Screen Glitch/Flicker

[ChristiduToit]

Ever since the latest update I've been experiencing a notable increase in strange, brief, intermittent glitches on my iMac monitor when quitting Affinity apps. I don't experience it much when working in the apps (sometimes when merging layers), but it's definitely most notable a few seconds after I quit the apps. It seems somehow worsened when I have a browser window open (Google Chrome, Safari, or Brave). I've also experienced some screen flickers in-app when developing RAW images in Photo, especially any format other than DNG (such as the Nikon NEF format), or when working with larger files.

I'm running a dual monitor setup (iMac and a graphics drawing tablet as my second monitor), and the latest version of MacOS (Mojave Version 10.14.6).
It's difficult to explain, but it looks similar to glitches experiencing with failing graphics cards, but they only flash/flicker once and then disappear until I quit the apps again, where a failed graphics card would show a permanent glitched display.
I initially thought this was a graphics card issue on my side (I've dealt with that before), but after some research I found that this is a known issue between certain apps and the newer MacOS.

Here's an article stating that this is is well an issue that is fairly widespread, and can be caused when running certain apps: https://pdf.wondershare.com/macos-10-14/fix-screen-flickers-on-macos-10-14.html

I've tried all the steps mentioned to help eliminate the flickering (SMC reset, NVRam reset, booted in Safe Mode, and even ran First Aid on my hard drive to try and iron out any possible system bugs).
I have no idea what's causing this, but it's a bit worrying. I'm scared that I'm maxing out my graphics card, or somehow putting too much strain on it when quitting the apps or something. I've even set my Display to "GPU (Basic)", the Retina Rendering to "Low Quality", and disabled "Metal Compute Acceleration" in the Affinity preferences, but it doesn't seem to be helping. 

I've posted in Affinity groups on Facebook and have received confirmation from a few other users/people that they are also experiencing this when using Affinity. 

I just want to raise awareness of this issue by posting on here, and hopefully push for a possible fix.

[Chris B]

Hey ChristiduToit,

I've not experienced this myself but I can certainly look into it more. Is it possible to get a screen recording of it happening?

[ChristiduToit]

25 minutes ago, Chris B said:

I've not experienced this myself but I can certainly look into it more. Is it possible to get a screen recording of it happening?

@Chris B I tried my absolute best to get a screen recording of it happening, but it doesn't show up in the screen recording, when it happens. This leads me to believe that it's a hardware glitch, and not just a general display bug, but it's not just sporadic - it's definitely caused when using certain apps. I'm not sure if Affinity is the real culprit here (I believe it's the new MacOS update causing havoc), but I use all three Affinity apps all day long on a daily basis for work, and have noticed a significant increase in 'glitches' since the latest update (1.7.2 which came out 3 days ago).

I don't want to speak too soon, but it seems that the glitches, while quite distressing, seem to be pretty harmless for the most part (I can't be sure of the long term effects though). While I know the Affinity apps through and through, I'm afraid I'm not tech savvy enough to give much more info as to what could be causing this. In the meantime I'll try my best to film my actual monitor with my phone and revert if I manage to record the glitch/flicker that way.
 

[Brad Brighton]

An additional (possibly unhelpful due to lack of specificity) data point -- I also have been seeing glitches like the ones described here. The external monitor doesn't seem to show the flash; the built-in display on the MBP2018 does. I have all the graphics performance stuff turned on and primarily work with the Affinity windows on the external (except when I need the greatest color fidelity and move back to the laptop display). I can't yet tie the flash to any specific behavior or repro case (like closing the apps). macOS 10.14.6 / Radeon Pro Vega 20 4GB.

[Chris B]

7 minutes ago, ChristiduToit said:

I'll try my best to film my actual monitor with my phone

This was going to be my next suggestion! 

It does sound hardware related (I'm not suggesting failing hardware) if it isn't showing up in a screen recording.

[ChristiduToit]

@Chris B Okay, that didn't take too long 
I've uploaded the video to YouTube as unlisted, here's the link (please excuse my dirty monitor): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EECpv_5zfOk&

After closing/quitting Affinity Photo, I clicked around which seems to have caused the glitch, but I've noticed it very frequently when using and quitting Affinity apps, whether I click around or not. The glitches are all different/different 'patterns', and only show up for a fraction of a second when they do happen. The glitch appears at around the 30 second mark in the video.

I've attached a screenshot of the glitch from the video for reference.

[ChristiduToit]

@Chris B
I'm so sorry about this, but I've just experienced the same thing when closing Adobe Acrobat and also Clip Studio Paint. It seems like this is indeed an issue with the latest MacOS update, and likely not caused by Affinity specifically as much as it is just caused by apps in general (I guess) - probably more prone to apps that are more GPU-heavy. Regardless, it's probably good to be aware of it just in case. 

[Chris B]

14 hours ago, ChristiduToit said:

probably more prone to apps that are more GPU-heavy. Regardless, it's probably good to be aware of it just in case. 

I think you're right. I assume/hope this is something Apple are aware of and will fix. Thanks for letting us know  

[Fradim]

Hallo all,

I had the same problem today, when I worked in publisher on iMac (2011, Sierra). It starts by screen flickering and after was screen divided so I was restarting computer. I opened AP again and after a while was appearing black screen with blue stripes and now unfortunately imac can not load system at all. I dont know, if it is because of the age of my imac, iOS update or what ever, but I am sure that screen issues was caused by AP, because I had similar screen flickering problem on iMac (2019, Mojave) in my work as well. Funny is, that I was thinking about cancelation of Adobe CC right today. I am curious what feetback will get I in apple service. Sorry for my english.

[Chris B]

Hey Fradim,

AFAIK this was happening to apps that are GPU-heavy as ChristiduToit pointed out. Affinity mostly relies on the CPU but for certain tasks, we can hammer the GPU which could lead to this. It will be worth keeping an eye open for this with the release of Catalina (we will be). 

[Yasir]

I just watched the video from christidu toit, i don’t get any banding horizontal lines, like his.

I have flickering issue, iMac 21”  (late 2015) 16GB Catalina.

i think it happened after I connected to a dual screen monitor. Yesterday I updated my Publisher, and it was doing the same flickering as it did in AD.
My observations: on my display, the whole screen goes black real quick with certain tools, the text tool is the best to test it with. Upon selecting the text tool and double click on active text or scroll to select it,or just hover text tool over a text box;  once moving the text tool to another text box, the flicker happens, only one flicker. I tried it with the rectangle tool, but no issue with that.

same as Affinity Photo, only when selecting the Text tool as well. It seems there is something with the text tool that is causing this quick flicker  

I have the whole Adobe iCloud installed, not sure if it’s a glitch from that. 
I don’t think it’s my graphics card, because it didn’t happen before, I use AD on daily basis. 
I would ditch the whole Adobe product, but I’m a freelancer and if I was sent an Ai file to work with, at least I have illustrator just handy, a costly handy. 
I read all those posted on this subject, was not clear if any mentioned having a dual monitor running. 
I will have to disconnect and see if that is an issue, but I have some work to finish off in another software.
thanks 

 

yasir