Graphics flickering in most games

[raspberry]

I started using Linux less than a year ago and I started with Mint, I decided to switch to Endeavour about a week ago because mint had this horrible flickering and performance issues in almost every game I played and I was hoping that Endeavour would be better. The performance issues are gone and the flickering is lessened but it’s still there and it makes doom 2016 basically unplayable, I don’t know what’s causing the issue but it’s been getting slightly worse over time and I have no idea how to fix it. (Had to upload a video of the problem to YouTube because I can’t upload videos here, possible epilepsy warning? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8vyeR6YMUA)

[Omig]

Hi @raspberry, welcome to the forum!
Maybe you can help the members with a little information about your system. Run the following code in Terminal and post the output here.

inxi -Fazy

[raspberry]

System:
  Kernel: 6.13.8-arch1-1 arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 14.2.1
    clocksource: tsc avail: acpi_pm
    parameters: initrd=\76643f848ca24afaa62b489db8c0c7ed\6.13.8-arch1-1\initrd
    nvme_load=YES nowatchdog rw root=UUID=60cd462c-d227-447e-a587-24e5268523a8
    systemd.machine_id=76643f848ca24afaa62b489db8c0c7ed
  Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 6.3.3 tk: Qt v: N/A info: frameworks v: 6.12.0
    wm: kwin_wayland vt: 1 dm: SDDM Distro: EndeavourOS base: Arch Linux
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: Acer product: Swift SF314-57 v: V1.21
    serial: <superuser required> Chassis: type: 10 serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: IL model: Floris_IL v: V1.21 serial: <superuser required>
    part-nu: 0000000000000000 uuid: <superuser required> UEFI: Insyde v: 1.21
    date: 01/18/2021
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 35.2 Wh (100.0%) condition: 35.2/48.0 Wh (73.4%)
    volts: 12.3 min: 11.2 model: LGC KT0030G020 AP18C8K type: Li-ion
    serial: <filter> status: full cycles: 290
CPU:
  Info: model: Intel Core i5-1035G1 bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Ice Lake
    gen: core 10 level: v4 note: check built: 2019-21 process: Intel 10nm
    family: 6 model-id: 0x7E (126) stepping: 5 microcode: 0xC6
  Topology: cpus: 1x dies: 1 clusters: 4 cores: 4 threads: 8 tpc: 2
    smt: enabled cache: L1: 320 KiB desc: d-4x48 KiB; i-4x32 KiB L2: 2 MiB
    desc: 4x512 KiB L3: 6 MiB desc: 1x6 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 977 min/max: 400/3600 scaling: driver: intel_pstate
    governor: powersave cores: 1: 977 2: 977 3: 977 4: 977 5: 977 6: 977 7: 977
    8: 977 bogomips: 19046
  Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
  Vulnerabilities:
  Type: gather_data_sampling mitigation: Microcode
  Type: itlb_multihit status: KVM: Split huge pages
  Type: l1tf status: Not affected
  Type: mds status: Not affected
  Type: meltdown status: Not affected
  Type: mmio_stale_data mitigation: Clear CPU buffers; SMT vulnerable
  Type: reg_file_data_sampling status: Not affected
  Type: retbleed mitigation: Enhanced IBRS
  Type: spec_rstack_overflow status: Not affected
  Type: spec_store_bypass mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via
    prctl
  Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer
    sanitization
  Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Enhanced / Automatic IBRS; IBPB: conditional;
    RSB filling; PBRSB-eIBRS: SW sequence; BHI: SW loop, KVM: SW loop
  Type: srbds mitigation: Microcode
  Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel Iris Plus Graphics G1 vendor: Acer Incorporated ALI
    driver: i915 v: kernel arch: Gen-11 process: Intel 10nm built: 2019-21 ports:
    active: eDP-1 empty: DP-1,DP-2,HDMI-A-1 bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:8a56
    class-ID: 0300
  Device-2: Chicony HD WebCam driver: uvcvideo type: USB rev: 2.0
    speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 mode: 2.0 bus-ID: 3-6:4 chip-ID: 04f2:b5c5
    class-ID: 0e02 serial: <filter>
  Display: wayland server: X.org v: 1.21.1.16 with: Xwayland v: 24.1.6
    compositor: kwin_wayland driver: X: loaded: modesetting
    alternate: fbdev,intel,vesa dri: iris gpu: i915 display-ID: 0
  Monitor-1: eDP-1 model: ChiMei InnoLux 0x14d4 built: 2016 res:
    mode: 1920x1080 hz: 60 scale: 100% (1) dpi: 158 gamma: 1.2
    size: 309x173mm (12.17x6.81") diag: 354mm (13.9") ratio: 16:9
    modes: 1920x1080
  API: EGL v: 1.5 hw: drv: intel iris platforms: device: 0 drv: iris
    device: 1 drv: swrast gbm: drv: iris surfaceless: drv: iris wayland:
    drv: iris x11: drv: iris
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6 compat-v: 4.5 vendor: intel mesa v: 25.0.2-arch1.2
    glx-v: 1.4 direct-render: yes renderer: Mesa Intel UHD Graphics (ICL GT1)
    device-ID: 8086:8a56 memory: 3.63 GiB unified: yes display-ID: :1.0
  API: Vulkan v: 1.4.309 layers: 4 device: 0 type: integrated-gpu name: Intel
    UHD Graphics (ICL GT1) driver: N/A device-ID: 8086:8a56
    surfaces: xcb,xlib,wayland
  Info: Tools: api: clinfo, eglinfo, glxinfo, vulkaninfo
    de: kscreen-console,kscreen-doctor wl: wayland-info
    x11: xdpyinfo, xprop, xrandr
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel Ice Lake-LP Smart Sound Audio vendor: Acer Incorporated ALI
    driver: sof-audio-pci-intel-icl alternate: snd_hda_intel, snd_soc_avs,
    snd_sof_pci_intel_icl bus-ID: 00:1f.3 chip-ID: 8086:34c8 class-ID: 0401
  API: ALSA v: k6.13.8-arch1-1 status: kernel-api
    tools: alsactl,alsamixer,amixer
  Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.4.1 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse
    status: active 2: wireplumber status: active 3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin
    4: pw-jack type: plugin tools: pactl,pw-cat,pw-cli,wpctl
Network:
  Device-1: Intel Ice Lake-LP PCH CNVi WiFi driver: iwlwifi v: kernel
    bus-ID: 00:14.3 chip-ID: 8086:34f0 class-ID: 0280
  IF: wlan0 state: up mac: <filter>
  Info: services: NetworkManager, systemd-timesyncd, wpa_supplicant
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Intel AX201 Bluetooth driver: btusb v: 0.8 type: USB rev: 2.0
    speed: 12 Mb/s lanes: 1 mode: 1.1 bus-ID: 3-10:5 chip-ID: 8087:0026
    class-ID: e001
  Report: btmgmt ID: hci0 rfk-id: 0 state: down bt-service: disabled
    rfk-block: hardware: no software: no address: N/A
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 704.24 GiB used: 248.61 GiB (35.3%)
  SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required.
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 maj-min: 259:0 vendor: SK Hynix
    model: HFM256GDJTNG-8310A size: 238.47 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B
    logical: 512 B speed: 15.8 Gb/s lanes: 2 tech: SSD serial: <filter>
    fw-rev: 80002C00 temp: 47.9 C scheme: GPT
  ID-2: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: Seagate model: ST500LM021-1KJ152
    size: 465.76 GiB block-size: physical: 4096 B logical: 512 B type: USB
    rev: 3.0 spd: 5 Gb/s lanes: 1 mode: 3.2 gen-1x1 tech: HDD rpm: 7200
    serial: <filter> fw-rev: 1053 scheme: MBR
Partition:
  ID-1: / raw-size: 143.4 GiB size: 140.09 GiB (97.69%) used: 27.81 GiB (19.8%)
    fs: ext4 dev: /dev/nvme0n1p6 maj-min: 259:6
Swap:
  Kernel: swappiness: 60 (default) cache-pressure: 100 (default) zswap: yes
    compressor: zstd max-pool: 20%
  ID-1: swap-1 type: zram size: 7.44 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: 60
    comp: zstd avail: lzo-rle,lzo,lz4,lz4hc,deflate,842 max-streams: 8
    dev: /dev/zram0
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 84.0 C mobo: N/A
  Fan Speeds (rpm): N/A
Info:
  Memory: total: 8 GiB note: est. available: 7.44 GiB used: 4 GiB (53.7%)
  Processes: 278 Power: uptime: 2m states: freeze,mem,disk suspend: s2idle
    avail: deep wakeups: 0 hibernate: platform avail: shutdown, reboot, suspend,
    test_resume image: 2.96 GiB services: org_kde_powerdevil,
    power-profiles-daemon, upowerd Init: systemd v: 257 default: graphical
    tool: systemctl
  Packages: 1144 pm: pacman pkgs: 1128 libs: 309 tools: paru,yay pm: flatpak
    pkgs: 16 Compilers: gcc: 14.2.1 Shell: Bash v: 5.2.37 running-in: konsole
    inxi: 3.3.37

[Bink]

Welcome to the community @raspberry

Perhaps it’s related to this noted issue?

6.11 Screen flickering

Panel Self Refresh (PSR), a power saving feature used by Intel iGPUs is known to cause flickering in some instances FS#49628 FS#49371 FS#50605. A temporary solution is to disable this feature using the kernel parameter i915.enable_psr=0 or xe.enable_psr=0.

This can solve error messages like [i915] *ERROR* CPU pipe A FIFO underrun.

[Bink]

@BluishHumility posted some details on how to do this here.

Screen Flickering on Intel iGPU Laptop

The ArchWiki article does not mention efibootmgr for this. That tool is not used for this purpose. Typically you would set kernel parameters with your bootloader, so they are incorporated into the process of starting the kernel. To do this with Grub, the instructions are here: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Kernel_parameters#GRUB. The most common way to do this is described in this section of the article: Edit /etc/default/grub and append your kernel options between the quotes in the GRUB…

[raspberry]

I disabled psr (atleast, I think I did…) but it didn’t change anything, I don’t actually know if psr is disabled or not and I don’t know how to check it either…

[Bink]

@raspberry

mint had this horrible flickering and performance issues in almost every game I played and I was hoping that Endeavour would be better

Is the flickering occurring only in games?

As for performance, the Intel iGPU’s are not targeted towards gamers. You’ll likely need to substantially reduce in-game graphics quality to make it playable.

[raspberry]

The flickering only happens in games as far as I’ve seen. I’m aware my graphics card sucks for games but after switching to Endeavour I’ve been getting about 40-60 fps in almost every game I’ve played, so if it weren’t for the flickering I’d consider most games playable.