Microsoft is making it much more convenient to use multiple high-refresh-rate monitors with Windows 11. The software giant began testing a Windows 11 update that automatically adjusts refresh rates across multiple monitors based on the content being displayed, making it much more convenient. which should improve energy use. and could even cause some GPUs to spin their fans less frequently.
“We have improved the refresh rate logic to allow for different refresh rates on different monitors, depending on the refresh rate of each monitor and the content displayed on the screen,” Microsoft explains in a statement. Windows Insider Blog from last week, seen by neowin. “This will help more with refresh rate dependent multitasking, like playing a game and watching a video at the same time.”
This should help maintain zero RPM mode on some Nvidia cards.
If you have multiple monitors that support high refresh rates, running them at their full potential often increases the power consumption of your GPU. The Nvidia RTX 30 and 40 series Founders Edition cards also have a Zero RPM mode, which will keep the fans at zero even when you’re watching video content on a single monitor. If you add a second high refresh rate display, this often disables zero RPM mode and means the GPU keeps its fans spinning if you have both monitors running high refresh rates.
Microsoft’s addition should mean that these particular GPUs will stick to zero RPM mode, just switching to higher refresh rates on different monitors depending on what content is being used or displayed. The solution at this time to maintain zero RPM mode on multiple monitors is to manually lower the refresh rate of the secondary monitor.
The latest Canary Channel builds of Windows 11 also include Dynamic Refresh Rate (DRR) improvements for laptops. If battery saver is enabled, Windows 11 will now slow down a laptop’s screen refresh rate until battery saver mode is disabled.
Microsoft is currently testing these refresh rate improvements in trial builds of Windows 11 and they should be available to all Windows 11 users in the coming months.
