XPS 7590 screen/backlight flickering when using Nvidia GPU

Question

I've had my XPS 7590 (i9, 32GB, 512SSD, GTX 1650, 4K LCD) for about 6 months and I think this started around a month or so ago - when I run a game or something else that uses discrete GPU, the screen flickers slightly. This looks like the backlight brightness level fluctuates a bit, resembling the flickering you can see on old CRT screens/TV.

The flickering strength is not consistent across apps. I can run my OpenGL demo and see no issues, then run a test scene in Unity and the flickering will be very noticeable. In games this varies. This also depends on the view direction of the 3D camera in the app, but I can't spot any correlation between the amount of stuff rendered and the flickering strength. It also does not matter if I run the app full screen or in a window, the issue affects the whole display.

The flickering depends on the brightness level. I usually keep mine at 20%. If I switch to 0%, the issue is gone. If I crank the brightness up it becomes less noticeable with higher values. At 100% it's barely visible.

This is also affected by battery level and charging status. I normally use "Custom" charging mode in Dell Power Manager (50% - 80%). I tried to charge up to 100% and the issue is less noticeable with higher battery levels. The issue is completely gone when the laptop is charging or running on battery. So this happens only when I run on AC power and the battery is "idle".

I'm lost here. I have all the latest drivers and not sure if this started after some update or this is a hardware degradation issue (I hope not). Tried downgrading video drivers, no luck

Just_Pierre · Answer

Did you disable the Panel Self Refresh in the Intel Graphics Command Center? (under the Power tab)

wokepug · Answer

Yes, didn't help. Tried playing around with other Power settings there too, no luck.

Just_Pierre · Answer

Maybe PWM? (Pulse-width Modulation) https://www.notebookcheck.net/Why-Pulse-Width-Modulation-PWM-is-such-a-headache.270240.0.html

wokepug · Answer

Maybe... But then it's strange I couldn't find the same issue on the internet. Other flickering-related problems people describe seem to manifest differently.

wokepug · Answer

UPDATE

After some experiments I've noticed that the flickering is much less pronounced with Turbo Boost disabled. Using ThrottleStop I've also set SpeedShift to something like 250, making the CPU frequency stay around 1GHz. This "fixed" the flickering, at least I could not see it anymore.

DELL-Cares · Answer

That's great! Thank you for sharing the feedback. ^PM

wokepug · Answer

Yeah, but that's hardly a solution to sit capped at 2.4GHz max without turbo boost.

Anyway, I managed to "solve" the problem by undervolting my dGPU in Afterburner (followed this guide). At least I cannot spot the flickering anymore even at lower battery levels and any screen brightness. I'd argue this should just work without all these workarounds, but that's all I have now and it works.

Esokra1es · Answer

This seems to be a motherboard design issue present in many different XPS models, see the detailed analysis here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Dell/comments/lj5qak/xps_13_display_issue_affecting_7390_9300_and_9310/

There are various threads in the forum here about this issue:
https://www.dell.com/community/XPS/XPS-13-9310-Display-brightness-flicker-when-under-single-core/m-p/7823125#M80101
https://www.dell.com/community/XPS/Bug-Report-XPS-9300-screen-brightness-blink-flicker/m-p/7805687/highlight/true#M78802
https://www.dell.com/community/XPS/XPS-15-7590-LCD-flickering-on-lowest-brightness-2/td-p/7363906

@wokepugAny update for this issue in your case?

wokepug · Answer

@Esokra1es I 'fixed' the issue as described in my previous post, nothing new since then. I still occasionally see small flickering on desktop when CPU is boosted to max frequency, but it's rare.

swaglord_mcmuffin · Answer

I'm having the same issues. Not sure what GPU or screen that is causing it, but I found a few REALLY WEIRD settings in the Intel Graphics app, under the "Power" tab :

I just disabled these weird options and will try it out.

DELL-Jesse L · Answer

swaglord_mcmuffin,

We can check it by disabling either the Intel Graphics or Nvidia Graphics from the device manager under the display.

Also, as per the image shared above,

On an empty section of the desktop screen right-click, and then select Intel® Graphics Settings

When the control panel opens, click the Power option.

Set the power source to On battery

Clear the Display Power-Saving Technology checkbox, or select Disable, depending on the version installed

Click Apply -OK

Also try disabling the touch screen from BIOS and retest

Then check how it works and let us know, we will proceed accordingly.

XPS

XPS 7590 screen/backlight flickering when using Nvidia GPU

Was this post helpful?