Shimmering, Lack of Anti-Aliasing in games and video

Question

I have been having a very unfortunate, very sticky problem for over a year now, the same issue as reported in https://learn.microsoft.com/en-gb/answers/questions/5683052/flickering-shimmering-aliasing and https://www.reddit.com/r/AMDHelp/comments/1qn2lqz/shimmering_on_all_games/.

I want to preface by saying I have been through 3 computers, and am now at a different location entirely(As I saw home electrical being bad is a potential cause) with a computer completely on AMD hardware whereas before I was on NVIDIA, and the issue has persisted across all devices and locations.

I have:

• Attempted utilizing AMDs performance enhancing effects like image scaling and manually setting morphological AA to max
• Disabled any and all of amd's boosters such as the above and reset all settings to factory default
• In windows settings ive matched both of my monitors to 60fps and have changed their cables to fresh ones, issue appears on either monitor alone or both if together
• Made sure I have no custom scaling or normal scaling applied
• Disabled game optimization and all advanced graphics settings in windows (This was after having tied using hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling
• I have installed and ran DDU for a completely clean install of my graphics drivers
• After running DDU, I then reinstalled windows completely from scratch and reinstalled the newest drivers for the AMD
• I was meticulous enough to go through and confirm my favorite games (Tarkov, Total Warhammer 3, Halo INF, Space Marine 2) are not using TAA. I have cranked most of these games through basically every combo of antialiasing settings.
• I do not only see this effect in Games, but also when Im watching any sort of video, such as youtube or Prime video, as well as certain things like steams store page being incredibly blurr. Not sure if that matters but thought Id mention its not ONLY within 3d video games.
• My monitors are 2k, upgraded from 1080 when the issue started. I know this is not 4k, but please do not suggest that it's normal and expected for 2K resolution equipment to be presenting you with Nintendo Wii level graphics like ive seen before, I played on 1920x1080 originally and that was perfectly clear with no shimmering before the issue began To summarize, at this point I have done most if not all end user troubleshooting ive seen online, gone through over $9k worth of equipment, and literally moved across the state, and am still having this problem. Im hoping I can find a wizard online here because my 6 thousand dollar computer is currently running with the same graphical fidelity as an original Xbox and it has had me bummed out for about a year now.

Answer 1

Hi Austin Morris,

Thank you for providing the detailed troubleshooting history. Since you've already tested different GPUs, monitors, cables, drivers, Windows installations, and even different hardware platforms, this appears less likely to be a game-specific anti-aliasing issue and may be related to how the image is being processed or displayed.

A few additional checks that may help narrow this down:

1, Disable monitor image enhancements

• Open your monitor's on-screen menu (OSD).
• Turn off features such as Sharpness Enhancement, Super Resolution, Dynamic Contrast, HDR Effects, or similar image-processing options.
• Set the monitor sharpness level to its default/recommended value.

2, Test HDR settings

• Go to Settings > System > Display > HDR.
• If HDR is enabled, temporarily disable it and compare the results.
• If HDR is already disabled, try enabling it for comparison if your display supports it.

3, Confirm native display settings

• Verify the monitor is running at its native resolution and recommended refresh rate.
• Check that no monitor scaling or compatibility mode is active.

4, Compare with a screenshot

• Capture a screenshot of the affected area.
• View it on another device or display.
• If the artifact appears in the screenshot, it may originate from the rendering process. If it does not, the display or image-processing path becomes a stronger suspect.

If possible, please share the monitor model(s) involved and whether the shimmering is visible in screenshots, as that information could help further isolate the cause.

I appreciate the effort you've put into troubleshooting this issue so far, and I hope these additional checks help point us in the right direction.

Let me know if you need further assistance, feel free to ask me by clicking "Add Comment" or "Add Answer" if you cannot add comment so your response will be visible. Thanks for your effort.

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