Systems, apparatuses, and methods for implementing a timestamp based display update mechanism. A display control unit includes a timestamp queue for storing timestamps, wherein each timestamp indicates when a corresponding frame configuration set should be fetched from memory. At pre-defined intervals, the display control unit may compare the timestamp of the topmost entry of the timestamp queue to a global timer value. If the timestamp is earlier than the global timer value, the display control unit may pop the timestamp entry and fetch the frame next configuration set from memory. The display control unit may then apply the updates of the frame configuration set to its pixel processing elements. After applying the updates, the display control unit may fetch and process the source pixel data and then drive the pixels of the next frame to the display.