Windows 8 Second monitor lag?

MrAnalysis · **Windows 8 Second monitor lag? -** 08-18-2012, 17:06 | posts: 9

Ok so Monitor #1 works fine when playing games and stuff even when monitor #2 is enabled. But the moment i try and say play a video on Monitor #2 the same time the game is on monitor #1 then Monitor #2 lags like crazy its not just video its audio or even another game.

An example of this is.

Monitor #1 and #2 are in "extended mode" monitor #1 is just displaying desktop nothing else, monitor #2 is playing a video in say XBMC this works fine no lag nothing its perfect.

Now i load a game up on monitor #1 leaving video playing on #2. Then #1 is fine game plays perfect but #2 starts to lag like mad.

Also should add if i play the video in window mode on #2 it wont lag it only does it on full screen mode :S odd heh.

I guess this is a bug with windows 8 and not a driver issue as i have seen people using Nvidia cards and ATI cards saying about the same issue.

Any ideas how to solve this one?

saud1 · 08-18-2012, 19:02 | posts: 63 | Location: Saudi Arabia

update to latest graphic card drivers....or wait till it says windows 8 ready
my advice is go back to windows 7 lol

MrAnalysis · 08-19-2012, 00:26 | posts: 9

Tried that, the updated drivers and the old leaked driver both dont work, and like i said its not just a issue with ATI people using other cards have / are having the same issue.

I think its something to do with windows 8 and how it handles 2 monitors. Maybe the frame rate gets limited or something :S could also be an issue with DirectX / Hardware acceleration within windows 8.

Also I have Mint Linux on duel boot with Windows 8 and still have Windows 7 also. It's just a pain having to switch. But i guess the OS is new and bugs should be expected.

If anyone knows of a fix or the cause please comment.

DwFMagik · 08-19-2012, 08:16 | posts: 28 | Location: Weymouth, England

I'm experiencing exactly the same thing with a nvidia gtx 480, with latest windows 8 graphics drivers.

annoying as hell.

MrAnalysis · 08-19-2012, 18:19 | posts: 9

yep like i said its not just an issue with ATI its an issue with windows itself.

FrostCael · 08-23-2012, 02:36 | posts: 1

add me to that list
Windows 8, dual monitors, geforce 570.

Full screen game on monitor 1, any video (not just fullscreen video) is bogged down to like 4FPS

MrAnalysis · 08-24-2012, 20:27 | posts: 9

A little update.

Microsoft apparently has capped the framerate of applications running in the background. So if for example your watching a video and playing the game then the video is technically in the background just being displayed on the second monitor and its getting its framerate capped.

How to solve this i have no idea. I do know this was intentional on Microsoft's part to save battery life. :/

Maybe someone has a solution to uncap this via a reg edit or setting or something.

UPDATE #2 FIXED/Solution

Ok solved the issue for me at least hope this works for others.

When playing Warcraft (wow) with XBMC loaded on monitor #2 the video on media centre lagged like crazy but wow ran fine.

To fix this just enter Task manager. Right click on your video player in my case XBMC.exe and go to "go to details" now you should be in the details tab with your media player highlighted if not just find it on the list. Now right click it and select "set priority" now i set mine to real-time but high and above normal work also or did for me.

Now on Warcraft (wow) play it in Windowed full screen mode. DO NOT PUT IT IN JUST FULL SCREEN. This is what screws it all up.

This goes with all games just play them in windowed full screen mode and set priority higher on the media player.

Thats it. Hope it works for you guys as it worked for me. Good luck.

Hopefully someone can come up with a better fix than the one i figured out but for now this works at least.

DwFMagik · 09-18-2012, 12:42 | posts: 28 | Location: Weymouth, England

Any game in 'windowed full screen' won't cause it to lag as it's windowed mode.

paddy984 · 02-27-2013, 13:04 | posts: 1

Hey guys, found a better solution for this.
Go to the properties of the exe file of the game you want to play.
Go to compatability settings
Set to run in windows 7 mode
Then you're all good

corruptleef · 03-28-2013, 03:53 | posts: 1

Microsoft fixed this bug. It was an issue since release. Here are the updates I installed to fix it. I believe it is KB2756872. Here are the links.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2756872
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2770917
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2785094
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2779768
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2771431