Screen flickering with G-Sync enabled

Higgs_Field · July 2020

While playing today, I suddenly started experiencing very bad flickering which made the game completely unplayable (I was getting a headache after just one minute).

Nothing has changed, like updating drivers or ESO; I was literally in the middle of a playing session and it just started flickering without any specific cause.

I tried repairing ESO, this didn't work. Obviously I tried restarting Windows, that didn't work either. ESO worked 100% fine until it suddenly started flickering, with the exact same hardware and software configuration - as I said, in the middle of a playing session, while I was doing nothing other than playing the game.

This happens both in fullscreen and/or windowed mode. However, in fullscreen windowed mode, if the focus is not on the ESO window (i.e. another window is in the background), the flickering stops in the ESO window.

After many attempts at solving this myself, I found out that disabling G-Sync, either in the Nvidia control panel or the monitor OSD, completely resolved the flickering. However, I want to be able to play ESO with G-Sync on.

I already submitted a support ticket, but I thought maybe other players have encountered the same issue and could help me solve it.

Specs: Ryzen 9 3900X, GeForce 2070 Super (latest drivers), LG 34GN850-B monitor connected via DisplayPort, Windows 10 Pro (latest build).

Thanks.

Higgs_Field · July 2020

Update: Although a restart didn't fix the problem, disconnecting and reconnecting both the PC and monitor from electricity did work. Presumably my monitor "remembered" something even after I restarted, and turning it off completely solved the problem. Not sure what that means, but I'm certain the problem will repeat sooner or later, so I would still like to know if there's any permanent solution.

ZOS_Bill · July 2020

@Higgs_Field

Please let us know if the flickering does return and under what circumstances.

Higgs_Field · July 2020

@ZOS_BillE

It did return last night. Again I wasn't doing anything special, the screen just started flickering in the middle of a playing session. I turned off G-Sync and the flickering stopped, but as I said, I want to be able to play this game with G-Sync on.

Any suggestions (other than generic ones like "download Windows updates" which is what I got in reply to my support ticket)?

Thanks.

ZOS_Bill · July 2020

@Higgs_Field

You may want to create a game consultant report and post it in this thread. This will help with troubleshooting possible reasons why having G-Sync enabled is causing the flickering.

Higgs_Field · July 2020

@ZOS_BillE

I would prefer not to post that here, since it contains a lot of personal information (my name, email address, IP address, what kind of apps I'm using, etc.) that I don't want to share in public. Also, a lot of the information there (e.g. the networking details) is irrelevant to my problem. But I did attach it to my ticket.

If you or anyone else have a specific question about my hardware or software, I'm very happy to answer it

ZOS_Bill · July 2020

@Higgs_Field

Could you let us know what your ticket number is?

That way we can take a look at the report you've sent in.

Higgs_Field · July 2020

@ZOS_BillE

Thanks. My ticket number is 200714-008526. In the end I was told by your support team that "G-Sync is a third party software that we cannot manage" and to just disable it. While I agree that disabling G-Sync does solve the problem, I bought a very expensive GPU and a very expensive monitor exactly so that I could enjoy features such as G-Sync, which significantly improve the overall gaming experience.

I note that the problem only exists in ESO and not in any other game I'm currently playing. So it makes sense that this is either a bug in ESO itself that needs to be fixed by you, or that there is some setting specific to ESO that I could change and might solve this problem (maybe an advanced setting in UserSettings.txt, since I already tried changing various settings in the game menu and that didn't work).