“Variable Refresh Rate” (VRR) expertise like G-Sync and FreeSync dynamically adjusts the refresh price of your monitor to the body price of the sport, however they will typically trigger undesirable uncomfortable side effects akin to flickering. Screens with VA and OLED panels are notably affected, though some IPS and TN screens may fall prey.
Fortuitously, there are some strategies to repair this drawback. The flickering happens as a result of the body price in sure video games fluctuates tremendously or there are sudden variations in body time, for instance, when compiling shaders or loading new areas in open-world video games. VA panels particularly are delicate to voltage fluctuations attributable to modifications within the refresh price, which might exacerbate flickering.
Additional studying: Finest screens 2025: Gaming, 4K, HDR, and extra
VRR truly ensures easy playback of video games, however could cause disagreeable flickering. Reducing the body charges typically offers a treatment.
MSI
A quite simple option to remove the flickering is to deactivate VRR. Though because of this you must fall again on V-Sync (vertical synchronization) and stay with tearing results, it reliably eliminates the flickering. The excellent news is you can deactivate VRR for particular person video games within the GPU settings with out switching off the expertise for all purposes.
An alternative choice is to restrict the body price in video games which might be vulnerable to flickering. If you happen to restrict the utmost body price to a worth that your GPU can hold fixed, tearing can typically be prevented. For video games during which flickering is triggered by even the smallest fluctuations within the body price, it could possibly assist to restrict the body price to a secure 60 FPS to keep away from the issue.
Activating V-Sync prevents the monitor show from flickering. Nonetheless, you’ll then even have to just accept the potential of tearing.
IDG
If the flickering is much less noticeable at larger body charges, it may also be useful to regulate the graphics settings in order that your graphics card can consistently keep a excessive body price above 75 FPS. At notably excessive body charges, round 100 FPS and above, you must not discover the VRR flickering.
If these strategies are unsuccessful and also you proceed to undergo from the flickering, the final and most radical choice is to alter the monitor. When you have a show with a VA panel particularly, you’ll be able to profit from upgrading to an IPS panel, as this sort of panel is never affected by VRR flickering. If you happen to’re utilizing an OLED monitor, a downgrade could possibly be an answer, as these screens are notably vulnerable to flickering.
Nonetheless, earlier than you take into account a brand new buy, you must check out the opposite approaches. In lots of circumstances, minor changes to the settings could make a giant distinction and considerably scale back and even utterly remove flickering.
This text initially appeared on our sister publication PC-WELT and was translated and localized from German.
