VRR Flicker on AW3225QF

[Duskfall]

Hello everyone.

I am gaming on an Alienware AW3225QF monitor, my graphics card is a RTX 4070 Ti Super 16GB and I get a lot of VRR flicker in some games which is driving me crazy. Even capping the FPS in the Nvidia control panel does absolutely nothing in Alan Wake 2. Even if the FPS are at about 59-60 FPS I get crazy flicker. I ended up disabling Gsync completely for this game. Silent Hill 2 is another candidate where the flicker was unbearable. I played with Gsync on but I was glad when I was finished with the game because of the constant flicker. Cyberpunk has a lot less flicker but it's there as well. Capping FPS in this game helps though. I am at the point where I am not able to enjoy my games anymore because of the flicker and am considering keeping Gsync off globally. Does it even matter with a 240Hz monitor? In Alan Wake 2 I can't really tell the difference between it on and off. What are your thoughts on this?

[RealNC]

It's hard to tell at 240Hz, that's true. Although it depends on the FPS. At 90FPS for example, you can tell. Once you get to around 110-120 or so, it becomes harder to tell. With very high FPS (170+), judder is so minor that I can't even notice unless I focus on it.

However, if you're prepared to pay an input lag penalty, you can run 144Hz instead of 240Hz and keep g-sync enabled. Cap to around 120FPS or so. This does not eliminate flicker, but reduces it (because during stutters, the display doesn't jump all the way up to 240Hz, but only up to 144Hz.)

If that's still not good enough and you keep g-sync off, and you normally use lower FPS caps like I do (usually 90FPS to 120FPS, never above that,) another option is to use SpecialK for the FPS cap and choose a fractional FPS cap with normal vsync. To do that, you need to select the "normal" limiter, and right-click on the FPS cap entry bar and select one of the fractional caps (1/2, 1/3, etc.) At 240Hz you can use 60/80/120FPS, at 180Hz you can use 60 or 90FPS. This is what I do for games that have too much flicker:

SK_fractional_cap.png (138.24 KiB) Viewed 13418 times

Note: this is a fractional cap, not fractional v-sync (which would add lag.) Fractional caps with normal vsync are very low latency. Unfortunately, SpecialK's "normal" limiter is the only one I found that is good enough to do this. RTSS and Nvidia limiters always produce judder/jitter if you try a fractional cap with them. Which means you can't do that in online games that use an anti-cheat system (they will either block SpecialK, or trigger a ban because it looks like a cheat to them.)

[Duskfall]

Thank you. I can only set 240Hz or 120Hz in Windows. Every attempt at creating a custom refresh rate for example in CRU does not work because my monitor has basically DSC enabled all the time by default. Is there a way to create a custom refresh rate of 144Hz in my case. Also the customize section in the Nvidia control panel is greyed out so I can't create a refresh rate there as well. I am basically stuck at 240Hz or 120Hz.

Thanks for the tip in regards to Special K. I will check that out.

[RealNC]

Thank you. I can only set 240Hz or 120Hz in Windows. Every attempt at creating a custom refresh rate for example in CRU does not work because my monitor has basically DSC enabled all the time by default. Is there a way to create a custom refresh rate of 144Hz in my case. Also the customize section in the Nvidia control panel is greyed out so I can't create a refresh rate there as well. I am basically stuck at 240Hz or 120Hz.

That's unfortunate. In that case you can try 120Hz and cap to 100FPS. That would reduce flicker. But of course that means you have to give up on 120FPS capping, if that happens to be your preferred frame rate. Also you might want to check rtings.com on whether or not your monitor has abnormally high input lag at 120Hz. But I guess just try it and see if it's "good enough" for you.

[Duskfall]

I tried Alan Wake 2 with 120Hz and 240Hz at the same FPS (around 80 FPS) and I do have to say that 240Hz felt a lot smoother so I would like to keep the 240Hz if possible. Also because I paid the monitor for that I tried it with Gsync on and off as well at 240Hz and I couldn't notice any tearing but I would prefer to keep Gsync enabled and still being able to enjoy my games. But I guess in some games it's just not possible.

Does the Special K method you mentioned previously with Gsync off eliminate tearing completely?

Another question: In Space Marine 2 I didn't notice any flicker although my FPS kept fluctuating between 70-115FPS. Is the flicker really that dependant on the games themselves (among other factors)?

[RealNC]

Does the Special K method you mentioned previously with Gsync off eliminate tearing completely?

Yes, because you enable vsync with it. Vsync will never tear, no matter what. Vsync takes care of tearing, the fractional cap takes care of the input lag.

Another question: In Space Marine 2 I didn't notice any flicker although my FPS kept fluctuating between 70-115FPS. Is the flicker really that dependant on the games themselves (among other factors)?

It depends on the colors. Dark shades have visible flicker. Brighter colors don't, because humans are very sensitive to brightness changes in dark colors. If you go for example from 0.5 nits to 1.0 nits, that's double the brightness. Easy to see. But if you go from 50 nits to 50.5 nits, it's not gonna be registered by our brain as a change, even though it's there.

[Duskfall]

Thanks for your reply. I was under the impression that if my FPS are below the Hz of my monitor I will experience tearing if Gysnc is off, even if Vsync is on. So if I have Gsync off and my monitor is 240Hz but i game at let's say 60-80 FPS I should have tearing. Doesn't Vsync engage only if the GPU produces more FPS than my monitor's Hz? While Gsync takes care of what's below it?

[RealNC]

Thanks for your reply. I was under the impression that if my FPS are below the Hz of my monitor I will experience tearing if Gysnc is off, even if Vsync is on.

No. FPS has nothing to do with tearing. If you don't enable vsync, 240FPS will still tear at 240Hz. The only way not to tear is to sync the frames to the monitor (vsync) or the monitor to the frames (g-sync.)

So if I have Gsync off and my monitor is 240Hz but i game at let's say 60-80 FPS I should have tearing. Doesn't Vsync engage only if the GPU produces more FPS than my monitor's Hz? While Gsync takes care of what's below it?

No. If you enable vsync, all frames are synced. If the game produces more frames than the monitor can sync, then the game is forced to wait, which is why vsync has lag. If you cap your FPS, then that doesn't happen and there's no lag. But there is never, ever tearing when using vsync.

Vsync syncs the game to the monitor. G-sync syncs the monitor to the game.

[Duskfall]

Oh okay thanks for the kind explanation. I literally will never produce more frames than my monitor can handle (240Hz). I usually play graphics intensive games and I get 120 FPS at most in modern titles. If I don't get above 240FPS does having Vsync enabled introduce lag anyway or is that just the case if the game goes above that?

Also wouldn't Vsync ON/Gsync OFF drop my FPS to 30 as soon as I get to 59 instead of 60?

[RealNC]

If I don't get above 240FPS does having Vsync enabled introduce lag anyway or is that just the case if the game goes above that?

It adds some minor lag, but not much.

Also wouldn't Vsync ON/Gsync OFF drop my FPS to 30 as soon as I get to 59 instead of 60?

It depends on whether the game uses two or three frame buffers for vsync. If it uses only two, then it can cause this effect. Some games have an option for it (usually called "double buffer" and "triple buffer".) Triple buffer doesn't have this problem, but it has more lag if you don't cap your FPS.