Ubuntu - GPU - AMD GPU - Troubleshooting - Screen Tearing

Screen tearing is an effect seen in moving pictures where the display suffers from distortion due to incorrect rendering of fast-changing images

Screen tearing occurs when the monitor’s refresh rate and GPU’s frame rate are not synchronized.
It is characterized as a horizontal split at one or more places in the image.

Screen tearing can be fixed by enabling VSync, Adaptive VSync, Enhanced Sync, Fast Sync, FreeSync, G-SYNC or Variable Refresh Rate, depending on what the PC system and monitor support.

GPU Config File Update

Edit (or create) the Xorg config file in the /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/ directory.

If using a newer AMD GPU, the file is probably the one named 10-amdgpu.conf.

/usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-amdgpu.conf

Section "Device"
    Identifier "AMDgpu"
    MatchDriver "amdgpu"
    Driver "amdgpu"
    Option "TearFree" "true"
EndSection

If using an older AMD GPU, the file is probably the one named 10-radeon.conf.

/usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-radeon.conf

Section "Device"
    Identifier "Radeon"
    MatchDriver "radeon"
    Driver "radeon"
    Option "TearFree" "true"
EndSection

NOTE: The key here is the TearFree option.

This configuration is effective for many different systems
It mmay work with Xorg-server or Wayland.

Restart the X server

restart gdm

NOTE: Be sure to save any work and close applications first, as this will log out any users utilizing the graphical front-end.

Alternative configuration utilizing DRI

A modified version of the configuration may also improve performance, by utilizing DRI (direct rendering infrastructure) 3.

This has certain improvements for the way the X server handles rendering.
Also enabling Glamor (if not enabled already by default) can improve 2D rendering tasks, performing them through Mesa’s OpenGL libraries.
- Older AMD cards will not support Glamor.
The enhanced configuration is as follows: