Device Adaptive Refresh Rate Ruins PPSSPP Performance

[Crocodi13]

Game or games this happens in

In every 60 FPS games

What area of the game / PPSSPP

I have an 90hz display Android 13 device with "Adaptive Refresh Rate' feature which for some reason cannot be disabled even though I use the default 60hz option which still drops to 50hz.

It drags the FPS down when it kicks in ( from 60hz to 50hz when you're not touching the screen for about a 40sec/1minute in PPSSPP) it's noticeable when running 60 FPS game.

After a cutscene ends or just being idle for a sec the FPS runs 50/60 instead of 60/60 which can be fixed by touching the screen again but it's so annoying.

What should happen

I would like to ask for an option or setting to make PPSSPP demand 60hz refresh rate or force the device to use 60hz refresh rate all the time so that Adaptive Refresh rate will not kick in and ruin the performance.

Logs

No response

Platform

Android

Mobile phone model or graphics card

Poco M5

PPSSPP version affected

v1.16.6

Last working version

No response

Graphics backend (3D API)

Vulkan

Checklist

• Test in the latest git build in case it's already fixed.
• Search for other reports of the same issue.
• Try resetting settings or older versions and include if the issue is related.
• Try without any cheats and without loading any save states.
• Include logs or screenshots of issue.

[anr2me]

which can be fixed by touching the screen

This sounds like a part of power management where the CPU/GPU gets throttled when idled, may be emulators are not being detected as "game", thus the power management kicks in.

Does your device have an option to selects apps to be in full/high performance mode? if it have such option (ie. try searching for "performance" or "optimize" in Android settings) you should use it on PPSSPP.

[Crocodi13]

My device has high performance mode but even it's toggled the issue is still present

[anr2me]

Well Poco F1 also have similar issue based on this post https://xdaforums.com/t/poco-f1-cpu-throttling-custom-rom-and-kernel-related-questions.4617653/

[Crocodi13]

A workaround would be appreciated 🙏

[hrydgard]

Since a few Android versions back, it's possible for an app to tell the device its preferred refresh rate. I'm going to add an experimental option that does that.

[anr2me]

A workaround would be appreciated 🙏

Btw, did you enable "render duplicate frame to 60hz" ? if you did, try disabling it.

[Crocodi13]

A workaround would be appreciated 🙏

Btw, did you enable "render duplicate frame to 60hz" ? if you did, try disabling it.

No I always disable it

[hrydgard]

I'll try to add the new checkbox with the possible workaround tonight or tomorrow, stay tuned.

[Crocodi13]

I'll try to add the new checkbox with the possible workaround tonight or tomorrow, stay tuned.

Thank you, thank you so much 🙏

[hrydgard]

I've added a new option in Tools/Developer Tools: "Framerate Mode". Try the various modes and see if they help.

Unfortunately on my 120hz Poco F4 it doesn't seem to have much of an effect. But let me know.

[Crocodi13]

Update: After testing and playing with the setting for a while I found out that "Request 60hz" and "Force 60hz 1" works really well while "force 60hz 2" seems unstable.

The Frame rate of 60fps game now locks properly even after a cutscene or being idle for a while it stays 60 with the refresh rate!

Sometimes I still notice some little dips in frame rate around 57/60 when not interacting with the screen but the refresh remains constant 60hz and it's a much better experience than before thank you 🙏🤍🫡

Req: I think you should block the changing of that setting while ingame it causes the UI to go white but other than that it's pretty perfect! Thank you very much sir Henrik 🫡🫡🫡

[hrydgard]

Thank you for testing!

I am simply going to default it to Request then.