Bug Report: Screen Tearing and Display Issues with Chromium Browsers and AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT, Especially with PWAs

[xrisbahas]

Problem Description:

Users experience persistent screen tearing (horizontal/vertical tearing in one or two places) on active browser tabs (Brave and Chrome) when a YouTube Progressive Web App (PWA) is running concurrently. The tearing appears on the browser’s content pages, not within the YouTube PWA video itself. Additionally, there are occasional delays in the browser window title changing when navigating between pages. This issue has been present for over a year. Minimizing and then maximizing the affected browser windows temporarily resolves the tearing.

Reproduction Steps:

1. Launch Brave or Google Chrome.
2. Install and launch YouTube as a Progressive Web App (PWA).
3. Play a video within the YouTube PWA.
4. Switch focus to the main Brave/Chrome browser window and navigate to various web pages.
5. Observe screen tearing on the browser tabs’ content areas.
6. (Optional) Minimize and then maximize the browser window to see the tearing temporarily resolve.

Expected Behavior:

No screen tearing or display anomalies should occur on browser tabs while a PWA is active, and window titles should update promptly.

Actual Behavior:

Screen tearing occurs on browser tabs, and window title updates are delayed, specifically when a YouTube PWA is running on Chromium-based browsers (Brave/Chrome).

Environment:

• Operating System: Windows NT 10.0.26100 (Windows 11)
• Browser (affected): Brave (Version based on Chrome/138.0.7204.101) & Google Chrome
• Browser (not affected): Opera, Firefox (user notes these do not utilize PWAs in the same manner)
• Graphics Card: AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT
• GPU Driver Version: 32.0.21013.1000 (after clean DDU reinstallation)
• Hardware Acceleration: Enabled (disabling it resolves the tearing but makes the browser unusable).
• AMD Smart Access Memory (SAM): Status unknown (user inquired if it plays a role, might be enabled).

Relevant Log Messages from brave://gpu:

The following error consistently appears in the “Log Messages” section of the Brave GPU report, even after a clean driver reinstallation:

ERROR:ui\gl\direct_composition_support.cc:615] : AMD VideoProcessorGetOutputExtension failed: The parameter is incorrect. (0x80070057)

Troubleshooting Performed:

1. Clean AMD Driver Reinstallation: Performed a complete uninstallation of AMD Adrenalin drivers using Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU) in Safe Mode, followed by a clean installation of the latest recommended drivers (version 32.0.21013.1000). The issue persists.
2. Hardware Acceleration Toggle: Disabling “Hardware acceleration” in browser settings resolves the screen tearing, but renders the browser unusable due to severe performance degradation.
3. Cross-Browser Testing: The issue is specific to Chromium-based browsers (Brave/Chrome) and does not occur in Opera or Firefox, suggesting a Chromium/AMD driver interaction problem related to PWA handling.

Additional Notes:

• The problem has been observed for over a year, indicating a long-standing compatibility issue rather than a recent regression.
• The specific error AMD VideoProcessorGetOutputExtension failed points to a problem with the browser’s ability to utilize AMD’s video processor output extension, which is crucial for display composition, especially for PWAs that might operate as separate windows.
• The “Direct Rendering Display Compositor” is listed as “Disabled” in the GPU report, which might be a factor.