Graphics card upgrade is causing desktop to flickering at 144hz on Mint 20.3

[motmonthenet]

So I've had mostly the same setup for a while, been using kernel 5.15 for months and updated from 19.3 to 20.3 about the time it became available. I also added at the same time a PPA for gaming related needs like up-to-date versions of Mesa and to use CoreCrtl. Today, upgrading from my Vega 56 to a Radeon 6750XT is causing flickering when display settings are set to 144hz. There is no flicker when set to 60 or 120hz. There is no flicker when playing fullscreen games, regardless of what fps the game is managing. It's just when I'm on desktop. Normally, it will flicker once or twice per minute, but if I use anything with hardware acceleration, like Steam or a web browser with hardware acceleration enabled, then it will flicker about once per ten seconds or so.

Now, truthfully, I can't much tell the difference between 120hz and 144hz, but it's still something I'd like fixed if possible Thanks in advance for any help. If I can't get a good fix, I'm probably going to try just wiping everything and installing Mint 21 fresh. In the meantime, I'm going to just use 120hz and try to remember to switch to 144hz any time I want to game.

EDIT: Oh, I am dumb and forgot to actually mention the things I've tried to fix it. I've tried:
-unplugging the displayport cord from both ends and plugging it back in
-tried all of the displayport ports on the new card
-disabled freesync on my monitor
-tried both Cinnamon and Mate

Code: Select all

System:    Kernel: 5.15.0-56-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: N/A Desktop: Cinnamon 5.2.7 
           wm: muffin dm: LightDM Distro: Linux Mint 20.3 Una base: Ubuntu 20.04 focal 
Machine:   Type: Desktop Mobo: Micro-Star model: MAG B550 TOMAHAWK (MS-7C91) v: 2.0 
           serial: <filter> UEFI: American Megatrends v: A.10 date: 07/01/2020 
CPU:       Topology: 8-Core model: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Zen 
           L2 cache: 4096 KiB 
           flags: avx avx2 lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm bogomips: 115198 
           Speed: 1866 MHz min/max: 2200/3600 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1867 2: 1866 3: 2800 
           4: 1866 5: 1957 6: 2800 7: 2151 8: 2022 9: 2800 10: 2078 11: 2046 12: 2295 13: 2755 
           14: 2199 15: 2200 16: 2200 
Graphics:  Device-1: AMD vendor: Micro-Star MSI driver: amdgpu v: kernel bus ID: 2d:00.0 
           chip ID: 1002:73df 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.13 driver: amdgpu,ati 
           unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,radeon,vesa tty: N/A 
           OpenGL: renderer: NAVI22 (navi22 LLVM 12.0.0 DRM 3.42 5.15.0-56-generic) 
           v: 4.6 Mesa 22.3.0-rc1 direct render: Yes 
Audio:     Device-1: Creative Labs Sound Core3D [Sound Blaster Recon3D / Z-Series] 
           driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 27:00.0 chip ID: 1102:0012 
           Device-2: AMD driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 2d:00.1 chip ID: 1002:ab28 
           Device-3: AMD Starship/Matisse HD Audio vendor: Micro-Star MSI driver: snd_hda_intel 
           v: kernel bus ID: 2f:00.4 chip ID: 1022:1487 
           Device-4: Logitech Blue Microphones type: USB driver: hid-generic,snd-usb-audio,usbhid 
           bus ID: 1-5:3 chip ID: 046d:0ab7 
           Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.15.0-56-generic 
Network:   Device-1: Intel Wireless-AC 9260 driver: iwlwifi v: kernel bus ID: 21:00.0 
           chip ID: 8086:2526 
           IF: wlp33s0 state: up mac: <filter> 
           Device-2: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet vendor: Micro-Star MSI 
           driver: r8169 v: kernel port: e000 bus ID: 28:00.0 chip ID: 10ec:8168 
           IF: enp40s0 state: down mac: <filter> 
           Device-3: Realtek RTL8125 2.5GbE vendor: Micro-Star MSI driver: r8169 v: kernel 
           port: d000 bus ID: 2a:00.0 chip ID: 10ec:8125 
           IF: enp42s0 state: down mac: <filter> 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 8.19 TiB used: 3.76 TiB (45.9%) 
           ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Western Digital model: WD4004FZWX-00GBGB0 size: 3.64 TiB 
           speed: 6.0 Gb/s serial: <filter> 
           ID-2: /dev/sdb vendor: Western Digital model: WD4005FZBX-00K5WB0 size: 3.64 TiB 
           speed: 6.0 Gb/s serial: <filter> 
           ID-3: /dev/sdc vendor: Crucial model: CT1000MX500SSD1 size: 931.51 GiB speed: 6.0 Gb/s 
           serial: <filter> 
Partition: ID-1: / size: 915.32 GiB used: 791.30 GiB (86.5%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sdc2 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 29.0 C mobo: N/A gpu: amdgpu temp: 38 C 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A gpu: amdgpu fan: 0 
Repos:     No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list 
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ernstp-mesarc-focal.list 
           1: deb http: //ppa.launchpad.net/ernstp/mesarc/ubuntu focal main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list 
           1: deb http: //packages.linuxmint.com una main upstream import backport #id:linuxmint_main
           2: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal main restricted universe multiverse
           3: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates main restricted universe multiverse
           4: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-backports main restricted universe multiverse
           5: deb http: //security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ focal-security main restricted universe multiverse
           6: deb http: //archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/ focal partner
Info:      Processes: 362 Uptime: 1h 41m Memory: 31.28 GiB used: 3.30 GiB (10.5%) Init: systemd 
           v: 245 runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 9.4.0 alt: 7/9 Client: Unknown python3.8 client 
           inxi: 3.0.38 

[ThaCrip]

Since AMD drivers are in the Linux kernel and apparently your GPU was released sometime in the year 2022 and Linux Kernel 5.15 is from about Nov 2021, it might simply need a kernel update possibly, which at least on Mint 21 you can do the following to get a newer kernel currently (as I don't think, at least the last I knew, Mint 20.x offered anything newer than 5.15(?))...

sudo apt install linux-oem-22.04a (currently 5.17 kernel (March 2022))
or
sudo apt install linux-oem-22.04b (currently 6.0.0 kernel (Oct 2022))

that might be worth a shot first. if that fails, maybe a clean install of Mint 21 since, you said... "I also added at the same time a PPA for gaming related needs like up-to-date versions of Mesa and to use CoreCrtl.", which might be a potential issue(?) as unless those are really needed I would just use whatever comes with Mint as it's probably more likely to be more stable that way I suspect.

just some quick thoughts, but if any of the higher ups around here have a better idea, feel free to comment

p.s. on Mint 20.x I think to see if a newer kernel is available try checking the following... load up 'Synaptic Package Manager', click 'search', then type in "linux-oem-20", start the search, and see if it finds anything that looks newer than 5.15 kernel. if not, and you actually do need a newer kernel, a clean install of Mint 21 might be needed to possibly do what I mentioned above with 5.17 or 6.0 kernels.

[SMG]

So I've had mostly the same setup for a while, been using kernel 5.15 for months and updated from 19.3 to 20.3 about the time it became available. I also added at the same time a PPA for gaming related needs like up-to-date versions of Mesa and to use CoreCrtl.

Welcome to the forum, motmonthenet.

Certain PPAs which change Mesa versions have been known to cause problems. I am not familiar with using ernstp-mesarc-ppa for Mesa changes. Normally, I recommend using the kisak-ppa because I've yet to find anyone who had problems with it.

I agree with ThaCrip that doing a clean install of LM21 would probably be best because that would give you the option of upgrading to a newer kernel.

However, if you wish to stay with LM20.3 I very strongly recommend you clean your computer's root partition. That full of a root partition can impact graphics performance.

Partition: ID-1: / size: 915.32 GiB used: 791.30 GiB (86.5%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sdc2

I would also recommend checking to see if you are running the most recent BIOS/UEFI available.

Machine:
Type: Desktop Mobo: Micro-Star model: MAG B550 TOMAHAWK (MS-7C91) v: 2.0
serial: <filter> UEFI: American Megatrends v: A.10 date: 07/01/2020

[motmonthenet]

Having wiped Mint and done a clean install with 21.1, the issue is still exactly the same. All I have done is install Mint, run the standard updates with no PPAs, installed a video game and ran it to check that full screen still works at 144hz just fine, but desktop still flickers.

EDIT: but having actually installed 6.0 kernel, it looks like the problem has been resolved. I'll be looking into PPAs now and see if everything stays functional, since I really do want CoreCtrl installed.