Custom Resolution Utility (CRU)

[Reonu]

Hi!

My laptop has a 240 Hz screen (the model number of the screen is LQ156M1JW03) and I use an external monitor which is an AOC G2590PX, which is 144 Hz. The internal screen only supports 60 Hz or 240 Hz by default, no inbetweens (which is dumb as fuck btw). Since Windows's handling of different refresh rate monitors isn't the best, I decided to create a custom 144 Hz resolution for the internal screen. It worked fine. But I noticed that Windows claims that the refresh rate of the internal screen is 144.000 Hz, while the refresh rate of the external monitor is 144.001 Hz.

Is it worth it to try to make the internal screen run at 144.001 Hz too so that it's 100% in sync with the other one? And if so, how would I do that?

Thanks.

[ToastyX]

(05-16-2020 09:32 PM)Reonu Wrote:  Is it worth it to try to make the internal screen run at 144.001 Hz too so that it's 100% in sync with the other one? And if so, how would I do that?

If you make sure the totals are the same, the refresh rates should match perfectly.

[Reonu]

(05-16-2020 10:54 PM)ToastyX Wrote:  

(05-16-2020 09:32 PM)Reonu Wrote:  Is it worth it to try to make the internal screen run at 144.001 Hz too so that it's 100% in sync with the other one? And if so, how would I do that?

If you make sure the totals are the same, the refresh rates should match perfectly.

Sorry, but I'm a bit of a noob at creating custom resolutions and I don't wanna screw something up. I'm not sure what you mean by "the totals".

Here's my current situation:



The only screen in where I have set any custom resolutions is the internal one, the external screen resolutions are all the default ones.
If you could point me in the right direction that'd be nice. Thanks.

[ToastyX]

(05-16-2020 11:51 PM)Reonu Wrote:  Sorry, but I'm a bit of a noob at creating custom resolutions and I don't wanna screw something up. I'm not sure what you mean by "the totals".

By the totals, I mean the totals. I don't know what else to say. Just copy the same timing parameters and see if that works.

[mdrejhon]

(05-17-2020 06:33 PM)ToastyX Wrote:  

(05-16-2020 11:51 PM)Reonu Wrote:  Sorry, but I'm a bit of a noob at creating custom resolutions and I don't wanna screw something up. I'm not sure what you mean by "the totals".

By the totals, I mean the totals. I don't know what else to say. Just copy the same timing parameters and see if that works.

Chief Blur Buster here.

I rarely post here, but here's a visual opportunity to help CRU users understand CRU better:

This is correct. Make sure all the number textboxes in "Detailed Resolutions" exactly match each other.

The most important numbers is definitely the numbers in the Totals boxes must match each other, in addition to Refresh Rate. If you do this correctly, the Pixel Clock (number of pixels per second that the GPU generates) becomes identical, and the displays are in sync with each other.

It's possible to have the same Totals with slightly different sync numbers, but if you're unsure, just copy every single number over from one display to the next. You might find it works better if you copy numbers of Display B to Display A, rather than from Display A to Display B.

Both ways will usually work but some displays will be very picky (you'll know when the display glitches or blacks out).

A simplified diagram of the structure of a video signal essentially looks like this:


(Credit: Me. Diagram created by Blur Busters for the Blur Busters website)

-- Mathematically, porches and sync are mapped like a virtual resolution beyond the visible screen resolution.
-- "Total" means the grand total of horizontals (Sync + Porches + Resolution), and the grand total of verticals (Sync + Porches + Resolution).

You want both the Horizontal Total and the Vertical Total to match, in order to get identical Pixel Clock (number of pixels per second generated by GPU) in order for the signal to be in perfect sync.

The art of serializing a 2D picture into a 1D wire, is accomplished via "scanning" -- the raster scan. This means refresh cycles are transmitted one pixel row at a time, top-to-bottom, over the cable. Like the days and weeks of a calender, except 1080p is like a calender 1920 days long by 1080 weeks tall. Pixels are transmitted sequentially like the days of a theoretically enlarged calendar grid. The porches are overscan areas (padding originally used to give some time for CRT electron guns to overscan a curved tube) and the sync areas are signals to indicate the next pixel row (horizontal), or next refresh cycle (vertical). Those were often long enough to allow an electron gun of a CRT to move to its new position.

The 1930s analog TV signal and a 2020s DisplayPort still use the same signalling methods. Today, they're metaphorically more like punctuation marks and comma separators to signal the display to begin a new pixel row refresh, or begin a new refresh cycle. The amazing fact is that the signal structure has remained the same for 100 years. Even as we add things like packetization and DSC (bunching up multiple pixels into bursts). But the signal structure and signal sequencing is fundmanetally unchanged. A few screens will refresh sideways or bottom-to-top, but they are all still raster-based scanout mechanisms.

Once you mentally do that, the numbers in a CRU becomes less scary.

Now, a TestUFO animation that flashes one frame at a time (http://www.testufo.com/scanout) in rapid sequence, then filmed by a 960fps ultra slo-mo smartphone:

[Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOyoOm4o82M]

You can see High Speed Videos of Refresh Cycles, of a display refreshing from top-to-bottom. Most low-lag LCD screens will have cable scanout synchronized to panel scanout (sub-refresh latency), just like a CRT but without the flicker. This is very clear in high speed videos when LCD GtG is much faster than a refresh cycle.

Once you have seen a high speed video of http://www.testufo.com/scanout in operation, this diagram below begins to make a lot more sense temporally:



Now, VBI = Vertical Blanking Interval = The total sum of Vertical Front Porch + Vertical Sync + Vertical Back Porch.

The "VSYNC" setting in a graphics driver and video games is a flag that tells the GPU to wait for the Vertical Sync before presenting a new frame. So if you didn't know what the hell a "VSYNC" was, it was named after that "Vertical Sync" signal inside the vertical blanking interval, used to signal the start of a new refresh cycle. It is but one of the several numbers in CRU.

For your purposes, you need Horizontal Total and Vertical Total to be identical to make refreshing on both displays stay in sync (without latency-sawtoothing or beat-frequency stutters of slightly-different Hz). The Windows compositor can only synchronize to one monitor at a time, so synchronizing the Hz is important for consistent latency and stutter-free operation.

Hope this helps some newbies to understand the numbers in ToastyX CRU better!

[Reonu]

(05-17-2020 09:55 PM)mdrejhon Wrote:  

(05-17-2020 06:33 PM)ToastyX Wrote:  

(05-16-2020 11:51 PM)Reonu Wrote:  Sorry, but I'm a bit of a noob at creating custom resolutions and I don't wanna screw something up. I'm not sure what you mean by "the totals".

By the totals, I mean the totals. I don't know what else to say. Just copy the same timing parameters and see if that works.

Chief Blur Buster here.

I rarely post here, but here's a visual opportunity to help CRU users understand CRU better:

This is correct. Make sure all the number textboxes in "Detailed Resolutions" exactly match each other.

The most important numbers is definitely the numbers in the Totals boxes must match each other, in addition to Refresh Rate. If you do this correctly, the Pixel Clock (number of pixels per second that the GPU generates) becomes identical, and the displays are in sync with each other.

It's possible to have the same Totals with slightly different sync numbers, but if you're unsure, just copy every single number over from one display to the next. You might find it works better if you copy numbers of Display B to Display A, rather than from Display A to Display B.

Both ways will usually work but some displays will be very picky (you'll know when the display glitches or blacks out).

A simplified diagram of the structure of a video signal essentially looks like this:


(Credit: Me. Diagram created by Blur Busters for the Blur Busters website)

-- Mathematically, porches and sync are mapped like a virtual resolution beyond the visible screen resolution.
-- "Total" means the grand total of horizontals (Sync + Porches + Resolution), and the grand total of verticals (Sync + Porches + Resolution).

You want both the Horizontal Total and the Vertical Total to match, in order to get identical Pixel Clock (number of pixels per second generated by GPU) in order for the signal to be in perfect sync.

The art of serializing a 2D picture into a 1D wire, is accomplished via "scanning" -- the raster scan. This means refresh cycles are transmitted one pixel row at a time, top-to-bottom, over the cable. Like the days and weeks of a calender, except 1080p is like a calender 1920 days long by 1080 weeks tall. Pixels are transmitted sequentially like the days of a theoretically enlarged calendar grid. The porches are overscan areas (padding originally used to give some time for CRT electron guns to overscan a curved tube) and the sync areas are signals to indicate the next pixel row (horizontal), or next refresh cycle (vertical). Those were often long enough to allow an electron gun of a CRT to move to its new position.

The 1930s analog TV signal and a 2020s DisplayPort still use the same signalling methods. Today, they're metaphorically more like punctuation marks and comma separators to signal the display to begin a new pixel row refresh, or begin a new refresh cycle. The amazing fact is that the signal structure has remained the same for 100 years. Even as we add things like packetization and DSC (bunching up multiple pixels into bursts). But the signal structure and signal sequencing is fundmanetally unchanged. A few screens will refresh sideways or bottom-to-top, but they are all still raster-based scanout mechanisms.

Once you mentally do that, the numbers in a CRU becomes less scary.

Now, a TestUFO animation that flashes one frame at a time (http://www.testufo.com/scanout) in rapid sequence, then filmed by a 960fps ultra slo-mo smartphone:

[Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOyoOm4o82M]

You can see High Speed Videos of Refresh Cycles, of a display refreshing from top-to-bottom. Most low-lag LCD screens will have cable scanout synchronized to panel scanout (sub-refresh latency), just like a CRT but without the flicker. This is very clear in high speed videos when LCD GtG is much faster than a refresh cycle.

Once you have seen a high speed video of http://www.testufo.com/scanout in operation, this diagram below begins to make a lot more sense temporally:



Now, VBI = Vertical Blanking Interval = The total sum of Vertical Front Porch + Vertical Sync + Vertical Back Porch.

The "VSYNC" setting in a graphics driver and video games is a flag that tells the GPU to wait for the Vertical Sync before presenting a new frame. So if you didn't know what the hell a "VSYNC" was, it was named after that "Vertical Sync" signal inside the vertical blanking interval, used to signal the start of a new refresh cycle. It is but one of the several numbers in CRU.

For your purposes, you need Horizontal Total and Vertical Total to be identical to make refreshing on both displays stay in sync (without latency-sawtoothing or beat-frequency stutters of slightly-different Hz). The Windows compositor can only synchronize to one monitor at a time, so synchronizing the Hz is important for consistent latency and stutter-free operation.

Hope this helps some newbies to understand the numbers in ToastyX CRU better!

Thanks. I copied the values over to the internal display and now both are 144.001 Hz.

I have a question, tho. What is the "Sync polarity" and is it okay to change it? I changed it to "+/+" just like the external monitor, but the default for all resolutions of the internal display were -/-". Is that ok? Should I change it back to "-/-"? It's working fine on "+/+" but I don't know if I'm doing something bad by changing it. Thanks.

[ToastyX]

(05-18-2020 01:53 PM)Reonu Wrote:  I have a question, tho. What is the "Sync polarity" and is it okay to change it? I changed it to "+/+" just like the external monitor, but the default for all resolutions of the internal display were -/-". Is that ok? Should I change it back to "-/-"? It's working fine on "+/+" but I don't know if I'm doing something bad by changing it. Thanks.

Sync polarity controls whether the sync pulse voltage goes up or down. It doesn't matter and won't affect anything.

[electron-]

Hi guys! Thanks for the excelent software. Forgive me if i said something wrong, english isn't my native language.

I tested this software on my laptop, a Samsung NP300E5M, native resolution 1366x768 @60hz, tweaking some configurations on this software i manage to achieve 80hz on the native resolution, without any frameskip and with a very very low ghosting(almost inperceptible).

But lowering the resolution to 1024x768 I manage to get 100hz, without frameskipping again. Which is very nice to me(i use this setting to play osu!, the "playable area" on the game already is a 4:3 aspect ratio area, so I dont lose anything lowering to this resolution, and on top of that, get a massive improvement on the gameplay thanks to the higher framerate).

So i decided to go further and with interlaced framerate 1024x768i I achieved 190hz (95hz interlaced, it got veeerrrryyy smooth ultra nice hahah) but I dont know what happens on this setting my screen gets a duplicated image, everything still readable... Its like my monitor display the same image 2 times one on top of the another, the first image looks ok but gets cramped on a corner of the screen, the second one looks like crap. This happen with every interlaced resolution that I set up.

CRU settings(1024x768i @190hz):
   

How it looks like at 190hz(interlaced):
   

How it looks like at 100hz(looks perfect! with a weird left offset but i dont care, at 60hz the image gets centered on the screen):
   

There is possible to do something to solve this? I hope you guys can help me. Thanks!
Greetings from Brazil.

[1440p]

Hello, I have a sony tv model: x900f

i have been using CRU and it works great. However I noticed that by forcing 1440p 120hz i get super responsive ( low input lag) gaming.
At 4k 60hz ( native tv resolution) i have to use vsync because of crazy amounts of tearing. I don’t need vsync at all at 1440p 120hz. However the image is very bad. The TV is 85 inches this is probably why 1440p 120 hz looks so bad. But if i increase the resolution scale in game that support it to 150 % it looks almost like 4k native.

I want to use Nvidia DSR for 1440p 120hz because a lot of my games do t have resolution scale.

I tried moving the 1440p 120hz resolution up to be the first and deleting 4k 60 hz from detailed resolution. Windows and nvidia control panel recognize 1440p 120hz as native but DSR still gives me 1.5 x 4k at 60hz.

How do i use DSR with 1440p 120hz on my tv?

[ToastyX]

(05-18-2020 07:25 PM)electron- Wrote:  So i decided to go further and with interlaced framerate 1024x768i I achieved 190hz (95hz interlaced, it got veeerrrryyy smooth ultra nice hahah) but I dont know what happens on this setting my screen gets a duplicated image, everything still readable... Its like my monitor display the same image 2 times one on top of the another, the first image looks ok but gets cramped on a corner of the screen, the second one looks like crap. This happen with every interlaced resolution that I set up.

A laptop screen is not going to support interlaced resolutions.