Nvidia + G-SYNC - Black screen when alt-tabbing

1 minute read

tl;dr: It seems G-SYNC related. I fixed it by installing the monitor driver, then toggling G-SYNC on/off.

The problem

I’ve had an irritating PC problem for a few months, hopefully this post helps folk with the same problem.

When entering/exiting full-screen video or alt-tabbing out of a game, the screen would go black for a few seconds - it was pretty sluggish, too.

It’s one of those issues where finding the right search terms took a while, and it tended to turn up irrelevant posts from years ago, or similar problems with solutions that no longer apply (e.g. “set X option in the driver” where X option no longer even exists).

My PC

  • Windows 10 Home Premium, 64 bit
  • NVIDIA 1060 Ti 3GB (driver version: 442.59)
  • Benq XL2540

The solution

First, I installed the monitor driver for my XL2540 (I never install monitor drivers, but I needed to do this or the GSync option failed to show up in the Nvidia Control Panel).

Then, I toggled G-Sync on, then back off. Detailed instructions:

  • Open Nvidia Control Panel:
  • Click “Display > Set up G-SYNC”
  • Under the “1. Apply the following changes” text
  • Check the box named, “Enable G-SYNC, G-SYNC Compatible”
  • Click “Apply” (the screen should go black, then confirm everything is OK)
  • Uncheck the same box (“Enable G-SYNC, G-SYNC Compatible”)
  • Click “Apply” and confirm once again.

Thanks to Ethan Snider for his comment on a youtube video for pointing me in the right direction.

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