Possible reasons for screen tearing from GPU output but not motherboard output with the GPU installed

[karsenlo]

I have a 6 year-old Dell desktop with a 1070 GPU. I have noticed frequent screen tearing for the last few months. There were also a few times that the system could not detect the GPU after booting up (using igpu instead) and sudden blue screens (something about "video", but do not remember the exact error code). I checked on the error code briefly and I remember the online information pointed toward the problem with the 1070. Also, there is no tearing problem when the monitors are connected to the onboard video output, even with the 1070 installed. After all, I ended up replacing the 1070 with a 4060 last week. However, there is still the same problem with the tearing from the 4060 video output. The only difference is that the height of where the tearing usually appears on the screen seems to be different. I tried some suggestions from the internet by changing the setting in the Nvidia control panel (both before and after replacing the 1070), but nothing has worked so far.

Does anyone have a clue about which part of my PC might be causing the issue? 1070? Motherboard? Faulty 4060? PCIE socket? Or could this be the result of some setting that was changed for some reason? Really appreciate it if you could provide some advice on what to do.

[adm0n]

It would be good, if you could elaborate on what you mean by tearing.

 

Usually tearing refers to the GPU outputting images at a different speed than your screen refreshes at. That way you will have multiple frames on screen (lets say the top half was the older frame and the bottom half the newer frame). You will see a seam at the border of these frames. Unless your GPU is perfectly out of sync with your screen, the place of the seam will vary basically with every frame.

 

I'm guessing this isn't what you are talking about though, right? Maybe you just have some tearing while scrolling in your browser for example? Or in other programs? If you window the program, does it also appear outside of it?

[karsenlo]

I am indeed seeing a seam at the border of the frames, which is the same as what you described. It is most obvious when it is videos panning sideways or when playing those screen tearing tests from YouTube. It is also noticeable when I scroll the page quickly, I can see a seam between the upper and lower half of the screen. And all these only happen when the monitors are connected to the GPU.

[Kilrah]

Probably just a refresh rate/frame sync setting either in the GPU driver or on the monitor's OSD

[adm0n]

21 minutes ago, karsenlo said:

I am indeed seeing a seam at the border of the frames, which is the same as what you described. It is most obvious when it is videos panning sideways or when playing those screen tearing tests from YouTube. It is also noticeable when I scroll the page quickly, I can see a seam between the upper and lower half of the screen. And all these only happen when the monitors are connected to the GPU.

 

Just now, Kilrah said:

Probably just a refresh rate/frame sync setting either in the GPU driver or on the monitor's OSD

That would also be my first guess. Otherwise you shouldn't see it in videos.

[karsenlo]

Tried all refresh rate settings, 50, 59, 60, none of them solved the problem. Also, I realized the screen tear condition has a "cooldown time". When playing the screen tear testing video in full screen (no tearing if not played full screen or not really noticeable), the tearing would appear for 4-5 seconds, then back to normal with no tearing for a second or so, then another 4-5 seconds with tearing and so on.

 

I also tested whether resolution would make a difference, so I lowered the resolution from FHD to 1600*900. When the testing video is played in such condition on either the monitors, there is no tearing on one of the monitors, while the other one still has the problem (except the position of tearing is almost at the lower edge of the screen, it was about 1/3 from the bottom in FHD mode)

 

 

On 4/2/2024 at 6:09 PM, Kilrah said:

Probably just a refresh rate/frame sync setting either in the GPU driver or on the monitor's OSD

 

On 4/2/2024 at 6:11 PM, adm0n said:

 

That would also be my first guess. Otherwise you shouldn't see it in videos.

 

[Kilrah]

3 hours ago, karsenlo said:

, there is no tearing on one of the monitors, while the other one still has the problem

Are both monitors running at the same refresh rate?

[karsenlo]

They are, and I never changed them whatsoever. For now, I have tested and checked multiple times the input refresh rate from the graphic card which match the monitors'. Still, could not solve the issue.

[adm0n]

On 4/3/2024 at 5:50 PM, karsenlo said:

Tried all refresh rate settings, 50, 59, 60, none of them solved the problem. Also, I realized the screen tear condition has a "cooldown time". When playing the screen tear testing video in full screen (no tearing if not played full screen or not really noticeable), the tearing would appear for 4-5 seconds, then back to normal with no tearing for a second or so, then another 4-5 seconds with tearing and so on.

 

I also tested whether resolution would make a difference, so I lowered the resolution from FHD to 1600*900. When the testing video is played in such condition on either the monitors, there is no tearing on one of the monitors, while the other one still has the problem (except the position of tearing is almost at the lower edge of the screen, it was about 1/3 from the bottom in FHD mode)

So the tearing happens on both monitors when run at their native resolution? It could just be that there is some weird interaction going on between your GPU and your monitor. It sounds like they are just not synchronized, i.e. (doesn't work this way but take it as an analogy) your monitor expects 60 pictures a second, and expects them to arrive starting from t=0. Your GPU is outputting 60 pictures a second, but starts a slightly offset time, like t = 5ms. That way one frame would take up ~70% of the screen, while the rest 30% would be drawn when the monitor updates to the next frame. And at that time your GPU delivers the next frame, which takes up the remaining 70% of the screen. Like this you'd be left with a horizontal seam in the top part of your monitor.

 

There was also a problem with Nvidia GPUs and Samsung TVs, where they would just not be able to consistently output a signal at all. So this kind of thing isn't unheard of.

 

The first thing I'd try (if you haven't so far) is uninstall your GPU driver using DDU.

 

If that doesn't help, you would have to either try with a different monitor (a different model altogether) or it could actually be the circuit on your GPU that is the problem, in which case I'd RMA it.

 

There are also less conventional solutions, that might work. It is possible to use your iGPU to output to your monitor, but your dGPU to render games and have that displayed through your iGPU. And maybe you could also hack up different timings for your monitor. But I don't know about either well enough, that I could just tell you whether they'd work for you or not. If you feel like trying either of them out, you'll have to put the work in and figure out how they actually work!

 

Either way, good luck with your problem! Hope you'll get it fixed.