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Occasional flickering with CAC 1070 between R9 390 and Sony 4K Bravia

Updated on 25-05-2018 in Adapters and Cables
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7 on 25-04-2018

Hi,
I’m running Win 10 64 bit Pro 1709 (16299.371) fully updated

I’m connecting from a desktop PC’s R9 390 DP port (1.2) to a 4K Sony TV (55″ X900E) with a CAC-1070 adapter.

PC specs:
mobo: ASUS Z87 Plus
i7 4790
32 GB DDR3
1 OS SSD, 5 HDD’s
EVGA 750 W PSU
XFX R9 390 DD

The TV is brand new. The TV has four HDMI ports: two of them are “Enhanced Format” for full 4K 60 Hz 4:4:4 chroma.

I’m running the latest AMD Radeon version 18.3.4. Based on advice here I set a custom 3840x2160p resolution and only changed Timing Standard to CVT-Reduced Blanking. The custom rez looks like this:

I’ve tried the TV on both of it’s Enhanced Format HDMI ports and I can get 4K 60Hz 4:4:4.

What happens is that occasionally the TV will flicker. Occasionally like maybe a couple times an hour it’ll happen. The screen doesn’t go black or anything. It’s just like a quick flicker, almost like in that instant the TV is syncing out of timing or something.

I’ve tried 5 different High speed 18 Gbps capable HDMI cables now on the two Enhanced ports. I got Amazon to replace two of the cables that arrived today. Testing them I still get that occasional flicker happening. It’s most noticeable on a white screen …. like when I’m typing this now.

I was thinking today of buying yet another cable, the beefiest I could find, then buying the CAC 1080 and seeing if it’s increased bandwidth capability might make a difference.

Advice?

Thanks

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Strohmwell 0 on 26-04-2018

To update: Just observing this more closely now I can see that it’s more than a couple times an hour. More like … maybe every 5 to 10 minutes. And again, most noticeable on a white screen, like when I’m typing here, or in a word doc.

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Strohmwell 4 on 26-04-2018

To update further: I’ve now noticed that the refresh rate is dropping back to 59 Hz. It will hold for some time… an hour? maybe longer.

When I go to Win 10 > Display Settings > Display Adapter Properties > Monitor, it has reduced to 59 Hz.

I know it is booting to 60 Hz because this is one of the first things I check when using a new cable or new setttings. 

So I’m beginning to think the CAC 1070 adapter might be faulty. Test cable # 5 and it’s still doing this? Or what else could it be?

MST1407 on 26-04-2018

Good day Strohmwell,

That auto-switching back to 59Hz is normally caused by the TV.
They often have a setting like “PC Mode” you can select in the menue of the TV, which would prevent that switching back from 60 to 59 Hz.

The flickering is indeed normally a bandwidth / connection issue. So the quality of the HDMI Cable is indeed very important. 
We would advise to use a Premium HDMI Cable like our CAC-1310.
What Cable length are you using now ?
What firmware version is on the CAC-1070 ?
Version 0.55 / V7.55 is the latest, i will ask [email protected] to email that over to you just in case you might need it.

Sometimes it also helps to make a clean Graphics Driver installation.

  • Graphics Drivers

Using the upgrade feature to update drivers can cause issues, because old files can remain in the registry of windows and can be “in the way”.

Please make a new clean driver installation to make sure that part is ok.

Please uninstall the current Graphics driver and all related Graphics software like Afterburner/GPU-Z or whatever graphics related software you might have installed.

Best way to remove Driver Software is to boot Windows in Safe mode, so the registry can also be cleaned.

If your system does not allow you to do that, you can also use a program like DDU to remove such software: http://www.wagnardmobile.com/DDU/ 

Also, please manually delete the AMD Folder from your C drive.

When done, reboot and manually download and install latest graphics driver (don’t let any auto installer do that).

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Strohmwell on 27-04-2018

EDIT: No matter how many times I edit this, it doesn’t hold the formatting ,and doesn’t space properly as it looks when I’ve edited it. It also won’t let me upload screenshots as it flags it with a security warning

That auto-switching back to 59Hz is normally caused by the TV.From MST1407

No, I have to disagree with you there. I had a long tech support session on the phone with Sony this AM and they disagree with you on that also, as I do.

They often have a setting like “PC Mode” you can select in the menue of the TV, which would prevent that switching back from 60 to 59 Hz.From MST1407

Sony X900E’s have four HDMI ports. Ports 2 & 3 are “Enhanced Ports” capable of full 4K @ 60Hz 4:4:4.

Ports 1 & 4 are also 60 Hz 4:4:4, but don’t provide HDR which is moot for me using DP1.2 as source out.

When I connect to the TV with native HDMI out (on the R9 390) to HDMI in to the TV, the connection is 100% stable, with no flickering – but of course that’s only at 30Hz on any of the ports.

The flickering is indeed normally a bandwidth / connection issue. So the quality of the HDMI Cable is indeed very important. We would advise to use a Premium HDMI Cable like our CAC-1310.What Cable length are you using now ?From MST1407

I’ve been testing with these Amazon Basics 4K cables
https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B014I8SSD0/?coliid=I160U4F6LZO4VF&colid=26UM4H8132YOD&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it&th=1

Of the five cables I’m currently testing with, three are 10 foot lengths, two are 6 foot length. Yes, I’m suspect on the cables, and haven’t overlooked that as the weak link. Even with their 4K 60Hz rating they’re all only 30 AWG, so not very beefy.

Today I’m ordering a selection of premium cables to test with. Sorry, I will not use your CAC-1310 … the cable here with only two 1 star reviews. Not a chance
https://www.amazon.ca/Club-3D-Premium-Certified-CAC-1310/dp/B019OSCJ7K/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1524800126&sr=1-1&keywords=CAC-1310

I’m ordering a Toptrend 6ft HDMI
https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B01HDOF79Y/ref=sxbs_sxwds-stvpv2_1?pf_rd_m=A3DWYIK6Y9EEQB&pf_rd_p=3534660202&pd_rd_wg=MPard&pf_rd_r=HP578PFQ5357FGZVBTPR&pf_rd_s=desktop-sx-bottom-slot&pf_rd_t=301&pd_rd_i=B01HFFCDU2&pd_rd_w=8PD9k&pf_rd_i=Atevon%2BHDMI&pd_rd_r=b435729d-39ad-4473-9670-a5b39393d5bb&ie=UTF8&qid=1524794925&sr=1&th=1

one 6ft Moko
https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B00OLBBI6E/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?smid=A13VGFDPBB0IW3&psc=1

one 6ft syncwire
https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B071WBWGBT/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A36JITAU1BVS0F&psc=1

I’m also buying a Plugable Active DisplayPort to HDMI 2.0 Adapter
https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B00S0C7QO8/ref=ox_sc_act_title_4?smid=ANO99AFAXRIXA&psc=1

I’ll do a simple troubleshooting heuristic … swap a cable, then adapter, then cable, then adapter, etc. That’ll tell me definitively where the problem lies. Amazon will take back what I don’t use.

What firmware version is on the CAC-1070 ? Version 0.55 / V7.55 is the latest, i will ask [email protected] to email that over to you just in case you might need it.From MST1407

Your support sent the firmware update. When I checked with the tool it said I already had:
Bootloader Version Number 6.0.4
Firmware Version Num: 0x07 0X55

However, I re-installed anyways. That changed nothing.

Sometimes it also helps to make a clean Graphics Driver installation. Graphics Drivers Using the upgrade feature to update drivers can cause issues, because old files can remain in the registry of windows and can be “in the way”. Please make a new clean driver installation to make sure that part is ok. Please uninstall the current Graphics driver and all related Graphics software like Afterburner/GPU-Z or whatever graphics related software you might have installed. Best way to remove Driver Software is to boot Windows in Safe mode, so the registry can also be cleaned. If your system does not allow you to do that, you can also use a program like DDU to remove such software: http://www.wagnardmobile.com/DDU/  Also, please manually delete the AMD Folder from your C drive. When done, reboot and manually download and install latest graphics driver (don’t let any auto installer do that).From MST1407

I never let AMD auto-install drivers. I always uninstall with DDU. I was runnign current, but uninstalled with DDU and re-installed 18.3.4 No change.

One thing I didn’t mention is that when the PC boots it flickers on the boot screen. The Asus logo flickers and kind of jumps or jerks. So this is pre-AMD driver load and points to a more probable hardware culprit. My monies on either a faulty cable or faulty adapter.

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MST1407 on 30-04-2018

It can of course happen that an Adapter is not good, but defective rate is below 0.1 % on this item and the few that indeed were defective did nto work at all also not in 4K 30 Hz … so i really don’t think that is the issue.
With regards to the CAC-1310 review, that is most probably done by employees of competition … The CAC-1310 is a very good quality cable with very low emission, certified by HDMI.org, so it is an official Premium HDMi Cable which we sold thousands all over the world. Very good cable.
With regards to the TV setting. I am not pretending to know better than Sony, I do know that with for instance LG TV’s setting them to PC Mode fixes that issue of jumping to 59 Hz on both our AMD and NVidia test system. We do nto have a Sony X900E here, so you know more about that one then I do …
Looking forward to hear what difference the HDMI Cable will make.

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MST1407 on 30-04-2018

and here you cna see some reviews on Amazon US
https://www.amazon.com/Club3D-Premium-Certified-CAC-1310-9-84ft/dp/B019OSCJ7K/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1525103350&sr=8-1&keywords=cac-1310

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