Rare blackouts and blinks with G-Sync

I’ve got laptop:

Code:

Acer Predator G9-593
Intel Core i7-6700HQ (2.6Ghz/3.5Ghz) (https://goo.gl/dehk14)
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 (8Gb GDDR5) (https://goo.gl/z2aEFL)
15.6inch 1920x1080 (G-Sync) (IPS)
16Gb DDR4-2400 / PC4-19200 (2x ACR24D4S7S8MB-8)
Windows 10 x64
Nvidia driver - 378.49

And one strange issue. Sometimes, in games, my screen will just blink/blackout, for less then a second. Happens extremely rare, in totally random situations, and only when g-sync is enabled. I don’t have gameplay with this issue cause it can take ages to catch it on camera, but I found scenario when these blinks happen more often, its in FurMark launched in fullscreen, take a look:

G-Sync is ON –
G-Sync is OFF –

 

Go into the NVIDIA control panel and force vsync to on, then disable vsync in your games, and see if that helps.

 

No it doesn't.

 

Well i was playing RE7 and had little blinks, my fps was around 40. But then i enabled streaming and it was around 32, and these blinks started happening more often.

 

There is a performance hit when using G-sync, and if you are borderline FPS it can cause these "blink"'s in game.

If you want to keep G-sync on you could OC your machine GPU / CPU and see if that extra little bit helps push you back over the "non-blinking" edge of performance.

Or, find a candy setting that you can reduce / disable that releases some performance for more FPS.

Or, stop using G-sync, use a Frame Limiter like RTSS and set it to Refresh - 1 (59 FPS for 60hz).

That's been working for years to reduce tearing - and it has the pleasant side effect of reducing the load on CPU / GPU from free running FPS, stopping the wasted frame rendering for frames over refresh capacity to draw them, reducing heat and fan noise.

 

Ye, I would like to save g-sync cause it works well and payed for it

Can you tell me more about performance hit in g-sync?

And most of all I'm interested about information on "if you are borderline FPS it can cause these "blink"'s in game". What do you, or Nvidia, mean under borderline? Blinks are officially documented behavior?

Thx in advance.

 

Some more info, installed Quake II and binded 2 keys, one will force 5fps lock and another 90fps lock. If i switch slowly between, all is okay, but if i do this fast, screen will blink.

 

Could be related to monitor's clock rates or some issue with NV driver. Have you tried the hotfix driver 378.57?

 

Yes, no luck. Also tried to re-install windows and downgrade bios.

 

Have you checked in HWInfo which monitor model and manufacturer is used and also the clocks?

 

Looks like this: http://www.panelook.com/LP156WF6-SPB1_LG Display_15.6_LCM_overview_24180.html

 

No, it doesn't work well, it's problematic, such as you are describing in this thread.

You see it's related to sudden or low FPS where G-sync loses cadence and blinks - this has been known for quite a while - it's a feature of the non-hardware assisted G-sync in mobile, the desktop monitors have hardware to help with this issue.

Try to keep the FPS steady, find the setting(s) in the game or on your machine to even out performance and keep the FPS steady to avoid this problem.


Other than that, you're on your own, just like all the poor people trying to figure out G-sync's problems.

It's gotten worse over the many months of driver problems from Nvidia, and although it's improved recently, as you are finding it's still problematic.

Good luck

There is lots of stuff out there about this to read up:
https://www.google.com/search?q=g+sync+laptop+black+screen
https://www.google.com/search?q=g+sync+black+screen

G-Sync 101 w/Chart (WIP)
https://forums.blurbusters.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=3073

 

Thx, though many links show completely other issues with black screen.

Btw, do you know if hp omen ( http://www.notebookcheck.net/HP-Omen-17-i7-6700HQ-GTX-1070-Notebook-Review.181824.0.html) have this hardware g-sync thing in its monitor? I asked my friend with such laptop to test different things, and he never saw black blinks.

 

There are lots of black out symptoms reported with Windows 10 besides this issue, that's why I always suggest leaving Windows 10 for Windows 8.1 / 7 for now, give MS another year or so to get things sorted - or longer.

The problem was discussed even before laptop G-sync came out, when "whoeveritwas" hacked an Nvidia driver to enable G-sync for a specific display - I think it was LG (or Samsung?)

One of the problems with laptop G-sync - without the G-sync hardware like in monitors - is this blank / blink / black screen glitch.

That was when GPU's weren't strong enough to have high FPS and resultant big FPS drops that are causing your symptom. Then it was just FPS dropping below 20-30 FPS.

Check out the links I gave, they have a description of the starvation of frames, the glitch, and the catch-up.

If your friend hasn't seen it then he's not running across the large frame drop, or below 20-30 FPS, or doesn't have the settings correctly set - not actually using G-sync / V-sync correctly.

It's a mess, best to stay away from it rather than wasting too much of your life on it

Get an external monitor with G-sync hardware, and enjoy it.

 

Finally captured some real gameplay. Happens from time to time in Dishonored 2 while game is around 30 FPS:

 

Not 100% sure but looks like latest nvidia driver and cleaning via DDU solved my issue. Will test more and return.

 

So, looks like it's true, issue is solved. Not sure if it was DDU cleaning or new driver.

Btw, in release notes i saw this feature:

I don't have such option, but maybe it is the case?

 

Well this may sound funny but latest windows creative update broke this particular driver. Windows won't load with showing just black screen. So I had to revert to a previous driver which again shows blinks.

My joy was short and now I'm waiting for Nvidia to release a new driver.


Отправлено с моего iPhone используя Tapatalk

 

They broke it again... Facepalm. I'm installing latest driver now, it won't help I'll have to downgrade.

 

Well, okay. No blackouts on 390.77 - WHQL...