Media transparent background flickers on high refresh rate displays

[costantin0]

Steps to reproduce

1. Go to any chat on telegram desktop for Windows with a High refresh rate display (120hz in my case);
2. Open any media and reduce its size to have the grey transparent background.

Expected behaviour

There should be no flickering.

Actual behaviour

The grey transparent background have brightness flickering, which is painful for the eyes. It's the same thing that happens in games wihen the refresh rate go below the freesync ranges, but it should not be the case since it's a normal app. It does not happen if I set my refresh rate at 60hz.

Operating system

Windows 10

Version of Telegram Desktop

4.4.1

Installation source

Static binary from official website

Logs

No response

[costantin0]

I found out that it's connected to AMD Freesync, for some reason it kicks in when opening any media on full screen.

[soredake]

Same problem problem for me, it's called freesync flickering, this happens on some monitors with freesync when framerate constantly changes from low to high (which is the case sometimes when viewing media), the workaround is to disable freesync for telegram, or making telegram run at constant framerate.

[costantin0]

Yeah, I can confirm it works. Had to add the exe as a game in the full version of the Radeon Software and disable the freesync from there. It would be better if wasn't used by default.

[Aokromes]

if it's amd bug then maybe you need to report to amd.

[soredake]

if it's amd bug then maybe you need to report to amd.

It's a monitor problem, cannot really be fixed unless you change your monitor to one that don't have this problem.

[Aokromes]

if it's amd bug then maybe you need to report to amd.

It's a monitor problem, cannot really be fixed unless you change your monitor to one that don't have this problem.

yes, but adding it to disable freesync thing maybe must be done by amd.

[igoorboob]

I can confirm that i have the same problem. My specs: Xiaomi Mi 2K gaming monitor (165hz), AMD rx6600xt. @costantino2000 @soredake can you share your monitor and gpu model?

Apparently I managed to fix the problem by setting the ANGLE graphics backend -> disabled (settings->advanced)

[Klaster1]

Got the same issue on Gigabyte M34WQ and 7900XTX.

[soredake]

@igoorboob HP X24ih, amd rx 560

[igoorboob]

Got the same issue on Gigabyte M34WQ and 7900XTX, no way I'm enabling a software renderer - ANGLE - to address this.

ANGLE was Auto by default (at least that's how it was for me). Try setting it to disabled and restart Telegram desktop app

[Klaster1]

@igoorboob thanks for the advice, I tried all the ANGLE backend options:

1. D3D11: flickers.
2. D3D9: green tint in full screen videos, no flicker.
3. D3D11on12: full screen lightbox is invisible, can't watch fullsized video embeds.
4. OpenGL: nigh unusable, everything's hidden when a full screen lightbox closes, resets HDR.
5. Disabled: default, other apps flickers (what topic started with).

I'll see how D3D11 BE fares.

[igoorboob]

@Aokromes Probably the problem is really mostly on the AMD side, but maybe Telegram Desktop developers can try to contact the AMD guys? Perhaps they will put Telegram Desktop in the exceptions for FreeSync at the driver level? The problem really ruins the experience of interacting with Telegram Desktop. AMD GPUs certainly have less distribution than Nvidia, but it still affects thousands of users.

[Aokromes]

@Aokromes Probably the problem is really mostly on the AMD side, but maybe Telegram Desktop developers can try to contact the AMD guys? Perhaps they will put Telegram Desktop in the exceptions for FreeSync at the driver level? The problem really ruins the experience of interacting with Telegram Desktop. AMD GPUs certainly have less distribution than Nvidia, but it still affects thousands of users.

it looks the bug report tools "needs" to have amd hardware https://www.amd.com/en/support/kb/faq/amdbrt

[soredake]

Or someone could report this to their forum https://community.amd.com/t5/drivers-software/bd-p/drivers-and-software-discussions

[costantin0]

I just reported the bug with the Bug Report Tool, hopefully they will look into it.

[github-actions[bot]]

Hey there!

This issue was inactive for a long time and will be automatically closed in 30 days if there isn't any further activity. We therefore assume that the user has lost interest or resolved the problem on their own.

Don't worry though; if this is an error, let us know with a comment and we'll be happy to reopen the issue.

Thanks!

[costantin0]

I still have the same driver (22.5.1), and it looks like the issue was mitigated by Telegram, because now (with the automatic backend) it only flickers when switching media, and the refresh rate stabilizes at around 61 hz (while I normally use 120).

[MadHundred]

still have this error till latest AMD driver : 23.9.3 The problem can be solved by disabling the AMD FreeSync Premium on AMD Software, because this problem will happen with Microsoft Excel too. Go to AMD Software (Adrenalin) , then go to Gaming , in Display tab , Uncheck the AMD FreeSync

[github-actions[bot]]

Hey there!

This issue was inactive for a long time and will be automatically closed in 30 days if there isn't any further activity. We therefore assume that the user has lost interest or resolved the problem on their own.

Don't worry though; if this is an error, let us know with a comment and we'll be happy to reopen the issue.

Thanks!

[Klaster1]

The issue still happens for me, same as for the people above.

[dawinaj]

Whenever I open any media, the entire screen flickers until I close the app entirely. None of the ANGLE settings change anything. Radeon 5700 stock with Q27G2WG4

[Aphotic]

I just reported the bug with the Bug Report Tool, hopefully they will look into it.

still have this issue on 24.6.1v

[Aphotic]

I "might" have found a workaround/fix:

using CRU-1.5.1(Custom Resolution Utility) by ToastyX to set my min FPS to a higher than normal

test & report back until Telegram/AMD fixes this

[Aphotic]

another workaround that "might" help is to add telegram(any app that has Free Sync issues)to AMD Adrenaline: and disable the Free Sync on that individual program:

[costantin0]

I tried the CRU method but it did not work, the Adrenaline method is the one I've been using for a long time and it works fine.

[Aphotic]

the Adrenaline method works fine.

hmm for me none worked at the end, what exactly are you doing give us your monoitor specs and how it flickers for you . for me when i go watch anything full-screen video/picture, when i come our of fullscreen i still get the flickers until i switch apps for a second.

[costantin0]

what exactly are you doing give us your monoitor specs and how it flickers for you

I have a 160hz monitor and I'm on the 23.11.1 version of AMD's drivers; Telegram only flickers for a second when scrolling through the media (I guess it's caused by some sort of frame drop when it loads the next media). I have been using CRU for quite some time, I tried changing the minimum refresh rate from 48 to 85 like you did but it started making the screen flicker all the time, so I reversed it. As I said, I fixed the problem a long time ago adding Telegram to the games section in Adrenaline and disabling the Freesync for it, it also worked when the flickering used to always happen while viewing any kind of media (like it was last year before an update).