v6.1.0-vrr9.1: Rebuilt VRR Pacing for Smoother, Lower-Latency Streaming (Beta)

VRR9.1 carries forward the VRR9 pacing rewrite and fixes a bug that prevented the Ctrl+Alt+Shift+X hotkey from switching between fullscreen and windowed modes during active VRR sessions.

Fix in VRR9.1

• Window mode hotkey restored. Ctrl+Alt+Shift+X now switches between fullscreen and windowed modes correctly while VRR is active.

VRR9 rewrites most of Moonlight's experimental VRR pacing code from scratch.

VRR8 delivered major improvements, but it grew through many rounds of fixes and tuning. Over time, that left it with overlapping buffering systems, recovery rules, and platform-specific exceptions that were difficult to maintain and could work against each other.

VRR9 removes that bloat and technical debt in favor of a smaller, cleaner design shared by Windows and Linux.

The Fundamental Difference from VRR8

VRR8 kept a reserve of frames and continuously adjusted that buffer using several layers of feedback and recovery logic. This helped absorb timing changes, but the added complexity could sometimes keep extra latency around after conditions improved.

VRR9 takes a more direct approach: it gets the next frame completely ready first, then waits until the right moment to show it. It learns only the small timing margin needed from recent frames instead of managing the older stack of buffering rules.

If VRR cannot be used safely, Moonlight falls back to normal fixed V-Sync.

What This Means

• Less bloat and technical debt. Most of the old pacing machinery has been replaced instead of extended again.
• Lower and more consistent latency. Frames are held only as long as the current stream needs.
• Smoother changes in frame rate. The new design can follow gameplay, menus, cutscenes, and temporary performance dips without carrying old delay forward.
• More consistent behavior across platforms. Windows and Linux now share the same core pacing design.
• A cleaner foundation for future fixes. There are fewer interacting systems to tune, debug, and maintain.

Actual results will still vary with the host, network, GPU, operating system, and display.

Existing users: After updating, open Settings and enable Enable VRR. VRR remains off by default in this beta and requires V-Sync. Moonlight automatically uses borderless fullscreen while VRR is active.

Downloads

The Linux assets are unchanged from VRR9 for this release.

Steam Deck Installation

1. Switch to Desktop Mode.
2. Download install-vrr9.1-steamos.sh.
3. Open Konsole and run:

cd ~/Downloads
bash install-vrr9.1-steamos.sh

1. Follow the prompts, then add Moonlight to Steam and return to Gaming Mode.

The installer does not use sudo and changes only the current user's Flatpak installation. It also applies the current temporary SteamOS Gaming Mode compatibility fix and removes that fix automatically after 14 days.

Manual Flatpak Installation

flatpak install --user ./Moonlight-VRR-6.1.0-vrr9.1-linux-x86_64.flatpak

To replace an earlier VRR beta:

flatpak install --user --reinstall ./Moonlight-VRR-6.1.0-vrr9.1-linux-x86_64.flatpak

How to Use VRR

1. Enable V-Sync in Moonlight.
2. Enable Enable VRR.
3. Make sure FreeSync, G-Sync, or Adaptive-Sync is enabled for your display.
4. Choose one of Moonlight's VRR FPS options.

Windows SHA-256 Checksums

8BBEB125B7EEA85CB681EE3E2CFAB1E391A234D2EAD0348547A512E3B544A178  MoonlightSetup-x64-6.1.0-vrr9.1.msi
96AA82C32B556BADADD0CFF0D03EBFE62B748FD55A4A65733A56A1CA57CD72F4  MoonlightPortable-x64-6.1.0-vrr9.1.zip

Beta Notice

This is an experimental beta. When reporting an issue, include the Moonlight session log, platform, display refresh rate, selected stream FPS, and whether SteamOS testing was done in Desktop Mode or Gaming Mode.