System Configuration:
- GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090
- Driver: 595.71.05 (akmod-nvidia, Fedora 44)
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D
- Motherboard: ASUS ROG STRIX B650E-F GAMING WIFI
- RAM: 64GB
- OS: Fedora Linux 44 (Workstation Edition)
- Kernel: 6.19.14-300.fc44.x86_64
- Desktop: GNOME 50 on Wayland
- Display: ASUS ROG Swift PG27UCDM (4K 240Hz OLED)
- Connection: DisplayPort
- VRR range: 48-240Hz
Issue Description:
When VRR is enabled in GNOME display settings, intermittent black
frames appear on the physical display while playing games (tested
with Total War: WARHAMMER III via Proton Experimental on Steam).
The black frames occur:
- During GPU-intensive moments (AI processing turns)
- Consistently when moving the mouse during certain in-game states
- Pressing Print Screen temporarily resolves the issue
Key diagnostic finding:
Screen recording during the issue (via Steam overlay) shows completely
clean footage with no black frames — the rendered output is correct.
The issue is isolated to the physical display output pipeline, not the
rendering pipeline itself.
Reproduction steps:
- Enable VRR in GNOME display settings
- Launch a GPU-intensive game fullscreen via Proton on Steam
- During heavy GPU load moments, intermittent black frames appear
on the physical display - Screen recording simultaneously shows no black frames
Workarounds confirmed:
- Disabling VRR globally in GNOME display settings eliminates the issue
- Running the game through Gamescope without --adaptive-sync also
eliminates the issue
This suggests the bug is in NVIDIA’s VRR/adaptive sync display output
path on Wayland rather than in the rendering pipeline itself.
Note: Disabling VRR in GNOME display settings completely eliminates
the issue, confirming it is specific to the VRR/adaptive sync display
path. Driver version where this was introduced is unknown.
Launch options used: PROTON_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1 MANGOHUD=1 %command%