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I am looking to buy the LG 48GQ900-B which has an OLED panel, is G-SYNC compatible and is 138Hz. I am also planning to buy the RTX 5080 in the future.

I have heard that when there are frame dips on an OLED panel with G-SYNC on, there will be some flickering. I have some questions:

(1) Is there a fix for this ? If I cap the frame rate to 85Hz in Nvidia's control panel(If I set Max Frame Rate to 85) would it mitigate the problem ?

(2) Do ALL OLED panels have this problem ? Will I have better luck looking at other 48" OLED monitors ? if so, which ones ?

(3) Does this happen with G-SYNC compatible as well as native G-SYNC monitors(the ones with Nvidia's module) ?

(4) Does this problem happen with IPS and VA panels that are G-SYNC compatible or native G-SYNC ?

(5) Considering that OLED panels have the flickering problems when G-SYNC is on, would you still choose an OLED monitor over an IPS or VA monitor that also have G-SYNC ? because of its vastly superior picture quality ?

l3gi0n wrote: ↑

29 May 2024, 10:17

(1) Is there a fix for this ? If I cap the frame rate to 85Hz in Nvidia's control panel(If I set Max Frame Rate to 85) would it mitigate the problem ?

Short answer is no.

Long answer is OLED VRR flicker is specific to the panel type (unrelated to flicker on VRR-capable IPS/VA panels), and is predominately caused by VRR deviating from the fixed gamma response of the display at its current refresh rate (thus lowering or changing the physical refresh rate won't help).

Mitigations include a "Fine Tune Dark Areas" option on many LG models that allow manual +/- manipulation of near-black gamma levels, but this only works at a generally fixed average framerate, and, secondly, setting an RTSS framerate limit at an average the system can sustain 99% of the time; the steadier the frametime performance, the less OLED VRR flicker there typically is.

l3gi0n wrote: ↑

29 May 2024, 10:17

(2) Do ALL OLED panels have this problem ? Will I have better luck looking at other 48" OLED monitors ? if so, which ones ?

They all have it. I don't believe any are better/worse in this respect. It's a characteristic of the panel type be it WOLED or QD-OLED.

l3gi0n wrote: ↑

29 May 2024, 10:17

(3) Does this happen with G-SYNC compatible as well as native G-SYNC monitors(the ones with Nvidia's module) ?

OLED VRR flicker happens with or without a G-SYNC module.

l3gi0n wrote: ↑

29 May 2024, 10:17

(4) Does this problem happen with IPS and VA panels that are G-SYNC compatible or native G-SYNC ?

To a lesser degree VRR can cause flicker on certain LCD panel types, and it's more prevalent with certain G-SYNC Compatible models (I've never experienced notable VRR flicker on an LCD display featuring native G-SYNC), but said cause differs from OLED, and is commonly due to a sub-optimal LFC threshold.

l3gi0n wrote: ↑

29 May 2024, 10:17

(5) Considering that OLED panels have the flickering problems when G-SYNC is on, would you still choose an OLED monitor over an IPS or VA monitor that also have G-SYNC ? because of its vastly superior picture quality ?

I have both; a PG27AQN (360Hz LCD) for desktop use, and an LG 48" C4 (144Hz OLED) for "couch" gaming, both connected to the same PC. Each are better for different things.

As for OLED VRR flicker, so long as you ensure steady frametime, it's minimal, but since frametime performance can vary from game-to-game, each require different tuning for the optimal average framerate and adjoining framerate limit.

It's certainly not set-and-forget in that respect, but not necessarily a deal breaker seeing as contrast ratio and pixel response times are considerably better than LCD.