this post was submitted on 16 Feb 2024
158 points (97.6% liked)

Linux

48149 readers
920 users here now

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

Rules

Related Communities

Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Adjusting the refresh rate to the performance of the desktop is one.

I also heard it would make it easier to manage multiple monitors sporting different refresh rates, although I haven't had issues with that personally.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Adjusting the refresh rate to the performance of the desktop is one.

That's the definition, isn't it? Why is this better than a fixed refresh rate? Can the monitor scale the rate down to consume less power or something?

I also heard it would make it easier to manage multiple monitors sporting different refresh rates, although I haven't had issues with that personally.

I heard that too and got similarly confused. I work with two monitors with different refresh rates (75 and 60) on Mint and it seems fine. Is X downgrading my 75 Hz monitor to 60 silently? I don't know how to check that.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago (1 children)
  1. To avoid having to skip frames to make the desktop look more fluid, thus matching the refresh rate of the monitor.

  2. I think the whole desktop runs at the higher refresh rate when you have mismatched monitors? Not sure. Wayland and X11 might differ as well on how they handle this.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

X11 runs the whole desktop on the lowest refresh rate and Wayland can run each monitor at a different refresh rate

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago

Can the monitor scale the rate down to consume less power or something?

In theory, yes. However, I have never seen it used that way. The only widely used applications for VRR are games and video playback.

Would be interesting to do some power measurements though.

Is X downgrading my 75 Hz monitor to 60 silently?

Yes, X does not support different refresh rates. Wayland does.