Screen flashing and flickering

Ask Fedora
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1

Hi, I dual booted Fedora 44 a while ago and has been experiencing screen flickering issue.
I am suspecting that this happens because the laptop isn’t rendering fast enough.
Would I need to make my dGPU my primary GPU in this case?
Please let me know if I need to provide more info, below are more detailed explaination.
Thank you very much.

Issue and how to reproduce

Flashing pixelated rainbow distortion on screen. Usually in long thin horizontal strips.
I have not found a way to reliably reproduce this. But it usually happens (or occurs more) when the following happens:

  • switching windows
  • when on battery
  • when on graphics demanding tasks

Laptop Spec

ASUS TUF A16
iGPU: Radeon 780M Graphics
dGPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060
Display: 1920x1200 (144/60Hz)
Kernel: 7.1.3-201.fc44.x86_64
arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 16.1.1
Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 6.7.2

I installed the nvidia drivers following the manual and added pci=realloc to grub because nvidia-smi couldn’t detect the drivers otherwise.

2

Post the full output from inxi -Fzxx - that’s the only way we can tell what chipset, revision, version, drivers, etc you actually have installed and which ones are being used.

3

This is the full output:

System:
  Kernel: 7.1.3-201.fc44.x86_64 arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 16.1.1
  Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 6.7.2 tk: Qt v: N/A wm: kwin_wayland dm: N/A
    Distro: Fedora Linux 44 (KDE Plasma Desktop Edition)
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: ASUS product: TUF Gaming A16 FA608UMI v: 1.0
    serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: ASUSTeK model: FA608UMI v: 1.0 serial: <superuser required>
    Firmware: UEFI vendor: American Megatrends LLC. v: FA608UMI.321
    date: 03/23/2026
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT1 charge: 56.1 Wh (78.9%) condition: 71.2/70 Wh (101.7%)
    volts: 16.87 min: 15.78 model: ASUS A32-K55 serial: N/A charging:
    status: charging cycles: N/A
CPU:
  Info: 8-core model: AMD Ryzen 7 260 w/ Radeon 780M Graphics bits: 64
    type: MT MCP arch: Zen 4 rev: 2 cache: L1: 512 KiB L2: 8 MiB L3: 16 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 3658 min/max: 417/5103 boost: enabled cores: 1: 3658
    2: 3658 3: 3658 4: 3658 5: 3658 6: 3658 7: 3658 8: 3658 9: 3658 10: 3658
    11: 3658 12: 3658 13: 3658 14: 3658 15: 3658 16: 3658 bogomips: 121368
  Flags-basic: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a
    ssse3 svm
Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA GB206M [GeForce RTX 5060 Max-Q / Mobile] vendor: ASUSTeK
    driver: nvidia v: 610.43.03 arch: Lovelace pcie: speed: 16 GT/s lanes: 8
    ports: active: none empty: DP-9,HDMI-A-1,eDP-2 bus-ID: 01:00.0
    chip-ID: 10de:2d59
  Device-2: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] HawkPoint1 vendor: ASUSTeK
    driver: amdgpu v: kernel arch: RDNA-3 pcie: speed: 16 GT/s lanes: 16 ports:
    active: eDP-1 empty: DP-1, DP-2, DP-3, DP-4, DP-5, DP-6, DP-7, DP-8,
    Writeback-1 bus-ID: 05:00.0 chip-ID: 1002:1900 temp: 29.0 C
  Device-3: Quanta ASUS FHD webcam driver: uvcvideo type: USB rev: 2.0
    speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 3-1:2 chip-ID: 0408:30ee
  Display: wayland server: Xwayland v: 24.1.13 compositor: kwin_wayland
    driver: gpu: amdgpu display-ID: 0
  Monitor-1: eDP-1 model: BOE Display NE160WU1-MY2 res: 1920x1200 hz: 60
    dpi: 141 diag: 407mm (16")
  API: EGL v: 1.5 platforms: device: 0 drv: nvidia device: 2 drv: radeonsi
    device: 3 drv: swrast gbm: drv: nvidia surfaceless: drv: nvidia wayland:
    drv: radeonsi x11: drv: radeonsi inactive: device-1
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6.0 compat-v: 4.6 vendor: amd mesa v: 26.1.4 glx-v: 1.4
    direct-render: yes renderer: AMD Radeon 780M Graphics (radeonsi phoenix ACO
    DRM 3.64 7.1.3-201.fc44.x86_64) device-ID: 1002:1900 display-ID: :0.0
  API: Vulkan v: 1.4.341 surfaces: N/A device: 0 type: integrated-gpu
    driver: mesa radv device-ID: 1002:1900 device: 1 type: discrete-gpu
    driver: nvidia device-ID: 10de:2d59 device: 2 type: cpu
    driver: mesa llvmpipe device-ID: 10005:0000
  Info: Tools: api: clinfo, eglinfo, glxinfo, vulkaninfo
    de: kscreen-console,kscreen-doctor gpu: nvidia-settings,nvidia-smi
    wl: wayland-info x11: xdriinfo, xdpyinfo, xprop, xrandr
Audio:
  Device-1: NVIDIA GB206 High Definition Audio driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel
    pcie: speed: 16 GT/s lanes: 8 bus-ID: 01:00.1 chip-ID: 10de:22eb
  Device-2: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Radeon High Definition Audio
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: speed: 16 GT/s lanes: 16
    bus-ID: 05:00.1 chip-ID: 1002:1640
  Device-3: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Audio Coprocessor
    driver: snd_pci_ps v: kernel pcie: speed: 16 GT/s lanes: 16 bus-ID: 05:00.5
    chip-ID: 1022:15e2
  Device-4: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Ryzen HD Audio vendor: ASUSTeK
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: speed: 16 GT/s lanes: 16
    bus-ID: 05:00.6 chip-ID: 1022:15e3
  API: ALSA v: k7.1.3-201.fc44.x86_64 status: kernel-api
  Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.6.8 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse
    status: active 2: wireplumber status: active 3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin
    4: pw-jack type: plugin
Network:
  Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8211/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet
    vendor: ASUSTeK driver: r8169 v: kernel pcie: speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1
    port: e000 bus-ID: 02:00.0 chip-ID: 10ec:8168
  IF: eno1 state: down mac: <filter>
  Device-2: Realtek RTL8852CE PCIe 802.11ax Wireless Network vendor: Foxconn
    driver: rtw89_8852ce v: kernel pcie: speed: 5 GT/s lanes: 1 port: d000
    bus-ID: 03:00.0 chip-ID: 10ec:c852
  IF: wlp3s0 state: up mac: <filter>
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Foxconn / Hon Hai Bluetooth Radio driver: btusb v: 0.8 type: USB
    rev: 1.0 speed: 12 Mb/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 1-3:3 chip-ID: 0489:e122
  Report: btmgmt ID: hci0 rfk-id: 0 state: down bt-service: enabled,running
    rfk-block: hardware: no software: yes address: <filter> bt-v: 5.3 lmp-v: 12
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 953.87 GiB used: 130.75 GiB (13.7%)
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: Western Digital model: WD PC SN5000S
    SDEQNSJ-1T00-1002 size: 953.87 GiB speed: 63.2 Gb/s lanes: 4
    serial: <filter> temp: 29.9 C
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 534.86 GiB used: 129.72 GiB (24.3%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/dm-0
    mapped: luks-fdee08cf-22b1-4a1a-9844-2ade1e997f47
  ID-2: /boot size: 1.9 GiB used: 930.5 MiB (47.8%) fs: ext4
    dev: /dev/nvme0n1p7
  ID-3: /boot/efi size: 446 MiB used: 119 MiB (26.7%) fs: vfat
    dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1
  ID-4: /home size: 534.86 GiB used: 129.72 GiB (24.3%) fs: btrfs
    dev: /dev/dm-0 mapped: luks-fdee08cf-22b1-4a1a-9844-2ade1e997f47
Swap:
  ID-1: swap-1 type: zram size: 16 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: 100
    dev: /dev/zram0
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 33.0 C mobo: N/A
  Fan Speeds (rpm): cpu: 2400 fan-1: 2441
Info:
  Memory: total: 16 GiB note: est. available: 14.87 GiB used: 4.7 GiB (31.6%)
  Processes: 467 Power: uptime: 20m wakeups: 0 Init: systemd v: 259
    default: graphical
  Packages: pm: rpm pkgs: N/A note: see --rpm pm: flatpak pkgs: 13
    Compilers: gcc: 16.1.1 Shell: Bash v: 5.3.9 running-in: konsole inxi: 3.3.41
4

It would appear you may be using an nvidia driver directly from nvidia and not the one available from rpmfusion

These may be related

5

RPM Fusion has 610.43.03 as of last week.

6

Thanks for the info. I had not done an update for about a week.

7

Thanks for the reply, I just followed the guide from fedora so I thought I downloaded the rpmfusion one as it told me to enable third party packages. What is the difference between the two, and how would I change it?

9

There are several issues with nvidia drivers.

When downloading directly from nvidia those files are generic and not specifically tailored for use with fedora and may cause issues.

When enabling the 3rd party repos the nvidia driver is now available from the rpmfusion-nonfree-nvidia-driver repo and for quite some time that repo lagged behind the version in the rpmfusion-nonfree-updates repo for the available version.

If the rpmfusion-nonfree{-updates} repo{s} are enabled then the latest released version of the driver is available

Enabling the rpmfusion-nonfree-nvidia-driver repo is as simple as enabling the 3rd party repos during the first boot setup on a newly installed machine.
To enable the other repos (rpmfusion-nonfree and rpmfusion-free [as well as their associated updates repos]) the user should follow the guide.

Note that the version for akmod-nvidia in rpmfusion-nonfree-updates is newer that the one available in rpmfusion-nonfree-nvidia-driver (at present) and that the akmod-nvidia package is not currently present in the rpmfusion-nonfree-nvidia-driver repo

$ sudo dnf list --available akmod-nvidia* --repo=rpmfusion-nonfree-nvidia-driver,rpmfusion-nonfree,rpmfusion-nonfree-updates
Updating and loading repositories:
Repositories loaded.
Available packages (available for reinstall, available for upgrade)
akmod-nvidia.x86_64       3:610.43.03-1.fc44   rpmfusion-nonfree-updates
akmod-nvidia-390xx.x86_64 3:390.157-25.fc44    rpmfusion-nonfree-updates
akmod-nvidia-470xx.x86_64 3:470.256.02-18.fc44 rpmfusion-nonfree-updates
akmod-nvidia-580xx.x86_64 3:580.173.02-1.fc44  rpmfusion-nonfree-updates
akmod-nvidia-open.x86_64  3:595.80-1.fc44      rpmfusion-nonfree-nvidia-driver
10

image
image1190×792 66.2 KB

I think I did install the rpmfusion nvidia driver.

$ sudo dnf install https://mirrors.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-$(rpm -E %fedora).noarch.rpm https://mirrors.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-$(rpm -E %fedora).noarch.rpm
[sudo] password for adencorey: 
Updating and loading repositories:
Repositories loaded.
 https://mirrors.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-44.noarch.rpm                                100% |   5.8 KiB/s |  11.5 KiB |  00m02s
 https://mirrors.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-44.noarch.rpm                          100% |   5.8 KiB/s |  11.5 KiB |  00m02s
Package "rpmfusion-free-release-44-3.noarch" is already installed.
Package "rpmfusion-nonfree-release-44-3.noarch" is already installed.

Nothing to do.
11

To confirm the repo used for installation try running dnf list --installed \*nvidia\*.
That will show the packages, the version, and the repo used for installation. If all show as an rpmfusion repo then that is the best we can recommend.
It should look similar to this

$ dnf list --installed \*nvidia\*
Installed packages (available for reinstall, available for upgrade)
akmod-nvidia.x86_64                       3:610.43.03-1.fc44 rpmfusion-nonfree-updates
kmod-nvidia-7.0.14-201.fc44.x86_64.x86_64 3:595.80-1.fc44    @commandline
kmod-nvidia-7.1.3-200.fc44.x86_64.x86_64  3:610.43.03-1.fc44 @commandline
kmod-nvidia-7.1.3-201.fc44.x86_64.x86_64  3:610.43.03-1.fc44 @commandline
nvidia-gpu-firmware.noarch                20260622-1.fc44    updates
nvidia-modprobe.x86_64                    3:610.43.03-1.fc44 rpmfusion-nonfree-updates
nvidia-persistenced.x86_64                3:610.43.03-2.fc44 rpmfusion-nonfree-updates
nvidia-settings.x86_64                    3:610.43.03-1.fc44 rpmfusion-nonfree-updates
xorg-x11-drv-nvidia.x86_64                3:610.43.03-1.fc44 rpmfusion-nonfree-updates
xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-cuda.x86_64           3:610.43.03-1.fc44 rpmfusion-nonfree-updates
xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-cuda-libs.i686        3:610.43.03-1.fc44 rpmfusion-nonfree-updates
xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-cuda-libs.x86_64      3:610.43.03-1.fc44 rpmfusion-nonfree-updates
xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-kmodsrc.x86_64        3:610.43.03-1.fc44 rpmfusion-nonfree-updates
xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-libs.i686             3:610.43.03-1.fc44 rpmfusion-nonfree-updates
xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-libs.x86_64           3:610.43.03-1.fc44 rpmfusion-nonfree-updates
xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-power.x86_64          3:610.43.03-1.fc44 rpmfusion-nonfree-updates
xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-xorg-libs.x86_64      3:610.43.03-1.fc44 rpmfusion-nonfree-updates
12

Yep, it does look similar. Also, some applications are not using the dGPU even though I checked the ‘Run using dedicated GPU’ in KDE menu editor. I would like to only use GPU when I am on AC power but I have no idea how to set that up. Thanks again.

$ dnf list --installed \*nvidia\*
Installed packages (available for reinstall, available for upgrade)
akmod-nvidia.x86_64                      3:610.43.03-1.fc44 rpmfusion-nonfree-updates
kmod-nvidia-7.1.3-200.fc44.x86_64.x86_64 3:610.43.03-1.fc44 @commandline
kmod-nvidia-7.1.3-201.fc44.x86_64.x86_64 3:610.43.03-1.fc44 @commandline
nvidia-gpu-firmware.noarch               20260622-1.fc44    updates
nvidia-modprobe.x86_64                   3:610.43.03-1.fc44 rpmfusion-nonfree-updates
nvidia-persistenced.x86_64               3:610.43.03-2.fc44 rpmfusion-nonfree-updates
nvidia-settings.x86_64                   3:610.43.03-1.fc44 rpmfusion-nonfree-updates
xorg-x11-drv-nvidia.x86_64               3:610.43.03-1.fc44 rpmfusion-nonfree-updates
xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-cuda.x86_64          3:610.43.03-1.fc44 rpmfusion-nonfree-updates
xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-cuda-libs.i686       3:610.43.03-1.fc44 rpmfusion-nonfree-updates
xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-cuda-libs.x86_64     3:610.43.03-1.fc44 rpmfusion-nonfree-updates
xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-kmodsrc.x86_64       3:610.43.03-1.fc44 rpmfusion-nonfree-updates
xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-libs.i686            3:610.43.03-1.fc44 rpmfusion-nonfree-updates
xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-libs.x86_64          3:610.43.03-1.fc44 rpmfusion-nonfree-updates
xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-power.x86_64         3:610.43.03-1.fc44 rpmfusion-nonfree-updates
13

Most laptops will only use the dGPU when a heavy graphics load is encountered but instead rely on the iGPU for most usage. You can see the usage of the dGPU with the command nvidia-smi which should normally show little or no usage.

Many (but not all) laptops also will not use the dGPU when only on battery power.

14

I see, but I do see some heavy graphics load applications like Blender and XPlane (Steam game) to only use the iGPU

15

If needed you can use switcherooctl to select the gpu to use for specific applications.