new presentation mode. Specifically, this optimization works by upgrading the legacy presentation model used by a game to a modern one. If you’re wondering more about the various models and how they impact performance, check out our dev blog here which dives deeper. More technically, we are moving apps from the legacy blt-model presentation to modern flip-model. Many games already take advantage of modern flip-model, but this new optimization will allow thousands of games to benefit as well.
• But we called this an optimization, so it does more than just unlock stellar gaming features. Flip model generally results in lower latency. Reducing latency means getting your game’s frames to the screen as fast as possible.
• When your game is configured to not use v-sync, this can result in a new frame being ready before the previous frame is displayed. At high frame rates, this may lead to screen tearing when this feature is turned on. To avoid tearing in your game, you can make sure to configure the game’s frame rate to match your monitor’s display refresh rate. Another option is to turn on v-sync in your game, which is often found in the game’s settings. If neither of those options work for your gaming experience, you can opt out of this feature and the instructions on how to do that are explained below. Another way to address tearing is by using a VRR monitor which can take advantage of the lower latency. However, please note tearing is still possible if you exceed the refresh rate of the monitor.

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Flip model, dirty rectangles, scrolled areas

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DXGI 1.2 supports a new flip-model swap chain, dirty rectangles, and scrolled areas. We explain the benefits of using the new flip-model swap chain and of optimizing presentation by specifying dirty rectangles and scrolled areas.

DXGI flip-model presentation

DXGI 1.2 adds support for the flip presentation model for Direct3D 10 and later APIs. In Windows 7, Direct3D 9EX first adopted flip-model presentation to avoid unnecessarily copying the swap-chain buffer. By using flip model, back buffers are flipped between the runtime and Desktop Window Manager (DWM), so DWM always composes directly from the back buffer instead of copying the back buffer content.

DXGI 1.2 APIs include a revised DXGI swap-chain interface, IDXGISwapChain1 . You can use multiple IDXGIFactory2 interface methods to create the appropriate IDXGISwapChain1 object to use with an HWND handle, a CoreWindow object, DirectComposition , or the Windows.UI.Xaml framework.

You select the flip presentation model by specifying the DXGI_SWAP_EFFECT_FLIP_SEQUENTIAL enumeration value in the SwapEffect member of the DXGI_SWAP_CHAIN_DESC1 structure and by setting the BufferCount member of DXGI_SWAP_CHAIN_DESC1 to a minimum of 2. For more info about how to use DXGI flip model, see DXGI flip model . Because of the flip presentation model's smoother presentation and other new functionality, we recommend that you use flip presentation model for all new apps that you write with Direct3D 10 and later APIs.

Using dirty rectangles and the scroll rectangle in swap chain presentation

By using dirty rectangles and the scroll rectangle in swap chain presentation, you save on the usage of memory bandwidth and the related usage of system power because the amount of pixel data that the operating system needs to draw the next presented frame is reduced if the operating system doesn't need to draw the entire frame. For apps that are often displayed via Remote Desktop Connection and other remote-accessing technologies, the savings are particularly noticeable in the display quality because these technologies use dirty rectangles and scroll metadata.

You can use scroll only with DXGI swap chains that run in flip presentation model. You can use dirty rectangles with DXGI swap chains that run in both flip model and bitblt model (set with DXGI_SWAP_EFFECT_SEQUENTIAL ).

In this scenario and illustration we show the functionality of using dirty rectangles and scroll. Here, a scrollable app contains text and animating video. The app uses dirty rectangles to just update the animating video and new line for the window, instead of updating the entire window. The scroll rectangle allows the operating system to copy and translate the previously rendered content on the new frame and to render only the new line on the new frame.

The app performs presentation by calling the IDXGISwapChain1::Present1 method. In this call, the app passes a pointer to a DXGI_PRESENT_PARAMETERS structure that includes dirty rectangles and the number of dirty rectangles, or the scroll rectangle and the associated scroll offset, or both dirty rectangles and the scroll rectangle. Our app passes 2 dirty rectangles and the scroll rectangle. The scroll rectangle is the area of the previous frame that the operating system needs to copy to the current frame before it renders the current frame. The app specifies the animating video and new line as dirty rectangles, and the operating system renders them on the current frame.

The dashed rectangle shows the scroll rectangle in the current frame. The scroll rectangle is specified by the pScrollRect member of DXGI_PRESENT_PARAMETERS . The arrow shows the scroll offset. The scroll offset is specified by the pScrollOffset member of DXGI_PRESENT_PARAMETERS . Filled rectangles show dirty rectangles that the app updated with new content. The filled rectangles are specified by the DirtyRectsCount and pDirtyRects members of DXGI_PRESENT_PARAMETERS .

Sample 2-buffer flip-model swap chain with dirty rectangles and scroll rectangle

The next illustration and sequence shows an example of a DXGI flip-model presentation operation that uses dirty rectangles and a scroll rectangle. In this example we use the minimum number of buffers for flip-model presentation, which is a buffer count of two, one front buffer that contains the app display content and one back buffer that contains the current frame that the app wants to render.

• As shown in the front buffer at the beginning of the frame, the scrollable app initially shows a frame with some text and animating video.
• To render the next frame, the app renders onto the back buffer the dirty rectangles that update the animating video and the new line for the window.
• When the app calls IDXGISwapChain1::Present1 , it specifies the dirty rectangles and the scroll rectangle and offset. The runtime next copies the scroll rectangle from the previous frame minus the updated dirty rectangles onto the current back buffer.
• The runtime finally swaps the front and back buffers.

Tracking dirty rectangles and scroll rectangles across multiple frames

When you use dirty rectangles in your app, you must track the dirty rectangles to support incremental rendering. When your app calls IDXGISwapChain1::Present1 with dirty rectangles, you must ensure that every pixel within the dirty rectangles is up to date. If you aren't completely re-rendering the whole area of the dirty rectangle or if you can’t know for certain the areas that are dirtied, you must copy some data from the previous fully coherent back buffer to the current, stale back buffer before you start rendering.

The runtime copies only the differences between updated areas of the previous frame and updated areas of the current frame onto the current back buffer. If these areas intersect, the runtime copies only the difference between them. As you can see in the following diagram and sequence, you must copy the intersection between the dirty rectangle from frame 1 and the dirty rectangle from frame 2 into frame 2’s dirty rectangle.

• Present dirty rectangle in frame 1.
• Copy intersection between the dirty rectangle from frame 1 and the dirty rectangle from frame 2 into frame 2’s dirty rectangle.
• Present dirty rectangle in frame 2.

To generalize, for a swap chain with N buffers, the area that the runtime copies from the last frame to the current frame on the current frame’s present is:

where buffer indicates the buffer index in a swap chain, starting with current buffer index at zero.

You can keep track of any intersections between the previous frame and the current frame’s dirty rectangles by keeping a copy of the previous frame’s dirty rectangles or by re-rendering the new frame’s dirty rectangles with the appropriate content from the previous frame.

Similarly, in the cases where the swap chain has more than 2 back buffers, you must ensure that overlapping areas between the current buffer’s dirty rectangles and the dirty rectangles of all previous frame’s are copied or re-rendered.

Tracking a single intersection between 2 dirty rectangles

In the simplest case, when you update a single dirty rectangle per frame, the dirty rectangles across two frames might intersect. To find out whether the dirty rectangle of the previous frame and the dirty rectangle of the current frame overlap, you need to verify whether the dirty rectangle of the previous frame intersects with the dirty rectangle of the current frame. You can call the GDI IntersectRect function to determine whether two RECT structures that represent the two dirty rectangles intersect.

In this code snippet, a call to IntersectRect returns the intersection of two dirty rectangles in another RECT called dirtyRectCopy. After the code snippet determines that the two dirty rectangles intersect, it calls the ID3D11DeviceContext1::CopySubresourceRegion1 method to copy the region of intersection into the current frame.

If you use this code snippet in your application, the app will then be ready to call IDXGISwapChain1::Present1 to update the current frame with the current dirty rectangle.

Tracking intersections between N dirty rectangles

If you specify multiple dirty rectangles, which can include a dirty rectangle for the newly revealed scroll line, per frame, you need to verify and track any overlaps that might occur between all the dirty rectangles of the previous frame and all the dirty rectangles of the current frame. To calculate the intersections between the dirty rectangles of the previous frame and the dirty rectangles of the current frame, you can group the dirty rectangles into regions.

In this code snippet, we call the GDI SetRectRgn function to convert each dirty rectangle into a rectangular region and then we call the GDI CombineRgn function to combine all the dirty rectangular regions into a group.

You can now use the GDI CombineRgn function to determine the intersection between the dirty region of the previous frame and the dirty region of the current frame. After you obtain the intersecting region, call the GDI GetRegionData function to obtain each individual rectangle from the intersecting region and then call the ID3D11DeviceContext1::CopySubresourceRegion1 method to copy each intersecting rectangle into the current back buffer. The next code snippet shows how to use these GDI and Direct3D functions.

Bitblt model swap chain with dirty rectangles

You can use dirty rectangles with DXGI swap chains that run in bitblt model (set with DXGI_SWAP_EFFECT_SEQUENTIAL ). Bitblt model swap chains that use more than one buffer must also track overlapping dirty rectangles across frames in the same way as described in Tracking dirty rectangles and scroll rectangles across multiple frames for flip model swap chains. Bitblt model swap chains with just one buffer need not track overlapping dirty rectangles because the entire buffer is redrawn every frame.

Related topics

DXGI 1.2 Improvements

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How to Optimize Windows 11 for Gaming

Microsoft claims that Windows 11 is the best Windows OS for gaming purposes. But many users still experience performance issues while gaming on their Windows 11 PCs. Some users face lag or crash issues. At the same time, some users experience issues with FPS.

If you’re also facing performance issues while gaming on your Windows 11 PC, you may need to make some changes to it and optimize it for gaming. To optimize your Windows 11 PC for better gaming performance, check this guide, as it explains everything in detail . So read ahead and optimize your Windows 11 PC for a beast-level performance.

Is Windows 11 Suited for Gaming?

Yes, Windows 11 is suited for gaming, as it comes with many gaming-centric features, such as Xbox Game Bar, Game Mode, AutoHDR, DirectStorage, and more. But the gaming performance not only depends on how good Windows 11 can handle it.

It also depends on your system’s hardware. If you have a system with SSD storage, a high-end graphics card, and the latest processor, you may rarely face issues while gaming on your Windows 11 PC.

But exceptions are always there. In some reports, it’s found that Windows 11 beats Windows 10 in most tests, except a few. For example, a report revealed that the latest Windows 11 got slightly lower results when evaluating frames per second (FPS) performance while playing some set of video games. Otherwise, it scored better than Windows 10.

Optimize Your Windows 11 PC for Gaming

There isn’t any step-by-step formula for improving the system’s gaming performance. You need to try some tips to optimize your Windows 11 PC for gaming. We’ve mentioned all those useful tips below. Apply them and make your PC capable of running games smoothly:

1. Turn On Game Mode

The latest Windows 11 has a feature called Game Mode that automatically allocates the majority of your system’s GPU and CPU resources to the game you’re playing to improve the performance.

So enable Game Mode on your Windows 11 PC and play games seamlessly. You can do so by following the below steps:

1. Open the Settings app with the Windows + I shortcut and go to the Gaming section from the left pane.

2. Click on the Game Mode option and then turn on the Game Mode toggle.

2. Let the Game Use Primary GPU

Another thing you should do before launching a game on your Windows 11 PC or laptop is to allow it to use your system’s primary graphics card or GPU for higher performance. We’ve explained the process of doing the same in the below-mentioned steps:

1. Press the Windows + I keyboard shortcut to open the Settings app and move to the Gaming section.

2. Click on Game Mode on the following window and then click on Graphics under Related settings .

3. Search for your video game in the Custom settings for applications section and click on it.

4. Select the High Performance option from the GPU Preferences menu and close the window.

3. Update GPU Drivers

To get the best gaming performance, it’s necessary to keep the system’s graphics drivers updated. This is because bugs & glitches in the graphics adapters can also cause performance issues.

So update your system’s graphic adapters and keep the gaming performance top-notch. You can follow the below-listed prompts to update your Windows system’s graphics drivers:

1. Open Run using the Windows + R shortcut and type Devmgmt.msc in the search box.

2. Expand the Display adapters section by clicking twice and then right-click on the driver.

3. Select Update driver from the right-click menu and click on Search automatically for drivers .

4. Wait for the OS to search for the newest version of the selected graphics adapter and install it.

4. Increase Your System’s C Drive

Another way to enhance your Windows 11 PC’s gaming performance is to increase the system’s C drive . You can do so by allocating the unallocated space to the C drive. So, follow the listed steps to increase your system’s C drive:

1. Hit the Windows key to open the Windows Search Box and type Disk management tool in it.

2. Select the Create and format hard disk partitions from the Best match section to open it.

3. Select your C storage drive in the Volume section and then right-click on it in the below section.

4. From the context menu, select the Extend Volume… option and click on the Next option.

5. Enter the amount to extend the volume in the text field after selecting the available space.

6. At last, click on the Next button and then click on the Finish button to apply the changes.

5. Enable Auto HDR

The new Windows 11 comes with Auto HDR support that lets you play and view all the outdated games at their best with HDR on your HDR-supported display. Thus, we suggest you enable Auto HDR on your Windows 11 PC and enhance your game viewing experience.

You can follow the below instructions to enable Auto HDR support on your Windows 11 PC:

1. Launch the Settings app on your system and navigate to the Display section of it.

2. Click on HDR under the Brightness & color section and switch on the Auto HDR toggle.

6. Turn On the High Performance Mode

One of the ways to enhance your Windows 11 PC’s gaming performance is by enabling the High performance mode on it. It can be enabled in the Control Panel utility of your system. We’ve mentioned the process to turn on the High-performance mode in Windows 11 below:

1. Open the Control Panel utility on your Windows system and go to the System and Security section.

2. Click on Power Options and select the Create a power plan option from the left side menu.

3. Choose the High performance radio button and name your new power plan in the Plan name: text field.

4. Click the Next button and then click on Create to create a new power plan and save the changes.

7. Halt Automatic Windows Updates

Windows OS automatically searches for the latest updates and downloads & installs them to keep the system up to date. It’s a great thing, but not for gamers, as it slows the system’s performance.

Thus, it’s always better to keep the automatic Windows updates disabled on the system. If you haven’t disabled them, follow the listed steps to halt automatic Windows updates:

1. Open the Settings app on your PC and move to its Windows Update section from the left.

2. Lastly, click the Pause for 1 week button next to Pause updates in the More options section.

8. Configure Your GPU Software

Most Windows 11 PCs come with AMD or Nvidia graphics cards. The best part about these graphics cards is that their performance’s can be customized using their dedicated software.

Below we’ve mentioned some tweaks that you can make in your graphics card’s software to optimize it for better performance gaming:

Nvidia Users

1. Launch the NVIDIA Control Panel app on your PC and select Manage 3D settings from the left pane.

2. Set the Power management mode dropdown menu to the Prefer maximum performance option.

3. Change the Max Frame Rate dropdown menu to the actual refresh rate of your current monitor.

1. Open the AMD Software: Adrenaline Edition app and click on Settings at the top right corner of the window.

2. Click on the Graphics option in the top navigation menu to move to the Graphics section of it.

3. Enable the Radeon Boost and Radeon Anti-Lag toggles to enhance gaming performance.

9. Turn Off Enhance Pointer Precision

There’s a feature in Windows 11 called Enhance Pointer Precision that speeds up or slows down your mouse’s cursor speed based on how fast you drag your mouse. This function doesn’t affect gaming performance. But it does affect the gaming experience. 

So, we suggest you turn off Enhance Pointer Precision on your Windows 11 PC by following the below steps:

1. Open the Control Panel utility on your Windows system and click on Hardware and Sound .

2. Choose the Devices and Printers option on the same screen and expand the Mouse section.

3. Click on the Additional mouse settings option under the Related settings section.

4. Move to the Pointers Options tab and uncheck the Enhance pointer precision checkbox.

5. Click on Apply at the bottom right corner of the tab to save the changes.

10. Disable Memory Integrity

Memory Integrity is a security feature that prevents viruses and malware attacks from injecting malicious codes into your system. Keeping this function enabled is essential, but it consumes a lot of the system’s resources to work.

Due to this reason, we suggest you disable the Memory Integrity feature on your Windows 11 PC to optimize it for next-level performance. Follow the below steps and disable it:

1. Open the Windows Security app on your PC and select Device security from the left menu.

2. Click on the Core isolation details option in the Core isolation section.

3. Lastly, disable the toggle next to the Memory integrity option to switch it off.

11. Turn Off Virtualization

Windows 11 integrates a virtualization functionality that lets you run different OSs, like Android , Linux, etc., on your Windows 11 PC. No doubt, it’s a useful feature. But in some cases, it’s found that keeping it enabled can ruin the system’s performance, as it consumes enormous resources.

Considering this, disable the virtualization functionality  on your PC. Here are the steps to disable this function:

1. Open the Settings app on your Windows 11 PC and select the Apps option from the left navigation pane.

2. Expand the Optional features section and then choose the More Windows features option.

3. Search for Virtual Machine Platform in the Windows Features popup and untick the box next to it.

4. Click the OK button to apply the changes and restart your system.

12. Turn On Hardware-Accelerated GPU Scheduling

Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling is a gaming-centric feature in Windows 11 that lowers latency by processing high-priority tasks through a dedicated GPU-based scheduling processor, which automatically reduces the load from the CPU and improves gaming performance.

In that case, enable the Hardware-Accelerated GPU Scheduling option on your Windows 11 PC. You can do so by trying the below steps:

1. Open the Settings app on your PC and head to the Gaming section from the left menu.

2. Select Graphics in the Related settings section and expand the Advanced graphic settings section.

3. Turn on the Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling toggle.

13. Enable Variable Refresh Rate

Windows 11’s Gaming settings have a Variable refresh rate option which improves the refresh rate and prevents the screen from tearing while playing games. As this is a game-centric feature and aims to improve gaming performance, we suggest you enable it on your Windows 11 PC.

You can follow the below-mentioned prompts to enable Variable refresh rate on your system:

1. Follow Steps 1 – 2 in Tip 12 to move to Advanced graphic settings of the Settings app .

2. Expand the Advanced graphic settings section and enable the Variable refresh rate toggle.

14. Disable Non-Gaming & Unnecessary Startup Apps

Another way to optimize the system’s gaming performance is disabling unnecessary programs from booting at the system’s startup. This will help you save your system’s resources, and your games will use those resources to provide an enhanced gaming experience.

So disable unnecessary startup apps and programs on your PC by following the below steps:

1. Move to the Apps section of the Settings app and click on Startup on the same window.

2. In the Startup window, search for the program that you don’t want to get started at the boot.

3. Lastly, disable the toggles next to those programs and apps and restart your Windows system.

15. Disable Record What Happened

Windows 11 comes with a Record what happened feature that lets you record your game moments in a video with a shortcut. When you keep the Record what happened feature enabled, it keeps running in the background and consumes resources, which affects the performance.

Due to this, we suggest you keep the Record what happened option disabled on your Windows 11 PC. You can check the below-mentioned steps to know whether it’s disabled or not:

1. Go to the Settings section of your Windows 11 PC and proceed to the Gaming section.

2. Click on Captures in the Gaming window and disable the Record what happened toggle.

16. Enable Optimizations for Windowed Games

Enabling the Optimizations for windowed games option on your Windows 11 PC could also enhance its gaming performance. This function reduces latency and uses a flip presentation model to optimize DirectX 10’s and DirectX 11’s games’ performance.

So, try enabling Optimizations for windowed games on your Windows 11 PC by following the below steps:

1. Launch the Settings app on your PC or laptop and proceed to the Display section of it.

2. Choose the Graphics option in the Related settings section to open the Graphics settings.

3. Turn on the toggle next to Optimizations for windowed games under System-wide settings .

How Do I Optimize Windows 11 for Gaming?

You can try enabling Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling on your system to optimize it for gaming.

Is Windows 11 better optimized for gaming?

Microsoft claims that Windows 11 is optimized for gaming, as it has many gaming-centric features. But you still need to make some tweaks to your Windows 11 PC to fully optimize it.

Is Windows 11 Slower for Gaming?

No, the latest Windows 11 isn’t slower for gaming. But it’s found that some of its built-in features, like Virtualization Based Security (VBS) , could drop the gaming performance by 10%.

Which Windows 11 Is the Best for Gaming?

Windows 11 Pro & Home version is the best for gaming, as it has many enhanced gaming functions.

How Do I Enable 120Hz on Windows 11?

Follow the below-mentioned instructions to enable 120Hz on your Windows 11 PC or laptop:

1. Launch the Settings app on your Windows 11 system and go to the Display section of it.

2. Click the Advanced display option under the Related settings section to adjust the refresh rate.

3. In the end, set the Choose a refresh rate dropdown to 120 Hz and restart your system.

Play Games Smoothly

Windows 11 is undoubtedly good for gaming. But it could be best at it if you make some tweaks to it. Therefore, in this guide, we shared some tips or tweaks that you can apply to optimize your Windows 11 PC for gaming.

So, we hope this guide helped you make your Windows 11 system a better place for playing all kinds of games without any lag, FPS drop, and other issues.

Harshit Arora

Harshit is a tech writer who loves writing about Windows, Android, and the Internet. He uses his IdeaPad Gaming 3 laptop to write the most useful troubleshooting, how-to, and internet guides for you guys. You can connect to Harshit on LinkedIn, as he’s most active there only.

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Does DirectX implement Triple Buffering?

As AnandTech put it best in this 2009 article:

In render ahead, frames cannot be dropped. This means that when the queue is full, what is displayed can have a lot more lag. Microsoft doesn't implement triple buffering in DirectX, they implement render ahead (from 0 to 8 frames with 3 being the default). The major difference in the technique we've described here is the ability to drop frames when they are outdated. Render ahead forces older frames to be displayed. Queues can help smoothness and stuttering as a few really quick frames followed by a slow frame end up being evened out and spread over more frames. But the price you pay is in lag (the more frames in the queue, the longer it takes to empty the queue and the older the frames are that are displayed).

As I understand it, DirectX "Swap Chain" is merely a render ahead queue, i.e. buffers cannot be dropped; the longer the chain, the greater the input latency. At the same time, I find it hard to believe that the most widely used graphics API would not implement such fundamental functionality correctly. Is there a way to get proper triple buffered vertical synchronisation in DirectX?

• 4 \$\begingroup\$ OpenGL actually doesn't support triple buffering, even in the various platform-specific binding APIs and extensions, and it's both the older API and (counting mobile) the more widely used API. You shouldn't be surprised by graphics API being awful. Instead, assume they suck and then be pleasantly surprised in the instances where they don't. \$\endgroup\$ –  Sean Middleditch Commented Jul 2, 2013 at 19:53

3 Answers 3

As mh01 says, DirectX does support a form of triple buffering. It works around one downside of double buffering, which is that with double buffering and vsync on your frame rate drops from 60 to 30 to 20 (assuming 60Hz refresh rate). There's nothing in between because you don't have a free back buffer to render to until after the vsync. Triple buffering allows it to have up to three frames on the go at once:

• The frame being displayed - the front buffer.
• The frame to be displayed at the next vsync (one back buffer).
• The frame currently being rendered (the other back buffer).

I think what the Anandtech article is saying is that if your game is rendering frames much faster than the vsync it would reduce latency if D3D could drop a previously rendered frame. That is, if while one frame is being displayed you manage to render both the next frame and the one after (so you run out of back buffers) then D3D could choose to drop the oldest of those two frames and proceed to render the next frame immediately.

What D3D actually does is to block waiting for the vsync, which reduces CPU and GPU load, but increases latency a little. And it can be worse than that because what D3D does when the CPU is producing frames faster than the GPU can render them is to let the game queue up three frames worth of GPU commands, and then block, giving you more latency.

That three frame CPU queue can be avoided either in the game software (the easiest option is issuing and waiting for queries with the appropriate delay in between), or with driver settings (it's there on Nvidia drivers, not sure about AMD).

The main advantage of that three frame command queue is that if you have more than one GPU then when there's more than one frame in the queue you can give one to each GPU and improve performance. It can also help smooth out an uneven frame rate a bit.

• \$\begingroup\$ So you're basically saying AnandTech is correct, D3D's "Triple-Buffering" is a render ahead queue that smoothes out the framerate but increases latency with every additional buffer. It causes the program to wait when the queue is full rather than continue rendering. What is the option of NVIDIA drivers you're talking about? \$\endgroup\$ –  Asik Commented Jul 3, 2013 at 1:44
• \$\begingroup\$ The setting is called "maximum pre-rendered frames". forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2322148 \$\endgroup\$ –  Adam Commented Jul 3, 2013 at 23:38
• 1 \$\begingroup\$ This answer was not entirely accurate even at the time it was written. The flip presentation model was added to D3D9Ex in Windows 7 and D3D11 in Windows 8. This model is capable of flipping between 3 (or more) buffers and always displaying the latest; it relies largely on the Desktop Window Manager. NVIDIA has added this to their recent drivers for Pascal GPUs and calls it "Fast SYNC." \$\endgroup\$ –  Andon M. Coleman Commented Aug 18, 2016 at 20:38

Yes, see D3DPRESENT_PARAMETERS structure and the description of the "BackBufferCount" member for D3D9, or DXGI_SWAP_CHAIN_DESC for DXGI, for example.

Note that this is not a render-ahead mechanism as described by the AnandTech article; this is managed by a separate API, such as IDirect3DDevice9Ex::SetMaximumFrameLatency or IDXGIDevice1::SetMaximumFrameLatency . Note that in both cases the BackBufferCount (or BufferCount for DXGI) is still set separately during device creation.

I'm not sure how AnandTech managed to get the impression that this wasn't implemented or that it was somehow different, as it has been documented in every DirectX SDK.

• \$\begingroup\$ I'm afraid that doesn't answer the question. Yes, I'm aware D3D implements a queue of buffers, the question is whether this is a render ahead queue (i.e. buffers cannot be dropped and necessarily introduce latency) or a proper ping-pong setup where the program continuously bounces between two back buffers while waiting for the next vsync. The D3D documentation you link to suggests the former. \$\endgroup\$ –  Asik Commented Jul 3, 2013 at 1:43
• \$\begingroup\$ Why do you assume the other method is "proper" ? There are downsides to what you're suggesting in terms of smoothness, which is what most game players care about. \$\endgroup\$ –  Sean Middleditch Commented Jul 3, 2013 at 6:38
• \$\begingroup\$ I've edited this answer to clarify. \$\endgroup\$ –  Maximus Minimus Commented Jul 3, 2013 at 7:54
• \$\begingroup\$ What are the smoothness downsides of triple buffering as compared with a 3-frame FIFO queue? I can't see how there are any, and unless there are then triple buffering is strictly better than a 3-frame FIFO queue. \$\endgroup\$ –  user57368 Commented May 27, 2014 at 22:42

The behavior of the Direct3D swapchain has, traditionally, been a FIFO queue. Windows 7 addressed this problem in Direct3D 9 Ex by advancing the read target that the Desktop Window Manager uses for composition each time a frame is presented. It matters not how far behind the GPU is, the DWM always scans-out the most recent finished frame and drops late frames.

This is referred to by Microsoft as the Flip Presentation Model. It is available in Windows 7 in D3D9Ex devices if the Desktop Window Manager is enabled. In D3D11, this feature is part of DXGI 1.2 (Windows 8); it should be available in Windows 7 with Platform Update but I have had very limited success getting that to work.

For games that use neither D3D9Ex nor DXGI 1.2 in order to use the Flip Presentation Model, NVIDIA's recent drivers expose "Fast SYNC" on Pascal GPUs. This violates the D3D sequential presentation design and has to be enabled in the driver because it is not technically correct VSYNC behavior. NVIDIA touts this as a hardware feature unique to Pascal GPUs, but that simply is not true.

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Shiney New Settings To test out!

Post by Vocaleyes » 23 Apr 2022, 03:21

Re: Shiney New Settings To test out!

Post by jorimt » 23 Apr 2022, 08:53

Vocaleyes wrote: ↑ 23 Apr 2022, 03:21 The first being "Optimisations for windowed games", I suspect this option has been developed in house due to their own game performance with regards to halo. The game doesn't include a FE option, so the performance hit the game took was very noticable. With Halo Inifnite BR supposedly around the corner, it only makes sense for this new setting to be featured now.

Post by Vocaleyes » 23 Apr 2022, 11:26

Post by Vocaleyes » 26 Apr 2022, 07:13

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PSA: In most cases, you don't need Exclusive Fullscreen anymore

• Thread starter Deleted member 17184
• Start date May 7, 2021

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• May 7, 2021

(DXGI) Flip Model is a new mode introduced in Windows 8 that makes the SwapChain work efficiently with the Windows DWM (Desktop Window Manager). Flip Model eliminates performance penalties normally associated with windowed mode rendering and introduces new methods to measure and regulate render latency . Flip Model is required for all D3D12 software as well as all UWP games sold on the Microsoft Store. It is also useable in D3D10 and D3D11 software, but most developers shipping software on Windows are oblivious to this and your typical D3D11 game performs sub-par as a result. Click to expand... Click to shrink...

This was good PSA, thanks.  

Noted.  

<<Tag Here>>

I always use borderless anyway since I have 2 monitors with discord etc, so it's nice to see the fps hit getting lower and lower to basically zero now  

Lashley said: I always use borderless anyway since I have 2 monitors with discord etc, so it's nice to see the fps hit getting lower and lower to basically zero now Click to expand... Click to shrink...

PeskyToaster

That's good to know.  

Now, if you're running a DirectX 11 game, you'll need a few more steps. First, download SpecialK. I strongly recommend you to get it from their Discord server as they constantly update it there. Then, install it following these instructions. Once you launch the game with SpecialK enabled, press Ctrl + Shift + Backspace to open the app's settings, go to the "Direct3D 11 Settings" tab, and then "SwapChain Management." Enable "Use Flip Model Presentation" and follow the best settings for your PC here . Finally, choose Borderless Fullscreen in-game (and also on the Display tab on SpecialK if the game keeps reverting it), and you're done. Click to expand... Click to shrink...

Wrexis said: Or enable Exclusive Fullscreen and just be done with it. Seriously though is there a reason why Exclusive Fullscreen is bad? Click to expand... Click to shrink...

Bony Manifesto

You don't actually need to bother with Special K for non-DX12 games, as Windows automatically converts exclusive full screen games to flip mode unless you explicitly "Disable full screen optimisations" in the exe properties.  

• Reader mode

Dio said: Bad alt + tab perf. Click to expand... Click to shrink...

One Winged Slayer

I've noticed that every game I play requires full screen for refresh rates above 60hz. Wish that wasn't the case.  

HybridEidolon

SpecialK can also be used to fix games that have framerate cap problems on >60hz monitors. The Steam achievement popup is also a pretty nice feature.  

Niosai said: I've noticed that every game I play requires full screen for refresh rates above 60hz. Wish that wasn't the case. Click to expand... Click to shrink...

Community Resettler

Wrexis said: Seriously though is there a reason why Exclusive Fullscreen is bad? Click to expand... Click to shrink...

Havent ran Exclusive Fullscreen in forever in games. Mainly because in most games it makes dual monitor usage ass. Borderless all day :3  

davepoobond

not sure if there is even any benefit to exclusive fullscreen anymore.  

HybridEidolon said: Breaks multimonitor, breaks streaming apps, breaks many overlays, sometimes games erroneously request the lowest refresh rate of the display resulting in e.g. 24fps cap on some TVs. Click to expand... Click to shrink...

beelulzebub

I play most of my PC games on my big comfy couch and my TV. I don't alt+tab, so not sure there's any real reason to choose one over the other? But good to know if I'm gaming at my desk.  

Atolm said: I must be the only person who doesn't alt+tab during a gaming session. If I want to check something online these days I just prefer using my phone. Click to expand... Click to shrink...

Wrexis said: Ok that's a good explanation. I don't do most of the above so I wouldn't have known. Thank you. Click to expand... Click to shrink...

Do you not then have to enable windowed gsync if you want to use it (which doesn't play well with some launchers)...?  

"This guy are sick"

Does a proper GSync/Freesync setup not require you to be in Exclusive Fullscreen for best results?  

Shinra Employee

beelulzebub said: I play most of my PC games on my big comfy couch and my TV. I don't alt+tab, so not sure there's any real reason to choose one over the other? But good to know if I'm gaming at my desk. Click to expand... Click to shrink...

Alt Account

I need it for DSR, so it's out of the question. It's actually one of the things that's been annoying about Unity and UE4.  

Menome said: Does a proper GSync/Freesync setup not require you to be in Exclusive Fullscreen for best results? Click to expand... Click to shrink...

Bungie said: Do you not then have to enable windowed gsync if you want to use it (which doesn't play well with some launchers)...? Click to expand... Click to shrink...

Princess Bubblegum

I'll be the one who puts you in the ground..

Khrn said: Note: it's best to not use SpecialK with DirectX 12 games. You can limit the fps through RTSS or through the driver. Click to expand... Click to shrink...

SapphiCine said: Eh? I believe SpecialK supports DX12 as of last year, just a few features don't work yet . Click to expand... Click to shrink...

Khrn said: It's crashing Resident Evil Village for some people, including those who are just using the framerate limiter. It seems very hit or miss so far. Click to expand... Click to shrink...

SapphiCine said: If people are using the recent NieR Replicant builds, the defaults are not going to play nicely with DX12. Click to expand... Click to shrink...

Bony Manifesto said: You don't actually need to bother with Special K for non-DX12 games, as Windows automatically converts exclusive full screen games to flip mode unless you explicitly "Disable full screen optimisations" in the exe properties. Click to expand... Click to shrink...

I always play games in borderless with discord on a second screen and Twitter on a third. Maybe I'm too online...  

Massicot said: I always play games in borderless with discord on a second screen and Twitter on a third. Maybe I'm too online... Click to expand... Click to shrink...

"This guy are sick" of the One Winged Slayer

Freesync with my C9 somehow breaks when I try borderless, so have been using exclusive since  

Spacejaws said: I don't get this, I never disable this and always have a noticeable performance hit in Fullscreen windowed mode to the point I can tell when a game has defaulted to windowed due to the FPS drops. Battlefront 2 does this for me. Click to expand... Click to shrink...

Roven said: Freesync with my C9 somehow breaks when I try borderless, so have been using exclusive since Click to expand... Click to shrink...

Khrn said: Not required. Windowed G-Sync also performs much better these days. Haven't experienced any issue for a while. Click to expand... Click to shrink...

It's also notable that a lot of games that advertise an "Exclusive Fullscreen" mode are actually still running in Borderless Window, even if it's an entirely different option.  

Pargon said: Great thread! The only slight correction I'd make is to say that not all Microsoft Store games use flip-mode. Ori and the Will of the Wisps is one notable title where people were reporting bad frame rate drops/stuttering as a result of it using borderless mode rather than flip-mode (because windowed-mode G-Sync has a tendency to do that). Well, the main issue is that more and more games now lack the option for an exclusive output altogether. In this case, SpecialK can convert windowed-mode to flip-mode, so you get the best of both: fast alt-tabbing, and proper G-Sync functionality. No - that's is the best part! Flip-mode bypasses the desktop compositor: so as far as G-Sync is concerned, it's running in "full-screen" mode, not "windowed" mode. I still see exactly the same problems in windowed-mode as always. But sometimes you might not realize that a game is using flip-mode rather than windowed-mode, if the option for windowed-mode G-Sync is enabled. I recommend that you disable windowed-mode G-Sync entirely, since that setting has no effect on flip-mode. That way you can easily tell whether a game is using flip-mode or borderless mode (check if G-Sync is working or not) and can use SpecialK to fix it, if it is not using flip-mode. Microsoft has changed things around a lot, and I haven't kept up to date with my testing. As far as I am aware though, 1709 is the only version of Windows 10 that upgraded full-screen windowed (borderless) games to flip-mode. Newer versions of Windows 10 only upgrade full-screen exclusive (FSE) to flip-mode. And though it does upgrade them to flip-mode, some games have logic built in so that when you alt-tab away, they do things like switch into a window or other weird behaviors. So even though flip-mode permits fast alt-tabbing, those particular games may still be a hassle if you're running them in FSE-mode, even though it has been upgraded to flip-mode presentation. Click to expand... Click to shrink...

By the way, Pargon , do you know why Ori wasn't using Flip Mode? Was it not a DX12 game on the MS Store?  

Khrn said: By the way, Pargon , do you know why Ori wasn't using Flip Mode? Was it not a DX12 game on the MS Store? Click to expand... Click to shrink...

Pargon said: I think it's a DX11 game rather than DX12. I'm not sure whether they fixed this - either by moving to flip-mode, or by adding an exclusive option. I only had access to it briefly via a Game Pass trial. Click to expand... Click to shrink...

What is flip-mode? And with gsync do I need to enable/disable something in the Nvidia driver?  

Atolm said: I must be the only person who doesn't alt+tab during a gaming session. Click to expand... Click to shrink...

I thought Gsync didn't work as well in borderless. At least I swore it wasn't last time I tried  

Flip mode. Busta Rhymes would be proud. Good OP. I'm sure Darktalon would have some good insight on all of this too.  

Window gsync mode can breaks some apps causing major stutters and is not fixed at all. 1Password for example so as other productivity apps.  

TheRed said: I thought Gsync didn't work as well in borderless. At least I swore it wasn't last time I tried Click to expand... Click to shrink...

vegtro said: Window gsync mode can breaks some apps causing major stutters and is not fixed at all. 1Password for example so as other productivity apps. Click to expand... Click to shrink...

darkkinder said: What is flip-mode? And with gsync do I need to enable/disable something in the Nvidia driver? Click to expand... Click to shrink...

These are Sankey diagrams that should hopefully illustrate the factors involved that results in a favorable presentation model where latency is the lowest.

The presentation model Windows ends up using for a game can be inspected using either Special K’s control panel or framepacing widget, or by using the excellent PresentMon tool from Intel.

The diagrams were created using SankeyMATIC .

A simplification that has been made in the diagrams is that even with MPOs enabled a game can still be reported as using Hardware: Independent Flip on some systems, though when this happens it tend to act and function identical to Hardware Composed: Independent Flip .

¶ Flip (D3D11/12*)

For a game using a Flip swap effect, there are various factors that determine which presentation model will be used:

• (*) The Exclusive Fullscreen (FSE) section is not applicable to DirectX 12 games as its “exclusive mode” is merely an “emulated” mode where the Windows desktop temporarily changes resolution, refresh rate, and colorspace to the one requested by the game, but otherwise acts exactly like a regular borderless fullscreen window.
• Fullscreen Optimizations (FSO) toggle (only relevant for games running in Exclusive Fullscreen (FSE) mode).
• Whether Multi-Plane Overlay (MPO) are available on the hardware.
• DirectFlip : Your swapchain buffers match the screen dimensions, and your window client region covers the screen. Instead of using the DWM swapchain to display on the screen, the application swapchain is used.
• DirectFlip with panel fitters (requires MPO ) : Your window client region covers the screen, and your swapchain buffers are within some hardware-dependent scaling factor (for example, 0.25x to 4x) of the screen. The GPU scanout hardware is used to scale your buffer while sending it to the display.
• DirectFlip with multi-plane overlay (requires MPO ) : Your swapchain buffers are within some hardware-dependent scaling factor of your window dimensions. The DWM is able to reserve a dedicated hardware scanout plane for your application, which is then scanned out and potentially stretched to an alpha-blended sub-region of the screen.

¶ BitBlt (D3D11)

For a game using a legacy BitBlt swap effect, there are various factors that determine which presentation model will be used:

• The requested display mode of the game.
• Special K’s automatic flip model override performs this functionality on Windows 10 and earlier versions of Windows 11 where the OS provided override is not available.
• DirectFlip (requires Fullscreen/Windowed Optimizations) : Your swapchain buffers match the screen dimensions, and your window client region covers the screen. Instead of using the DWM swapchain to display on the screen, the application swapchain is used.
• DirectFlip with panel fitters (requires MPO + Fullscreen/Windowed Optimizations) : Your window client region covers the screen, and your swapchain buffers are within some hardware-dependent scaling factor (for example, 0.25x to 4x) of the screen. The GPU scanout hardware is used to scale your buffer while sending it to the display.
• DirectFlip with multi-plane overlay (requires MPO + Fullscreen/Windowed Optimizations) : Your swapchain buffers are within some hardware-dependent scaling factor of your window dimensions. The DWM is able to reserve a dedicated hardware scanout plane for your application, which is then scanned out and potentially stretched to an alpha-blended sub-region of the screen.

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How to anti-alias in DirectX11 with Flip mode?

I understand that the flip presentation mode ( DXGI_SWAP_EFFECT_FLIP_DISCARD ) is recommended but it does not seem to support multi-sampling. So how can you do anti-aliasing ?

• Multisampling in Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps –  user7860670 Commented Jan 28, 2021 at 18:53
• @user7860670 For a non-UWP desktop app is there any reason to do this over just not using flip mode? –  cecil Commented Jan 28, 2021 at 19:02
• Well, if support for flip model (and benefits that it brings) is not required, then probably none. –  user7860670 Commented Jan 28, 2021 at 19:14
• @user7860670 I thought the benefit of the flip mode was only that you didn't perform a surface copy on present. But if you need to perform a surface copy to do AA then I'm not seeing any reason for flip mode. –  cecil Commented Jan 28, 2021 at 20:51
• Multisampling AA works by rendering several pixels per render target pixel and calculating average value so it is essentially equivalent to surface copy. They've just separated it into two steps. I think this form of separation is also used with Nvidia DLSS and similar techniques. (at least that's how i see it) –  user7860670 Commented Jan 28, 2021 at 21:05

The modern "flip" modes ( DXGI_SWAP_EFFECT_FLIP_DISCARD and DXGI_SWAP_EFFECT_FLIP_SEQUENTIAL ) enforce some new usage rules. Specifically you can't create an MSAA backbuffer or an _SRGB format backbuffer.

The reality is that when using the legacy "blt" style modes ( DXGI_SWAP_EFFECT_DISCARD , DXGI_SWAP_EFFECT_SEQUENTIAL ), you can't really create an MSAA backbuffer at all. It just implicitly created a single-sample backbuffer and a MSAA render target, and did the resolve "by magic".

In most 'real world' rendering solutions, you (a) don't just do a resolve, and (b) don't immediately render the resolved content of the MSAA render target. Post-processing, custom anti-aliasing, and post-resolve UI composition all takes place before you Present the result. As such, the 'magic' solution is only useful for trivial samples.

See this blog series: The Care and Feeding of Modern Swap Chains

• 1. So in Flip model, you can't create an MSAA texture for the backbuffer, but you can do so for other textures right (including offscreen render targets)? 2. also you mentioned _SRGB DXGI_FORMATs but I believe you can't create for DXGI_FORMAT_B8G8R8A8_UNORM either right? Could you answer to me those 2 questions please? –  KeyC0de Commented Apr 26 at 14:24
• If you want to do MSAA use a render target and then resolve it to the back-buffer. If you want to do SRGB, you specify that in the Render Target View. –  Chuck Walbourn Commented Apr 26 at 17:17

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