Horizontal Flickering Which worsens under certain conditions

[Psear]

I use Manjaro from architect, used an unconfigured KDE with only the plasma-shell, however, I did notice this problem as well on my previous XFCE install.

There is horizontal flickering, most prominent whenever I have a steam game open. I don’t think this is unique to steam or steam games. I have a demo, but not allowed to post links.

I have an intel i5 4590 and an AMD RX570 4GB, with 8GB RAM.
dmesg doesn’t seem to have anything related to mesa or amdgpu
I have tested the following kernels:
5.8 and 5.4 the problem is very prominent, and 4.14 the problem is greatly reduced, but more apparent once I open a steam game.
It is most noticeable on dark colours and gradients.
I noticed this started happening when I moved from preconfigured desktop environments in Architect to unconfigured, though it’s possible there is some other change that coincidentally occurred at the same time.
I also noticed that if I open a terminal window, for example, and move the mouse from the flickering window to the terminal, the flickering reduces or even stops completely, and returns when the mouse hovers back over the flickering window.
When I have something like a steam game open, the flickering is intense, and visible on a static image desktop.

https://streamable.com/o20r16

Inxi output:

System:
Kernel: 5.4.67-1-MANJARO x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 10.2.0 
parameters: initrd=\amd-ucode.img initrd=\intel-ucode.img 
initrd=\initramfs-5.4-x86_64.img 
root=UUID=353a3615-3b50-44ec-ad68-f65b2dedf259 rw 
Desktop: KDE Plasma 5.19.5 tk: Qt 5.15.1 wm: kwin_x11 dm: SDDM 
Distro: Manjaro Linux 
Machine:
Type: Desktop Mobo: Gigabyte model: H81M-S2PV serial: <filter> 
UEFI: American Megatrends v: F9 date: 08/11/2015 
Memory:
RAM: total: 7.74 GiB used: 4.26 GiB (55.1%) 
RAM Report: missing: Required program dmidecode not available 
CPU:
Topology: Quad Core model: Intel Core i5-4590 bits: 64 type: MCP 
arch: Haswell family: 6 model-id: 3C (60) stepping: 3 microcode: 28 
L2 cache: 6144 KiB bogomips: 26348 
Speed: 1587 MHz min/max: 800/3700 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1014 2: 1081 
3: 1158 4: 1101 
Flags: abm acpi aes aperfmperf apic arat arch_perfmon avx avx2 bmi1 bmi2 bts 
clflush cmov constant_tsc cpuid cpuid_fault cx16 cx8 de ds_cpl dtes64 dtherm 
dts ept ept_ad erms est f16c flexpriority flush_l1d fma fpu fsgsbase fxsr ht 
ibpb ibrs ida invpcid invpcid_single lahf_lm lm mca mce md_clear mmx monitor 
movbe msr mtrr nonstop_tsc nopl nx pae pat pbe pcid pclmulqdq pdcm pdpe1gb 
pebs pge pln pni popcnt pse pse36 pti pts rdrand rdtscp rep_good sdbg sep 
smep smx ss ssbd sse sse2 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 stibp syscall tm tm2 
tpr_shadow tsc tsc_adjust tsc_deadline_timer vme vmx vnmi vpid x2apic xsave 
xsaveopt xtopology xtpr 
Vulnerabilities: Type: itlb_multihit status: KVM: Split huge pages 
Type: l1tf 
mitigation: PTE Inversion; VMX: conditional cache flushes, SMT disabled 
Type: mds mitigation: Clear CPU buffers; SMT disabled 
Type: meltdown mitigation: PTI 
Type: spec_store_bypass 
mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl and seccomp 
Type: spectre_v1 
mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization 
Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Full generic retpoline, IBPB: conditional, 
IBRS_FW, STIBP: disabled, RSB filling 
Type: srbds mitigation: Microcode 
Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected 
Graphics:
Device-1: AMD Ellesmere [Radeon RX 470/480/570/570X/580/580X/590] 
vendor: Micro-Star MSI driver: amdgpu v: kernel bus ID: 01:00.0 
chip ID: 1002:67df 
Display: x11 server: X.org 1.20.9 compositor: kwin_x11 driver: amdgpu 
FAILED: ati unloaded: modesetting alternate: fbdev,vesa 
resolution: <xdpyinfo missing> 
Message: Unable to show advanced data. Required tool glxinfo missing. 
Audio:
Device-1: Intel 8 Series/C220 Series High Definition Audio vendor: Gigabyte 
driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 00:1b.0 chip ID: 8086:8c20 
Device-2: AMD Ellesmere HDMI Audio [Radeon RX 470/480 / 570/580/590] 
vendor: Micro-Star MSI driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 01:00.1 
chip ID: 1002:aaf0 
Device-3: Solid Year AWC113 type: USB driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo 
bus ID: 2-4:4 chip ID: 060b:8059 
Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.4.67-1-MANJARO 
Network:
Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet 
vendor: Gigabyte driver: r8168 v: 8.048.03-NAPI modules: r8169 port: d000 
bus ID: 03:00.0 chip ID: 10ec:8168 
IF: enp3s0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter> 
IP v4: <filter> type: dynamic noprefixroute scope: global 
broadcast: <filter> 
IP v6: <filter> type: noprefixroute scope: link 
WAN IP: <filter> 
Drives:
Local Storage: total: 1.13 TiB used: 349.51 GiB (30.3%) 
SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required. 
ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: PNY model: CS900 240GB SSD size: 223.57 GiB 
block size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s serial: <filter> 
rev: 0P13 scheme: GPT 
ID-2: /dev/sdb vendor: Seagate model: ST1000DM003-1CH162 size: 931.51 GiB 
block size: physical: 4096 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s 
rotation: 7200 rpm serial: <filter> rev: CC49 scheme: MBR 
Message: No Optical or Floppy data was found. 
RAID:
Message: No RAID data was found. 
Partition:
ID-1: / raw size: 223.07 GiB size: 218.57 GiB (97.98%) 
used: 25.19 GiB (11.5%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2 label: N/A 
uuid: 353a3615-3b50-44ec-ad68-f65b2dedf259 
ID-2: /boot raw size: 512.0 MiB size: 511.0 MiB (99.80%) 
used: 94.0 MiB (18.4%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/sda1 label: N/A uuid: B7A9-3188 
ID-3: /mnt/hamza/HDD raw size: 931.51 GiB size: 915.89 GiB (98.32%) 
used: 324.23 GiB (35.4%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sdb1 label: N/A 
uuid: 0e320d10-7528-4e71-850a-291e613b8489 
Swap:
Kernel: swappiness: 60 (default) cache pressure: 100 (default) 
ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 7.74 GiB used: 3.2 MiB (0.0%) priority: -2 
file: /swapfile 
Unmounted:
Message: No unmounted partitions found. 
USB:
Hub: 1-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 2 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s 
chip ID: 1d6b:0002 
Hub: 1-1:2 info: Intel Integrated Rate Matching Hub ports: 4 rev: 2.0 
speed: 480 Mb/s chip ID: 8087:8008 
Hub: 2-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 10 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s 
chip ID: 1d6b:0002 
Device-1: 2-1:2 info: Logitech Keyboard K120 type: Keyboard,HID 
driver: hid-generic,usbhid interfaces: 2 rev: 1.1 speed: 1.5 Mb/s 
chip ID: 046d:c31c 
Device-2: 2-2:3 info: Logitech Bluetooth mini-receiver type: Mouse 
driver: hid-generic,usbhid interfaces: 1 rev: 2.0 speed: 1.5 Mb/s 
chip ID: 046d:c054 
Device-3: 2-4:4 info: Solid Year AWC113 type: Video,Audio 
driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo interfaces: 4 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s 
chip ID: 060b:8059 
Hub: 3-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 2 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s 
chip ID: 1d6b:0002 
Hub: 3-1:2 info: Intel Integrated Rate Matching Hub ports: 6 rev: 2.0 
speed: 480 Mb/s chip ID: 8087:8000 
Hub: 4-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 2 rev: 3.0 speed: 5 Gb/s 
chip ID: 1d6b:0003 
Sensors:
System Temperatures: cpu: 42.0 C mobo: N/A gpu: amdgpu temp: 29 C 
Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A gpu: amdgpu fan: 1238 
Info:
Processes: 171 Uptime: 1h 36m Init: systemd v: 246 Compilers: gcc: 10.2.0 
Packages: pacman: 972 lib: 366 Shell: Bash v: 5.0.18 running in: konsole 
inxi: 3.1.05 

Any ideas?

[Fabby]

Welcome to Manjaro!

@Psear

I have a demo, but not allowed to post links.

Please read this:

[HowTo] post screenshots and links

Difficulty: ★☆☆☆☆ You’ve probably been sent here by a more experienced user because you cannot post links nor screenshots so please follow the simple instructions of this tutorial below to allow you to post both screenshots and links in any post and have a short explanation of why you can’t do this easily… If you’re reading this in response to a question, please click the green link above this text to bring you to the full unabridged text of the tutorial itself. If you …

@Psear

I have an intel i5 4590 and an AMD RX570 4GB, with 8GB RAM.

Please read this:

How to provide good information in your posts

and post some more information so we can see what’s really going on. Now we know the symptom of the disease, but we need some more probing to know where the origin lies…

1. An inxi --admin --verbosity=7 --filter --no-host --width would be the minimum required information… (Personally Identifiable Information like serial numbers and MAC addresses will be filtered out by the above command)
2. The contents of /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/ with any AMD / Radeon / … specific configuration would help us help you too!
   

P.S. If you enter a bit more details in your profile, we can also see which Desktop Environment you’re using, which CPU/GPU you have, …

[Psear]

For anyone who finds this post, I have found out what the error was. This is the same bug as

https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/drm/amd/-/issues/234

It is a problem in the automatic power switching, and it is a bug that has persisted for a number of years. If you go to

/sys/class/drm/card0/device/power_dpm_force_performance_level

and find that the default value is auto, you can change to low or high to see if this resolves your issue. I personally use low because I don’t want my gpu running on high power all the time. There are some other solutions revolving around setting the GPU clock and the like, but this is the solution I took.

[Fabby]

I’ve marked the below answer as the solution to your question:

Horizontal Flickering Which worsens under certain conditions

For anyone who finds this post, I have found out what the error was. This is the same bug as https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/drm/amd/-/issues/234 It is a problem in the automatic power switching, and it is a bug that has persisted for a number of years. If you go to /sys/class/drm/card0/device/power_dpm_force_performance_level and find that the default value is auto, you can change to low or high to see if this resolves your issue. I personally use low because I don’t want my gpu running on …

In the future, please don’t forget to come back and click the 3 dots below the answer to mark a solution like this:

so that the next person that has the same problem as you will now find a “solved” question.