How to Fix Screen Tearing: 6 Methods for Every Setup (2026)

You’re mid-game — a slow camera pan across an open world — and a jagged horizontal line splits your screen in two, as if someone sliced the image with a knife. That’s screen tearing, and knowing how to fix screen tearing can transform a frustrating visual mess into a clean, smooth display in under five minutes. Whether you’re gaming on Windows with an Nvidia or AMD GPU, running Ubuntu on X11 (think of Ubuntu as one popular flavor of Linux — a free operating system — and X11 as the old, foundational layer underneath it that has been managing how windows and graphics appear on screen since the 1980s, like the invisible stage crew that controls all the curtains and spotlights), or just watching a video that keeps stuttering, this guide covers every fix, ranked from the quickest to the most thorough.

What Is Screen Tearing? A Plain-Language Explanation

Think of your monitor as someone flipping through a flipbook. The flipbook has 60 pages per second (60 Hz), and each page is one complete image. Your GPU is the artist drawing those pages. The problem: your GPU doesn’t always hand over a finished page exactly when the monitor turns to a new one. Sometimes the GPU is halfway through drawing page 47 when the monitor decides to display it — so you see the top half of frame 47 and the bottom half of frame 46 simultaneously. That split line across your screen is the tear.

According to Wikipedia’s definition, screen tearing is what happens when your screen accidentally combines pieces of two different moments into a single image — like taking a piece of paper from yesterday and taping it on top of a different piece of paper from today, so you see a mismatched join running right across the middle. The technical term for this is a visual artifact where a display shows information from multiple frames in a single screen draw, and it occurs when the video feed is not synchronized with the display’s refresh rate. Tearing is especially noticeable during horizontal motion — slow camera pans, side-scrolling games, or fast-moving video. Critically, tearing can even occur when your FPS and refresh rate are numerically identical if they’re slightly out of phase, causing a fixed tear line at one location on the screen.

What Actually Causes Screen Tearing?

Before jumping into fixes, understanding the root cause helps you pick the right solution. Here are the most common culprits:

• GPU frame rate exceeds monitor refresh rate — Your GPU is rendering 100 FPS, but your monitor refreshes at 60 Hz. The monitor can’t keep up, and partial frames appear.
• V-Sync is disabled — Without synchronization, the GPU sends new frames whenever they’re ready, regardless of where the monitor is in its refresh cycle.
• Frame rate/refresh rate phase mismatch — Imagine two clocks on the wall that both show the correct time, but one is running just three seconds ahead of the other. Most of the time they look fine, but every time they try to chime together on the hour, they’re slightly off and the sound is a mess. In the same way, your GPU and monitor can both be running at 60 frames per second but be slightly out of step with each other — and that tiny, persistent mis-timing is enough to lock a tear line in one fixed spot on your screen.
• Outdated or misconfigured GPU drivers — On Linux especially, users on forums like Ask Ubuntu commonly report that a missing driver-level configuration causes persistent tearing that survives reboots.
• DLSS Frame Generation pushing FPS above the monitor’s limit — Users on the Microsoft Flight Simulator Forums report tearing when Nvidia’s Frame Generation feature pushes rendered output beyond the display’s maximum refresh rate.
• Hardware acceleration disabled in browser or media player — Tearing during video playback is a separate beast; it’s often caused by software-rendered video rather than a GPU sync problem.
• GPU performance bottleneck or power throttling — Irregular frame delivery from a stressed or throttled GPU creates uneven timing that sync methods struggle to handle.

How to Check Your Current Status Before Applying Any Fix

Identifying your setup first saves you from applying the wrong fix. Follow these steps to verify your refresh rate, GPU type, and current sync state.

Step 1: Confirm Your Monitor’s Refresh Rate (Windows)

1. Right-click the desktop → Display Settings.
2. Scroll to Advanced Display (Windows 11) or click Display adapter properties (Windows 10).
3. Note the refresh rate shown (e.g., 60 Hz, 144 Hz, 240 Hz). This is your target sync ceiling.

Step 2: Identify Your GPU Brand and Model

1. Press Win + X → Device Manager → expand Display Adapters.
2. Note whether your GPU is Nvidia GeForce or AMD Radeon — your fix path diverges here, especially on Linux.

Step 3: Check Whether V-Sync or Adaptive Sync Is Active

1. On Windows with Nvidia: Right-click desktop → NVIDIA Control Panel → Manage 3D Settings → look for “Vertical sync” status.
2. On Windows with AMD: Open AMD Radeon Software → Gaming → Global Graphics → check “Wait for Vertical Refresh.”
3. On Linux/Ubuntu: Rather than typing a technical command, what you are really looking for is a simple labeled status — specifically, whether a setting called “TearFree” is switched on or off for your AMD graphics card. If you are comfortable in a terminal, the command xrandr --prop | grep TearFree will display that status for you; if not, the steps later in this guide will show you exactly how to turn TearFree on without needing to interpret the raw output (AMD amdgpu driver only on X11).

Step 4: Check Monitor OSD for VRR/Adaptive Sync Toggle

This step is frequently overlooked. Many adaptive sync monitors ship with VRR (Variable Refresh Rate) disabled in the monitor’s on-screen display (OSD) menu. Both Nvidia and AMD’s official documentation flag this as a common failure point — check your monitor’s menu under “Gaming” or “Display” settings and ensure FreeSync or Adaptive Sync is toggled on before troubleshooting further.

How to Fix Screen Tearing with V-Sync (Windows — Nvidia and AMD)

V-Sync is the universal first fix. It tells your GPU to wait for the monitor’s refresh window before delivering a new frame, eliminating the timing mismatch that causes tearing. The trade-off: it can introduce a small but measurable delay called input latency — this is the gap between the moment you act (say, pressing a button) and the moment you see the result on screen, much like the tiny delay between pressing a car’s gas pedal and feeling the engine actually push you forward. With V-Sync, that delay can reach roughly 33 milliseconds at 60 Hz, which is about one-thirtieth of a second. In fast-paced games, even that small gap can feel sluggish. On top of that, if your GPU drops below 60 FPS on a 60 Hz monitor, standard double-buffered V-Sync cuts your displayed frame rate to 30 FPS — a noticeable stutter.

Enable V-Sync In-Game (Fastest Fix — Any GPU)

1. Open your game and navigate to Settings → Graphics or Display.
2. Find “V-Sync,” “Vertical Sync,” or “Vertical Synchronization” and toggle it On.
3. Apply and restart the game if prompted.

Enable V-Sync via Nvidia Control Panel

1. Right-click the desktop → NVIDIA Control Panel.
2. Go to Manage 3D Settings → Global Settings.
3. Find Vertical sync and set it to “On” for a hard lock, or “Adaptive” (requires GTX 650 or newer) to disable V-Sync automatically when FPS drops below the refresh rate — eliminating the stutter penalty.
4. Click Apply.

Enable V-Sync via AMD Radeon Software

1. Right-click the desktop → AMD Radeon Software.
2. Go to Gaming → Global Graphics.
3. Set “Wait for Vertical Refresh” to “Always On” — or use Enhanced Sync for a lower-latency alternative that uses multi-buffering and disables V-Sync when the GPU falls behind the refresh rate.
4. Click Apply.

Pro tip from the Blur Busters community: For the lowest possible latency with V-Sync on, enable V-Sync in both the game and the driver, then use Rivatuner Statistics Server (RTSS) to cap your frame rate 1–2 FPS below your monitor’s refresh rate (e.g., 59 FPS on a 60 Hz display). This combination can reduce latency by up to 50 ms compared to conventional V-Sync alone, according to TechSpot’s testing methodology.

Fix Screen Tearing Permanently with G-Sync or FreeSync (Adaptive Sync)

If you’re a competitive gamer and V-Sync’s input lag is unacceptable, adaptive sync is the superior solution. Instead of the GPU waiting for the monitor, the monitor waits for the GPU — refreshing exactly when a new frame is ready. No tearing, no stutter, and no V-Sync latency penalty. This is a hardware solution, however, meaning you need a compatible monitor.

Enable Nvidia G-Sync

According to Nvidia’s official G-Sync requirements page, full G-Sync requires a GTX 650 Ti BOOST or higher, DisplayPort 1.2 directly from the GPU, and driver R340.52 or higher. G-Sync HDR requires a GTX 1050 or higher and DisplayPort 1.4. G-Sync Compatible (validated FreeSync monitors) requires a GeForce 10 series (Pascal) or newer, driver R417.71 or higher, and Windows 10 x64.

1. Open NVIDIA Control Panel → Display → Set up G-SYNC.
2. Check “Enable G-SYNC” and select your G-Sync or G-Sync Compatible display.
3. Go to Manage 3D Settings → Monitor Technology and set it to G-SYNC or G-SYNC Compatible.
4. Also enable V-Sync in this same panel — contrary to intuition, enabling V-Sync alongside G-Sync prevents the GPU from tearing frames above the monitor’s maximum refresh rate, while G-Sync handles everything below it. According to Blur Busters, this adds only 0.3 ms of latency.
5. Verify your monitor’s OSD has G-Sync or Adaptive Sync enabled.

Enable AMD FreeSync

According to AMD’s official FreeSync support guide, FreeSync is enabled by default after driver installation on compatible hardware — all AMD Radeon GPUs based on GCN 2.0 architecture or newer (Radeon RX 200 series and above). FreeSync works over both DisplayPort and HDMI on certified displays.

1. From the taskbar, click the Start button → AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition.
2. Navigate to the Display tab.
3. Under Display Options, verify AMD FreeSync shows as Enabled.
4. If disabled, toggle it on. FreeSync Premium and FreeSync Premium Pro tiers (formerly FreeSync 2 HDR, rebranded January 2020) offer additional features like LFC (Low Framerate Compensation), which duplicates frames when FPS drops below the VRR minimum so the display can still sync.
5. Confirm your monitor’s OSD has FreeSync or Adaptive Sync enabled.

Optimal frame cap values when using FreeSync/G-Sync with V-Sync: Based on community testing published by Blur Busters, cap your FPS slightly below your monitor’s max refresh rate — for example, 138 FPS on a 144 Hz panel, 156 FPS on a 165 Hz panel, or 233 FPS on a 240 Hz panel. AMD graphics cards reportedly need 1 ms additional buffer time for VRR to activate cleanly.

Fix Screen Tearing on Linux with an AMD GPU (TearFree Xorg Config)

If you’re running Ubuntu or another Linux distribution with X11 and an AMD GPU, the most reliable fix is enabling the TearFree option in the amdgpu Xorg driver. As defined in the Debian official amdgpu(4) manpage, TearFree controls “tearing prevention using the hardware page flipping mechanism.” The default state (“auto”) does not reliably eliminate tearing in practice — you need to explicitly force it on.

Important prerequisite: This fix requires the xf86-video-amdgpu DDX (Device Dependent X) driver package, not just the kernel amdgpu driver. On systems using the generic modesetting driver, the TearFree xrandr property won’t be available. Also note: this fix applies to X11 only — on Wayland, the compositor handles presentation timing differently, and screen tearing is largely eliminated without any configuration.

1. Open a terminal.
2. Create the Xorg configuration directory if it doesn’t exist: sudo mkdir -p /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/
3. Create the config file: sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-amdgpu.conf
4. Paste the following configuration:
   Section "Device"
Identifier "AMD"
Driver "amdgpu"
Option "TearFree" "on"
EndSection
5. Save and exit (Ctrl+X, then Y, then Enter in nano).
6. Reboot your system or restart the X session: sudo systemctl restart display-manager

Alternatively, for a quick test without rebooting (requires xf86-video-amdgpu DDX): run xrandr --output [your-display-name] --set TearFree on, replacing [your-display-name] with your actual output (find it by running xrandr alone). This setting won’t survive a reboot, so the config file method is preferred for a permanent fix.

Fix Screen Tearing on Linux with an Nvidia GPU (nvidia-settings)

On Linux with Nvidia’s proprietary driver, tearing is fixed by enabling ForceFullCompositionPipeline — a driver-level setting that forces the composition pipeline through the graphics engine, ensuring frames are only sent during the vertical blanking interval. This is documented on the ArchWiki’s Nvidia troubleshooting page. Note: this option was added as a standalone Xorg configuration option in Nvidia driver version 370.23 and later.

Quick Test (No Reboot Required)

1. Open a terminal and run: nvidia-settings --assign CurrentMetaMode="nvidia-auto-select +0+0 { ForceFullCompositionPipeline = On }"
2. Check if tearing disappears immediately. If it does, proceed to make this permanent.

Make It Permanent via GUI

1. Open nvidia-settings (you may need sudo nvidia-settings).
2. Go to X Server Display Configuration.
3. Click Advanced and enable “Force Composition Pipeline” and/or “Force Full Composition Pipeline.”
4. Click Apply, then “Save to X Configuration File” → save to /etc/X11/xorg.conf or /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-nvidia.conf.
5. On Manjaro specifically, users report saving to /etc/X11/mhwd.d/nvidia.conf to persist settings after system updates.

Multi-monitor caveat: ForceCompositionPipeline must be applied to each connected display individually — it is not a global setting by default. On dual-monitor setups with different refresh rates, some residual tearing may remain on the secondary display due to hardware sync limitations.

Fix Screen Tearing with Game-Specific Settings and Frame Rate Caps

For users who can’t or don’t want to use hardware adaptive sync, a frame rate cap is a surprisingly effective and free alternative. By preventing your GPU from exceeding the monitor’s refresh rate, you eliminate the core cause of tearing without the input lag of V-Sync.

In-Game Frame Rate Cap

1. Open Settings → Graphics in your game.
2. Find “Frame Rate Limit,” “FPS Cap,” or “Maximum Framerate.”
3. Set it to your monitor’s refresh rate (e.g., 60 on a 60 Hz monitor, 144 on a 144 Hz monitor).

Nvidia Frame Rate Cap (Driver Level)

1. Open NVIDIA Control Panel → Manage 3D Settings.
2. Find “Max Frame Rate” and set it to match your monitor’s refresh rate.

DLSS Frame Generation Tearing Fix

If you’re using Nvidia DLSS Frame Generation and experiencing tearing — a scenario commonly reported by users in the Microsoft Flight Simulator community — the generated frames can push displayed FPS beyond your monitor’s maximum refresh rate, causing tearing to reappear even with V-Sync enabled. The fix:

1. In the Nvidia Control Panel, set Max Frame Rate to match your monitor’s refresh rate (e.g., 60 FPS on a 60 Hz display).
2. Alternatively, enable G-Sync or G-Sync Compatible mode alongside V-Sync — this combination handles FPS spikes from Frame Generation gracefully.

Nvidia Fast Sync and AMD Enhanced Sync

Both technologies allow the GPU to render at full, uncapped speed but only display complete frames, reducing tearing with lower input lag than standard V-Sync. According to DisplayNinja, for Fast Sync or Enhanced Sync to meaningfully reduce input lag, your GPU’s FPS should ideally be at least double your monitor’s maximum refresh rate — otherwise, the multi-buffer mechanism doesn’t have enough frames to work with.

Screen Tearing During Video Playback: The Browser Fix

If your tearing only appears during video in Chrome, Firefox, or a media player — not in games — the cause is almost always disabled hardware acceleration, which forces the video to render in software. In Chrome: go to Settings → System and enable “Use hardware acceleration when available.” In Firefox: go to Settings → Performance and check “Use hardware acceleration when available.” Restart the browser after enabling either setting.

Comparison Table: V-Sync vs. G-Sync/FreeSync vs. Frame Cap vs. TearFree

Which Fix Should You Use? A Decision Guide

Before applying any fix, identify your GPU brand and operating system — the path diverges significantly between Nvidia and AMD, and even more so between Windows and Linux.

If you’re on Windows and just want tearing gone immediately: Enable V-Sync in-game. It takes 30 seconds and works with any GPU or monitor. If the input lag bothers you in competitive games, switch to Adaptive V-Sync (Nvidia) or Enhanced Sync (AMD) in the driver panel — both eliminate the stutter penalty of standard V-Sync.

If you’re a competitive gamer on Windows who games at 100+ FPS and needs the lowest possible input latency: invest in a G-Sync or FreeSync monitor. According to Nvidia’s original 2013 G-Sync announcement, adaptive sync delivers “no screen tearing and no V-SYNC input lag” — the best of both worlds. Pair it with the Blur Busters-recommended frame cap (e.g., 138 FPS on a 144 Hz panel) and enable V-Sync alongside adaptive sync to handle FPS spikes above the monitor’s ceiling.

If you’re on Linux with an AMD GPU and X11: Use the TearFree xorg config method — create /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-amdgpu.conf with Option "TearFree" "on". If you’re on Wayland (GNOME default on Ubuntu 22.04+), tearing should be absent without any configuration — Wayland’s compositor handles frame presentation natively.

If you’re on Linux with an Nvidia GPU: Enable ForceFullCompositionPipeline via nvidia-settings. Test it first with the terminal command, then save to xorg.conf for persistence.

If your tearing only occurs during video playback — not in games — enable hardware acceleration in your browser or media player. This is a different problem from GPU/monitor sync and requires a different fix. If you run into other hardware-related frustrations, solutions like how to fix stick drift or how to fix printer offline issues follow the same principle: identify the root cause before applying the fix.

Frequently Asked Questions About Screen Tearing

Does V-Sync Cause Input Lag?

Yes — this is a documented, measurable trade-off. Standard double-buffered V-Sync forces the GPU to hold a finished frame until the monitor’s next refresh window, adding approximately one to two frames of latency. At 60 Hz, that’s up to ~33 ms of additional delay between your mouse click and on-screen response. In competitive or fast-paced games, even this can affect your reaction time. Adaptive V-Sync (Nvidia) and Enhanced Sync (AMD) mitigate this by disabling V-Sync when the GPU can’t maintain the refresh rate, while G-Sync and FreeSync eliminate the problem entirely at the hardware level. You might also find our article on How to Fix Phone Not Charging: 10 Steps That Work (2026) helpful. You might also find our article on How to Troubleshoot a Crashing PC: 6 Steps That Fix It helpful. You might also find our article on How to Fix Slow Mac: 8 Steps That Actually Work (2026) helpful.

Does Screen Tearing Damage Your Monitor?

No. Screen tearing is a software synchronization artifact — a display timing mismatch — not a hardware stress event. There is no documented evidence across any technical or manufacturer source that screen tearing causes physical damage to the monitor’s panel, backlight, or electronics. It is purely a visual problem with no effect on monitor longevity.

Why Does Tearing Persist Even with V-Sync Turned On?

Several scenarios cause this. First, check your monitor’s OSD menu — many monitors ship with Adaptive Sync disabled at the hardware level, which can prevent sync from working regardless of driver settings. Second, on Linux with an Nvidia GPU, tearing typically persists even with a compositor’s V-Sync enabled unless ForceCompositionPipeline is explicitly set — the Nvidia driver does not apply the composition pipeline by default when no screen transformation is active. Third, if you have multiple monitors with different refresh rates, V-Sync may sync to one display’s rate but not the other, causing tearing on the secondary screen. Finally, conflicting frame limiters from two sources (e.g., in-game + RTSS + driver) can create a sync conflict — use only one frame limiter at a time.

What’s the Difference Between G-Sync and G-Sync Compatible?

Full G-Sync monitors contain a proprietary Nvidia-manufactured hardware module inside the display, replacing the standard scaler. G-Sync Compatible refers to FreeSync monitors that Nvidia has tested and validated to meet a set of quality criteria — including no blanking, flickering, ghosting, or other artifacts during variable refresh gaming, and a VRR range of at least 2.4:1 (e.g., 60–144 Hz). G-Sync Compatible monitors cost less than full G-Sync monitors because they don’t include the proprietary module. As of 2019, Nvidia officially supports FreeSync monitors as G-Sync Compatible with Pascal GPUs and driver R417.71 or later.

Does Screen Tearing Happen on Wayland?

Rarely, and without any configuration. Wayland’s design requires compositors to control frame presentation timing natively, which means tearing during normal desktop and video use is essentially eliminated without a TearFree config or ForceCompositionPipeline workaround. If you’re on a Wayland-based desktop (GNOME on Ubuntu 22.04+ defaults to Wayland) and still seeing tearing, it’s likely in a game running through XWayland compatibility mode — enabling V-Sync in the game itself should resolve it.

Fix Screen Tearing: Your Next Steps

Screen tearing is almost always fixable without spending money. Here’s the fastest path based on your situation:

• Windows user, any GPU: Enable V-Sync in-game right now. Takes 30 seconds.
• Windows, Nvidia, competitive gaming: Switch to Adaptive V-Sync in the Nvidia Control Panel, or enable G-Sync if you have a compatible monitor.
• Windows, AMD, competitive gaming: Enable Enhanced Sync in Radeon Software, or activate FreeSync if your monitor supports it — AMD’s official FreeSync guide walks through every step.
• Linux + AMD GPU + X11: Create /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-amdgpu.conf with the TearFree “on” directive and reboot.
• Linux + Nvidia GPU: Run the nvidia-settings --assign CurrentMetaMode command to test, then save ForceFullCompositionPipeline = On to /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-nvidia.conf.
• Video playback tearing only: Enable hardware acceleration in your browser or media player settings.

Start with the simplest fix for your platform and work up the list only if needed. In the vast majority of cases, a V-Sync toggle or a frame cap resolves the issue in under two minutes — no hardware purchase required.