Ubuntu
nvidia-prime package

Nvidia-prime produces unbearable visual stutter

Bug #1260128 reported by Adam Richard Martinez on 2013-12-12

This bug affects 17 people

Affects		Status	Importance	Assigned to	Milestone
	nvidia-graphics-drivers-331 (Ubuntu)	Triaged	Wishlist	Unassigned
	nvidia-prime (Ubuntu)	Triaged	Wishlist	Unassigned

Bug Description

I've installed NVIDIA-Prime v0.5 on Ubuntu 14.04 with all required dependencies, on a Clevo 355STQ with a 765m.

My issue is that whilst the new switching feature works very well, it still produces an extremely noticable amount of visual stuttering. In graphical and applications and games I can produce very large frames-per-second numbers yet the amount of visual tear makes the program unusable. Vsync/Sync to Vblank/vblank_mode=1 also does not work as intended, with tearing still present.

Has anyone else had this issue or found a fix?

Tags:

Revision history for this message

Alberto Milone (albertomilone) wrote on 2013-12-12:

Unfortunately this is a current limitation (to be fixed in the future) also mentioned in NVIDIA's documentation:

"There is no synchronization between the images rendered by the NVIDIA GPU and the output device. This means that the output device can start reading the next frame of video while it is still being updated, producing a graphical artifact known as “tearing”. Tearing is currently expected due to limitations in the design of the X.Org X server."

Source:
http://us.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86_64/331.20/README/randr14.html

Changed in nvidia-prime (Ubuntu):
status:	New → Triaged
importance:	Undecided → Wishlist

Alberto Milone (albertomilone) on 2013-12-20

Changed in nvidia-graphics-drivers-331 (Ubuntu):
status:	New → Triaged
importance:	Undecided → Wishlist

Flames_in_Paradise (ellisistfroh-deactivatedaccount) on 2014-02-22

tags:

added: trusty

Revision history for this message

Adam Richard Martinez (adaricmar) wrote on 2014-04-03:

I'd just like to state that an update from the stable Trusty kernel (3.13.0) to a mainline kernel (Trusty .deb) (3.13.8) seems to have reduced much of the tearing, making games and applications much more usable, at least on my machine. I'm not sure if this has anything to do with the recently proposed dma-buf hardware synchronization patches.

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Mikhail Abbas (mikhail-abbas) wrote on 2014-05-16:

@Adam dma-buf will *never* work with the proprietary drivers. A post on Phoronix should be enough proof for you http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTIwNDI

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Kamin Punpipat (kaminpattanasin) wrote on 2014-07-26:

For me, vblank_mode=1 is not use for enable V-Sync
vblank_mode=3 is use for enable V-Sync

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elbuglione (elbuglione) wrote on 2014-12-16:

alguien tiene algúna solición alternativa a este bug?

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Doug McMahon (mc3man) wrote on 2015-09-03:

At least here & others confirmed with recent nvidia mobile chips the latest nvidia drivers from the new ppa & an edit to xorg.conf eliminates most tearing (some vids here show a little on occasion
The ppa - https://launchpad.net/~graphics-drivers/+archive/ubuntu/ppa

The additional line added to /etc/X11/xorg.conf in the Intel device section -
Option "TearFree" "True"

Ex. here -
Section "Device"
    Identifier "intel"
    Driver "intel"
    BusID "PCI:0@0:2:0"
    Option "AccelMethod" "SNA"
    Option "TearFree" "True"
EndSection

Revision history for this message

Doug McMahon (mc3man) wrote on 2015-09-04:

Just to note about the above -
If nvidia-prime is used to switch to the intel gpu the xorg.conf is removed or moved to xorg.conf.xxxxxx
When switching back a new xorg.conf is created which will not contain the Option "TearFree" "True" line.

Whether whatever creates that xorg.conf should add the line by default is unknown here.
(though if anyone can point to what/how creates the xorg.conf would like to know

Revision history for this message

Doug McMahon (mc3man) wrote on 2015-09-04:

Found what generates & regenerates the xorg.conf & patched to include the tearfree line.
Users wishing to test can get an patched ubuntu-driver-common here, instructions on page to get going & how to purge if unsuitable.

Note that it's for Trusty only
https://launchpad.net/~mc3man/+archive/ubuntu/tearfree-test