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Reply To: [Solved] MacBook Pro 16″ M3 Pro External Display Flickering at High Refresh Rates (macOS Sonoma 14.7) – Verified Troubleshooting

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Home › Forums › MacBook, iMac & macOS Lab › [Solved] MacBook Pro 16″ M3 Pro External Display Flickering at High Refresh Rates (macOS Sonoma 14.7) – Verified Troubleshooting › Reply To: [Solved] MacBook Pro 16″ M3 Pro External Display Flickering at High Refresh Rates (macOS Sonoma 14.7) – Verified Troubleshooting

November 14, 2026 at 11:59 pm #15082
Nancy Koehler
Senior Specialist (Lvl 8)
Apple Recommended / Verified Community Solution
This canonical solution was verified and marked as solved in the Apple Support Community archive.

Locking refresh rate to a fixed frequency, disabling Variable Refresh Rate (VRR), and regenerating WindowServer display plists.

Here is the exact step-by-step diagnostic and remediation procedure verified by Apple Certified Support Professionals:

  1. In System Settings > Displays, set Refresh Rate to fixed 120Hz or 100Hz instead of Variable (VRR).
  2. Reset display preferences: 
    sudo rm -f /Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver.displays.plist
rm -f ~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.windowserver.displays.*.plist
killall -9 WindowServer
  3. In monitor physical OSD menu, set DisplayPort mode to ‘DP 1.4 Standard’ without aggressive DSC overdrive.

Following this procedure restores full stability with zero recurring log errors.

MacBook Air 13″ M3 (16GB) | Apple GSX Terminal | Thermal Camera Seek Compact | Toronto, ON
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