Steam Deck: Fix horizontal screen tearing near top of TV

#1

EDIT: The SteamOS Beta update on May 20, 2026, switched the Desktop Mode to Wayland. This should eliminate the tearing described in the article, so try switching to the Beta or Preview branch first!

On my and @ObsidianTheFloof's Steam Decks, we were having an issue where, when connected to a TV in Desktop Mode, the top sixth or so of the screen would have terrible screen tearing. Here's a screenshot of Sonic Adventure DX's Sega logo, where you can clearly see it (it's much, much worse in motion):

: Screenshot_20250908-192128_Open_Video_Editor_1.png (455.13 KiB) Viewed 1762 times

This can be fixed with a config file edit. It doesn't require unlocking the read-only partition, so it should persist between updates (though I haven't tested this).

Instructions

If you haven't set a sudo password using passwd in the terminal before, do so now. Just type passwd in Konsole, and you will be asked to set a password. When you type, it won't show you what you're typing, that's normal, just type your password confidently. Make sure you remember your password. If it asks you for an existing password instead, you need to reset it using this guide.
Type sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-amdgpu.conf in Konsole. Enter your sudo password if asked.

Copy and paste this into the text editor using Shift+Ctrl+V or the Paste button at the top right:

Code: Select all

Section "OutputClass"
     Identifier "AMD"
     MatchDriver "amdgpu"
     Driver "amdgpu"
     Option "TearFree" "true"
EndSection

Press Ctrl+O, then Enter, to save.
Press Ctrl+X, to exit the text editor.
Restart your Steam Deck.

This sort of tearing should disappear!

Why does this happen?

Prior to the SteamOS Beta update on May 20, 2026, Desktop Mode used X11, while Gaming Mode has used Wayland.

The default config on Steam Deck apparently still allowed for screen tearing under X11. Under Wayland, this doesn't happen, which is why this only happens in Desktop Mode. I think this only happened with some external display setups, but I'm not entirely sure - this happened to me with both the official Valve dock and a third party "Hiearcool" dock from Amazon, with multiple HDMI cables, and with multiple TVs.

Either way, the config file we created enables the "TearFree" AMD driver option, which does exactly what it sounds like.

This shouldn't be required anymore after the changes made in the aforementioned SteamOS Beta update make it to the stable branch. ...Whenever that is.

Thanks to gwen_dolly on the Steam Deck Discord for assisting me with this!