Screen flicker on CC 2020 apps with hardware acceleration (high monitor refresh rate)

[Broclay]

This week I started taking several courses for Photoshop and Illustrator at my local community college. While working though assignments I noticed an issue that I have not seen before, nor was I able to find a similar post in the support community.

Using Photoshop 2020 and Illustrator 2020 with hardware acceleration turned on (by default), my screen would flicker every time I moved my mouse. This only happens when using thes applications. The issue was fixed by turning off hardware acceleration in the application preferences. I have a fairly high end gaming PC and my primary monitor has a max refresh rate of 144hz. So I was a little confused about why this would be happening. On a whim, I turned HW acceleration back on and started to turn down the monitor referesh rate. The flickering continued to occur at any refresh rate above 60hz (100, 120, 144).

Is there a known issue with 2020 CC applications not playing well with high refresh rates?

[Mylenium]

If it's realyl that fancy a monitor it's more likely the answer is in your NVidia or AMD settings panel. From basic HDMI timing to advanced stuff like adaptive sync/ GSync and of course the classic forced VSync this can be anything. Hardware acceleration functions have no concept of refresh rates, they just send abstract function calls to the driver, so the issue is there most likely.

Mylenium

[Monika Gause]

There is a known issue with this when both apps are running. Does it happen as well, when you run only one at a time?

[StephenxLloyd]

I do not have an answer, but you are not alone. I am experiencing the exact same thing!

[Snaggles90]

A little late to the thread but I thought I'd attempt to contribute.  I occasionally experience this issue as well.

In short, what solves it for me is simply turning my primary monitor (Predator 21:9 34" 100hz) down to 60hz.

I would only get the issue while having multiple adobe programs open as well as luminar/spotify/chrome etc... But for me it was enough to pull my hair out. I completely respect that this might not be the proper technical solution to the issue. But the bandaid has stuck thus far... (only headache is cranking the monitor back up for gaming).

[smashkirk]

I have this problem as well. Only happens with external monitor, which I use all the time. I can't seem to change the refresh rate of my external monitor. I have Macbook M1 with latest OS. Any advice?

[Monika Gause]

Check out Easy Res https://apps.apple.com/us/app/easyres/id688211836?mt=12

[Anubhav Majumder]

Hello smashkirk,

Sorry to hear about this experience. I hope the suggestions shared by Monika helped resolve the problem. If not, kindly try turning off Adaptive Sync from System Preferences and check if it helps.

Looking forward to your response.

Thanks,

Anubhav