Low Frame Rate with Desktop App

[tshum]

Plan

Premium

Country

Canada

Device

Desktop

Operating System

Windows 10

My Question or Issue

Recently I've done a clean uninstall of Spotify because it was taking up a large amount of space on my drive and then reinstalled it. Since then, I've been getting low frame rates with the Spotify App when focusing on the App (I know it's a minor inconvenience but I do notice it when I switch between windows). I have tried doing a clean uninstall, but nothing has changed. The Spotify App works smoothly on my laptop, which just had Spotify installed on it, so I am unsure what the cause of this is.

[MichaelJerzak]

when you get low frame rates, are you running a lot of applications on the Computer?

[tshum]

Yes and no. This issue is independent of the number of applications running as far as I can tell.

[MichaelJerzak]

Very interesting indeed, that's kinda strange. i'll make sure something looks into it for you.

[SynysterNght]

Im having the same problem.

Whenever spotify is focused the frame rate goes down from 144Hz to 39Hz.

Im using an Asus Monitor with G-Sync.

[tshum]

Since you mentioned G-Sync, I remembered that my monitor has G-Sync as well. Similarly, it's also 144 Hz and an Asus monitor. I've tried turning it off and interestingly, Spotify runs somewhat smoothly again. I say somewhat because scrolling through the App is still choppy, but my mouse movements are definitely at 144 Hz.

[Baibro]

Same problem, Recently got a new pc, specs are i9 and 2080ti so this is not a performance issue of my pc. I also have 144hz gsync monitor, this did not occur on my old PC or laptop which had 60 hz non gsync screens. Also only when window is in focus.

[bagool64 · Accepted solution]

I found a fix!

In NVIDIA Control Panel, go to "Manage 3D Settings" near the top of the left window, click the "Program Settings" tab, then add "Spotify.exe" to the list of programs. It's located in "C:\Users\*name*\AppData\Roaming\Spotify". Once you do that, go to the setting called "Monitor Technology" and change it to "Fixed Refresh." After this, the desktop app should run smoothly like it did before.

[tshum]

That did it for me. Thank you!

[oliverrau]

This for sure does fix the issue, but be aware that it also disables G-Sync in general (for games etc). To re-enable it again you have to revert the setting, followed by disabling and enabling it (in the "Set up G-Sync" tab) once.