Yikes, there are different versions of the Gigabyte G1 GTX 970 graphics card? I must have missed that. What I understood from the thread is that different GTX 970 cards (from different makers) can cause eye strain. That's why I bought the exact model used by AgentX20, at least I know this model can be used by someone who suffers from eye strain like me. I didn't know there were 2 versions of it...and I dont know which version I got, its already installed. I guess luck is on my side this time.
GTX 1070
You can't easily tell which version of the Gigabyte Gaming Edition 970 1.0 hardware you have. You need to install it and use something like GPUID to identify what memory is on the card. Of course this all assumes my theory about which ones work (Hynix) and which ones don't (Samsung) hold true, and it's not some weird BIOS variation.
I noticed the cooling fins are slightly different between the two cards I have at present (one good - Hynix, and one bad - Samsung) but it's very subtle. Perhaps it's evidence of different sub-manufacturers?
Glad you got a good one Kray. Maybe you could run CPUID up and let us know what memory you have on your card?
AgentX20 Maybe you could run CPUID up and let us know what memory you have on your card?
Correction: It's GPU-Z
I ran GPU-Z, and I got the Hynix one. Wow, it was a 50-50 chance and somehow I got the good one. What a relief.
5 days later
2 months later
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BTW the problem seems to be not limited to new video cards. I tried to use GTX970 with my new z390 chipset motherboard with no luck (also tried internal motherboard Intel VGA). There was still eyestrain . The same thing goes for my old X79 chipset + RTX2080. Only gtx970 + X79 worked. Don't know what's going on. Hope my eyes will recover from such a heavy blow over time. No more experiments. I quit PC gaming from now on. But still I'm going to try the next generation playstation when it's released.
Hey everyone, I also experience eye strain but with the GTX 970 (ASUS STRIX). Yet if I change over to my onboard graphics (Intel HD Graphics 4600), I experience ZERO eye strain! I have logged a support ticket with NVIDIA, but I don't have high hopes in getting a solution. I wonder if it was a driver at some point that has caused this issue as I'm sure I didn't have this problem when I first got the card. Am going to install the oldest driver I can find for the GTX 970 and see if any change occurs!!
Gurm I don't have problems with Win 10. I use it at work on the other desktop. And I have problems with the new VGA even in BIOS, let alone win 10 and 7.
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Can I just confirm what you're saying here are you saying the 970+x79 was eye strain free but the 970+z390 gave you eye strain?
If that's the case did you use the exact same OS and drivers on both?
I ask because I've ran in to problems with using some newer (2017-2018 haswell) motherboards that despite EVERYTHING else being the same apart from the CPU and motherboard I'm getting eyestrain yet if I switch back to my sandybridge CPU and motherboard I'm immediately eye strain free again. I'm wondering if EUFI can actually affect display all the way in to the OS
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Soreeyes It doesn't matter what OS is installed. The problem starts from the BIOS screen. I use win 10 and win 7 on apropriate hardware without problems. I even tried linux mint at some point with no luck. No way to use my new PC build without serious eyestrain. No matter what OS is installed, no matter what monitor is connected, no matter what cable is used, no matter what chipset/GPU driver is used.
Soreeyes Thank you for the advice. I'll check it when my eyes are ready (probably not soon). But X79+RTX2080 build gives me eyestrain too. So it seems to be at least 2 different hardware problems. Using a powerful GPU is more important for gaming anyway. For other tasks my old X79 build is more then enough. I wasted a lot of money on the new build though... and that's a sad story(
4 months later
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As I said for me ASUS STrix GTX 1070 is fine. Looking to something similar to other build. I have read that the 20xx series uses some new technology with lightning etc and I dont know if this won't cause problems.
Anyone tried the GTX 1660 ti? Its similar family as my GTX1070.
4 months later
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I discovered that my GT 710, which is not good on both Windows 7 and 10 (build 1507), is totally fine on Windows XP (VGA connection). I then tried the same driver version on 7 and 10, too, but that didn't help. The difference in eye comfort is pretty huge. I wonder if other new cards that don't work for you, would work on XP. The latter which admittedly has drawbacks other than eye strain, like no updates, and limited software compatibility. However, it seems most new games that still use DirectX 9 can run on XP without officially saying so.
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KM I have a GT7xx card somewhere too but I don't think it has a VGA output on it.
This is interesting though. Maybe XP is/was more analogue friendly.. I wonder if this is due to to how the handshaking is done via VGA (if any) vs Monitor EDID> HDMI/DVI etc. I believe that in modern digital connections, lots of things are checked behind the scenes such as CLUT (color look up table) and the capabilites of the sink/monitor before an image is displayed. Perhaps on VGA the image is 'standard' as I don't know what handshaking could happen between a VGA>CRT display.