Ubuntu – Screen tearing when scrolling and in games

driversgraphicsnvidiascreenxorg

I've been getting screen tearing that is only present in Ubuntu (MATE 16.04).

Often when scrolling on pages, I get a horizontal line that tears through, and the same goes for games, particularly Minecraft (whenever I look around there is a horizontal tear)

It is extremely frustrating because the issue is not present in Windows.

I am using an i5-3570k with a NVIDIA GTX 670. Currently using the NVIDIA 361.42 proprietary drivers available through the driver options.

I tried the solution here by putting a configuration file in /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d as well as this solution to no avail.

Best Answer

I might be a little late here, but since you are using a NVIDIA graphics card the problem can be solved by editing nvidia-settings (make sure nvidia-settings is installed):

  • Open nvidia-settings (as root, via sudo).

  • Go to XServer Display Configuration.

  • Click on Advanced.

  • Enable Force full composition pipeline or Force composition pipeline (depends on what feels best for you).

  • Make sure to hit Save to x configuration file.

This solves almost all screen-tearing related problems with proprietary NVIDIA drivers.

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