Occasional gltichy screen flicker on desktop?

[Techhog]

For the past day or two, my screen has been flickering every now and then. It only last for a very very short time (maybe just 1Hz), but it happens. What could this mean? Did I damage my graphics card with an overclock?

 

[Itchrelief]

For the past day or two, my screen has been flickering every now and then. It only last for a very very short time (maybe just 1Hz), but it happens. What could this mean? Did I damage my graphics card with an overclock?

I don't know the answer but experience the same issue on a 7970 non Ghz driving an Auria 27". I'd be interested if you ever find a solution.

 

[sf101]

Use MSI afterburner and turn off POWERPLAY and see if it fixes it .

you can do this in the afterburner settings and or unofficial overclocking mode 2

memory oc's usually cause this issue.

 

[Techhog]

Use MSI afterburner and turn off POWERPLAY and see if it fixes it .

you can do this in the afterburner settings and or unofficial overclocking mode 2

memory oc's usually cause this issue.

Where is Powerplay specifically? Also, only my core was overclocked specifically because any overclock on memory, no matter how small, is unstable. However, I still have the issue when everything's at stock settings. :/

 

[KingFatty]

Can you tell whether the flicker happens in reaction to whether you are having a video visible or not, or a 3D? The issue may be related to when the video card changes the memory speed. When you are just showing 2D webpage for example, the memory speed can run slower to save power. When you show a 2D video, it can switch to a faster speed and might flicker during that transition. Same when you show a 3D accelerated game etc.

So see if this happens only when you are transitioning like that. Or, see if you can have the problem when the computer is just sitting there and you aren't doing anything.

 

[tg2708]

Ahh finally someone has the same issue I was experiencing with my 7970. It actually drove me to switch to Nvidia and have not had such an issue since. Gonna rma it soon though.

 

[Techhog]

Can you tell whether the flicker happens in reaction to whether you are having a video visible or not, or a 3D? The issue may be related to when the video card changes the memory speed. When you are just showing 2D webpage for example, the memory speed can run slower to save power. When you show a 2D video, it can switch to a faster speed and might flicker during that transition. Same when you show a 3D accelerated game etc.

So see if this happens only when you are transitioning like that. Or, see if you can have the problem when the computer is just sitting there and you aren't doing anything.

Hm. Well, I haven't really noticed that, but I switch between flash videos (mostly Twitch) and other tabs so often that something like that could happen without me noticing.

 

[KingFatty]

Yes, that could be the trigger event, when you switch between tabs, and one of the tabs is showing basic static graphics/text, but the other tab is having a flash video. So what happens is the video memory speed will increase to show the flash, but then drop down to a lower speed for the plain text/graphics stuff.

Now you have to get frustrated by the flicker, and so ask yourself, is it worth it to save some power, putting up with this flicker? I don't think so, and there a ways to just have the card use the higher speed/power mode for the memory all the time, so it never flickers because it's always at the higher performance mode. You can use software to do this, or even modify the video BIOS on the video card and so it's always there without needing to worry about software.

But don't get false hope yet, make sure you don't have a problem, by confirming that you can always predictably duplicate your issue depending on what is displayed.

Another option is you contact the support team of your video card manufacturer and tell them about the flicker, how it happens when you change between memory speeds of video vs other, and they might just send you an updated BIOS you can flash. I remember Gigabyte sent me one when I asked them, they were pretty cool to deal with and knew what I was talking about and how to fix it using the new BIOS. Maybe the website already has an updated BIOS you can download right now, or maybe there will be a software fix for drivers in the future.

 

[PliotronX]

Ahh finally someone has the same issue I was experiencing with my 7970. It actually drove me to switch to Nvidia and have not had such an issue since. Gonna rma it soon though.

Yup, my 7850 has been a PITA since the beginning because of the way it handles dynamic clocks and voltages. I fixed, or at least thought I fixed, the screen flickering by modifying the profile XML file in AppData\Local\ATI\ACE and locking the target clocks and voltage. It's not always foolproof though, IDK what conditions cause it to go back to dynamic clocks, like sleep mode or changing primary screens, but then it goes back to effing up and corrupting the screen watching video when OC'd and screen flickering.

Last AMD card for a while for me. Regret the purchase all the time.

 

[Techhog]

Yes, that could be the trigger event, when you switch between tabs, and one of the tabs is showing basic static graphics/text, but the other tab is having a flash video. So what happens is the video memory speed will increase to show the flash, but then drop down to a lower speed for the plain text/graphics stuff.

Now you have to get frustrated by the flicker, and so ask yourself, is it worth it to save some power, putting up with this flicker? I don't think so, and there a ways to just have the card use the higher speed/power mode for the memory all the time, so it never flickers because it's always at the higher performance mode. You can use software to do this, or even modify the video BIOS on the video card and so it's always there without needing to worry about software.

But don't get false hope yet, make sure you don't have a problem, by confirming that you can always predictably duplicate your issue depending on what is displayed.

Another option is you contact the support team of your video card manufacturer and tell them about the flicker, how it happens when you change between memory speeds of video vs other, and they might just send you an updated BIOS you can flash. I remember Gigabyte sent me one when I asked them, they were pretty cool to deal with and knew what I was talking about and how to fix it using the new BIOS. Maybe the website already has an updated BIOS you can download right now, or maybe there will be a software fix for drivers in the future.

I'm not really sure. It seems so random. It hasn't happened today. I've noticed that my overclock has issues after waking up from sleep mode, so I wonder if there's a relation.

 

[Beavermatic]

My 780ti's just started doing something strangely similar tonight... hmmmmm

 

[Techhog]

Okay, it just happened again randomly on a web page. I guess it's more of a jump than a flicker. A thin horizontal line appears, the screen "jumps", and then it's back to normal.

 

[mojothehut]

Woo someone else!
Ive been having the issue for on and off 2 years, through two different window installs.

First on my older AMD 990fx, Phenom II rig (with my 7950 sapphire)
Now on my i7 4770k (still with the 7950)

However, it only happens while I have Chrome open D:
Completely random times, just an angry flicker and usually a dark line flashes for like a 50th of a second across the screen.

Happens on a DVI connection and HDMI,

 

[Techhog]

Woo someone else!
Ive been having the issue for on and off 2 years, through two different window installs.

First on my older AMD 990fx, Phenom II rig (with my 7950 sapphire)
Now on my i7 4770k (still with the 7950)

However, it only happens while I have Chrome open D:
Completely random times, just an angry flicker and usually a dark line flashes for like a 50th of a second across the screen.

Happens on a DVI connection and HDMI,

That may be something we have in common

 

[biostud]

My did the same, and I fixed it by making a custom profile in CCC and enable overdrive so that it doesn't turn the memory and GPU clock way down in 2D.

 

[BrightCandle]

I saw this as well with my 7970's. It was actually just a performance problem as the cards clock speed by default is too low to cope with flash in web pages. I used to see odd jumps with steam open, when starting to play back video and generally on webpages that included moving adverts.

The way I solved it initially with my 5970 was I used a bios editor to increase the default speed about 50% and upped the voltage a little bit. You can also edit the profile XML files but that doesn't live across driver releases (and you do a lot of driver installs on AMD with beta drivers and such) so the bios edit worked better for me.

I also wrote a custom tool which connects to openCL and that has the effect of ramping the GPU up to full speed expecting an openCL program, but it never gets one and hence it runs the GPU at full speed, effectively turning off the power saving.

But its a bug/feature of AMD's cards, has been for a very long time.

 

[tweakboy]

I know LG monitors do that. What is your model monitor ?

 

[Techhog]

I really don't know if this is actually the issue. It doesn't look like the clock is changing in MSI Afterburner when it happens.

 

[Techhog]

Yeah, this just seems completely random. Some days it happens, other days it's fine

 

[biostud]

Yeah, this just seems completely random. Some days it happens, other days it's fine

Try to set your memory to run @ 3D speeds all the time (1500Mhz). It fixed it for me.

 

[james1701]

I get it too. Interestingly enough, there are a few reports that the leaked driver 13.35 or what ever it was, has stopped this for a some of the people on AMD forums. It also stopped the second card running at 99% in CF. The down side is, it has broken several peoples Windows installs, so I have not been brave enough to try it yet.

Also, you might change some of the flags in Chrome for the GPU acceleration.

I have tried, but it does not stop my problems. I have a Dell U3011 that is out of warranty, and I get a few odd quirks like when I shut down, the last image stays on the screen, or when Windows turns off the monitor under the power profile, I get this odd corruption.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHS8T7sE-D0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rz9no5LXiNQ

Sorry for the music, I had a cold, and sounded like Darth Vader in the background.

Is anyone else getting this along with the flash on Chrome?

 

[Techhog]

Try to set your memory to run @ 3D speeds all the time (1500Mhz). It fixed it for me.

The clock doesn't seem to be changing though... Also, I guess that 1500MHz is the "effective" speed?

 

[BrightCandle]

I never saw it as a clock speed changing problem, I saw it as a performance problem caused by an underclock that went too far to actually cope with what was being displayed. The problem is 100% fixable if you do one of things I described, all of which increase the clock speed such that the card can actually cope, at some cost in power consumption.

 

[KingFatty]

I really liked solving this issue using the updated video BIOS. It just feels clean and simple, because you know you are addressing it at a fundamental level regardless of OS or software you use it with. So I'd suggest that route, or maybe check if the vendor already has a BIOS update you can download.