I'm currently using the amd binary driver. When browsing, I notice some pretty distracting screen tearing, especially when scrolling. If I enable Tear-Free rendering using the CCC, it looks great, but if I want to play some games I have to turn it off beforehand, otherwise it makes them run terribly. Is there a way to strike a balance between performance and tearing?

Which DE/WM do you use?

xfce

The xfwm4 window-manager that is used by XFCE is known for having problems with tearing since it lacks the VSYNC capabilty in version 4.10 and earlier.
Possible solutions:
- Upgrade xfwm4 to a newer version which has VSYNC capabilities (see this thread)
- Use a compositor, like Compton, additionally to xfwm4

+1 for compton. Been very pleased with it.

Have you tried enabling Tear Free, but setting in CCC under 3D>More Settings>Wait for Vertical Refresh to Performance(which forces vsync off). When you first enable Tear Free it changes this setting to Qaulity which forces vsync always on, which is why the suckage for games. It is possible to lower it after enabling Tear Free, and this keeps your desktop tear free but Games will not have vsync which can slow them down. You could also use the nest step up towards quality which keeps vsync off except if you turn it on under that particular games settings.

Oops, I think the reason why it may not have been working was that I was doing the opposite of this. meaning disabling tear free and setting to always on. Might have been the problem. After changing it back from always on to always off and enabling vsync it looks to be working fine.