NVIDIA GPU Owner Shares Hidden Command To Fix Multi-Monitor Desktop Stutters

Windows' multi-monitor support is remarkably functional when you think about what it's having to do. Still, the experience isn't always silky smooth. In particular some folks may suffer weird stutters when moving windows around or smoothly scrolling in app views, especially if they have multiple high-refresh rate monitors. If this is you, then you might want to try the fix posted by /u/RuBi0__ on the /r/NVIDIA sub-Reddit.

With certain combinations of resolution and refresh rate, you can hit a threshold where the NVIDIA driver will downclock your GPU's memory to save power. This is all fine and well until you attempt to do something that needs more memory bandwidth than is available at the low clock rate. The GPU will ramp the memory clock back up quickly, but not quickly enough to prevent a distracting hitch in the smooth rendering of your desktop.

Folks bothered by these hitches can try using the nvidia-smi utility, either directly or through the third-party NVIDIA Power Management tool, to force the GPU to keep its memory at a higher clock rate. As the Redditor explains:

Open a Command Prompt with administrative privileges and execute the following command: nvidia-smi -lmc 810,16001 (Note: Replace 16001 with your specific maximum VRAM frequency).
— /u/RuBi0__ on Reddit (note: don't use 16001 if your GPU doesn't have 16 Gbps memory!)

What this actually does is set the range of valid memory clock rates for your GPU's VRAM. By setting a minimum value of 810, you're ensuring that the GPU will never drop performance to a level that's too low for your multi-monitor configuration, so animations remain fluid. As the poster notes, idle power consumption is barely affected, and the GPU continues to perform normally in games and other demanding workloads.

These settings aren't retained after a reboot, so if you want it to be permanent, you'll have to automate the task. /u/RuBi0__ has instructions in his post for creating a batch file and adding it to the Windows Task Scheduler, which is a pretty decent workaround. Other workarounds include simply increasing the load on the GPU (such as by playing a video or game) or potentially, setting the "Power management mode" in the NVIDIA Control Panel or NVIDIA App to "Prefer maximum performance" globally, although it's not clear if this actually fixes it.

As always, if you're not actually having this issue, don't apply this fix as a preventive measure. There's always the possibility it could cause issues in the future, and it does slightly increase idle power usage, even if the difference is extremely small.