Disclosed herein is a display controller and display controller techniques to self-refresh a non-self-refresh display. The display controller can be configured to determine when display data is static. During periods where display data is static, the display controller can cache display data output in device memory and “refresh” the display data using the cached display data output. A display controller can receive a number of display data elements to be overlaid. The display controller can blend the display data elements into blended display data and can send the blended display data to a display. The display controller can determine whether the display data elements are static. The display controller can cache the blended display data based on determining that the display data elements are static and can send the cached blended display data to the display every refresh while the display data elements are no longer static.