[REGRESSION] [535.54.03] The entire screen is frequently flickering

[birdie-github]

NVIDIA Open GPU Kernel Modules Version

535.43.02

Does this happen with the proprietary driver (of the same version) as well?

Yes

Operating System and Version

Fedora 38

Kernel Release

6.3.5

Hardware: GPU

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti

Describe the bug

The screen is constantly flickering, no matter what applications are running.

In Firefox it's happening every few seconds. In other "simple" applications it's less frequent.

To Reproduce

Install.

Bug Incidence

All the time

nvidia-bug-report.log.gz

nvidia-bug-report.log.gz

More Info

This is a regression.

I've reverted to 530.41.03 and it's all good.

Windows users seem to be affected as well. Could be a code change which affects both drivers.

[thesword53]

Do you have 2+ monitors?

I think it's a problem with VRR and dual monitor setup. I also have the issue on Windows with the 530 and 535 drivers and Linux with the 535 drivers. The 530 Linux drivers are not affected because of another bug sticking GPU at higher power state on multi-monitor and >60Hz setup.
I also noticed flickering is caused by VRR/G-Sync screen frequency stuttering and happens when GPU is switching power state.

[birdie-github]

I have a single monitor.

[Littlejth]

I also have this issue on NixOS with kernel 6.3.5 on plasma 5.27.5 running on my RTX 3070. I tried to log into wayland initially and my screen perpetually flickered without ever making it into the session and I had to reboot my machine. I restarted and then tried to go into my X session which worked fine. I was able to go into the nvidia-settings panel and set both my monitors (144hz 1440p secondary over HDMI and 144hz 4K primary over DVI) down to 60hz. Then when I logged out and switched into wayland, no issue. So at least in my experience here and now, it's not necessarily whether or not it's VRR but more to do with high refresh rate in general. Both my monitors are freesync and work when forcing them to work with G-Sync but I didn't have that enabled at all.

EDIT: After doing some experimenting, I can have my 4K set at 144hz and my 1440p at 120hz. If I bring the 1440p monitor up to 144hz that's when I start to have issues. Also in my X session I do see occasional flickering but it's not bad to the point that I can't use the session.

[birdie-github]

It's still reproducible in 535.54.03 though to a much lesser extent.

For instance when I open Firefox the screen is briefly flashing. Sometimes opening new websites in Firefox also produces flashing.

I can live with that but not a single driver prior had this bug.

[birdie-github]

This is not limited to Firefox. Sometimes the screen briefly flashes even when I'm on the XFCE desktop with all the applications minimized.

I'm not using compositing.

This is reproducible with or without GSync enabled.

[birdie-github]

I've reverted back to 530.41.03 which are free from this bug.

The screen flashing with the new drivers is driving me insane. I don't want my monitor to die because someone in NVIDIA fucked up and I've heard that it's possible to kill a monitor using software.

TBO I'm mad. This bug report has seen zero replies from NVIDIA developers, the release notes don't confirm it either. At least there's a line in your Windows drivers: "When using multiple monitors which support adaptive sync, users may see random flicker on certain displays when G-SYNC is enabled after updating to driver 535.98 [4138119]"

Too bad I've got a single 144Hz HRR/HDR10 GSync 2560x1440 compatible monitor.

[birdie-github]

Pinging @aritger @aaronp24 @amrit1711

[sentakuhm]

I can confirm flickering too
Nvidia driver version: 535.54.03.
System: Arch linux.
Kernel: 6.3.8-arch1-1.
display server protocol: Wayland.

[birdie-github]

@sentakuhm

Please attach your sudo nvidia-bug-report.

[sentakuhm]

@birdie-github

Please attach your sudo nvidia-bug-report.

nvidia-bug-report.log.gz

[Zenzi0]

Yep, happens to me too. As long as this happens this driver version really isn't usable.
Nvidia driver version: 535.54.03
Arcolinux (Arch based, uses same repositories)
Kernel: 6.3.8-zen1-1-zen
Wayland, Sway

[amrit1711]

Hi All,
We see similar issue reported on forum with earlier released driver 525.89.02, will you be able to test if you also see same issue with 525.89.02.
If that's the case, then we are already working on it.
Otherwise, we will need to consider it as a different bug and shall try to reproduce issue locally.

[Zenzi0]

525.89.02 is not in my repos, so I hope somebody else can provide that information.
This is probably not very helpful but in my case with Sway I don't experience the flickering issue only with one very specific version of sway-git (r7096.f21090f9-1) and wlroots-git (0.17.0.r6176.12e28c34-1) which an additional non-Arch repo from Arcolinux provides. Any newer version of sway-git or the non-git sway (1:1.8.1-1) have the flickering issue.

[birdie-github]

Hi All, We see similar issue reported on forum with earlier released driver 525.89.02, will you be able to test if you also see same issue with 525.89.02. If that's the case, then we are already working on it. Otherwise, we will need to consider it as a different bug and shall try to reproduce issue locally.

I've had this issue only with 535.43.02 and 535.54.03 drivers.

I've never had it with older drivers.

[dbrhks490]

Hi,

I don't have this issue with the 525.xx.xx. Problem appeared since the 530 beta. I experience a short black flickering at the top of the screen.

Here what i tried :

• With the 525 driver, i've no flicker,
• With the 530 driver, my monitor flicker but if i add the following command to the kernel parameter nvidia_drm.modeset=1 the screen doesn't flicker anymore,
• With the new 535 driver, monitor flicker, even if nvidia_drm.modeset=1 is set. Tried also without this command and my monitor still flicker.

If i put my screen to 144hz and if i enable compositor, my computer is unusable because the flickering is omnipresent. Just scrolling an html web page make the monitor flicker. Watching a video is extremely unpleasant since the screen can flicker more than 10 time in a minute.

The only way to reduce this weird thing is to loverate the framerate (100hz is a good compromise for my 2560x1440 monitor) and the most important is to disable the compositor if possible. By doing this, the GPU does not switch to much between p-states, so the screen continue to flicker but much less frequently. The problem dost not occur in games, when the GPU is at his maximum performances.

I suspect too that only GPU based on the Turing architecture are affected. The people talking about this thing on the Nvidia devlopper forum are all equipped with RTX 2000 or GTX 1660.

Monitor : real g-sync 2560x1440 connected throught displayport
GPU : RTX 2080
OS : Debian or Ubuntu

[LoipesMas]

My experience has been similar to @dbrhks490
Arch updated me from 530 to 535 and the flickering appeared.
If I lower my framerate to 120Hz (or lower), the flickering is gone.
If I disable my second display, the flickering is also gone, even at 165Hz.
And launching a high-demanding game does seem to stop the flickering.
Happens both on Wayland (Hyprland) and X11 (dwm).

And for me the flickers look like momentary disconnects: the screen goes full black for ~3 seconds and "Connected over DisplayPort" popup from the monitor shows up. And only the main display does flicker.

Edit: It seems that on lower framerates I get "partial" flickers, i.e. top third of my screen goes black for like a frame. This annoying, but not terrible. And I rolled back to 530.41.03 and there are none of this issues.

My setup:
Main monitor: 3440x1440@165Hz
Second monitor: 1920x1440@60Hz
GPU: RTX2060
OS: Arch

Let me know if you need any more info or testing

[notfood]

Chiming in to share my experience.
I'm experiencing partial flickering on my main monitor in a dual monitor setup using 535.54.03 at 60Hz.

Environment:
Main monitor: 1920x1080@60Hz
Second monitor: 1024x768@60Hz
GPU1: GeForce GTX 1650
GPU2: Tesla M40 (not in use)
OS: ArchLinux

It's occasional, I suspect GPU is switching power states, the flickering only happens on the top of the screen. It doesn't matter what I'm running, I can be on X11 or Wayland, it happens on KDE Plasma and I3w, it happens with no applications running, it happens during the beginning of heavy GPU usage. Downgrading it to 530.41.03 shows none of these issues.

[birdie-github]

Would be great if all the affected people

1. attached their sudo nvidia-bug-report and
2. specified the exact monitor vendor and model

Thanks

[CrossroadInTheVoid]

530.41.03 flickers even with nvidia-drm.modeset=1 in 3d or playing accelerated video. Bug was published at nvidia.com. So 535.54.03 is not the only bugged version.

[birdie-github]

530.41.03 flickers even with nvidia-drm.modeset=1 in 3d or playing accelerated video. Bug was published at nvidia.com. So 535.54.03 is not the only bugged version.

I intended this bug report to be relevant only for the use case of 535.43.02 and 535.54.03 drivers regressing and 530.41.03 being bug free. And I've been using kms since forever options nvidia-drm modeset=1

You really could file a new bug report if you were affected earlier.

[CrossroadInTheVoid]

I intended this bug report to be relevant only for the use case of 535.43.02 and 535.54.03 drivers regressing and 530.41.03 being bug free. And I've been using kms since forever options nvidia-drm modeset=1

You really could file a new bug report if you were affected earlier.

530.41.03 is a new feature branch version so I do not think that bugfixing is actual for it. The only thing I want to say — 530.41.03 IS NOT bug free version. It has the same black-flickering bug (or this bug only looks like the same, idk), several users have reported this. So, I think this regression has appeared not in 535.* but in 530.*.

[z1atk0]

Same here, occasional odd flicker across the top of both monitors, ever since I upgraded to 535.54.03. I always stick to the latest "Production Branch Version", and I never had this problem before.

System: GeForce GTX 1660 Ti displaying on two AOC 24G2SPU connected via HDMI, running Slackware64-15.0 on XOrg-X11 (not Wayland).

[root@disclosure:~]# inxi -G
Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA TU116 [GeForce GTX 1660 Ti] driver: nvidia v: 535.54.03
  Device-2: Sunplus Innovation Full HD webcam driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo
    type: USB
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.20.14 with: Xwayland v: 21.1.4 driver: X:
    loaded: nvidia unloaded: nouveau gpu: nvidia resolution: 1: 1920x1080~60Hz
    2: 1920x1080~60Hz
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 535.54.03 renderer: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660
    Ti/PCIe/SSE2

My nvidia-bug-report.log.gz is attached as well.

nvidia-bug-report.log.gz

[jarrard]

Same issue on NixOS with 4090 and 535 54 03 driver. X11 has this flicker, often when I'm using a app/browser, doesn't happen on Wayland but then I must set primary display to 60hz or I can't login. (plasma)

Haven't tested Gnome X11 yet. Kind of warn out with all these nvidia bugs lately...

[birdie-github]

First things first: the display flickering bug is not the Linux NVIDIA developers screw up, it's the part that comes from the Windows 535.98 drivers which were reported to break multi-monitor systems left and right. NVIDIA has ostensibly fixed this in the Windows 536.23 drivers:

When using multiple monitors which support adaptive sync, users may see random flicker on certain displays when G-SYNC is enabled after updating to driver 535.98 [4138119]

The bigger issue is that multiple users complained that the Windows 536.23 drivers broke single monitor systems as well but it looks like NVIDIA hasn't paid enough if any attention to the issue.

Now considering all the reports above it looks like the Windows multi-monitor bug fix hasn't been ported to Linux and the single monitor flickering issue continues to plague both branches.

Worst of all, it looks like the NVIDIA Linux engineers have been left in the dark or simply don't care about the fact that the last released Linux driver is simply broken and unusable and I reported the bug three weeks ago when drivers were still in beta, so they had ample time to investigate and fix it or at least ping their Windows colleagues and ask for help.

I'm mad, I'm simply mad. Luckily 530.41.03 drivers still work flawlessly here, and they support Linux 6.3, so NVIDIA has got another chance of fixing everything.

[sachnr]

just updated today can confirm new drivers cause flickering in both x11 and wayland.

[birdie-github]

For NVIDIA drivers 530.41.03 and Linux 6.5 you need these two patches:

linux-6.4.patch.txt
nvidia-535xx-fix-linux-6.5.patch.txt

[birdie-github]

The latest beta driver version 545.23.06 claims to have finally squashed this bug, hooray!

https://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/212964/en-us/

Fixed a bug that could cause monitors to flicker when the performance state changes on Turing GPUs.

Edit: It's fixed for me! Finally. Sigh.

[aritger]

Thank you for confirming. There have been several different bugs with a similar flickering symptom. The mostly recently fixed bug was a particularly hairy one to unravel, deep in firmware.

I'm going to go ahead and mark this specific Issue as fixed. If others continue to see other bugs with a similar symptom, please file a new Issue. Thanks.

[thesword53]

I still have that issue: https://forums.developer.nvidia.com/t/monitors-literally-stutter-when-vrr-g-sync-is-enabled/256836/2
On both Linux 545.23.06 and Windows 545.84 drivers.

Edit: VRR is still not working on my dual monitor setup with Wayland

[z1atk0]

I'm 99,99% sure that the top-of-the-monitor flicker is finally gone with 545.23.06 for me (Linux/X11). Yay! 😎

[lboklin]

I still experience the screen flicker + flashing on/off with the 545.23.06 driver and G-Sync on. Flickering goes away if I turn off compositing, but the screen turning on and off does not go away unless I disable G-Sync.
OS: NixOS 23.11 (Linux 6.5.8 (64-bit))
Display server: X11
DE: KDE Plasma 5.27.9
Card: GTX 1070
Monitor: AOC CU34G2G4R3 (144 hz, freesync)

[vosscodes]

@lboklin you should try the latest beta drivers released a few days ago

I was still seeing frequent flickering on 545.23.06 but 545.29.02 appears to have finally resolved this issue for me 🤞

edit: nope, still happening, just very infrequently compared to before

[lboklin]

No change here. 545.29.02 has the same problem.

[DrLk]

I still experience the screen flicker + flashing on/off with the 545.23.06 driver and G-Sync on. Flickering goes away if I turn off compositing, but the screen turning on and off does not go away unless I disable G-Sync. OS: NixOS 23.11 (Linux 6.5.8 (64-bit)) Display server: X11 DE: KDE Plasma 5.27.9 Card: GTX 1070 Monitor: AOC CU34G2G4R3 (144 hz, freesync)

Fixed a bug that could cause monitors to flicker when the performance state changes on Turing GPUs.

In my case the problem was fixed by new 545 driver.

[nbarrientos]

545.29.02 has indeed greatly improved the situation for me. Thanks!

[AlexKovynev]

For me continue to exists. 535 or 545 driver. Gigabyte 4060, Dell g2722hs in any frequency.

[PcChip]

Unfortunately this flickering is happening to me as well with:

• RTX4090
• 3440x1440@240hz
• Kubuntu 23.10, and also 24.04 beta/daily
• XOrg
• NVidia driver 545 and 550

[MineShadow7]

550.54.14 bug still persists.

• GTX 1060 6gb
• 1920x1080
• Fedora 39 KDE
• Nvidia 550.54.14
• Wayland Session

[Andrei-Yermakovich]

@MineShadow7 @PcChip if you use wlroots and OpenGL ES render you should compile wlroots with this PR https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/wlroots/wlroots/-/merge_requests/3671
wlroots won't fix it.

[ac130kz]

@MineShadow7 @PcChip if you use wlroots and OpenGL ES render you should compile wlroots with this PR https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/wlroots/wlroots/-/merge_requests/3671 wlroots won't fix it.

Flickering reappeared on 550 for me, I use Vulkan renderer.

• RTX 4060 Ti
• 2560x1600@240hz
• both sway 1.8.1 and 1.9
• Nvidia 550.54.14

[Sunethan]

I also encountered similar flickering issues, but somehow they mostly occur at text editors and IDE like JetBrain CLion and NetBeans IDE 21. Other applications work just fine. You can see the videos of flickering here and here.

• Ubuntu 22.04.01 x84_64
• Nvidia 535.171.04
• 1920 x 1080 @ 60Hz and 50Hz
• RTX 4060 Ti
• X11

[adriend]

I also encountered similar flickering issues, but somehow they mostly occur at text editors and IDE like JetBrain CLion and NetBeans IDE 21. Other applications work just fine. You can see the videos of flickering here and here.

* Ubuntu 22.04.01 x84_64

* Nvidia 535.171.04

* 1920 x 1080 @ 60Hz and 50Hz

* RTX 4060 Ti

* X11

Exactly the same issue (thanks to you, I've been looking for users like me for weeks and couldn't find any. I was starting to go crazy. I don't know if you noticed, but if you screen capture the problem, the problem is not displayed in the video, you must film via an external source like you did)

I've tried a lot of things, like changing the display refresh rate, reverting to older drivers, switching to Wayland or Unity, switching to a realtime kernel... but the problem persists.

This also happens on IDEs for me, but also in the browser (Firefox), in the terminal (flashing/blinking, misplaced elements...), ...

• Ubuntu 22.04.4 LTS
• Nvidia 535.54.03 // 535.146.02 // 550.67 (installed manually, signed)
• 1920 x 1080 @ 240Hz and 240Hz
• RTX 3070
• X11
• GNOME: 42.9
• Secure boot enabled (bc dual boot on Win 11)

[Sunethan]

I also encountered similar flickering issues, but somehow they mostly occur at text editors and IDE like JetBrain CLion and NetBeans IDE 21. Other applications work just fine. You can see the videos of flickering here and here.

* Ubuntu 22.04.01 x84_64

* Nvidia 535.171.04

* 1920 x 1080 @ 60Hz and 50Hz

* RTX 4060 Ti

* X11

Exactly the same issue (thanks to you, I've been looking for users like me for weeks and couldn't find any. I was starting to go crazy. I don't know if you noticed, but if you screen capture the problem, the problem is not displayed in the video, you must film via an external source like you did)

I've tried a lot of things, like changing the display refresh rate, reverting to older drivers, switching to Wayland or Unity, switching to a realtime kernel... but the problem persists.

This also happens on IDEs foir me, but also in the browser (Firefox), in the terminal (flashing/blinking, misplaced elements...), ...

• Ubuntu 22.04.4 LTS
• Nvidia 535.54.03 // 535.146.02 // 550.67 (installed manually, signed)
• 1920 x 1080 @ 240Hz and 240Hz
• RTX 3070
• X11
• GNOME: 42.9
• Secure boot enabled (bc dual boot on Win 11)

Hello, it seems to me this issue is related to the explicit sync mentioned by a Nvidia developer recently in the official discussion forum.

You can find the discussion here.

https://forums.developer.nvidia.com/t/screen-flicker-randomly-ubuntu/289751/3?u=ethan_k123

[PcChip]

I have noticed that for me, this flickering only happens on X11 at high enough refresh rates that DSC is being used. When I drop the refresh rate down, the flickering goes away. This specific flickering does not happen for me on Wayland (however I currently can't use Wayland until the explicit sync drivers come out)

[Sunethan]

I have noticed that for me, this flickering only happens on X11 at high enough refresh rates that DSC is being used. When I drop the refresh rate down, the flickering goes away. This specific flickering does not happen for me on Wayland (however I currently can't use Wayland until the explicit sync drivers come out)

I’ve noticed the same thing as well - it doesn’t occur everywhere. In my case, only IDEs have such issues, but when I decrease the refresh rate from 60Hz to 50Hz, the flickering still persists.

[BaoBaB1]

Persists with 552.22.

• Ubuntu 22.04.4 LTS
• 1920 x 1080 144Hz
• RTX 4080 Super
• X11

[zbikk]

i have been unable to play ANYTHING for the last 6 months because nvidia's drivers. on a 170hz monitor the flickering is absolutely horrendous, enough to kill an epileptic person. how has it it taking nvidia this long is beyond me, i'm so fucking upset i can't even think straight. fix your shit nvidia.

[oleid]

i have been unable to play ANYTHING for the last 6 months because nvidia's drivers. on a 170hz monitor the flickering is absolutely horrendous, enough to kill an epileptic person. how has it it taking nvidia this long is beyond me, i'm so fucking upset i can't even think straight. fix your shit nvidia.

I feel you. I've the issue myself. Since I wanted to upgrade the GPU anyway to be able to play with bigger LLMs I'm now an owner of an Radeon 7900 XTX. 🤷‍♂️ Better bang for the bucks and I got a working desktop, finally.

[zbikk]

IMG_0909.1.mp4

thank you nvidia

[AlexGoinsNV]

@zbikk
You seem to be experiencing a different problem from what was originally reported in this issue. Is this an X config, or Wayland? Is it a desktop/dGPU, or a notebook with the display connected to the iGPU? Would you mind generating an nvidia-bug-report.log.gz via sudo nvidia-bug-report.sh and sharing it?

[zbikk]

am on wayland, this happens with any xwayland game.
nvidia-bug-report.log.gz

[AlexGoinsNV]

@zbikk

Beta driver 555.42.02 launched yesterday with Wayland explicit sync support, which may alleviate your problem if you use a compositor that is also built with support.

On Arch, AUR has the required packages for KWin:

https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/kwin-explicit-sync
https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/egl-wayland-git

There is no need for an AUR package for XWayland, as the patch was merged upstream:

https://lists.archlinux.org/archives/list/aur-requests@lists.archlinux.org/message/ODGM7AWMN6YLBNQDWXGHLLHNU3PGNNM2/

[zbikk]

got the beta driver through cachyos, everything seems fine, thank you.