Minecraft: Here’s Why Your Screen Is Flickering & How to Fix It
Even though it’s not something most of us worry about, screen flickering in Minecraft can quickly become something that annoys and disturbs our enjoyment of the game. To fix the problem, we have to answer one simple question first; why is your screen flickering in Minecraft?
Although there are several reasons why you might experience screen flickering in Minecraft, the most common one is related to your PC’s outdated graphics card drivers. To fix the problem, you have to update them to the newest version.
This simple solution won’t solve everyone’s problem with screen flickering, so I’ll aim to provide more causes of the problem and their solutions in the rest of this article. I’ll also aim to help you identify the type of screen flicker and whether or not you can narrow down what’s causing it through the various types.
Types of screen flickering
When you’re screen flickers, there’s likely only one type of screen flickering affecting your screen, but there are several different types of screen flicker. The type of screen flicker can partially help us identify the cause of the screen flicker, so let’s see what types of screen flickers there are and what their causes are.
A quick note before I list them. Most of these types of flickering have multiple potential causes, so further examination once you determine the type of flicker will be necessary. If anything, it will narrow the potential causes, helping you to get to the root of the problem faster.
Horizontal/vertical screen flicker
As the name suggests, the screen flickering will happen in vertical or horizontal lines. Take a moment to examine your screen flicker when it happens to determine whether or not this one’s the potential suspect.
When your screen flickers horizontally or vertically, the likely causes of the problem include GPU issues or mods, or resource packs that don’t interact well with one another. I’ll list the potential fixes later on.
Strobing
Most of the potential causes of a strobing effect flicker are potentially caused by your graphics card or outdated graphics card drivers. Another potential cause is that you have two or more shaders or texture packs that don’t interact well with one another.
Brightness changes
Brightness changes are most likely caused by your in-game video settings like dynamic lighting, or perhaps you have a mod or shader meant to change the game’s lighting settings.
Action specific flickering
Action-specific flickering is also most likely caused by the game. It might be an in-game bug that messes with the rendering of specific blocks or particle effects, or perhaps a mod or shader interacts with the game, so your screen will start flickering.
Other potential reasons for screen flickering in Minecraft
Mods
TSomemods cause screen flickering issues by directly modifying the game’s code and adding new code. Because of this, some mods might override each other’s code which will cause the game to start flickering.
To determine whether the mods are causing you problems, I recommend removing all mods first and checking if the problem persists. If it doesn’t, you know one of the mods is causing you problems. Add them back in one by one, waiting to see when the screen flickering occurs again.
Outdated graphics drivers
Having outdated graphics drivers is one of the easiest causes of screen flickering to fix since all you have to do is update your graphics drivers. If you use Nvidia drivers, you can download the Nvidia GeForce Experience app and update the drivers there, for example.
Other software running in the background
If you have things like Discord running in the background or a program is using up a lot of your GPU’s resources, it can also be the potential cause of your screen flickering. To see if this is the cause of your issue, you might want to exit the programs running in the background and see if the screen flickering stopped or not.
Relieving you of the worry if it’s your PC
Naturally, when our screens start flickering, we might jump to the conclusion that something’s wrong with our PC. If your screen is flickering only when you’re playing Minecraft, of course, it does not exclude the possibility that the problem is your PC, but it’s more likely that the cause of the problem is something so small and meaningless.
The only time you should truly be worried that something’s wrong with your PC is if your screen is constantly flickering, not just when you’re playing Minecraft.
Troubleshooting Bedrock Edition screen flickering
It’s not often that we see the potential causes and fixes to screen flickering in Minecraft for consoles, but here I am, ready to relieve you of your worry if something’s wrong with your console. Although many of the same things might cause screen flickering in Minecraft Bedrock Edition, some causes are specific to console users.
The first might be that your console is overheating. It takes a lot of power to make the console run, and if you’re not ensuring proper ventilation for the console to cool itself, it might overheat, which will cause the screen to flicker. Ensure that your console’s ventilators can do their job properly.
Another potential cause is that the game or your console’s firmware needs to be updated to the latest version. Another potential suspect might be your monitor’s display settings or your HDMI cable is simply not plugged in properly.