A #GdkFrameClock tells the application when to update and repaint a window. This may be synced to the vertical refresh rate of the monitor, for example. Even when the frame clock uses a simple timer rather than a hardware-based vertical sync, the frame clock helps because it ensures everything paints at the same time (reducing the total number of frames). The frame clock can also automatically stop painting when it knows the frames will not be visible, or scale back animation framerates.