Photo in develop module flashes black in Lightroom Classic 10.1.1 on Windows 10

[thomas5CED]

Hi, I run Lightroom Classic v10.1.1 on Windows 10 using an Nvidia RTX 2070 Ti (latest drivers).

Since I think v10.1 I have very annoying behavior: when moving around sliders in the develop module or just zooming in or out, there is a short black flash in the photo display box. It's probably only 1 frame long on my 60 Hz monitor. The black flash does not happen on every operation on the photo but often enough that it's really annoying and it also starts to hurt my eyes after a while.

I tried to take a video of it using my phone: https://photos.app.goo.gl/MqdEn8Y4qJF61jM5A. You can see it for example when I zoom into the photo at the beginning of the video or when moving the first slider after zooming out again.

This issue started recently for me, maybe starting with v10.1, but maybe some other update broke Lightroom classic on my system.

Has anyone experienced something similar?

{Thread title edited by moderator}

[nikunj.m · Accepted solution]

Hi,

We're sorry about the trouble with Lightroom Classic. Do you still experience the same behavior if you disable the option to Use Graphics Processor from Lightroom Classic by going to Preferences, then Performance? Please relaunch the application before testing.

If you do not experience the same behavior, please try re-installing the graphics card drivers to check if that helps.

You can also try to reset the preferences of Lightroom using the steps mentioned here: https://adobe.ly/2JSym5e

Please backup your presets prior to resetting the preferences.

Let us know how it goes!

Regards,

Nikunj

[thomas5CED]

Hi,

thanks for your reply. Checking the GPU acceleration was the right idea. I disabled it and the issue did go away. Unfortunately, Lightroom felt a lot less responsive, but that's expected.

I then switched from Nvidia' "Game ready" branch of drivers to their Studio drivers and re-enabedl GPU acceleration in Lightroom. This also fixed the issue.  So

Nvidia driver 461.09 ... black flashes

Nvidia driver 460.89 ... no flashes

Let's hope Nvidia finds and fixes the issue until they branch their next studio driver release (studio drivers are just snapshots of the game ready drivers with extended testing from my understanding).

Thanks for your support!

[thomas5CED]

Today I received an update for Nvidia's studio drivers, now they are at version 461.40.

Unfortunately, the issue has returned. I can now downgrade my drivers, but I am a bit worried I will be stuck with an old driver version now.

[nikunj.m]

Thanks for the info! This gives us some insights & a direction in which we can test things out. There may be something in the drivers not playing well with the application or vice versa.

[thomas5CED · Accepted solution]

Solving this one for myself:

Having experimented quite a bit, I finally solved this problem: G-Sync is to blame!

I have a LG 28UD88 which is FreeSync capable. Nvidia supports G-Sync compatible mode for FreeSync monitors. I turned this setting on ages ago, since it helps when relaxing from photo editing by playing games 🙂

Unfortunately, the FreeSync implementation in the LG 27UD88 is less than stellar, I have had issues before, mostly flickering. I only came across this again since I enabled the G-Sync indicator in the Nvidia settings. All programs using G-Sync would have a small overlay that says that G-Sync is enabled. And...Lightroom also had this overlay in the develop module!

So I disabled G-Sync for Lightroom in the NVidia control panel and the flickering is gone!

[wrongly_Neo]

I have had a similar problem and your answer got me on the right track. Turning off GSync globally makes the problem go away for me. However, your proposed solution of turning off GSync just for Lightroom in the control panel did not work for me. This mad my monitor go crazy when using Lightroom, meaning it would turn completly black for short intervals while Lightroom was on screen. Turning GSync off globally was not an option for me because I need that feature.

However, I think I have found another solution for myself: Turning on VSync in the Nvidia control panel seems to have done it for me (VSync and GSync interact with eachother, so this could be plausible). 

[Justice88]

I know this thread is somewhat dated but I was having a similar issue.  Your reply got me on the right track but my fix was slightly varied than yours. 
What fixed it for me was going into NVIDIA control panel, going to manage 3D settings > Program Settings > Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, and then changing:
Max Frame Rate - 120 (my monitor refresh rate in Windows and NVIDIA control panel)
Monitor Technology - G-SYNC

I restarted Lightroom Classic after changing those settings and it fixed the problem for me.

Hope this helps someone with a similar issue.

I have an i9-9900k

RTX 2070 SUPER 8GB
32 GB DDR4 Ram

[tomsutherlanduk]

I started seeing this problem today and Justice88's solution fixed the problem for me.

[wrongly_Neo]

A little update from my side: I just had the problem re-appear after I upgrading my graphics card and re-installing the graphics driver. I tried all the settings discussed in this thread (turning on V-Sync, Limiting the refresh rate, etc). Turned out nothing helped this time. I then found out that this time the cause seemed to be the "Preferred refresh rate" setting of the Nvidia Control Panel, which I had set that to "Maximum available" in the global settings. After switching it back to "Application-controlled" for Lightroom, the black flickering disappeared. Hope that may help someone.

[default60oyw828mr7l]

Just came here to say Justice88's solution worked for me too (Nvidia RTX 3070Ti)

[streetgrapher]

Hey Thomas,

I've been experiencing something similar though on a higher refresh rate, what seems to have resolved it for me is swapping out DisplayPort 1.4 cable and connecting via HDMI 2.1, you can try this if applicable, it might let you keep GPU acceleration in LR while removing the problem.