Full Screen flash video tearing: Mint 18.1 + Cinnamon + nvidia GT 730 + x64 378.09 beta drivers

Graphics / Linux Linux
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Edit 4:
Both HTML5 and flash video seem to tear in Firefox. The issue goes away if Chromium is used. So I will hope Firefox gets fixed and use Chromium in the meantime for video playback.

OS: Mint 18.1 fully updated with the most aggressive update path turned on
Desktop Environment: Cinnamon
Video drivers: 64 bit, version 375.26 {tried} & 378.09 beta {currently running}. Both drivers has the same issue.
Problem: Screen tearing, most notable when doing full screen flash video, in Firefox, from sources such as Youtube or Crunchyroll.
CPU: haswell generation, and none of the cores ever get pinned at 100% while playing the video
RAM: 8GB
Kernel version: 4.4.0-62-generic

Edit:
Have attached:
nvidia-bug-report.log.gz

inxi -G | pastebin:

I am using the VGA output option on my card.

I have tried togging “force full composition Pipeline” on and off. I have tried swapping drivers to the new beta. I have tried a bunch of random possible fixes I found around the web, and nothing has helped.

If I have missed anything else, please let me know.

Edit2 :
I tried a clean install of Mint linux 17.3 with the cinnamon desktop. With specifically driver version 367.57 was the only time I didn’t see tearing {running the GT 730}. Although I did see other problems. The lines in screen tearing tests were now blurry, and almost had an odd shimmer to them. The faster the lines moved the more they’d blur and the more shimmery they’d get.

Tried using the integrated Intel video, and seen the same tearing problems {Mint 18.1}

Tried running driver version 367.57 in Mint 18.1 and still seen tearing. Although it appeared to be less so.

Tried many different kernels, and to some extent the amount of tearing changed, but it was always there.

Installed an Nvidia 970 GTX and seen tearing {mint 18.1, driver was 378.09}

Edit 3 :
Installed Open Suse tumbleweed – open source drivers had tearing. It wouldn’t connect to the repo so I couldn’t download the dependencies the proprietary driver installer needed.

Ubuntu 16.04.1 LTS – open source drivers didn’t have tearing, but had the same blurring and shimmering affect that Mint 17.3 had. Switched the driver with the build in driver manager to 367.57, as this is the Ubuntu recommended driver, and the tearing was back.
nvidia-bug-report.log.gz (122 KB)

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Provide the required info

https://devtalk.nvidia.com/default/topic/522835/linux/if-you-have-a-problem-please-read-this-first/

I haven’t seen any tearing here using Fedora 26 cinnamon with the same nvidia versions

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In addition to what leigh123linux indicated…

*Don’t do this. It only introduces unstable elements into the OS–as you were warned when you chose the settings which enabled this option.

**IME the lowlatency kernel runs smoother than the generic variety.

A while back I installed a Gigabyte GV-N730SL-2GL GeForce GT 730 on an ASUS M3A78-EMH HDMI running under 64-bit Linux Mint 17.3 MATE for a neighbour. The nVidia driver version recommended by 'Mint’s Driver Manager worked best. Newer nVidia driver versions just made the GT-730 run sluggish.

BTW. Linux Mint 17.3 MATE runs faster and is less buggy than Linux Mint 18.1 MATE and I’ve found that MATE runs faster than Cinnamon–especially on weaker graphics cards like the GT-730 (FWIW you should’ve at least went for a STRIX-GTX750TI-OC-2GD5 to get a better bang-for-the-buck).

To get rid of screen tearing under Linux Mint 17.3 MATE without resorting to the use of Compton (which slows a GT-730 down too much), turn on Compiz and disable its Animations and Fading Windows to achieve a more responsive UI. The fastest GT-730 performance under Linux Mint 17.3 MATE comes from using Marco.

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I’ve never given Linux much thought, and decided recently I’d give it an honest try.

Wanting to give Linux a proper try, rather than trap Linux in a VM, I decided to build a whole new computer for this purpose. Given as this was only a test case, the hardware purchased was somewhat conservative. I also gave up on gaming in the context of this test, and was only hoping to get a good desktop experience setup. Then I was going to try and move over as many of my computational tasks to that platform as I could. If things worked out, I’d spend more money on hardware, and time on learning the OS, in the future. Before making a bigger commitment to the OS though, I wanted to see that a stable functional desktop was possible.

It addition to the points mentioned above, it was a chance to make a computer with no moving parts, something else I wanted to try doing, and this is why I got a GT730 over other options.

I’ve been fighting with the OS for three weeks, and did solve odd issues with the mouse and sound on my own. Three weeks and much googling later I’ve not found a solution to this video tearing issue though, so I reached out to the community and Nvidia support for help.

Since the original TNT I’ve purchased Nvidia video cards, and never asked anything of Nvidia. The other day, for the first time, I reached out to Nvidia support for ideas. They just said they don’t support Linux and told me to post my problem on this forum saying: “and an NVidia engineer would reply”.

I did start with the Drivers in the Mint driver Manager, and they didn’t work well. The open source driver was sluggish, almost like a driver wasn’t loaded. The other two proprietary driver options were completely unusable. The system would crash minutes after booting, start in a low resolution, start and complain that video acceleration wasn’t available, and so on. At this point I figured out how to load 375.20, and I ended up with a responsive system, that was stable, but had tearing issues.

I’m going to keep working to try and figure out the issue, for a while longer at least. I’m not sure what is causing the issue, and have tried many things, so I feel like I’m groping around in the dark at this point. Some threads on these forms say all new Nvidia cards are affected by this bug, so if I do try a new card I guess something non-Nvidia? People suggested I go back and try Mint 17.3, which I will, but to me that seems like someone telling someone to install Windows XP because they are having trouble we newer piece of hardware in Windows 7. It seems like different Desktop environments and ways of rendering them might help too, but being three weeks new to Linux those things are somewhat intimidating tasks, but something I will still try and tackle if I need to. Some of these things might give me some ideas, but I was hoping someone might have had the same issue and could point me in the right direction, so I don’t spend a lot more time groping around in the dark, and maybe just give up.