Update: You can do it easier now with the NVIDIA control panel. See this newer article for info.
Thanks to a few different people for their advice (xpander for the initial advice on a script and HeavyHDx on twitter) I have finally found a way to stop screen tearing with Nvidia proprietary drivers.
I have been struggling with this issue for months across all the different desktop environments I tried (KDE, GNOME, Cinnamon, Unity), and it has caused me a fair amount of headaches and stress, so I am pleased to finally find a solution. It's not perfect, slightly annoying, but also quite useful too.
You have probably heard of ForceFullCompositionPipeline before and that is what I am using. I have two scripts setup on keyboard shortcuts depending on the resolution that I am using (4K or 1080p). Why both? I hear you ask. It's simple, performance in a lot of games at 4K resolution is terrible, and some games have tiny unreadable text, so I run certain games at 1080p.
Here's where the confusion came from...
The problem with ForceFullCompositionPipeline is when you play a game that has a fullscreen mode that changes your desktop resolution, instead of stretching a fullscreen window, is that ForceFullCompositionPipeline is reset back to disabled. If you have noticed screen tearing returning at times even with using ForceFullCompositionPipeline, that could well be your issue too. Like me, if you didn't know that, it was probably bugging you a lot. This is also why simply putting it in an xorg config file will not 100% solve it, where as with this method you can just re-run it any time you need to.
So, here are the two very simple scripts I run. They are both put in plain text files and allowed to run as an executable (right click -> properties -> permissions -> tick "Allow executing file as program").
First up is for the 4K resolution (I have this set to run at start-up so I don't have to mess with xorg stuff directly):
nvidia-settings --assign CurrentMetaMode="DP-4:3840x2160_60 +0+0 { ForceFullCompositionPipeline = On }, DVI-I-1:1920x1080_60 +3840+0 { ForceFullCompositionPipeline = On }"
And for 1080p resolution:
nvidia-settings --assign CurrentMetaMode="DP-4:1920x1080_60 +0+0 { ForceFullCompositionPipeline = On }, DVI-I-1:1920x1080_60 +1920+0 { ForceFullCompositionPipeline = On }"
If you only have one monitor, you won't need the addition part after the comma.
You can run the script at any time. Your monitor(s) will blink, and then come back all sorted.
You will of course need to change things like "DP-4" and "DVI-I-1" to the connections your monitor is using (or monitors in my case as I have two). You can find them out by running the "xrandr" command in terminal. It will give you a list of things, like this:
QuoteDP-4 connected primary 3840x2160+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 621mm x 341mm
I hope this helps someone else, as it has been driving me nutty. They are pretty safe scripts to use, I have been testing switching between them constantly, but don't blame me if you blow your computer up.
These two little scripts have literally changed my gaming life on Linux for the better.
Where it becomes even more useful
A nice side-effect of the script: Games like RunningWithRifles which has poor multi-monitor support, it actually turns off my main monitor. Hitting the desktop shortcut I set for it will bring that monitor back, and still allow me to play the game. So not only do you get zero tearing, you get your normal multi-monitor experience back.
Feel free to share what methods you're using on your favourite desktops. Let's see if we can help each other in the comments.
Quoting: XpanderDid you try to disable your compositor while running games ?Quoting: stanQuoting: tusharkant15This forces Triple Buffering so the performance does take a hitTriple buffering is supposed to improve performance compared to double buffering. Well, the framerate should improve, not the latency.
i think the issue where it takes the hit is where game itself has triplebuffer enabled as well.
some games get really jumpy framerate when thats in xorg.. thats with my experience.
just ForceCompositionPipline fixes all tearing for me and no need to use other tweaks.
I know the auto-detection doesn't work well since lot of games now play in a borderless window. It's hard for them to detect fullscreen and then auto-disable compositor, and that's what I experienced when I switched from XFCE (without compositor) to KDE (with compositor) 2 years ago. So I chose to do it by myself when needed.
KDE provides a shortcut key to disable it manually, default is Ctrl+Alt+F12 iirc, and can be changed to any key you want (I personally use Pause key). While compositor doesn't hit performance on "low demanding" games, it can cripple fps on "high demanding" games like Feral or Aspyr ones. So I press my "magic key" to improve FPS. :P
To be honest I hardly believe triple buffer may hit performance, since its very benefit is to improve performance and provide steady FPS, at the cost of a larger usage of VRAM. Your problem should come from somewhere else.
See Nvidia documentation or simply Wikipedia article.
Enable:
sh -c "nvidia-settings --assign CurrentMetaMode=\"$(nvidia-settings -t -q CurrentMetaMode |tr -d "\n"|sed 's/ViewPortIn=/ForceFullCompositionPipeline=On, ViewPortIn=/g'|sed 's/.*:://'|sed 's/^ *//;s/ *$//')\""
Disable:
sh -c "nvidia-settings --assign CurrentMetaMode=\"$(nvidia-settings -t -q CurrentMetaMode |tr -d "\n"|sed 's/.*:://'|sed 's/^ *//;s/ *$//')\""
However, forcing ForceFullCompositionPipeline is just like running a compositor (IT IS a simple compositor) plus you lose shadows and candies, see those benchamrks running simple "teapot" mesa demo:
FPS | Window manager | compositor
-----------------------------------
978 openbox NONE
976 kwin NONE
907 openbox Compton opengl
905 kwin kwin opengl 3.1
905 kwin ForceFullCompositionPipeline=on
902 openbox ForceFullCompositionPipeline=on
...that is the 7-8% performance hit i'd expect when running a compositor on my GTX470 (it is negligible when overrall fps are low, but more evident on simple demos like teapot, and in newer cards the performance hit should be even less evident).
So, if you managed to have vsync with userspace compositors like kwin,compton,mutter and so on, i think it is better to use them instead of ForceFullCompositionPipeline.
Last edited by kokoko3k on 17 May 2016 at 9:28 am UTC
Also, nvidia driver refers to display with other names (in my case is DPY-2), that's why i suggested a general script (see my previous comment).
Anyway, you're already running a compositor; i don't think is a good idea stacking one on top of another. as you will lose twice the performance in the best case.
BTW:
The fact that the performance drop is the same as running a compositor should REALLY be written in the main article; there's no vodoo magic here.
Last edited by kokoko3k on 19 May 2016 at 2:44 pm UTC
Quoting: DaverballFor me creating a file "Tearing.sh" in /etc/profile.d did the trick:
# /etc/profile.d/Tearing.sh
export KWIN_TRIPLE_BUFFER=1
Of course you may still end up having screen tearing in some games that do not have it enabled by default, but at least the desktop experience should be mostly tearing free with that and it also doesn't randomly break by launching a game.
Naturally also relies on you running KDE with Kwin.
THANKS MAN! This worked.
P.S: Why the V-Sync option on nvidia-setting don't works?
Also, the native V-Sync option on KDE plasma do the same as this method?
Last edited by Akonady on 24 May 2016 at 11:48 pm UTC
in xorg.conf
use this command Option "AutoRepeat" "1000 1" if you have a 1ms keyboard and mouse
you can use it in every layout Section "ServerLayout" :D
and other one to use in case if xorg not wanna run 1ms speed
xset r rate 1000 1
and add that to start-up if have 1ms and 1000hz mouse or keyboard :D
and if you not know you can change pointer control xset m 1/1
and if you really like my settings do this for 1/1 acceleration too i guess (linux only)
Option "AccelProfile" "flat" (to enable 1/1 accel need to have a acceleration command in xorg.conf to work) like mine Option "AccelSpeed" "0.3" or some other command
in mouse and serverlayout :P my secret mouse settings :D
and i have some few more but can edit it later if you want
This is the one of the reasons i dont use windows cuz i want to change things in it :P, And i just wanna use command not installing shity programs or program the shit, btw someone tested the windows 10 new windows linux terminal native to do this stuff?
Last edited by IDNO on 18 June 2016 at 1:56 pm UTC
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