Weird aftershadow on edges with G-SYNC

Hi
I have a problem with GSync. When it is on I see a strange black or white after shadow of textures when moving the camera around.
I have tried many drivers and all have this, some are even worse.
The visibility of the shadows depend on game, so far the worst is Rise of the Tomb Raider.
First I though the fault is the slow response time of the screen, but I was able to record the thing with Shadowplay. Fps was 50+.



What could be the cause?
If I turn off GSync then I wont notice the shadows, but instead I will get horrible stuttering at the same scene the video was recorded.

Is there anything I can do or this is how mobile GSync works? (Dont have this with GSync monitor)
The laptop is a Cleco P775DM1-G using Prema BIOS and factory vBIOS.

 

Could you record the same scene with G-sync off?

 

Cant for a week, but without GSync there is no aftershadow in RotTR...just massive stuttering.

 

It looks to me some effect is using data from the previous frame and is not updating that object properly. I would blame the game code most likely.

 

Might want to fiddle with the pre render frames settings in the NVCPL.

 

Set max pre rendered to 1, did not help.
I dont see this issue on my desktop GSync monitor.
And other games have this too, but less noticable.

Can it be a vga fault which needs an rma?

 

Set max pre rendered to 1, did not help.
I dont see this issue on my desktop GSync monitor.

 

Set max pre rendered to 1, did not help.
I dont see this issue on my desktop GSync monitor.
And other games have this too, but less noticable.

 

That is weird indeed. I did not have this issues on my FHD/4k display when i was using Gsync. Did you try a DDU clean up of the nvidia drivers and then reinstalling?

 

That looks like Ambient Occlusion (or Global Illumination) artifacts to me, nothing to do with the panel itself (since it's captured with ShadowPlay which is directly out of the frame-buffer). It may also be created with AO + some other screen space effect.

If you pause the video during your sweep of the pillar (sweeping left -> right) you'll also notice that the engine has inadvertently added a shadow in the middle of the pillar of the same width.

Incoming technical stuff:
Basically AO is a per-pixel post-process filter, meaning it's applied to the effectively 2D image after geometry is drawn. Think about like a "layer" in photoshop which is simply stuck over the final image. In live scenarios (games) this is calculated based on the Z-buffer (depth buffer). I think what's happening here is it's not being updated every frame, but rather using some sort of speedup method which is creating that weird glow you see.

Previously, AO created artifacts with the opposite effect (black edges or trailing edges).
Such as this: http://66.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mevcwzNIB61qzlvtz.jpg

HBAO+ and VXAO are still a bit of a mystery to me (info on SSAO is everywhere), but it would seem that one way of speeding the process up is to not sampling the Z-buffer for every frame, but only every few frames and warping the rest which is what I think is happening here. With scenes inside buildings this is probably fine, as the global shadow calculations will probably overcome it. However, against the background (which is very high Z depth) you could create some weird situations.

TL;DR try changing or turning off AO as well as any other post-process filters/shaders and see if it persists.

The Division also does this as well. Most notably bodies on the ground develop a "glow" when up against a screen-space reflection (ie puddles on the ground).

 

Turned off hbao+, did not help.

If this is an engine related stuff, why cant I notice it on my desktop? Less noticable on 144hz screen?

 

Its definitely something on your end, i just tried it on my system at work and its i dont see anything like that. Tried it on a system with a Titan X.

I also didnt see it on my home system with 2x 980 's. When i played it after it came out.

 

I tried other drivers (unintalled thrm with ddu), and all had this. The factory driver is the worst.

I have the gpu overclocked by 85 mhz core with the Clevo software...can that cause something like this?

Also, this only happenst if I turn the camera, the issue is not present during and engine rendered video playback.

 

I haven't really used the Clevo GPU app, so cant say. Might have to wait for more experienced members to reply i guess.

 

Forgot to say that this afterimage is also visible on the edge of a window if I move it around fast enough on the Windows desktop (this is visible with turned off GSync too)

 

Update: Turned off DX12 and the lines at the edges seems to be gone in RoTTR. However using DX11 the game feels slower than in DX12 and there is some microstutter aswell...

VXAO also seems to be broken since I am having massive microstutter if it is turned on (FPS is 50-60 )

 

Are you using ANY other screen space filters in or out of game. IE any temporal AA, FXAA or outside of it, if you're injecting with ReShade/ENB etc.

I don't believe it'll be to do with overclocking as that should generate wildly different errors (if accuracy was the issue). Could be driver level LCD overdrive as well.

Similarly, I'm of the opinion that this is happening in engine as the shadows/glowing conforms to the terrain/object edges, not all pixels. If it was panel ghosting or panel overdrive then it should happen to all pixels.

 

Turned off DX12 and changed the driver to 364.59.
Most of the afterimage seems to be gone in RotTR, but compared to dx12, the overall experience is not as smooth and now I see some minor microstutter.
Will try it out with an Acer xb240h GSync monitor if the stutter is caused by software/hw or because my eyes are too sensitive to the horrible response time of this panel (20ms compared to the recommended minimum of 8ms for gaming).

So far I am kinda diaappointed in this laptop. In FireStrike benchmark GSync seems to work, however in an actually game where ot counts it seems to be broken.
In RotTR in DX12 it seems to work but gives afterimage, in DX11 it gives lag and microstutter if the framerate is under 75 fps... (thus making the whole GSync thing pointless)
On my desktop pc with 144hz GSync monitor the game is super smooth with around the same fps and the same settings.

Framerate is normal, but therenis stutter...with GSync the stutter is just annoying, without GSync the stutter makes the game.unplayable (fps does not go near.30 fps where the Gsync should.turn off).

I am using Prema.bios which handles the cpu better, cant even imagine what would be with the factory bios...

 

Well i gave the game a shot on my laptop last night with 362.00 drivers and with the latest ones as well. With both Gsync on and Gsync OFF, on my 4k panel. And i dont have this issue.

It ran fine on my 144hz monitor as well (non G-sync).

Also ran it on my friends P770DM-G (Sager NP9770) and it was running perfectly fine there as well, with and without DX12. Though his is a normal FHD panel running at 100Hz and with G-Sync on.

There is something going either with your drivers or with Windows.

Can you go into the NVCPL and into the scaling section, and tell me if its set to GPU or Display?

Perform scaling on should be set to GPU scaling (The other options are to your preference and use) :

 

It was on GPU by default. I even tried disabling scaling/enabling overriding, but did not help.

I have tested the laptop with a G-Sync 144 Hz Acer xb240h monitor and the results are...interesting.









(FPS counter on the top right corner)

1) Is it me or there is really no afterimage in the game if the computer has the built-in screen disabled and only using an external monitor via DisplayPort ?
2) is it me or you guys see some microstutter aswell in those videos?

For comparison here is another video with the same scene recorded on my desktop PC (6700k CPU, GTX 980 VGA)



Is it me or it really feels smoother on the dekstop PC ?
(The only major difference is that on the laptop the game is installed on an NVMe drive, on the PC to a SATA3 SSD. )

 

Funny thing is that on this 60Hz EIZO display at work, all videos seems exactly the same xD

Also might be that your GPU is throttling ?

 

I believe all GTX980 GPU throttle in the P775DM1-G when it reaches 80C. (not a huge throttle, only a few 1x Mhz) I have tried it with Prema modified vBIOS too which removes throttling and did not really make any difference.

Well I can see the difference even on a smarthpone, but maybe my eyes are just too sensitive

 

Just tested Alan Wake and all I have to say is..WHAT THE HELL?!
Laptop screen was overclocked to 100 Hz, but same thing happens with 75 Hz too... weird afterimage which Shadowplay can record too. Driver is 361.75 (Rise of hte Tomb Raider game ready driver which seem to work the best for RotTR)

 

Have you tested the graphics settings I game to see if it is a.certain feature having issues?

 

The problem in Alan Wake was the game's fault, need to use -noblur launch option. My bad

 

I hate fake blurring in games, always turn it off if it's in the menu, needing a launch command is silly.

 

Just tested the laptop with the latest Clevo and latest NVidia drivers and both producing the same bug: if the FPS goes under 70, it starts microstuttering with G-Sync and normal stutter without G-Sync. The microstutter is msot noticable if the FPS goes under 50.

Tested with Crysis 3, Company of Heroes 2 and Rise of the Tomb Raider..is this normal, does everyone else have microstuttering if the FPS goes under 50 with G-Sync ?

 

There something wrong with your system, there is no stuttering with or without on my end.

You can try, take the GPU out and re-seating it again, if possible. Just make sure to re paste it.

Before that though, try this : Uninstall the Clevo Control center and then run the games. Also Run Nvidia Inspector and make sure you apply default clocks.

 

Could also try uninstalling Geforce Experience, if you have it installed. Since that can try to set default settings on a game, I think there's been a few times I've seen it cause issues where uninstalling resolved them.

 

Actually I need Geforce Experience, because my controller does not work without it.
The microstuttering mostly appears in games when the FPS drops below 50...maybe I am just too sensitive and this is how G-Sync works ?

My vBIOS is 84.04.88.00.2A, is there a newer version? I have checked reviews of this laptop and none of them had this bios...or this is the latest one ?

 

Just tested The Division too and I don't see any major stuttering, however it just doesn't feel really smooth when its in the 50s...

 

The thing is as the frame rate does drop then the motion can appear less fluid, unless you have a desktop G-sync display to compare to it's hard to say.

 

I can compare it to a desktop GSync monitor and it is more fluid...but maybe this is because thats a 144 hz panel with 1ms response time compared to the 60 hz panel (25 ms response time) used in these Clevo laptops...

 

Try setting the desktop monitor to 60hz for the comparison. The response time will be quicker still but its a bit fairer.

 

You need to look at frame timing. This is available in the MSI Afterburner graphs if you want (make sure you enable them in the options as they're disabled by default).

Stutters should appear as frame time increases of a significant margin. Frame-times are arguably more important than Framerate. Framerate by it's very nature is an "average" and tells you nothing about the pacing of the frames within each second.

Couple of things to note with G-Sync:

1. When you reach the refresh-rate, the default behaviour is to go into regular V-Sync mode and cap you off and give you input lag.
2. When you approach the refresh-rate G-Sync can have some frame-pacing issues. At lower refresh rates (ie 60hz panel) it's less noticeable, but you should try setting a frame-limiter to 58-59fps via Rivatuner or similar.
3. A 144hz G-Sync panel can appear smoother at lower frame-rates than a 60hz G-Sync panel, especially if you're very near 60fps. This is because the minimum refresh time of the panel is much shorter, thus you're more likely to display the frame as soon as it's generated without waiting.
4. Most importantly, G-Sync cannot fix Engine problems and hitches. G-Sync works perfectly on the assumption that the engine supplies frames in a smooth manner to begin with.

My suggestion would be to use MSI Afterburner/RTSS to set a frame-rate cap (try 58fps) and see how you go. Since you're on a 775 with probably an Overclockable display, make sure you either use borderless window (to preserve your OC'd refresh-rate) or if using exclusive full-screen make sure the game can use/detect your OC refresh-rate (many are limited to standard ones and don't simply probe the OS for them).

 

You could also try upping your refresh rate to see if you can get more out of the panel.