Variable refresh rate and Wayland/XWayland questions.

kugmo@sh.itjust.works to Linux Gaming@lemmy.ml – 29 points –

So this has come up may times but I can't seem to get concrete answers for some of these questions. What is the status of variable refresh rate on Wayland and XWayland, what software versions do you need? To my knowledge VRR works on Wayland (I know it works on X with 1 monitor/multi-head setup but that is out of the scope of this) KDE that's version 5.27, and need a relatively new mesa version, I run the git releases and not stable. There is also the Atomic KMS update mumbo jumbo that I don't understand at all for Kernel 6.6. Basically will VRR work with the following setup, my monitor does have Freesync but has no on-screen notification that show's that it is enabled.

  • The game is running in full screen

  • AMDGPU (RDNA2)

  • Display port connection

  • Kernel 6.5

  • Mesa git compiled as of October 9th 2023

  • KDE 5.27

  • Wayland 1.22

Will VRR work for only native Wayland games (do any exist? do latest releases of emulators have a Wayland mode) and will it work on XWayland programs (probably 99% of what people are playing right now).

Thanks in advance for the help/answers.

2

Do you get adaptive sync options in the display section of the settings (present beside the refresh rate selection option)¿?

If yes there are 3 settings - off, automatic and always. Setting it to automatic means that vrr will be used for full screen applications including XWayland applications(would have been stupid if it did not work with XWayland as almost all games run through XWayland). Off and always are self explanatory I guess

Yeah it's working for me on kernel 6.1 and 6.5 with mesa 23.1 on both my rx 570 and rx 7600. Only on display port. As long as you get the adaptive sync option in the kde display settings it should be on. You can test with VRRTest and look for stuttering when getting close to native refresh rate. Or if your monitor has a refresh rate overlay you can watch that change.