Arch Linux

mrjn

Member

Registered: 2016-07-29

Posts: 6

Screen flicker on Chrome, using Nvidia

Hey guys,

This is my config:
OS: Arch Linux x86_64
Kernel Release: 4.8.12-2-ARCH
WM: i3
Processor Type: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-6600 CPU @ 3.30GHz

Portion of my xorg.conf
Section "Monitor"
    Identifier     "Monitor0"
    VendorName     "Unknown"
    ModelName      "Samsung U28D590"
    HorizSync       30.0 - 90.0
    VertRefresh     24.0 - 75.0
    Option         "DPMS"
    # Option         "DPI" "192 x 192"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Device0"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
    BoardName      "GeForce GTX 970"
EndSection

Using Nvidia driver: 3 extra/nvidia 375.20-3 [installed]
I'm on Google Chrome: 1 aur/google-chrome 55.0.2883.75-1 [installed] (1422) (38.61)

For some weird reason, every time I start typing on Chrome, I get a weird flicker. It happens on some websites more than others. It's not just annoying, it's unbearable, because I can't see what I'm typing.

Any suggestions/ideas about what could be causing this?

Last edited by mrjn (2016-12-09 03:35:03)

w201

Member

Registered: 2012-10-04

Posts: 289

Re: Screen flicker on Chrome, using Nvidia

We have almost an identical setup. Do you get a flicker on a different browser?

Last edited by w201 (2016-12-09 04:28:30)

System_x

Member

Registered: 2016-12-08

Posts: 11

Re: Screen flicker on Chrome, using Nvidia

If this happened when you updated the video driver, then I would suggest going back to the previous driver.

Last edited by System_x (2016-12-09 05:05:55)

woodape

Member

Registered: 2015-03-25

Posts: 159

Re: Screen flicker on Chrome, using Nvidia

Are you using a compositor like compton? If yes, try turning it off and see what happens, if no, try using one and see what happens.

mrjn

Member

Registered: 2016-07-29

Posts: 6

Re: Screen flicker on Chrome, using Nvidia

I was using Compton, and turned it off. That had no effect. One thing I noticed was this only happens if I use over 50% width of my screen for Chrome. If I use 3 windows (equal size, I use i3wm), and Chrome is just one of the windows, the flicker doesn't happen.

My updates are always going on. I use Arch on both my laptop and desktop. My laptop had no issues -- though it's using an intel driver. My desktop where I'm seeing the issues is using Nvidia. Don't remember when it started happening exactly, so can't correlate it with a driver upgrade.

Anything else I could try out?

mrjn

Member

Registered: 2016-07-29

Posts: 6

Re: Screen flicker on Chrome, using Nvidia

I tried using Firefox, and it worked without any flickers. However, the typing speed there was slower -- the characters would show up a bit after typing. I have turned off Hardware Acceleration in Chrome; because that caused some issues in the past, largely with typing.

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 25,059

Re: Screen flicker on Chrome, using Nvidia

Known problem with 970 series cards and the latest driver, it has issues with multiple OpenGL rendering contexts - see https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=219732 and the contained links to Nvidia forums.