Frame Hiccup/Stutter Fix

Hi all,

Long post, bear with me.

Here's my solution up front for the TL;DR. I turned Gsync OFF (and left Adaptive Sync on the monitor ON) and my stutter is 100% gone.

NVCP settings that matter:

I have VSync set to "use 3d app"

Triple buffer on

Optimal power global, but full power in apex profile

Low latency @ ultra

Here are the relevant PC specs:

ASUS VG27AQ monitor (paired with an ASUS VG278Q)

i9 9900K water cooled

RTX 3090 (was also having this issue on my 2080 before I upgraded)

DDR4 3600Mhz (set to 3500Mhz)

850W Plat PSU

I've been doing a lot of messing around with my Apex settings to try and fix this over the course of MONTHS. I have tried everything... from tons of playing around with NVCP settings, frame limiting ("how Gsync works guides"--waste of time...), messing with V-Sync/Gsync, disabling full screen optimization, new mouse, different polling rates on mouse, bumping my 1440p monitor down to 1080p to match my resolutions, rolling back drivers, formatting my PC, and BEYOND. For the longest time I was just set on the fact that Apex is just not meant to run smooth.

What I discovered today was...

The in-game stats were showing me as having 138 FPS when GSync was ON. I thought that was odd since my refresh rate is set to 144Hz for my main monitor. I turned off Gsync and the FPS is back up at a "solid" 144 FPS, and there is no micro stutter. To be expected since I almost never dip below 144 FPS with my 3090. I'm sure I (and you if you try this) might see some stutter if the framerate dips below 144 since Gsync is OFF.

Where I think the problem really lies:

My biggest gripe with Apex (aside from the fact that the lobby screen causes 98-99% GPU load... WTF?) is the fact that "FULL SCREEN" is NOT full screen. It is literally what other games call "windowed borderless" mode. I don't think this Gsync issue will be fixed until the game becomes true full screen.

But why is it only Apex that I experience this issue with Gysnc being ON? Any other game that I play is as smooth as butter with my current monitor settings, NVCP settings, and Gsync ON. Again, I've tried EVERY combination of Gsync, type of Vsync, and NVCP settings possible.

I'm not saying that this will fix everyone else's issue, but after trying alllllllll of the other suggestions, this finally worked for me. I'll come back in a few days and make an edit if anything changes. Looking forward to everyone's feedback.

Forgive my grammar/typos, please.