I have posts dating back to around 2011 mentioning this issue, like here:
https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=30205 and here is a link to specific info about the issue:
https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?p=386624#p386624
The DWM is the absolute worst thing Microsoft has ever introduced since Windows XP. It just does not handle vsync correctly. Frames are very frequently either duplicated or skipped resulting in terrible frame pacing and frame skipping visuals while the applications performance and rendering system is unaffected. You can work around it by using an Exclusive Fullscreen Display Mode but these days everyone, including hobby programs like emulators, is starting to shift towards dropping fullscreen exclusive display modes (why? Who the ***** knows!? Because they can't show toolbars in this display mode!?).
We're still waiting on Vulkan (and I think also DirectX 12) to support fullscreen exclusive display mode in their API (or for video chip manufacturers to use the API extensions functionality to implement support for it in their driver implementation).
The issues with the DWM exist in:
- Windows Vista (regardless of Service Pack)
- Windows 7 (regardless of Service Pack)
- Windows 8 (regardless of Service Pack/Update)
- Windows 10 (regardless of major update level/threshold 1, 2, Anniversary Update etc).
I've tested them all.
There ARE some programs out there with vsync that works really well with the DWM but as far as I'm aware of there are less than 10 such programs.
- Verduga GreenEyes made a custom version of BSNES v0.92 or older (can't remember exact version, it was ages ago) which worked fine on my PC without visual stutter. The changes were never accepted/implemented in to the main development branch though (hooray!). Completely smooth visuals, never any visual stutter.
- Mesen seems to work fine.
- Gambatte tried to work with the DWM and I believe it succeeded, however I have some issues with it under specifically Windows 10. I assume the DWM behaviour changed slightly at some point.
- Internet Explorer works perfectly fine while Mozilla Firefox is a stuttery mess.
- Adobe Flash works great within Internet Explorer but not Firefox.
- Media Player Classic - Home Cinema's Fullscreen Exclusive Display mode works excellently for video playback without anomalous stutter caused by the DWM. Windows Media Player stutters like a mofo due to the DWM though (Makes no sense that they'd get Internet Explorer to work nice with the DWM [even under Windows 10] and not their media player).
- SNES9x v1.54.x works great in Windowed Mode. The DWM drops a single frame every 60 or so seconds and is barely noticeable.
If you're wondering about AAA publisher and indie games, I tend to always play them with Exclusive Fullscreen Display Mode (DWM can't affect such display modes) both before I switched to Vista and newer and after I switched to Vista and newer. I'm not a fan of multi-tasking while gaming so it makes no sense to waste processing power rendering the desktop behind the game. I dunno why I tend to switch between fullscreen and Windowed when emulating stuff, maybe its because the games I tend to emulate are graphically lite.