Force the intel driver over the default modesetting

Make this text file

/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-intel.conf

with this content:

---

Section “Device”
Identifier “Intel Graphics”
Driver “intel”
Option “TearFree” “true”
EndSection

---

Change acceleration method

The intel graphics driver can sometimes cause various window artifacts such as seemingly corrurpted text and screen tearing. This can be caused by the default accleration method, called sna (sandy bridge new acceleration)

One alternative, especially on older intel chipsets, is to use the older acceleration method, uxa.

To do this, create a file (as root) called

/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-intel.conf

with the following contents

Section “Device”
Identifier “Device0”
Driver “intel”
Option “AccelMethod” “uxa”
EndSection

Reboot and see if your graphics quality is improved.