XFX 290x 8 gb. If anyone has this exact same card, you might run into the same issue I did. I read other 290x cards had the same issue. It must be something on the board that triggers it. Luckly I had registered my card, and XFX has a lifetime warranty. Shipped it in and it was confirmed to be failing at 144hz, they replaced it with a 390x 8gb. So the 290x series was just a lemon all around if they arent even fixing them. Only at 144hz mind you, it worked fine with all the other games. With the new 390x installed everything ran just fine! No more flickering, no more popping. Acer tech support was quick at looking at my monitor so props to them. I still stand behind Acer as a go-to for badass monitors. Looks like the video card was the culprit afterall.