A750: Latest drivers cause texture flickering in Counter-Strike 2 (CS2)

[verdich]

I'm using an Intel Arc A750 LE and after upgrading from the 4887 WHQL driver to 4952, 4953, and 4972, I've noticed that there are occasional texture flickering issues in Counter-Strike 2 (CS2) using DX11. I've used DDU in safe mode for all upgrades and I've cleared the DirectX Shader Cache. The GPU is not overclocked.

It seems to happen most at round starts, showing of scoreboard, and when bringing up the chat wheel. It looks like a bit of (mostly) white static noise across the display. It goes away within a second or so, but it is distracting. It probably happens 5-10 times during a 10 minute gaming session.

There are reports on Reddit that MSAA is the culprit, but I haven't been able to verify this yet; see https://www.reddit.com/r/IntelArc/comments/1809b3o/intel_graphics_driver_3101014972/.

Full settings for CS2:

- Boost Player Contrast: Enabled

- Wait for Vertical Sync: Disabled

- Multisampling Anti-Aliasing Mode: 2X MSAA

- Global Shadow Quality: High

- Model / Texture Detail: Low

- Texture Filtering Mode: Anisotropic 2X

- Shader Detail: Low

- Particle Detail: Low

- Ambient Occlusion: Medium

- High Dynamic Range: Quality

- FidelityFX Super Resolution: Disabled

I have not tried the 4900 driver, so it is unclear exactly when the regression was introduced.

[Jean_Intel]

Hello verdich,

Thank you for posting in the Intel Communities. Based on the graphical issue you reported to have in Counter-Strike 2. To better assist you, we would like to ask for the following information:

• What game distribution service do you use to install the game? ( Blizzard, Epic, Origin, Steam, Xbox, Ubisoft connect).
• Is Resizable BAR enabled in your system?
• You mentioned that this happens when you play the game in DX11. Have you tried running the game in a different API (Vulkan)?
• Share a video or screenshot showing the issue you report. This will help us if we need to replicate the problem, so we can follow your step-by-step to reproduct the problem.
• We'd like to gather more information about your system to confirm if the unit is up to date and other details. Provide us with a report using the Intel System Support Utility (Intel SSU).
  • Open the application and click "Scan" to see the system and device information. By default, Intel SSU will take you to the "Summary View."
  • Click on the menu where it says: "Summary" to change it to "Detailed View."
  • To save your scan, click "Next"; and then "Save."

Best regards,

Jean O.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[verdich]

Hi Jean,

Answers inline.

• What game distribution service do you use to install the game? ( Blizzard, Epic, Origin, Steam, Xbox, Ubisoft connect).

Steam; that is the only option for Counter-Strike 2.

• Is Resizable BAR enabled in your system?

Yes.

• You mentioned that this happens when you play the game in DX11. Have you tried running the game in a different API (Vulkan)?

I have not tried running Counter-Strike 2 using Vulkan. There are numerous reports of that being a significantly worse experience than DX11.

• Share a video or screenshot showing the issue you report. This will help us if we need to replicate the problem, so we can follow your step-by-step to reproduct the problem.

I'll try to see if I can produce a video showing the issue.

• We'd like to gather more information about your system to confirm if the unit is up to date and other details. Provide us with a report using the Intel System Support Utility (Intel SSU).

Attached from the system running the 4887 WHQL driver (where the issue doesn't appear). When I try to produce a video of the issue on the latest driver (4972), I'll provide an updated SSU dump.

Thanks!

[Jean_Intel]

Hello verdich,

Thank you for providing us with all the necessary information. We understand that it may take some time to capture the video demonstrating the issue you are facing. We would like to assure you that we are willing to wait until you share the video with us. Also, please let us know if you encounter any difficulties while recording the video.

We see that you have not tried using Vulkan. We asked for this to confirm if the issue was isolated to the DX11 API.

Best regards,

Jean O.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[verdich]

 Hi Jean,

I've tried to capture a video of the issue with the Intel Arc Control software, but even though the flickering is visible on the monitor, it isn't captured in the output even with the highest capturing resolution, frame rate, and bitrate. So, instead I captured it with my phone camera (most visible around the 4-5s mark):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaAnMGKzF7o

This is driver 4972 on an Arc A750 LE using DX11 (DDU'ed, etc). The issue seems to be affected by the anti-aliasing settings. The video above is with MSAA x8, but I've seen the issue with MSAA x2 too. If I use CMAA2 instead, the problem appears to go away. Attached is the SSU report from the system after updating to driver 4972 and reproducing the issue. The issues seems to be a regression since driver 4887 (WHQL) does not exhibit the same behavior.

I've tried with Vulkan too (specifying -vulkan as a launch option), but there is a whole new level of texture glitches on Vulkan both with MSAA x8 and CMAA2. Others have reported the same thing, so I does not appear that using Vulkan is a good choice for Counter-Strike 2 just yet.

Thanks for looking into this!

[verdich]

For what it's worth, I stepped through the video frame by frame and managed to capture the attached still that shows the flickering in a horizontal banner. Hope that helps!

[Jean_Intel]

Hello verdich,

Thank you for taking the time to record the video and capture an image that shows the graphical error. We appreciate your efforts in providing us with the necessary information to understand the issue you have described. We will be conducting a thorough internal review of this issue reviewing the information you shared. We will keep you updated as soon as we have more details.

Best regards,

Jean O.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[verdich]

For what it is worth, I've been using CMAA2 instead of MSAA over the last days and I haven't seen the noisy flickering at all. I think that might be a useful data point for the internal review.

CMAA2 is visibly worse than MSAA in motion and there are “crawling” pixels on the edges of objects during movement with CMAA2. It would be great if MSAA worked without occasional flickering.

Thanks again!

[Jean_Intel]

Hello verdich,

Thank you very much for providing us with the information. We appreciate your effort in testing the game with different settings. The more details we have, the better we can investigate this matter. We want to inform you that we are still investigating this issue, and although we don't have an update yet, rest assured that we are working on it.

Best regards,

Jean O.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[Jean_Intel]

Halo verdich,

We would like to inform you that we are still investigating this issue internally. Although there isn't a current update on this, we are actively addressing the issue and will do so as soon as we can.

Best regards,

Jean O.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[verdich]

Thanks, Jean!

Do let me know if you find the reported issue reproducible or not. If the engineering team has a hard time reproducing the issue, I'd be happy to help out any way I can. Reproducing an issue is usually the most significant part of solving an issue.

[Jean_Intel]

Hello verdich,

Thank you for your comments. We appreciate your involvement in addressing the issue. If we encounter any difficulties replicating the problem, we are glad to know that you are willing to assist us.

Best regards,

Jean O.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[verdich]

Hi again,

Are there any updates on the reproducibility of the reported issue? I see a number of reports of poor MSAA performance on the Community Issue Tracker, but is unclear if those are related to the anti-aliasing induced flickering I reported back in November.

Thanks!

[Jean_Intel]

Hello verdich,

Thank you for getting back to us on your thread. We want to let you know that we're still investigating the problem internally, but we don't have any updates to share at this time. We understand that other users have reported similar issues with MSAA, but we need to look at each issue to determine the root cause. It's possible that even if two users are experiencing the same symptom, but different applications, the underlying cause may be different. That's why we need to investigate and confirm the root cause of each issue before we can implement a fix.

We appreciate your patience regarding this matter. We will provide updates as soon as possible. Thank you for your understanding.

Best regards,

Jean O.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[verdich]

Hi Jean,

I've done a quick round of testing on the new 31.0.101.5074 driver and it appears as if the problem has been addressed, not just on MSAA x4 as noted in the release notes, but also on MSAA x2 and x8. I will start using MSAA anti-aliasing in Counter-Strike 2 from now on and make notes of any issues I discover. Give me a few days and I should be able to confirm if the issue is really gone.

Thanks!

[Jean_Intel]

Hello verdich,

We appreciate your efforts in testing the new driver version. We are glad to know that it seems that the issue has been addressed, but you would like to play the game using g MSAA anti-aliasing in Counter-Strike 2 taking note of any problems you may discover. We will wait for you to test the game. Please do not hesitate to let us know if your original issue persists. If you encounter a different problem, we recommend that you submit a new thread. Reporting one issue per thread will help us keep the topics organized. We will wait for your response after testing the game.

Best regards,

Jean O.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[verdich · Accepted solution]

Hi Jean,

I've given the new 31.0.101.5074 driver some more thorough testing with MSAA enabled in Counter-Strike 2 and my conclusion is that the issue has been fully addressed. The issue appears to have been introduced as a regression in driver 4900 or 4952.

Thanks for the fix!

[Jean_Intel]

Hello verdich,

We have received your feedback regarding the MSAA problem in Counter-Strike 2 and we are pleased to inform you that the issue has been resolved. As a result, we will be closing this thread. If you require additional assistance, please create a new question, as this thread will no longer be monitored.

Best regards,

Jean O.

Intel Customer Support Technician