New Monitor Flickering/Artefacting/Black Screening at 144hz

[Longpal]

Hi,

I recently picked up an AOC Agon ag273qcx monitor - it's a huge upgrade from the 10 year old monitor I had before it.

At 60hz, it works fine - freesync on or off, G Sync on or off (Running an Nvidia Aorus RTX 2060 Super) - no issues.

Switching it to 120 or 144 hz (50% of the reason I bought a new monitor) I end up with static like artefacts that span the width of the monitor that flicker and change position and occasional black screens - much like it works fine at 60hz regardless of what's on or off, the issue is present regardless of what I turn on or off at the monitor/via graphics card.

See video of problem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NXxMVNvLJk

Troubleshooting performed:
-I've tried Multiple Display Port Cables (although, I'm going to buy another new one this afternoon to try).
-I've tried every combination possible of freesync on/off at the monitor + G Sync on/off at the graphics card.
-I've used DDU so as to get a clean uninstall of the GPU drivers and have got the latest (as of last night) drivers installed.
-I ran a stability test for over 2 hours with no issues.
-The card benchmarks where it is expected to.
-The retailer I bought the monitor through ran and tested it prior to shipping at 144hz and it worked at their end.

Exhaustive Google searches imply any of the above things have worked in similar cases, but no luck at my end.

I get no tearing issues at 60hz with Freesync/G Sync on, so I know it's not a compatibility issue with that side of things.

I'm reaching here, but I'm going to take the GPU out this afternoon, use some compressed air to clean out all the ports in it, the monitor and the cable ends (just in case) and try again.

I get no tearing issues at 60hz with Freesync/G Sync on, so I know it's not a compatibility issue with that side of things.

Short of taking it back to the retailer, any advice??

[chiefputsilao✖️ping]

if it worked on their end, then either your gpu or gpu cable is the culprit for the artifacting issues.

[_I_]

artifacting is the gpu or driver
easy test is to take a screenshot of it, and view on other device

that just looks like flickering, try a better cable
dp or dl dvi-d

[Longpal]

I tried the screenshot thing the other day and it didn't appear on the screenshot - hence my confusion.

So as a final test before sorting out an RMA for it - I unplugged everything and moved it to the dining room table so I had a bit more space.

Plugged in the new Display Port cable I bought and it worked straight away without issues. Turns out the one that was working fine at 60hz, but not 120+ was obviously cooked. The others I had tested just gave me No signal at the time (So I assumed they didn't work at all), but they both worked fine too - turns out I hadn't seated them in the socket properly and having the space at the table was enough to give me the room to do it...

I feel like an idiot - but to be fair, this is my first foray into anything over 1080p/60hz and using display cables, so I shouldn't give myself too much of a hard time I guess.