S3221QS, backlight flicker, #6

I also thought as others that this was specific to the M1 Mac as thats where I initially encountered the problem. But after owning this monitor for over a year and now using it exclusively with my Windows desktop PC, I have also noticed it there too. 

It is significantly less of a problem with Windows however, which is why I doubt many people have noticed it. In fact there are only 2 scenarios where I can get it to flicker and both are games - Subnautica and Dyson Sphere Project.

It would seem that an on screen combination of mostly deep blues, while also having smaller areas of brighter patches like whites and bright greens etc, have the biggest chance of getting the flicker. The resolution also has to be set at full 4K, it won't flicker at lower resolutions. No combination of monitor color settings, refresh rate, HDR on/off etc will fix the problem, although changing the colors/contrast can reduce the chance of it happening slightly.

I've had my own S3221QS replaced by Dell under warranty, the new one having the same problem. While a friend of mine bought two of these monitors and both will flicker under the same conditions. I can only assume that this is an inherent problem with this monitor model, but it's one that so rarely triggers for most people that I doubt it will get fixed or even acknowledged.

There are reports on one of the Apple forums of other monitors doing the exact same thing, I wonder if they all happen to be sharing components from the same factory, a control board, chips, maybe even the LCD panels?

Cheers