144 hz monitor flickering outside of games

[WaterWar]

Hello everyone

I'm a bit at a loss, and was hoping someone more technically gifted than me could help out.

I have an Acer KG251QF 144 hz freesync monitor, that I have connected to my GTX 1060 6GB graphics card with the included DP-cable that came with the monitor. I am running the monitor as a G-sync compatible monitor, and it has been working well. Unfortunately, I am beginning to experience flickering while I am on the deskop, or browsing on something windowed (leaving parts of the desktop visible). It is not the full screen flickering, but more like a displacement along the Y-axis that is overlaid on the correct image. I am not experiencing it in games. I am however always experiencing it while the desktop is displayed in any amount.
I've tried turning off G-sync, but that doesn't change anything. The only things that seems to have an effect are: having a programme in fullscreen (even Chrome and "my computer" is enough if fullscreen); or changing the refresh rate to 60 hz in the nVidia control panel, which is not really a nice solution.

I have tried:
-Rolling back the version of the graphics driver, but that didn't do much, if anything.
-Changing the DisplayPort-plug that the monitor is connected to. No change.
-Turning off G-sync. Nothing.

It is not the end of the world, as I can play games just fine. It is just something that is bothering me, as I want to fix it.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

[Mettkrieger]

Do you have a second screen connected?

[WaterWar]

No, just the one monitor.
I've also run into another weird issue where the dropbox desktop will make my monitor go all black. If I change away from the desktop app, the image comes back. I've tried reinstalling the desktop app, but it didn't change. I can view the desktop app if I change my monitors connection to the standard 60 hz connection.
It is making me think it is a driver issue, but I dont know how/if I can fix it.

[Dr_Badthur]

so this is a new thing, not something that occurred out of the box?

The only things that seems to have an effect are [...] changing the refresh rate to 60 hz in the nVidia control panel

with the first 144hz monitor I had, I used the incorrect cable, which caused issues. running in 60hz also fixed those issues
I know you're using the correct cable, but I wonder if maybe the cable has become faulty?

[TheGamingLion]

Could you record a vid or make a pic of when the issue occurs? If it's visible on a smarthpone camera.

Did you do a complete and clean reinstallation of the GPU drivers? Did the screen come with any kind of software/drivers/setting presets that might've been auto-updated by Windows?

[Orrie]

You could try to set the desktop refresh rate to 60Hz, and then have "Preferred refresh rate" set to maximum allowed.
Then change the game option to 144Hz. Though, this requires fullscreen.
I'm not really sure if it actually works, but worth a try.

Could also try setting power management to "Prefer maximum performance".
It might be that the GPU downclocks itself too much when it's not being actively used, that it goes below the requirements of the monitor.
A weird situation, but that power management setting should prevent that.

[Brati007]

i would suggest to deinstall all video drivers and then run ccleaner. make a backup and clear all driver rest in the programms folder plus registry. the programm will do that on its own. then install newest gpu driver. run without gsync first.
if this doesnt fix the issue,i think your backpanel control is damaged.

(Testing other cable tho might be a good start. f.e. hdmi->dp->dvi->back to start and look what happens with each cable being connected.)

[WaterWar]

Generel update: It seems to have gotten better after a few restarts. The issue is now less "flickering" and more of the black screen in certain applications. World of tanks and Call of Duty do it, but then a restart fixes it again. Does indicate some sort of software issue somewhere.. Also I think to remember that I only get issues if my screen has been idling for x minutes and then turns the monitor off (sleep?). If I wake it up after that, I run into issues. Where if I manage to keep it awake the whole time since the last startup, then it is ok. At least that has been the case since I made this thread and started paying attention to it.

@Badthur: I'll see if I can get my fingers on another DP-cable to test out. Do you know if there is a particular property that I should go for, or can all DP-cables run 144 hz at 1080p?
@Lion: I can try and see if I can record it the next time it starts flickering. I didn't do a complete reinstall of drivers, just rolling it back with the windows settings (not via the nVidia control panel). I am not aware of any drivers that belong to the monitor itself, but I can give it a google and see if that is the case.
@Orrie: I've had the power management to max performance since before I got the new monitor. How can I tell if the GPU is downclocking itself while idling?
@brati: I am not familiar with editing/cleaning up the registry, but did I understand correctly that CCleaner will do that for me? I could have a look at a HDMI cable as well, although they can't push 144 hz, can they?

Thanks everyone for the help and suggestions, it is greatly appreciated.

[Brati007]

yes the programm will navigate through this easily or just watch a videoturial on youtube, its done within 3 clicks.

no need to go for 144hz in the first step, hdmi 1.4 covers 120hz. just test if the flickering is wandering with changing the graphic port(cable).
if ccleaner wont fix your issues, i think you got an hardware issue in the monitor f.e. broken backpanel control.

[Dr_Badthur]

@Badthur: I'll see if I can get my fingers on another DP-cable to test out. Do you know if there is a particular property that I should go for, or can all DP-cables run 144 hz at 1080p?

I'm pretty sure all DP cables can run 1080p @ 144hz, yeah

[Orrie]

About the downclocking, any GPU monitor software can display that, like GPU-Z.
Though, I'm not sure how to prevent it, and can't really find anything about it either.

[WaterWar]

I found a setting called "overdrive" on my monitor, which I turned off. Seemed to have solved the issues for the time being - which is nice.

[Brati007]

I found a setting called "overdrive" on my monitor, which I turned off. Seemed to have solved the issues for the time being - which is nice.

if you dont find others having the same hardware with the same issue of no/bad overdrive usage this could be the first indication for a dying backbanel.

do you still have guarantee?

[peregrine]

Isn't overdrive used to run panels like this at 165 Hz? https://laptopmedia.com/review/acer-kg1 ... prise-you/ -> lowers response time is seems.

If you look for "overdrive tearing KG251QF" one of the results is this: https://community.amd.com/thread/230316 so maybe try a HDMI 2.0 cable? Or just leave overdrive off if you are not using 165 Hz put it to normal?

[WaterWar]

Thought I would give an update: I spoke with the shop I bought it from, and they agreed to send it in for service. Turns out my panel was broken/faulty and they replaced it with a new one. Haven't had any flickering since then - so that is nice.

Thanks to everyone for the help with it all, back in May!

[Brati007]

Thought I would give an update: I spoke with the shop I bought it from, and they agreed to send it in for service. Turns out my panel was broken/faulty and they replaced it with a new one. Haven't had any flickering since then - so that is nice.

Thanks to everyone for the help with it all, back in May!

i only see one guy here saying this is your problem like three times