Audio Stuttering and Frame Drops with G-Sync Enabled

02-12-2015, 11:07 AM #1

I am experiencing Audio Stuttering and Frame Drops in Dolphin whenever G-Sync is enabled.

Here is a video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIJfHQmdPzA

The Audio Stuttering is most noticeable at 0:06 and 0:46 when the music starts but you can see and hear frame drops and small audio stutters in other parts of the "G-Sync On" section of the clip. For the second part of the clip, the only change I made was to turn G-Sync off for Dolphin in the Nvidia Control Panel. You can see that it plays flawlessly.

I could go on and list all of my settings, but suffice it to say, I tried many different settings and with G-Sync On, this happens.

Dolphin v4.0-5450

Saint Chewy · (This post was last modified: 02-12-2015, 03:16 PM by Saint Chewy.)

I actually have the same issue with my g sync monitor. I notice it a lot more in SSBB its awful with sound stutters. But I did see it is pretty much the same with g sync off and having v sync on. So maybe its something related? Hopefully the devs can fix it in future builds.

02-12-2015, 05:42 PM #3

(02-12-2015, 03:12 PM)Saint Chewy Wrote: I actually have the same issue with my g sync monitor. I notice it a lot more in SSBB its awful with sound stutters. But I did see it is pretty much the same with g sync off and having v sync on. So maybe its something related? Hopefully the devs can fix it in future builds.

Since you brought it up, I just tested it again with g-sync off and v-sync on and it was flawless. G-Sync is the only thing that is causing the issue for me. I want to make sure that others are experiencing this behavior as well before I submit a bug report.

**degasus** · 02-12-2015, 07:47 PM #4

Could you please also check the FPS / VPS in this scenes? If you'll see an increased FPS but a decreased VPS in the same time, then it's because of skipped XFB emulation.

02-13-2015, 02:20 AM #5

(02-12-2015, 07:47 PM)degasus Wrote: Could you please also check the FPS / VPS in this scenes? If you'll see an increased FPS but a decreased VPS in the same time, then it's because of skipped XFB emulation.

I have tried searching but I can't figure out if there is a way to overlay VPS and Game Speed. Since G-Sync requires fullscreen, I can't see the VPS number in the status bar. If I run it in windowed mode, the VPS is a solid 60 and the Game Speed is a solid 100%. But since it is windowed, G-Sync is off and the game does not exhibit any frame drops or audio stutters.

To reiterate, when running in fullscreen(exclusive) with G-Sync off, the game performs identically to windowed mode. So even though I can't see the VPS and Game Speed in that situation either, I am betting that it is a solid 60/100 respectively as well.

(Also, an interesting thing that I noticed is that G-Sync will not engage in fullscreen when Render to Main Window is enabled. This is not an issue that I am concerned with, just something that I noticed while testing different things)

02-14-2015, 07:32 PM #6

Any advice on how I can monitor the VPS in Fullscreen?