Question Help! My monitor flickers above 120 Hz - need to cap refresh rate!

[kloxin]

Hi, I'm using the Acer Nitro VG240Y M3, which supports up to 180Hz, but I've set my refresh rate to 120Hz in both Windows 10 display settings and the Nvidia Control Panel. My screen starts flickering whenever my refresh rate is set to be 165hz or I believe above 145 hz. In certain video games, the refresh rate automatically changes to 165Hz upon starting the game, causing my screen to flicker and sometimes even stop displaying anything unless I press Alt+Tab or switch to windowed mode.

I'm not sure why this is happening, but I just want to play games at 120Hz and I'm completely fine with using my PC with 120Hz. I've searched for solutions but the search keeps showing results about FPS capping, which is not my issue. My goal is to cap the refresh rate to 120Hz for specific applications and games. I know this can be done for FPS, but how do I do it for refresh rate?

Please help me 🙁

 

[LinuxDevice]

Don't know if this has anything to do with it, but you might test what happens if you use a shorter video cable. Also, I think it has both DisplayPort and HDMI ports; you might test switching from one type to the other type (if using HDMI, try DisplayPort; if using DisplayPort, try HDMI). It is possible the signal quality is failing (which is a complicated topic, but shorter is better).

 

[Lutfij]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

Acer Nitro VG240Y M3
Have you verified working with other cables? Your monitor support 180Hz on both DP and HDMI, have you tried both methods of connectivity, individually?

Windows 10
What version(not edition) of Windows 10 are you on?

Nvidia Control Panel
What version of Nvidia's driver are you working with? On that note, what GPU from Nvidia's camp are you with?

On second thoughts, please list the specs to your build like so:
CPU:
CPU cooler:
Motherboard:
Ram:
SSD/HDD:
GPU:
PSU:
Chassis:
OS:
Monitor:
include the age of the PSU apart from it's make and model. BIOS version for your motherboard at this moment of time.

You also state games, might want to include the titles you've taxed the system with to experience the flickering.

 

[kloxin]

Don't know if this has anything to do with it, but you might test what happens if you use a shorter video cable. Also, I think it has both DisplayPort and HDMI ports; you might test switching from one type to the other type (if using HDMI, try DisplayPort; if using DisplayPort, try HDMI). It is possible the signal quality is failing (which is a complicated topic, but shorter is better).

Forgot to mention, I'm using DP port (DP to DP)

 

[COLGeek]

Are you using a basic DP cable, or one of better than basic quality?

 

[kloxin]

Are you using a basic DP cable, or one of better than basic quality?

I'm using the one that came with the monitor.

 

[kloxin]

Is there any way that I can force apps to run at a specific refresh rate? Any software or anything?

 

[LinuxDevice]

I'm using the one that came with the monitor.

Does the monitor have HDMI? If so, can you test what happens using that (no adapters) with an HDMI cable? Basically this is testing what happens due to cables.

Also, you cannot force modes if there is a signal quality issue. Physics.

 

[gamerk316]

Its possible you're using a down-revved DP cable and you are bandwidth limited, but I think even DP 1.2 can handle 1440p/144Hz HDR (barely) and 1.3 can handle it without a sweat. Could be a bad cable. Also could be the monitor only supports that resolution via HDMI for some strange reason (I doubt it though).

As for capping FPS, you can do it per game or globally from the Nvidia Control Panel. Though at that point, just set the monitors refresh rate to 120Hz and call it a day, which cleanly solves the problem.

 

[kloxin]

Its possible you're using a down-revved DP cable and you are bandwidth limited, but I think even DP 1.2 can handle 1440p/144Hz HDR (barely) and 1.3 can handle it without a sweat. Could be a bad cable. Also could be the monitor only supports that resolution via HDMI for some strange reason (I doubt it though).

As for capping FPS, you can do it per game or globally from the Nvidia Control Panel. Though at that point, just set the monitors refresh rate to 120Hz and call it a day, which cleanly solves the problem.

I'll try this with a different cable. Like I said, when I play some video games, the game chooses the highest refresh rate (165hz) and there's no way to tone it to 120hz in the game settings. So I was asking if there's any software or anything that can force all apps to be on 120hz.

In my Windows settings, it's set at 120hz but like I said, some games run on 165hz even though I capped it at 120hz in general windows settings.

 

[SkyNetRising]

So I was asking if there's any software or anything that can force all apps to be on 120hz.

In graphics driver settings you can set FPS limit.
Specific place, where to find those settings, depends on graphics card used (AMD Adrenalin/Nvidia Control Panel).
Not sure, if this setting is available on Intel cards.

 

[kloxin]

In graphics driver settings you can set FPS limit.
Specific place, where to find those settings, depends on graphics card used (AMD Adrenalin/Nvidia Control Panel).
Not sure, if this setting is available on Intel cards.

Sorry if I sound stupid, FPS and refreshrate are both different rate?

 

[gamerk316]

Sorry if I sound stupid, FPS and refreshrate are both different rate?

Yes.

Most monitors (those which don't support some form of Variable Refresh Rate (VRR)) use a fixed Refresh Rate, which defines how many times per second the image on the screen gets updated. So a 120Hz Refresh Rate means the screen gets updated 120 times per second (or about once every 8ms or so).

A games FPS by contrast is simply a measure of how fast the game engine can render new frames per second.

Anyway, a games FPS shouldn't be causing the monitor to have any display related issues, unless its a VRR monitor and the FPS is far above the maximum refresh rate (and even then, that's a rare occurrence). In either case, you can solve the problem either by:

• Enabling Vsync in game (or through the NVIDIA Control Panel), which automatically limits FPS to your monitors maximum refresh rate
• Setting a FPS cap within the NVIDIA Control Panel