Reply To: [Solved] How to fix External Display Flickering at High Refresh Rates caused by DSC compression and VRR handshake failure over USB-C DisplayPort on MacBook Pro 14″ M1 Max

[Raymond Washington]

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 Pro 14″ M4 (32GB) | Studio Display | YubiKey 5C NFC | Munich, DE

Apple Certified Support Professional (ACSP) | Enterprise Mac Sysadmin & Jamf Pro Architect