Flicker-Free Fix: Registry Edit Stops Driver-Induced Display Issues on Nvidia GPUs

Nvidia's latest driver update, version 616.56, caused problems for multiple users, including display flickering and artefacting, which affected GPUs from GTX 16 series to RTX 50-series cards.

The issue was widely reported by the community, with many users taking to Nvidia's feedback thread and subreddits to share their experiences. The problem seemed to be linked to color depth, particularly with panels set to 8-bit.

Nvidia initially pushed out a hotfix through driver version 616.86 on September 5, which addressed some of the issues but left the flickering problem unresolved. A further update, WQHL 616.92, was released on September 9, but it still didn't fix the issue.

One user, who had previously assumed their GPU was dead after installing the driver update, discovered that a simple registry edit could resolve the problem. By setting the 'OverlayTestMode' value to 5 in the Windows Registry, the flickering ceased.