Enabling Vsync for Steam games

[Rawit]

I'm using Steam on Ubuntu 13.10, Nvidia 319 drivers with a GT630. I'm getting tearing in most 3d games, even with vsync on. I've enabled/disabled vsync in the Nvidia panel and tried all settings in games like L4D2, but nothing makes a difference, always tearing. With L4D2 I even get tearing in the movies...

Am I missing a setting somewhere?

[PowerHaus930]

Are you sure that you're getting 60fps solid in those games? A 630 is a very weak card and i can't imagine it would be able to do 60fps an any game.

[Rawit]

Team Fortress 2 runs at 1920x1080, super smooth, except for the tearing. L4D2 runs smooth in 1280x720, but also with tearing.
When there is more going on on screen (for example a horde of zombies appears) I see no drop in frames.
I know the GT 630 isn't fast, but it's fast enough. In Cogs (which also runs on Android), I get tearing, and that game doesn't require much of a system.
Minecraft doesn't show any tearing, which I run at 1920x1080 with everything on high. It's smooth as butter.
But simple in game movies are tearing, so something else is wrong here.

[_I_]

esc -> options -> video -> advanced -> vsync

make sure nvidia driver settings have vsync to application controlled

[Rawit]

I've tried that, see first post. Nothing seems to make a difference.

[_I_]

try the console command
mat_vsync 1

[Crunkasaurus_Rex]

I use MSI afterburner, there's an option to set min/max framerates. Not sure if that'll help you, but it's worth a try.

[4IDEN]

Just a thought have you tried deleting the game and reinstall it if its only lfd2 then it must be the game. Im sure its a steam cloud game so you will keep all your in game data.

[_I_]

or dont use afterburner if you dont overclock the gpu

[rotNdude]

What monitor are you using?

[Rawit]

I'm not using afterburner. My card runs on stock speeds. I switched the settings from Auto to Max Performance though. My monitor is a Sony 46NX700 TV, connected through HDMI.

At the Ubuntu forums somebody said that when the card is not on Max Performance, the Vsync setting is ignored, but this does not seem to be the case. It looks like the problem is worst with Source games.

[rotNdude]

Since that's a 120Hz TV, it may have something to do with post processing that the TV is doing. I would go through the TV settings and see if there is something that will allow you to turn off any post processing features for the HDMI input you're using.

[Rawit]

The TV is set on Game mode, any post processing has been disabled (MotionFlow, etc).

[Rawit]

I've replaced Ubuntu with eOS. I've edited /etc/environment and added "CLUTTER_PAINT=disable-clipped-redraws:disable-culling" to it. Now I have vsync! And film grain! So it has something to do with Unity. I'm not sure if the change to /etc/enviroment works for Ubuntu.

[gionn]

My setup is Ubuntu 15.10 with xorg-edgers PPA and thus nvidia-355: tearing still there even with vsync enabled (but when disabled is even worse).

I've massively noticed it when playing Pillars of Eternity.

The unique WORKING solution I've applied, is explained on the ArchLinux Wiki[wiki.archlinux.org]:

nvidia-settings --assign CurrentMetaMode="nvidia-auto-select +0+0 { ForceFullCompositionPipeline = On }"

[Madh]

I had problems with tearing in games and video too.

@gionn solution worked for me, but i only tested in Manjaro (arch-based) and i don't know if that works in Ubuntu.