Help - 1080 Ti and XG2703-GS problems

Talk about NVIDIA G-SYNC, a variable refresh rate (VRR) technology. G-SYNC eliminates stutters, tearing, and reduces input lag. List of G-SYNC Monitors.
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Dzed
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Joined: 21 Jul 2019, 21:34

Help - 1080 Ti and XG2703-GS problems

Post by Dzed » 21 Jul 2019, 21:52

I'm hoping someone will have some advice here. I'm running an i7-6700K, EVGA 1080 Ti FTW3, and a ViewSonic XG2703-GS@1440p/165Hz. Everything has been golden here for a couple years with G-Sync.

Suddenly in the last week I started seeing what I could best describe as "mirage heat ripples" in the bottom 1.5" of my screen. Upon examining further, I've noticed that I see what looks like screen tearing when panning up and down (in say Overwatch) when there are lots of objects that are horizontal on the screen. For example rafters in a ceiling. Nothing looks as smooth as it used to, and a lot of these anomalies are very distracting while gaming. This is happening in various games. I'm also getting a ton of stutter and performance warnings on the gsync test on this page.

I normally have my stuff set to run @165Hz and I frame cap at 162. G-Sync is enabled in the NVCP. Things I've tried:

1) Reduced to 144Hz, 120Hz, and 100Hz. Problem seems to get worse the lower I go.
2) Replaced DP cable.
3) Did a clean install of the nVidia driver 430.86
4) Downgraded (via clean install) nVidia driver to 425.31
5) Disabled and re-enabled G-Sync in the NVCP
6) Played with various combinations of VSYNC on and off and frame limits set below the refresh rate, at refresh rate, and above.
7) Reset all nVdia settings to default
8) Verified G-Sync is on via the G-Sync indicator in NVCP

Additional possibly relevant stuff:

1) I had recently (a couple weeks before this happened) upgraded the BIOS on my motherboard to accommodate a bugfix for M.2 NVME drives. I am planning on adding a drive but have not done so yet. This of course reset all my BIOS settings and I reconstructed.
2) When playing WoW several days before this problem started, my screen started strobing. When I tabbed out, everything was fine. That issue has not come back.
3) About 2-3 weeks before this issue, I started seeing brief FPS stutters every couple minutes on heavy action in Overwatch. I would see a drop in GPU usage (from 98% to around 80%) for a moment when this happened.

Any help/ideas appreciated. Are there any other things I can try? How can I determine if the issue is the GPU or display?
-Dz

open
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Joined: 02 Jul 2017, 20:46

Re: Help - 1080 Ti and XG2703-GS problems

Post by open » 21 Jul 2019, 23:02

First thing is always to bring up some monitoring utilities. Hwinfo is great. I usually use the graphs on intel xtu and gpuz. You can see if the cpu or gpu are bottlenecking or hitting some downclocking conditions or if everything is working properly with them.

I know its hard but try to remember every setting that you changed around the time this happened. You may have to go back and change things. Bios. Gpu driver settings. Was there a windows update around this time? Did you update gpu drivers? Any other driver or hardware changes?

It could be software on your computer. Something like process explorer might help you see if something is eating resources. Latencymon may help you see if a specific driver is having trouble or causing issues.

I hope that you figure it soon out man. Things like this can sometimes take a while to narrow down.

The big clue so far is the stutter and warnings on the gsync test page. Browsers can be more sensitive to performance issues like background software or cpu issues. But it could also be the browser you are using.

Dzed
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Re: Help - 1080 Ti and XG2703-GS problems

Post by Dzed » 22 Jul 2019, 01:29

Thanks for the quick reply, open.

I just played a few round of OW and looking at various monitoring tools, nothing is really being taxed on the system. My GPU usage is hanging around 80% and my CPU maxed at 63%. I grabbed Process Explorer, but I don't really see anything that is chewing up system resources.

As to some of your questions: Yes, I had upgraded my NV drivers in the last few weeks from 425.31 to 430.86 in hope that was the cause of the minor frame dips. That's why I reverted back to see if that would help. The only Windows updates in the last several weeks for me (I'm on Windows 10 1809) were two .NET updates and a Windows update that seems to cover some bug with BitLocker and the built in camera API. I don't recall any other driver changes. I've not added any hardware in over a year.

Honestly, it just plain feels like G-Sync is disengaged. It's not so much that I'm getting stutters or dips as it is something similar to screen tearing on up/down pans.

To your last point, I'm using Firefox 68.0.1.

Dzed
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Re: Help - 1080 Ti and XG2703-GS problems

Post by Dzed » 22 Jul 2019, 01:30

I should add that I have a full system backup from 6/1 which is well before this issue started. I could restore from that and I'd be in the state I was in except for the BIOS update I did.

I hate to go this route until some other ideas have been floated around, but it is doable.

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RealNC
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Re: Help - 1080 Ti and XG2703-GS problems

Post by RealNC » 22 Jul 2019, 06:34

If you had access to another GPU or preferably another PC, you could test whether or not this is a monitor issue. Also, unplug the monitor from power and also unplug the displayport cable. Leave it alone like that for about a minute. Then reconnect everything. Also try a different displayport port and also a different cable if you have one.
2) When playing WoW several days before this problem started, my screen started strobing. When I tabbed out, everything was fine. That issue has not come back.
That's not good. This normally indicates a panel failure :-/
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Dzed
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Re: Help - 1080 Ti and XG2703-GS problems

Post by Dzed » 22 Jul 2019, 15:48

RealNC wrote:If you had access to another GPU or preferably another PC, you could test whether or not this is a monitor issue

I do. I have been meaning to hook up another system that has a 980 Ti in it to my display. There's a bit of work to do that, but it is on my short list.
RealNC wrote:Also, unplug the monitor from power and also unplug the displayport cable. Leave it alone like that for about a minute. Then reconnect everything. Also try a different displayport port and also a different cable if you have one.
Had already tried another cable. Just unplugged and waited like you suggested. DIdn't seem to have an effect on the issue.
RealNC wrote:That's not good. This normally indicates a panel failure :-/
That was actually my initial thought when it was happening.. but when I tabbed out I could see WoW flickering in the background but Firefox was fine in the foreground. So it wasn't I guess technically strobing where the backlight was dimming. It was what was being drawn in the WoW window. It cleared up with in seconds so I then I was thinking it was an AddOn problem. I run pretty AddOn heavy and I've noticed some weirdness with a few since the most recent patch. I had a ton of windows open in WoW at the time.

Thank you for the advice!

Dzed
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Re: Help - 1080 Ti and XG2703-GS problems

Post by Dzed » 26 Jul 2019, 00:57

So I did some more testing.. including putting my old 980 Ti in my system and putting my 1080 Ti in another system. The problem in games seems mostly gone with the 980 Ti. It is showing with the 1080 Ti in the other system. I'm still failing browser tests in Firefox, but Opera seems mostly fine.

So I've opened an RMA for my 1080 Ti and hopefully that's the end of that. I'm a bit concerned that I still see a little bit of stuttering here and there with a different card, but I've spent so many days just staring at my monitor and looking for this issue that I can't be sure what is what at this point. Heh

Anyway, thanks for the help.

Dzed
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Joined: 21 Jul 2019, 21:34

Re: Help - 1080 Ti and XG2703-GS problems

Post by Dzed » 26 Jul 2019, 17:02

Bah. Apparently it's intermittent enough that it hid for a couple days of testing. The problem has returned.

Maybe it is the monitor after all? Not sure what to do at this point.

Dzed
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Joined: 21 Jul 2019, 21:34

Re: Help - 1080 Ti and XG2703-GS problems

Post by Dzed » 29 Jul 2019, 00:49

Well.. definitely still happening. I just played a round of Overwatch in G-Sync glory and then the next match started and I had massive screen tearing that doesn't seem to want to go away.

Disabling and re-enabling G-Sync didn't help nor did changing the refresh rate of my display.

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