Why Does My Room Light Flicker When Playing Certain Games on Linux?

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Hey everyone,

I’ve got a bit of a strange situation I need your help with. I have two SSDs—one with Linux Mint and the other with Windows 11. When I play a specific game, Stormgate, on my Linux setup, I notice that the room lights actually flicker every time I press the keyboard keys. It’s pretty noticeable since it’s an RTS game and involves a lot of key presses. I don’t recall this happening when I play on Windows. What could be causing this? Is it something to do with how Linux manages power, especially for GPUs? I’m really puzzled about this. Any ideas on tests I could run to figure it out? Thanks!

Why Does My Room Light Flicker When Playing Certain Games on Linux
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5 Answers

LightFlickerGuru -

My room lights flicker whenever my PC wakes from sleep, regardless of whether it’s Windows or Linux. But I don’t have that issue while gaming like you do.

TechWizard42 -

You might be experiencing some weird VRR flicker instead of your lights actually flickering. What hardware are you using? If it’s NVIDIA, which drivers are you on?

GamerNinja459 -

I’m pretty sure it’s the light flickering, since another person in the room saw it too. I’m using a 7800 XT with amdgpu 6.10.5. My other specs are a 9700X CPU, 32GB RAM, and an ASUS TUF B650-E mobo, with a Super Flower Platinum 850W PSU.

VSyncMaster -

Have you tried toggling vsync? Sometimes that can help stabilize things.

GamerNinja459 -

I’ve already got vsync enabled.

CuriousTechie -

Not to sound like I’m trolling, but I really wonder what could be causing this. It’s an odd phenomenon for sure.

TheCircuitBreaker -

It’s likely your screen’s backlight flickering rather than the actual room lights. I don’t think the different kernels would affect your power circuit like that. If your PC can cause fluctuations like that, you might want to call an electrician to check it out, as it could be serious.

GamerNinja459 -

I’ll definitely do some more testing to rule out that possibility. It’s puzzling to think anything could affect the electric circuit like that. If it turns out my system is at fault, I’ll call an electrician, but I want to make sure it’s not a hardware or software issue first.

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