light flickering and mouse movement stuttering

[Kaggewas]

light flickering and mouse movement stuttering


This is very noticeable, at the moment when the game is loading or I'm in the menu, are there any solutions to this problem? This only happens when G-GYNC ON (ASUS PG258Q)

[RealNC]

Flickering seems to be a TN panel issue. There is nothing you can do.

The mouse cursor stutter is normal. If the menu or loading screen runs at 30FPS, for example, then the mouse cursor is being updated at 30FPS, since G-Sync means the monitor runs at 30Hz. Loading screens usually have extremely low FPS, and FPS variance on top of that. They run at 5FPS one moment, then at 12FPS. With g-sync, this will affect the mouse cursor too. Normally, the mouse cursor is updated at the screen's refresh rate, and FPS doesn't matter (because it's not the game that renders the mouse cursor, it's hardwired into the output buffer.) With g-sync, that screen refresh rate is not fixed anymore, and thus FPS drops now also affect the mouse cursor.

However, if by stutter you mean the temporary hitching that occurs when first opening a menu, or directly after closing it, then setting vsync OFF usually helps. Doing so might result in temporary tearing though in some games.

[Chief Blur Buster]

Variable refresh rate can generate variable-speed artifacts -- especially in game menus -- which can sometimes create flickering effects at lower frame rates (e.g. 30fps).


(related thread)
This shows up on fixed Hz displays, but is amplified by low-Hz (30Hz) on GSYNC

If this is the various kinds of pattern you see, and you see this flicker worse at low framerates (menus) -- then that's what you are seeing. LCD panels have to do this to prevent burnin, each pixel alternates voltage polarity (positive, negative) every other refresh cycle. And adjacent pixels in same refresh cycles are often opposite polarities. This can generate lines/checkerboard textures in solid colors -- and those can vary in flicker frequency during varying framerates on TN GSYNC. There can be subtle LCD shade differences -- http://www.testufo.com/inversion -- on certain displays. TN panels have more inversion artifacts than IPS and VA panels.

To avoid low-frequency inversion flicker effects, (A) use IPS, or (B) use higher framerates, or (C) use higher resolutions where it's much less visible (1440p & 4K), or (D) simply tolerate it, since it mainly occurs at menus.

There may be other causes of flicker (e.g. VRR bugs) but this is the most common & normal artifact, and it should only be a fairly faint flicker mainly at low Hz.