Comment by davb

I had terrible tearing with my default Ubuntu 19.04 install last week, too. I'm using an Intel integrated GPU. The solution was to create the file /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-intel.conf (and the directory, as it didn't already exist but does get checked by X11 if present) with the following content:

  Section "Device"
    Identifier "Intel Graphics"
    Driver "intel"

    Option "TearFree" "true"
  EndSection

No more screen tearing, in my case!