Window tearing with Radeon HD 5870

[Paul K]

I just built a new machine with a (Sapphire) ATI Radeon HD 5870 (Vapor-X) graphics card and am experiencing window tearing as well as video tearing when running the proprietary Catalyst Driver. I am also using Ubuntu 9.10 and am experiencing the same problem and was hoping that it would be fixed in Ubuntu 10.04 with Catalyst 10.4. However, this problem still persists.

I have tried fixing the problem by making manual adjustments to the xorg.conf file using aticonfig. I have tried the --ovon and --ovt thinking that overlay type might help with rendering off-screen buffers for composited desktops as well as --sync-video=on.

It's not just Compiz that is to blame also. Setting Visual Effects to None does not correct the problem either. I have also tried the workarounds extension in Compiz and have set "Fix screen updates in XGL with fglrx" as well as "Sync To VBlank" under General Options.

Having to reboot into Windows 7 to watch any video is not optimal as I plan to make Ubuntu my primary operating system. It frustrates me that the Catalyst driver on the Windows side does not have this problem. I was hoping that this would be corrected in the Catalyst 10.4 release for Ubuntu 10.04.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
Package: fglrx 2:8.723.1-0ubuntu3
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-21.32-generic 2.6.32.11+drm33.2
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-21-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: fglrx
Architecture: amd64
Date: Sat Apr 24 23:04:06 2010
DkmsStatus: fglrx, 8.723.1, 2.6.32-21-generic, x86_64: installed
LiveMediaBuild: Ubuntu 10.04 "Lucid Lynx" - Release Candidate amd64 (20100419.1)
MachineType: System manufacturer System Product Name
ProcCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/casper/vmlinuz file=/cdrom/preseed/hostname.seed boot=casper initrd=/casper/initrd.lz quiet splash -- maybe-ubiquity
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.utf8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: fglrx-installer
dmi.bios.date: 02/24/2010
dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
dmi.bios.version: 0703
dmi.board.asset.tag: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.board.name: P6X58D PREMIUM
dmi.board.vendor: ASUSTeK Computer INC.
dmi.board.version: Rev 1.xx
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: Asset-1234567890
dmi.chassis.type: 3
dmi.chassis.vendor: Chassis Manufacture
dmi.chassis.version: Chassis Version
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvr0703:bd02/24/2010:svnSystemmanufacturer:pnSystemProductName:pvrSystemVersion:rvnASUSTeKComputerINC.:rnP6X58DPREMIUM:rvrRev1.xx:cvnChassisManufacture:ct3:cvrChassisVersion:
dmi.product.name: System Product Name
dmi.product.version: System Version
dmi.sys.vendor: System manufacturer
glxinfo: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
system:
 distro: Ubuntu
 codename: lucid
 architecture: x86_64
 kernel: 2.6.32-21-generic

[Craig Crawford (craigcrawford1988)]

I am also experiencing this same thing, EXTREMELY bad tearing!

See here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/fglrx-installer/+bug/584733

[Craig Crawford (craigcrawford1988)]

I have had more time to test this on another computer.

Both R7** and R8** both suffer from tearing with fglrx proprietary drivers. The standard drivers do not suffer from this issue.