G-sync backlight flashing/flickering on bright surfaces

[MelvinSmiley]

I have very annoying flickering/backlight flashing on bright surfaces, like the sky, on both systems that I use. One is connected to a Bravia 9 TV and the other one to an LG Oled monitor and a LG IPS monitor.

It goes away when I turn off G-Sync but you shouldn't have to do that. One system uses a 4070ti Super and the other one a 4080 Super. Framerate is stable 60 (I have to use a 60 fps cap because of this flickering) so framerate fluctuations shouldn't be the culprit.

I tried 572.60 and 566.14 drivers, didn't change anything. I'm on windows 10 with the latest updates. Bios and chipset drivers are up to date.

So backlight flashing/flickering with G-sync was present on 3 different displays with 2 different systems for me. Strange that are almost no reports about this.

[RotGoblin]

I would wager that it's the game dropping just under then over the Gsync range, causing flicker.

Or, you just have an oddly configured monitor like me.. Freesync flickers badly as standard, but using CRU (custom res utility) I change my Freesync ranges from 48-146 to 45-142. My flicker is seemingly caused by the freesync being set out of range (144hz monitor).

Disclaimer: use CRU at your own risk, watch a tutorial and set a key to revert changes incase it borks your display settings and you can't see the screen anymore. It can happen.

[MelvinSmiley]

Originally posted by Goblin:

I would wager that it's the game dropping just under then over the Gsync range, causing flicker.

Or, you just have an oddly configured monitor like me.. Freesync flickers badly as standard, but using CRU (custom res utility) I change my Freesync ranges from 48-146 to 45-142. My flicker is seemingly caused by the freesync being set out of range (144hz monitor).

Disclaimer: use CRU at your own risk, watch a tutorial and set a key to revert changes incase it borks your display settings and you can't see the screen anymore. It can happen.

That's what I thought too at first but using 80 or 60 fps caps didn't change anything about that problem. I usually just leave the base camp in the desert and look at the sky. There are zero fps drops when I do that, the framerate is constant. Flickering stilll happens. And I use vsync + g-sync + 115 fps frame limit like blurbusters recommends so the game shouldn't run outside of the allowed vrr range anyway.

[RotGoblin]

Hmm fair.

Tried changing 'preferred refresh rate' in NV control panel to Application Controlled??

[MelvinSmiley]

Originally posted by Goblin:

Hmm fair.

Tried changing 'preferred refresh rate' in NV control panel to Application Controlled??

WTF, that actually fixed it. Thank you so much man. Now I can enjoy this game without a stupid 60 fps cap with less input lag and should have at least 10-15 frames more.

Edit: I spoke too soon. It's alleviated but unfortunately still there. I found a ton of posts about this on reddit in the meantime, seems to be a widespread issue.

[Buu]

I had that same problem but I assumed it was from me forcing gsync on a free sync screen

[MelvinSmiley]

The solution for me was to delete nvidia and game shader cache. It wasn't G-sync after all apparently but another problem with flickering on textures instead of bright surfaces. Though the first time I played this game it definitely was a G-sync related problem with bright surfaces, maybe the hotfixes dealt with it.

Game has so many issues, it's hard to keep track.

[MelvinSmiley]

Originally posted by MelvinSmiley:

The solution for me was to delete nvidia and game shader cache. It wasn't G-sync after all apparently but another problem with flickering on textures instead of bright surfaces. Though the first time I played this game it definitely was a G-sync related problem with bright surfaces, maybe the hotfixes dealt with it.

Game has so many issues, it's hard to keep track.

And flickering textures are back lol. This time I'm sure it has to do with volumetric fog. When I turn it off it goes away. But the game looks like trash without it.

This is just too much for me.

The last game that I played that was nearly as broken was Ultima IX lol.

[Fiziek]

I found a solution—take it as your own! Just go to the NVIDIA Control Panel, navigate to the "Resolution" tab, and click the "Customize" button. Then, create a custom resolution profile and, in the refresh rate field, enter -5 FPS compared to your monitor’s native refresh rate. Now you can fully enjoy G-Sync in games (tested and confirmed with NVIDIA's Pendulum demo) and forget about screen flickering. I just discovered this myself—I was about to return my monitor, but now everything works perfectly. Also, don’t forget to update your monitor’s firmware!

[00039]

Best to disable any form of VRR with wilds due to the flicker.

[MelvinSmiley]

Originally posted by 00039:

Best to disable any form of VRR with wilds due to the flicker.

This doesn't get rid of texture flickering, after extensive testing I found out that it occurs in all modes, vrr and non vrr.

[Fiziek]

I just posted the solution above — you need to set your monitor's refresh rate to 5 Hz lower than the maximum. That way, with G-Sync enabled and no other refresh-related changes, you can enjoy tear-free visuals, fully use G-Sync, and forget about screen flickering. I spent two days messing around with this and was going crazy thinking my monitor was broken. The flickering would only stop when G-Sync was turned off, until I did what I described above