AMD screen update delay

aizuyks · 2015-01-22 12:19:38

Hi, I've been using arch linux for some years and I've never seen this. I got a new laptop (Dell Inspiron 15R) and I was struggling with this AMD issue for a while, but I could not find a solution.
The issue is a weird delay for the screen to update. Sometimes the screen just won't update until I make some input (move mouse, click, scroll, press a key on keyboard). I couldn't find a pattern of where or when it happens, but in general: in the terminal, web browsing, reading PDF, etc.

Here is a video demonstrating the issue on the terminal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1lqSICI64c.
First I run pacman and it runs (kinda) smoothly (in fact, if you pay attention, it is kinda laggy). Then when it showed the last line, it would just not update the screen until I pressed some key (in the video I pressed Ctrl). The thing is: the prompt was already there, but it just appeared when I pressed the Ctrl key.
At first I thought this was an issue with my mouse, but it happens with the touchpad as well and even with the keyboard (up/down keys for scrolling). It's not a terminal issue, as it happens with other software as well. Indeed, if I disable my AMD driver (and use the Intel board) then the issue is gone. It only happens with the AMD driver.

I already searched, but couldn't find a solution. My video board is AMD Radeon HD 8850M. I use Vi0l0's drivers and xorg113. My xorg.conf is this:

Section "ServerLayout"
	Identifier     "aticonfig Layout"
	Screen      0  "aticonfig-Screen[0]-0" 0 0
EndSection

Section "Module"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
	Identifier   "aticonfig-Monitor[0]-0"
	Option	    "VendorName" "ATI Proprietary Driver"
	Option	    "ModelName" "Generic Autodetecting Monitor"
	Option	    "DPMS" "true"
EndSection

Section "Device"
	Identifier  "aticonfig-Device[0]-0"
	Driver      "fglrx"
	BusID       "PCI:3:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
	Identifier "aticonfig-Screen[0]-0"
	Device     "aticonfig-Device[0]-0"
	Monitor    "aticonfig-Monitor[0]-0"
	DefaultDepth     24
	SubSection "Display"
		Viewport   0 0
		Depth     24
	EndSubSection
EndSection

It seemed that adding

	Option "ColorTiling" "true"
	Option "AccelMethod" "exa"
	Option "EXAVSync" "yes"
	Option "EXAPixmaps" "yes"

in the "Device" section improved things a little. Or just my imagination.

Lone_Wolf · 2015-01-22 12:33:43

I use Vi0l0's drivers and xorg113

According to amd site, your card should work with the catalyst 14.12 driver.

The arch wiki catalyst page states that only catalyst before 14.9 require older Xorg versions.

maybe it's time to update Xorg and your driver ?

If you get problems, best post here https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=57084 .

aizuyks · 2015-01-26 01:45:17

Just upgraded things here. Got catalyst 14.12, but could not make it work with xorg 1.16, so I used xorg115 repository.

But still, the problem continues doesn't anyone have similar issues?

aizuyks · 2015-02-01 22:31:53

Seem like nobody have similar issues :-/
I just installed another flavor of linux (Ubuntu), and the problem persist even there. So not an arch linux related problem. Only happens with the fglrx driver, so the radeon driver doesn't have this issue (nor the issue, nor GLSL 4.3, nor good performance, etc :-).
Now I found kinda of a "solution". I did a program that will constantly fire events to the X server, and the problem is gone as long as the program is running (doesn't feel right, but it works).
The program I run is this (run as root; need to modprobe uinput; need libsuinput):

#include <stdio.h>
#include <err.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <time.h>
#include <suinput.h>

int main(void)
{
	int uinput_fd;
	struct uinput_user_dev user_dev;

	memset(&user_dev, 0, sizeof(struct uinput_user_dev));
	strcpy(user_dev.name, "libsuinput-example-mouse");

	uinput_fd = suinput_open();
	if (uinput_fd == -1)
		err(1, "suinput_open");

	suinput_enable_event(uinput_fd, EV_REL, REL_Y);
	suinput_enable_event(uinput_fd, EV_REL, REL_X);
	suinput_enable_event(uinput_fd, EV_REL, REL_WHEEL);
	suinput_enable_event(uinput_fd, EV_KEY, BTN_LEFT);
	suinput_enable_event(uinput_fd, EV_KEY, BTN_RIGHT);
	suinput_enable_event(uinput_fd, EV_KEY, BTN_MIDDLE);
	suinput_enable_event(uinput_fd, EV_KEY, BTN_BASE6+1);

	suinput_create(uinput_fd, &user_dev);

	for (;;) {
		struct timespec sleeptime = {0, 100000000}; // 10ms
		nanosleep(&sleeptime, NULL);
                suinput_emit_click(uinput_fd, BTN_BASE6+1); 
		suinput_syn(uinput_fd);
	}

	suinput_destroy(uinput_fd);
	return 0;
}

brucerv · 2015-06-29 15:21:00

Innovative solution!

Had the same problem.
Searched around, a few were reporting the same problem, but no solution.

Here's what worked for me:
In Catalyst Control Center
- Enable Tear-Free desktop
- In 3D settings: Vertical refresh - Always On (slider all the way to Quality)

CCC driver pack version: 15.101
Card: Radeon HD 8870M (R9 M200X Series)

Sorry for the late response, but hopefully it'll help others

Arch Linux

#1 2015-01-22 12:19:38

AMD screen update delay

#2 2015-01-22 12:33:43

Re: AMD screen update delay

#3 2015-01-26 01:45:17

Re: AMD screen update delay

#4 2015-02-01 22:31:53

Re: AMD screen update delay

#5 2015-06-29 15:21:00

Re: AMD screen update delay

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