I have reached this again, and can confirm that even with a kernel boot parameter of 'drm.debug=0x01', when I get '(WW) RADEON(0): flip queue failed in radeon_scanout_flip: Invalid argument' in Xorg.log, there is no mention of 'flip target' in the drm output. I'm going to test with TearFree off to show that its definitely to blame.