I run Linux on my gaming PC, single monitor, 1440p w/ FreeSync. I’d like to get a second monitor (most likely 1080p) so that I can chat in Discord or look something up on a game’s wiki without Alt+Tabbing out of the game (or at least without having to bring up the browser on top of the game itself).
I’ve searched the internet, and I see that I’m not the first to ask this question. That said, I see some conflicting information out there—some responses claiming it works out of the box, or it works but “oh I didn’t check the refresh rates tho.” ~ archived Reddit thread from 2020
Here’s another example of a forum post from 2023 where responders claim it doesn’t work.
But other people claim it does work, so… does FreeSync work with multiple monitors on Linux? Does it matter if I’m using Wayland or X, Gnome or KDE, AMD or NVIDIA, etc?
EDIT: I want to thank everyone for their input. Over the weekend, I got a cheap (under $100) 1080p display to use as my second monitor while gaming, and so far, I couldn’t be happier. Thank you!
Yes, as long as you’re using Wayland. It will be the default on most popular distros that use GNOME or KDE.
X11 doesn’t support FreeSync with multiple monitors and it never will.
Gotcha, thanks for clarifying that.
This hasn’t been true for years, see the relevent Arch wiki page for example.
Yes. I use:
- Bazzite Linux
- 165hz 1440p VRR HDR Asus Monitor
- 60hz 960p cheap ass monitor with fractional scaling so that it looks similar in size to 1080p
Search for adaptive sync, for better search results.
The fuck is a 960p monitor? What’s the horizontal resolution? 1707? Or is it not 16:9? Don’t think I’ve ever seen or heard of that.
might be 960x540 and OP just specified the wrong side, 540p monitors aren’t super uncommon.
Yes FreeSync works on multiple monitors, I can’t give you a source, I tried it and it worked, but I should say that I tried it on two of the same monitor. I can say that X doesn’t play nice on multiple monitors with different refresh rates, so you might wanna go Wayland.
