I managed to create a working custom display resolution using Nvidia control panel. The refresh rate is set to 68Hz instead of the maximum default 60Hz. The OSD (on-screen display) says it's working at 68Hz, but when I launch the game in full screen, it shows 60Hz.
If I change the game window mode to windowed borderless, I get the 68Hz on the OSD, but then there is an added lag due to vertical synchronization being enabled due to windowed mode. How can I play in fullscreen at my custom refresh rate with v-sync off?
Best Answer
To get the full refresh rate of your custom display mode, go to Steam's Library tab, right-click Team Fortress 2 (or any other Half-Life 2 based game, they should all accept these parameters), select Properties.
In the Properties window, in the General tab click "Set launch options..." button. Add
-freq 68(instead of 68 use your refresh rate). Also, if you've been playing in windowed borderless mode, add-fullto ensure the game launches in fullscreen mode.Check your monitor's OSD to see if you're running at the expected refresh rate.
In the game's graphics options disable vertical synchronization to reduce output lag for the fastest response time between your mouse movement and the displayed picture.
By default the game's unlocked framerate caps at 300. That's a lot of frames you don't get to see, so you can reduce the noise from the GPU fans by opening console (by pressing tilde key ~, or if you don't have it enabled, also add
-consoleinto launch options) and typing:fps_max 137. People recommend to set this value to(refresh rate * 2) + 1(in my case, it's68 * 2 + 1) to prevent screen tearing, but still saving otherwise wasted GPU resources, and as a side effect reduce power usage and fan noise. I'm not aware of a launch option command to set this, so you might have to do it every time you launch the game manually.