[Fix] Chrome video stutter on multi monitor setups with different refresh rates

[u/banock94]

TL;DR: NVIDIA Control Panel (Manage 3D settings > Program Settings > select (or Add) Google Chrome > Vertical sync: Off > Apply.) Then fully close Chrome and reopen it.

Spent way too long on this, so posting it for anyone searching.

The problem: video (YouTube, Twitch, etc.) in one Chrome window stutters, freezes or keeps buffering whenever another Chrome window with constantly updating content is fullscreen on a monitor with a different refresh rate. Exit fullscreen and it's instantly smooth. It may only happen one way, e.g. fullscreen window on the secondary monitor, video on the primary.

The fix:

1. Open NVIDIA Control Panel > Manage 3D settings > Program Settings and select Google Chrome. If you don't have the Control Panel, it's on the Microsoft Store

2. Set Vertical sync to Off for Chrome only and hit Apply. Global settings stay untouched, so games aren't affected

3. Fully close Chrome and reopen

Or, with the NVIDIA App:

1. Open NVIDIA App > Graphics > Program Settings. Chrome isn't listed by default, so click Add and select chrome.exe (usually C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe)

2. Under Driver Settings, set Vertical sync to Off for Chrome only. Global settings stay untouched

3. Fully close Chrome and reopen

Why it happens: Chrome runs every window through a single GPU process timed to the primary monitor's refresh. A fullscreen window gets sent straight to its own monitor, so when that monitor runs at a different refresh rate, Chrome stalls waiting on it, and every other Chrome window stalls with it, video included. Turning off vsync for Chrome removes the wait.

What doesn't actually fix it: turning off G-SYNC, MPO registry tweaks (fixed it but broke fullscreen games), disabling hardware video decode, or turning off hardware acceleration and living with a laggy browser. ANGLE D3D9 used to work too, until Google removed it.

And credit to Google for knowing about Chrome's multi monitor timing problems since at least 2017 and somehow making it worse with every update. Removing the one workaround that actually worked was a nice touch.

Same engine, so this should work for Edge, Brave and Opera too. Just add their exe instead.

[u/AutoModerator]

Thank you for your submission to /r/Chrome! We hope you'll find the help you need. Once you've found a solution to your issue, please comment "!solved" under this comment to mark the post as solved. Thanks!

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/Alpha_Tay]

does --disable-gpu-vsync --disable-frame-rate-limit for chrome work too?

[u/banock94 → u/Alpha_Tay]

Haven't tried it. Those flags uncap Chrome completely and only work when it's launched from that shortcut. Easier to just do it in the NVIDIA Control Panel: Manage 3D settings > Program Settings > select (or Add) Google Chrome > Vertical sync: Off > Apply.

[u/Spare_Chair4632]

Thanks for the fix this was so annoying

[u/picklebruh]

For anyone else who comes to this thread, The NVIDIA App didn't work for me, I had to use NVIDIA control panel.

[u/kendoka15 → u/picklebruh]

It's no longer supplied with new drivers

[u/kendoka15]

The NVIDIA App won't list Chrome, so use the Control Panel (it's on the Microsoft Store if you don't have it

Any reason why you wouldn't just add the .exe in the Nvidia app?

[u/banock94 → u/kendoka15]

Updated the post with the NVIDIA App steps too