Question RTX 3080: Flickering on top of screen using DP

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Strigoil

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Jul 2, 2015
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Got the card yesterday, having issues with flickering at the top of any of my 3 monitors connected to any of the cards port via DP, works perfectly fine through HDMI. shown in the video.

View: https://i.imgur.com/qWYRLYv.mp4

Specs:
GPU: MSI 3080 Gaming X Trio
Motherboard Gigabyte GA-Z170x-Gaming 7
CPU: i7-6700k
PSU: Corsair HX850i
RAM: G.Skill RipjawsV DDR4-2800 C15 QC - 32GB
Monitors: 3x Benq GW2765HT

The system needs an upgrade to not bottleneck the card, I know..I have all the parts needed just waiting for the new Ryzen CPUs to drop.
Card also runs games with no problems, performs as expected with my bottlenecks.
Everything works perfectly when I put my RTX 2070s back in.

What I have tried so far is fresh driver installs several times, reseating the GPU / power cables, plugged the computer to the wallsocket instead of the surge protector to rule out an overload there.
It happens on all 3 monitors, regardless of what DP cable or DP socket I use on the card, if I run all 3 or just 1. it also happens in the BIOS so that makes me very suspicious I have a lemon on my hands.,

What is odd is when I use my display port to HDMI adapter and plug it into a DP socket on my card and them the HDMI to the monitor, the issue does not happen, but the adapter is an oldie so only runs at 1080p, changing resolution on the screens when running full DP to 1080p does not help.
I'm not daisy chaining my PSU power either, 3 seperate PCI-E power cables.

The flickering does seem to happen more rapidly when the GPU clocks up in a game but I can't say for sure if it's the clocking or just random.

I see some people have had flickering/black screen issues who have fixed it by turning G-sync/Freesync off but my screens don't support it so its a non issue.
Anyone have any ideas for something I might not have tried?
 
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Strigoil

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Jul 2, 2015
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I thought you said you had to use HDMI. I guess then I figured that no matter which DP port on your monitor you used it shouldn't make any difference. You didn't say that there was a variety of DP ports that you could use.

Ah, fair.
I'll make it more clear then.

My card has 3 display ports and 1 HDMI port, my screens have 1 DP Port and 1 HDMI port. All 3 DP connections from my card give the same issue on all 3 monitors with DP, but not HDMI.
On some screens like mine and apparently Mares123's you can go into the monitor settings and swap the DP slots mode from 1.1 to 1.2, it's not a different slot just toggles what mode the slot uses.
 
Oct 14, 2020
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Hi guys, Palit 3080 gamingplus here, same monitor, same flicker...was literally about to return my 3080 after trying everything to fix until I came across this thread. Will keep an eye to see if you get a response from BenQ and will be using the HDMI for now. Cheers
 

Strigoil

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Jul 2, 2015
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Hi guys, Palit 3080 gamingplus here, same monitor, same flicker...was literally about to return my 3080 after trying everything to fix until I came across this thread. Will keep an eye to see if you get a response from BenQ and will be using the HDMI for now. Cheers

Hey man, sorry (But also happy?) to hear you have the problem as well, the more of us there are the more chance they will fix it.

BenQ got back to me and they seem to think it will need an Nvidia driver fix, I am in contact with Nvidia at the moment and have explained everything including what is in the topic, showing them the videos from everyone here and the solutions.

They are currently waiting for me to get back to them with some info about my systems and monitors which I need to have the 3080 plugged in to give them, I plan to do this tomorrow as my new adapters should arrive then so I can run all 3 monitors without flickering.

They said once they have this they will escalate the issue and try to test and replicate it, I have a strong suspicion it is the specific family of panels. I'll add that to my response that another person has the issue as well!
 
Oct 17, 2020
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Hi. For what it's worth I am experiencing exactly the same issue. Nvidia 3080 Founders with twin Benq GW2765. I get the white flicker at the top of both screens - seems to be aboout every 3 seconds! Would be interested in a solution or a workaround...

Also - do you have a link to the diplayport >> HDMI adaptor? All I can find are the opposites!

Ganners
 
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Strigoil

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Jul 2, 2015
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Hi. For what it's worth I am experiencing exactly the same issue. Nvidia 3080 Founders with twin Benq GW2765. I get the white flicker at the top of both screens - seems to be aboout every 3 seconds! Would be interested in a solution or a workaround...

Also - do you have a link to the diplayport >> HDMI adaptor? All I can find are the opposites!

Ganners

Hello, thank you for chiming in about the issue!
Except using the HDMI port on your card and an adapter for the other screen there is no workaround I know of, the post here seems to be having some delays so I haven't recieved my adapters yet and haven't been able to bring the problem further with Nvidia yet.

And sadly I don't live in the US so linking the one I got wouldn't help much but what you want is an "active displayport to hdmi adapter" that is rated for 4k@60hz, should find some on amazon.
 
Oct 17, 2020
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and haven't been able to bring the problem further with Nvidia yet.

And sadly I don't live in the US so linking the one I got wouldn't help much but what you want is an "active displayport to hdmi adapter" that is rated for 4k@60hz, should find some on amazon.

Let's hope that Nvidia get their act together although I can't see that a driver will help if it's happeing in the BIOS screen too.

I've ordered a couple of displayPort <> HDMI cables so let's see if that helps.

I've noticed a new "symptom" where the screens both just go blank and black for a few seconds and come back on again. Will be interesting to see if the new cables sort that out too.
 

Strigoil

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Let's hope that Nvidia get their act together although I can't see that a driver will help if it's happeing in the BIOS screen too.

I've ordered a couple of displayPort <> HDMI cables so let's see if that helps.

I've noticed a new "symptom" where the screens both just go blank and black for a few seconds and come back on again. Will be interesting to see if the new cables sort that out too.

I'm unsure if they could as well, its not impossible that they could do a workaround that could fix it once the driver is loaded but not before, which essentially makes it usable at least. if not maybe they can work with BenQ on a firmware update for the monitors but I have my doubts there considering their age.

That second issue you are getting is interesting, try to grab the base of your DP cable both at the monitor end and GPU end and give it a gentle wiggle and see if it happens just to make sure that specific issue isn't a bad connection, it could be part of the original issue as well of course.
 

NeoXCS

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Same issue here with a BenQ GW2765. I thought my new 3080 was broke until I found this thread. Swapped to HDMI and it is running no problem now. I'm planning to get an LG Ultragear as well. I hope that monitor doesn't have any issues with it on DP.
 
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schmak

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Here is the thread and everything I tried on the EVGA forum:

https://forums.evga.com/Screen-Flicker-When-using-DisplayPort-on-3-monitors-m3120786.aspx#3120808

Here is the flicker:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZG9u_mvl5o


This is occurring on my PB278 Asus 1440p monitor

I, fortunately, have a ton of cables and adapters, using DP to HDMI adapters works fine. I've tried dozens of known good DP cables, including the ones I used on these monitors for the last 4 years on my 1080Ti's with no problem and for the 2 days on a RX 570 I used while my 3080 was coming in with no issue.

It looks like that is the solution right now, use a DP to HDMI adapter if possible.
 
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Strigoil

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Here is the thread and everything I tried on the EVGA forum:

https://forums.evga.com/Screen-Flicker-When-using-DisplayPort-on-3-monitors-m3120786.aspx#3120808

Here is the flicker:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZG9u_mvl5o


This is occurring on my PB278 Asus 1440p monitor

I, fortunately, have a ton of cables and adapters, using DP to HDMI adapters works fine. I've tried dozens of known good DP cables, including the ones I used on these monitors for the last 4 years on my 1080Ti's with no problem and for the 2 days on a RX 570 I used while my 3080 was coming in with no issue.

It looks like that is the solution right now, use a DP to HDMI adapter if possible.

This is actually really helpful, that ASUS monitor uses a Samsung panel and has the exact same flicker, so that points towards it not being a panel family issue but something else, I will inform nvidia about this.
And your solution with adapters working shows further that this is indeed a very precisely replicated issue so this is great, Nvidia should be able to identify the problem through some very easy tests and hopefully do a workaround for it.
I see a lot of people try to attribute this to the gsync flickering issue that some people had, but this is entirely seperate, all of us with the BenQ GW2765 don't even have Gsync.
Thank you for taking the time to report on this so thoroughly.
 

schmak

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No problem let me know if we need to do any more testing, this feels like a driver issue and maybe forcing DP 1.4a across when it should recognize what version to use from the monitor. I think mine only support 1.2
 
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Oct 20, 2020
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Correct me if I’m wrong, but if the problem exists pre-OS (during POST, in BIOS) drivers won’t be much help? Perhaps a card firmware update could help?
The active display port adaptor is a temporary solution, I have one arriving today, but it’s quite irritating to have to spend more cash!
 

Strigoil

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Correct me if I’m wrong, but if the problem exists pre-OS (during POST, in BIOS) drivers won’t be much help? Perhaps a card firmware update could help?
The active display port adaptor is a temporary solution, I have one arriving today, but it’s quite irritating to have to spend more cash!

I guess fix is the wrong word and workaround is more proper in this case, it could be solved so that it does not happen once the driver boots, which for the absolute majority of use cases would make it a non-issue. But a BIOS update could also be a solution of course.

We will have to see what Nvidia decides to do once they have identified the issue.
 
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Oct 24, 2020
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I spent so long banging my head against this with my 3090 FE, here's documentation of the issue and the janky workaround that's working for me:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxpRo0r2NVQ


Description copy/paste :)

I thought I'd share some insights of an absolutely infuriating issue I've had with my 3090FE. After driver updates, swapping DP sockets around, buying ever more expensive & high bandwidth DisplayPort cables and even moving my NVMe SSD to another slot I think I've finally narrowed the issue down and have a usable (if janky) workaround. It seems the monitor really doesn't like something about the DisplayPort stream that the GPU is producing, but only at 75Hz. If I set Windows to 60Hz refresh rate there's no flicker - but what's the use of a 75Hz panel if you can't run it at that – you paid for that extra 15Hz, right?

QUICK JANKY WORKAROUND (works with my particular setup)

First, make sure the monitors are set to DisplayPort 1.2 in the DisplayPort Stream setting of the menu. Then before you turn on your PC, press the menu joystick on the monitor to wake the panel up. This should get rid of the flicker (on my setup this only needs to be done on the primary monitor and it'll get rid of the issue for that boot) I hope I've saved someone some trouble tearing their hair out at this (or even thinking they had a duff GPU). AMD Ryzen 9 3950X with 32GB on an Asus Strix X570-F board, RTX 3090 Founder's Edition and EVGA Supernova 850W Gold PSU
 
Oct 20, 2020
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15
I spent so long banging my head against this with my 3090 FE, here's documentation of the issue and the janky workaround that's working for me:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxpRo0r2NVQ


Description copy/paste :)

I thought I'd share some insights of an absolutely infuriating issue I've had with my 3090FE. After driver updates, swapping DP sockets around, buying ever more expensive & high bandwidth DisplayPort cables and even moving my NVMe SSD to another slot I think I've finally narrowed the issue down and have a usable (if janky) workaround. It seems the monitor really doesn't like something about the DisplayPort stream that the GPU is producing, but only at 75Hz. If I set Windows to 60Hz refresh rate there's no flicker - but what's the use of a 75Hz panel if you can't run it at that – you paid for that extra 15Hz, right?

QUICK JANKY WORKAROUND (works with my particular setup)

First, make sure the monitors are set to DisplayPort 1.2 in the DisplayPort Stream setting of the menu. Then before you turn on your PC, press the menu joystick on the monitor to wake the panel up. This should get rid of the flicker (on my setup this only needs to be done on the primary monitor and it'll get rid of the issue for that boot) I hope I've saved someone some trouble tearing their hair out at this (or even thinking they had a duff GPU). AMD Ryzen 9 3950X with 32GB on an Asus Strix X570-F board, RTX 3090 Founder's Edition and EVGA Supernova 850W Gold PSU

Thanks for that! It didn't actually fix my issue (our screens, I think, are all running at 60hz anyway) but it did inspire me to try something that seems to have worked for me.

I've created a custom resolution in Nvidia control panel. 2560x1440p, but set the refresh rate as 59hz. That's sorted it for me. The loss of a frame rankles slightly, but it's better than the alternative! Switching back to 60hz, the top of the screen starts flashing again, whereas at 59hz it's been flash-free for 20 mins or so. Let me know if it works for you!
 

Strigoil

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Thanks for that! It didn't actually fix my issue (our screens, I think, are all running at 60hz anyway) but it did inspire me to try something that seems to have worked for me.

I've created a custom resolution in Nvidia control panel. 2560x1440p, but set the refresh rate as 59hz. That's sorted it for me. The loss of a frame rankles slightly, but it's better than the alternative! Switching back to 60hz, the top of the screen starts flashing again, whereas at 59hz it's been flash-free for 20 mins or so. Let me know if it works for you!

Interesting! I tried doing the same, for me the flickering now happens at the bottom of the screen instead and covers a larger area. I'll be sure to inform Nvidia about both outcomes.
 

skeptiik

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Just got my 3080 MSI Gaming X trio
Tripple monitor setup, only my BenQ monitor is having this exact same flicker issue, the other two (Acer and Samsung) work perfectly. Ill have to get a display port to HDMI adapter and see if that fixes it.

My BenQ monitor is the BenQ BL2420-T
 

Strigoil

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Jul 2, 2015
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Just got my 3080 MSI Gaming X trio
Tripple monitor setup, only my BenQ monitor is having this exact same flicker issue, the other two (Acer and Samsung) work perfectly. Ill have to get a display port to HDMI adapter and see if that fixes it.

My BenQ monitor is the BenQ BL2420-T

Hey, thank you for reporting in with another monitor that has the issue.

I just heard back from nvidia and they are making the claim that the issue must be because of my outdated motherboard BIOS, while true it is outdated, I am building a new system that will be done in 2 ish weeks and don't want to start risking messing up this one right now so I'm not updating.
I tried to explain to them how unlikely it is considering how much we have replicated the issue across different systems but they are doubling down on it, saying that because it happens in BIOS it can not be a problem with the card.

Now, I can't say that they are wrong in their claim but I really doubt this is the problem, but they likely won't accept what I have to say before I have my new system and replicate the bug.

Would you mind telling me what motherboard you have and what bios update you have? I hope people who posted having the issue earlier in the topic could also come back and do the same, it would really help.
 
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Oct 24, 2020
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Would you mind telling me what motherboard you have and what bios update you have? I hope people who posted having the issue earlier in the topic could also come back and do the same, it would really help.

I'm running an Asus X570 Gaming F motherboard on their latest BIOS (2802). Still flickering without doing the little monitor dance.
 
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