PC Drivers & Software

[wechhe]

Hey,

I have extreme flickering of the screen (brightness flicker) when Freesync is in setting "Ultimate" when playing games. This is happening since a couple of versions of drivers. If I remember correctly the last working version was 18.6.1.

For sure the flickering is happening with 18.11.1 and 18.9.3 and only when the Ultimate mode is enabled.

Happening in World of Warcraft and Battlefield 1 / 5

It was not happening with any driver version before 18.6.1. In fact I tried 18.8.1 and 18.9.3 (and if I remember correctly 18.7.1) and installed 18.6.1 again which solved the problem. Now I have to use 18.11.1 because of Battlefield 5 and I am stuck with that problem.

I have a Vega 64 Liquid Cooled Edition and a Samsung 34CF791 connected via HDMI 2.0.

Since the problem disappears when installing an older driver version I am sure it is a problem with the new drivers and I am asking to investigate and fix the problem. I found other people reporting the same problem in other forums.

If you need more information, please don't hesitate to ask.

Best regards

[mungo]

I have the same Combo.

Welcome to the Club.

[wechhe]

Do you also have the same problem? If yes - can you please describe some details, e.g. which version(s) did work correctly with Freesync-ultimate and which versions do not work?

[mungo]

I Have the same Issue.

17.12.1 is the last Version for me where FS over DP is working without Flickering.

I tried so much. I fidled around with the FS Range via CRU, i installed every single Driver Version, turned on/off every point in the Drivermenus.

I used HDMI and DP, bought a high quality DP Cable...Hell i even disconnected my old Soundcard from the System.

Nothing relliably helped. The only thing i can do is to return to 17.12.1.

I hate this Issue and honestly im considering to sell my Display and Vega and return to NVidia.

[black89]

It s more than a half of a year and they still didnt fix flickering issue since it started after 18.6.1. I dont know how can we get Amd to respond to this issue. I m wondering if there are other ways - like using older drivers ( 18.6.1 ) with game optimizations from the latest drivers or maybe getting freesync profile from 18.6.1 and copy it to the latest drivers.

amdmatt‌ help :smiley face

[wechhe]

For me as well - still the same issue. Tried every driver version ever since - no fix.

And since amdmatt‌ asked me to open a new thread for the problem and I never even got a reply I have to say that I am not happy about it.

It is clearly a driver issue and not even a response within half a year? Really..?  -_-

[Matt_AMD]

We have fixed as much of the flickering as is possible with this monitor, we cannot improve on it any further. 

I have tested using older drivers and see the same flickering as with newer drivers. 

If you can give me a couple of clear examples of games that flicker on newer drivers but don't on a specific driver version (ie 18.6.1) please let me know as i use this monitor daily so will test it to see if i can reproduce it. 

[mungo]

Do you use DP or HDMI?

[Matt_AMD]

Primarily HDMI, but i have tested and can use both. 

[wechhe]

amdmatt - Thank you for the answer.

I retested again today to confirm what I remembered and described earlier by using the following approach:

- Uninstall installed version --> Restart --> Install Adrenalin --> Restart.

- Check if FreeSync is set so Utltimate in monitor settings and set to 48-100 Hz in Adrenalin

- Leave all settings in standard.

- Test games for flickering

- Set up the settings in Adrenalin I usually use (HBCC on, undervolting, etc.)

- Test same games again.

Start again at first point using another Adrenalin version.

Games I tested today: Battlefield 5, World of Warcraft

(Games I tested earlier but not again today: Battlefield 1, Pubg and more and I had the same issue with flickering)

The last version which is working with absolutely no flickering at all is: 18.6.1 (win10-64bit-radeon-software-adrenalin-edition-18.6.1-june13). I had most versions before 18.6.1 installed as well and I never noticed any flickering.

Every version I tried after 18.6.1 has flickering, including the current 19.2.3

I tried HDMI 2.0 and switched to Displayport two weeks ago. The problems occurs with both connections. Also all the other settings don't seem to affect the flickering.

The flickering is easy to spot when starting the game. E.g. in Battlefield I can see it clearly during the loading screen (at the bottom). During game or when a lot is moving on the screen the flickering is not that noticeable and only sometimes the whole screen flickers - looks like a rapid change in brightness.

The flickering is also not all the time, but appears only every 5 - 20 seconds or so. It seems to be related to what happens on the screen. Hard to explain, though.

And since the flickering is not noticeable at all when using 18.6.1 and immediately noticeable when using a later version - I am sure that it is related to the driver. Something did change after 18.6.1 within the Adrenalin version which is causing the flickering to be back.

Please tell me if there is anything else you need to know. I sincerely hope you can reproduce that behaviour.

@others with the same problem - please use the same approach to confirm that 18.6.1 is the last version without flickering using FreeSync with the Samsung 34CF791 set to "FreeSync Ultimate".

[Matt_AMD]

Thanks, that's good information.

I have BFV and can download 18.6.1 and compare it to 19.2.3, i'll let you know what i find out. 

[Matt_AMD]

Are you using Radeon Overlay Performance Metrics?

I tested BFV at 3440 Ultra Settings DX11 on Vega 64 on 18.6.1 and 19.2.3 both using HDMI. I could not reproduce the issue.

I saw very subtle menu flickering on both sets of drivers while moving the mouse around in the video options. Most importantly, there was no flickering during gameplay only on menu screens. I tested a portion of single player and online conquest mode. 

When i last investigated menu flickering for this display we had improved it as much as possible and there was no further room for improvement. 

I have a Samsung Ue32850R 4K PLS FreeSync display and that does not experience any flickering on menu screens, unlike the CF791. 

[srsbsns]

Matt I also have this problem with Acer XF270HU. Its a 1440P IPS 144hz display. I created a thread with a possible fix. Im still not 100% but it seems like when relive is installed its causing the problem even if its not active. Is there any chance we can look into this display or my issue?

FreeSync flicker source solved? 

[wechhe]

Thanks for the tip. I have reinstalled 19.2.3 without ReLive and the Flickering is the same. So no fix for me.

[wechhe]

Thanks for testingamdmatt‌

You said you do have flickering using 18.6.1 which is interesting because I do not have it at all with that version. So we have two observations now:

1.) I do not experience flickering with 18.6.1 while you do.

2.) I seem to sense the flickering a lot more than you seem to do with 19.2.3

The flickering with later drivers is not that subtle in my eyes as you described. I guess it depends on what happens on the screen, your graphic settings, FPS, etc. and it might be very subjective.

Does that mean the case will be closed because you couldn't reproduce it on your PC? Or is there anything else we can test or look into?

[Matt_AMD]

As the flickering is limited to menu screens in some games and we cannot improve on that further, i don't think there is much else that can be done. 

[wechhe]

I've been playing with FreeSync Ultimate for last couple of days:

- Overwatch: Flickering only in menus, no problem. But since I have max FPS (set to 98) anyway - I don't need Ultimate and I guess that is the reason why there is not flickering

- Battlefield 5: Flickering mainly in menus, but also ingame. It bothered me too much in the end so I will switch it off.

- Division 2 open beta: Flickering is everywhere - it is sooo annoying and absolutely not playable. I have around 55-70 FPS so I would really like to have the extended FreeSync range. I guess the reason for the flickering is actually the lower FPS compared to the other games.

In conclusion:

FreeSync Ultimate is usable when I don't need it, i.e. the FPS are above 80 anyway. And when I do need it because the FPS are below 80 - it is unplayable.

Question:

When I have VSync enabled ingame & FreeSync set to Standard, what happens when I drop below Freesync range, e.g. play with 60 FPS? Do I use VSync without FreeSync, so have increased Input lag? Shouldn't I also have half FPS or something? I remember in the old times when using VSync having less FPS than the monitor refresh rate the FPS will be only half of the monitor's refresh rate.

[Matt_AMD]

I don't see any flickering in BFV in game, other than in the menus. How are you reproducing?

[wechhe]

By menu you also mean the "Deploy" menu? Because that is already annoying enough since you spend quite a time in the deploy menu during a game (depending on how bad a round is ;-) ).

I just played a round Conquest and I've been experiencing flickering during the game, i.e. not on any menu - of course only noticeable when the picture is more or less static, e.g. I am behind cover aiming. Often it is "just" one or two flicker, but every time I am pulled out of the game.

[yodamann]

are you using DP or HDMI 2.0 I find there is less issues with HDMI then DP in general. Division 2 retail has some flicker in menus but gameplay seems ok for the most part for me on my Radeon VII. I really hope AMD holds monitor vendors to higher standards in regards to flicker in the future, this is pretty unacceptable imho. freesync is supposed to improve the experience not make it worse...

[trerot]

With radeon VII i get flickering in the samme way as wechhe‌
BFV. mostly in menus but i notice it enough in game to turn it off.
The Witcher 3. Notice it all the time. cant use it.
Division 2. Notice it all the time. Cant use it.
AMD Windmill test tool. as long as freesync is on it is flickering, a lot.

Monitor: Samsung CF791
GPU: AMD radeon VII
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 1700x
MB:Gigabyte Aorus GA-AX370-Gaming 5, S-AM4
RAM: 4x8GB HyperX Predator DDR4 3200MHz 

[Matt_AMD]

The flickering cannot be reduced further on this monitor, unfortunately. Mostly it is limited to (some) game menu screens in my experience as i use it every day for gaming. 

[black89]

I m also having issue with voltage while using  HDMI.My vega64 lc idles at 1.05V and it doesnt go lower with custom watman profiles.Balanced, turbo and power savings profile drops voltage down to 0.9 as it should. Using DP cable  also works for all profiles including custom.so it looks like  problem lies with hdmi and custom profiles. Can you  replicate problem amdmatt‌ ? Try starting a game and restart computer after you set custom profile and gpu voltage will stay at 1.05 idle.

It s too bad that flickering issue is unsolvable

[freeart47]

Thank you so much! I have same problem with RX570 and C27F390. After searching a bunch of forums - with that version of driver bright-flickers finally gone as in games so in desktop browser especially when watching youtube. Also with the driver image in games seems much more smoother.

Shame on AMD programmers for make me choose between working freesync and new features like: anti-lag, fixed Chill's fps limiter with rtss'like frametime, compatibility with OverdriveNTool.

It's funny that they fixed things at first, then broke and now mumble "ow you have to buy new monitor, we can't neither reproduce or fix the problem"

Also, noticed that control panel in this driver have fluid 60 fps animations when the latest version including stable 19.5.2 haven't - nice downgrade amd!

With that quality of drivers by AMD my next graphics card definitely will be Nvidia

[black89]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZ7N4GLoiBA

On the other hand i just dont understand how amd cannot reduce or remove flickering when older drivers clearly didnt have that issue

[black89]

So i just tested with almost ancient drivers 17.8.1 with DP and guess what - there is no flickering and freesync actually works.HDMI flickers but i think they solved that with later drivers.Actually one thing that doesnt work is LFC and it looks like LFC is obvious problem for flickering.So my question or request for you amdmatt‌ (in case you can communicate with driver team) if they can implement option under display tab to enable or disable LFC. Do you think that would be possible? I think with a little help from CRU to adjust freesync range to like 40-100 we can make this monitor almost flickering free again and playing under 40 fps almost doesnt make sense

What do you think guys?

[kingfish]

https://community.amd.com/docs/DOC-2241 

[black89]

Radeon Software Crimson ReLive Edition 17.8.1 Release Notes

• FreeSync brightness or flickering issues have been resolved on a small amount of Samsung FreeSync enabled displays that may have been experiencing issues.

Maybe they messed up something with newer drivers and they just need to look at the problem again.

19.6.2 - no changes