{Solved} GTX 650 Ti Boost Screen Tearing Mint 13 & 15

[Pawkoo]

Mint 13,15 Screen Tearing/Stuttering

MAJOR EDIT: After many weeks of searching and trying many different solutions I consulted my friend about the issue again. He realized that my model is the BOOST model so it comes overclocked from the factory. He told me that in itself is the issue. SInce it's overclocked, my friend told me it's out-pacing the rest of my display cache and that I should re-clock it back to normal. That's probably not the answer anyone wants to hear, but at least it provided some resolution. Even though it had been past the 15 mark for me to return the card to Newegg, they said they will make an exception since I couldn't fix it. Now that is some service. I will be returning the card to get a GTX 660 2gb and hopefully it will fix the issue. I'll keep this updated when I get the card. Thanks for your help!

Postby Pawkoo on Sat Jun 22, 2013 8:09 pm
I am running into a serious screen tearing and stuttering issue with linux. I recently built my first computer and specs are as follows:
Asus Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 AM3+ Motherboard
AMD 6350 3.9Ghz Processor
Gskill SNiper 2x4Gb 1866 Mhz
Asus GTX 650 Ti Boost 2Gb
Asus 1920x1080p Monitor

I have been running Linux Mint 13 Mate ever since it was released. I hadn't had any screen tearing issues, but then again I was using a really old computer up until now. After getting Mint 13 Mate on my new computer I installed the current nvidia driver and settings (304.88) and when I would play and type of movie I immediately ran into screen tearing. I have been researching this for weeks, no joke, and found the usual fixes everyone has tried: Modifying "/etc/environment" to enable vsync and disable clutter/culling, changing all types of settings in Nvidia Settings, changing driver versions from 304 to 310 to 313 to 319 and the end result is always the same. I have installed Mint 13 Mate and Cinnamon versions as well as Mint 15 Cinnamon. Here is where it gets interesting: After doing a new install into any of these versions and updating everything through update manager, I go into synaptic to install the nvidia driver/settings. After this is done and I reboot, no tearing is visable, it's perfect... but only for a time. It may take a couple hours or even until the following day, but inevitably screen tearing and/or stuttering appears seemingly from nowhere. I am wondering if there's a library I need to install, but after research I do not believe that is it. I'm also wondering if it could have anything to do with a program I have installed, but that seems like a stretch. I'm not sure if Cinnamon has compositing but I know Mate does and I turned it off(turning it on had a bad effect). In summary, I'm able to get rid of video tearing/stuttering for a few hours at best until one or the other returns. Tl;dr With a fresh install of Mint, either 13 or 15 Cinnamon/Mate and fresh Nvidia driver install I don't experience tearing/stuttering, but it starts to happen a few hours after the install regardless of the modifications I make to "/etc/environment" or Nvidia settings as stated by the research I've done. Thanks for the help!

Edit: I should mention that the tearing/stuttering (slight pauses in movies) occurs in Vlc Player, Banshee, Mplayer, etc. which leads me to believe it's video driver based.

[catweazel]

Code: Select all

$ sudo nano -w /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Paste this into the editor window and save changes with CTRL-O or ^o:

Code: Select all

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Device0"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
    BoardName      "GeForce GTX 650"
    Option         "RegistryDwords" "PowerMizerEnable=0x1; PerfLevelSrc=0x2222; PowerMizerDefaultAC=0x1"
    Option         "UseEvents" "True"
EndSection

Your video card will have clocked down in speed, which explains why it's ok at first but not soon afterwards. The change above will force it to run at full tilt. I have [url=http://s2.postimg.org/pk9be6tgp/big_gb_680_soc_6.jpg]one of these[/url] three slot GTX 680 beasts and nearly fainted when I saw the lag. It took quite a bit of research and testing to sort it out.

If the problem still isn't solved, go into Synaptic package manager and install a lowlatency kernel, with headers. If you do this, you will need to install grub-customizer so that you can set the lowlatency kernel as the default boot entry:

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$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:danielrichter2007/grub-customizer
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install grub-customizer

[Pawkoo]

First off I would like to say thank you for your reply. I've been researching this for weeks with nothing but old threads and no solution for my efforts.
I edited "/etc/X11/xorg.conf" with the lines you provided and did a reboot thereafter. However, nothing has changed and so I'll be sure to provide more info. I'm currently in Mint 13 right now with Nvidia 319.23 driver installed. I also currently have edited "/etc/environment" with this code:

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CLUTTER_PAINT=disable-clipped-redraws:disable-culling
CLUTTER_VBLANK=True

Inputting the text you mentioned in your post didn't seem to change anything either.

Since you seem to know a great deal more than I about these issues I thought more info should help. I should also mention that when I was in MInt 15 Cinnamon, I had the same issue (Screen tearing/stuttering) and then edited "/etc/environment" with the text I entered above and for about an hour I had it all fixed; no screen tearing/stuttering when watching movies and no tearing in Firefox when scrolling. As I said it only lasted for a little over an hour and then went back to tearing as well as stuttering every 3 seconds. I'm really confused why it would all of the sudden go back to tearing if it had been fixed. I simply watched a move and then browsed the web and noticed the tearing again.

I would consider myself mid level as far as understanding linux, so I could really use some more help if you're up for it. Again, thanks so much for the info you've provided. SO far you are the only answer I've gotte

EDIT: I should also mention I have tried what other threads have said worked for them and changed some items in Nvidia X Server settings: I turned powermizer settings to "prefer max performance", OpenGL settings to max performance and every variation of which. Also, Sync to VBlank, Allow Flipping and Conformant Texture Clamping are all on by default. Thanks again!

[catweazel]

I turned powermizer settings to "prefer max performance"

That's what the org.conf text I posted does, only it's permanent.

Ok, reverse the text edit I suggested, i.e. remove it. Then go into the root nVidia settings app. Set the PowerMizer options to full. Go to the XX Server Display Configuration item in the left panel. Down in the bottom right corner, click Save to X Configuration File.

That will create xorg.conf. Please post the contents of that file. Make sure you enclose it in code marks otherwise it's unreadable.

[Pawkoo]

Alright, sorry for the late reply. I reversed your previous directions and saved the nvidia x config file, here it is:

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# nvidia-settings: X configuration file generated by nvidia-settings
# nvidia-settings:  version 319.23  (buildd@wani06)  Fri May 24 05:50:10 UTC 2013

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier     "Layout0"
    Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
    InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
    InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
    Option         "Xinerama" "0"
EndSection

Section "Files"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    # generated from default
    Identifier     "Mouse0"
    Driver         "mouse"
    Option         "Protocol" "auto"
    Option         "Device" "/dev/psaux"
    Option         "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
    Option         "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    # generated from default
    Identifier     "Keyboard0"
    Driver         "kbd"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    # HorizSync source: edid, VertRefresh source: edid
    Identifier     "Monitor0"
    VendorName     "Unknown"
    ModelName      "Ancor Communications Inc ASUS VS238"
    HorizSync       24.0 - 83.0
    VertRefresh     50.0 - 75.0
    Option         "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Device0"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
    BoardName      "GeForce GTX 650 Ti BOOST"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Screen0"
    Device         "Device0"
    Monitor        "Monitor0"
    DefaultDepth    24
    Option         "Stereo" "0"
    Option         "metamodes" "nvidia-auto-select +0+0"
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       24
    EndSubSection
EndSection

[catweazel]

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Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Device0"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
    BoardName      "GeForce GTX 650 Ti BOOST"
EndSection

Change that to this:

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Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Device0"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
    BoardName      "GeForce GTX 650 Ti BOOST"
    Option         "RegistryDwords" "PowerMizerEnable=0x1; PerfLevelSrc=0x2222; PowerMizerDefaultAC=0x1"
    Option         "UseEvents" "True"
EndSection

[Pawkoo]

I followed your instructions and sadly it didn't work. I'm currently in Mint 15 MATE 64 bit.
After I saved the X settings you posted and did a reboot it still didn't change anything. I turned compositing on and made it slightly better, but I'm still getting massive tearing so compiz really doesn't matter.
I'm not sure what else to try at this point; any direction would be great. Thanks for the help so far!

Just so you're sure I did it correctly here's the xorg.conf:

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Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Device0"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
    BoardName      "GeForce GTX 650 Ti BOOST"
    Option         "RegistryDwords" "PowerMizerEnable=0x1; PerfLevelSrc=0x2222; PowerMizerDefaultAC=0x1"
    Option         "UseEvents" "True"
EndSection

[Pawkoo]

I've so far installed the latest Nvidia beta driver 325.08 and, you guessed it, no change in tearing. I'm sadly working on getting windows on another hdd I have for gaming to remedy this issue. If anyone has some info I'll check back in. Thanks