Gurm I just wanted to be sure that all the 970's by MSI were okay as some mentioned those by EVGA may not be. I am going for the best priced MSI 970 I can find. thank you for confirming that the 970 MSI is okay. I currently have an EVGA brand card.

    I found EVGA to not work well. I also tried Zotac. But both were "end of generation" 970's, of the bargain variety. The MSI's are more expensive and presumably better built and "first generation".

    My 'good' 970 is a gigabyte g1 gaming edition. I reckon you want to find an older 970 card.

    Great input.

    There seem to be two versions with very similar specs. Any thoughts would be better or which is older/first generation? There seems to be a limited edition and a non limited edition. the limited edition def. looks older.

    https://www.amazon.com/MSI-GAMING-GTX-970-4G/dp/B00NN0GEXQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1492379654&sr=1-1&keywords=msi+gtx+970 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00TPLKR7Q/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?ie=UTF8&smid=A1ED2U6E9G3YVQ&th=1

    I assume nothing refurbished is satisfactory as well.

    I use a Gigabyte GT 420 video card and get zero symptoms. No gamer

    5 months later

    JTL Yes I know. I'd hoped that being a 9-series it would be more 970 than 1070.

    Sadly it wasn't to be. Thing is, looking around I cannot see anything concrete on chipset versions/revisions/tweaked models to explain why not all 970s are the same, or why there is this apparent difference between the 970 I have and use happily, and my 980Ti.

    It's maddening. Maybe the new AMD chipsets are OK? (Apart from power consumption).

    • JTL replied to this.

        AgentX20 My current goal is to compare the VBios version of a "good" card to a "bad" card. Bonus points if they are the same sub version/branding (ie, someone has a MSI whatever 970 that's "good" and another MSI whatever 970 that's "bad"

          On a whim, anyone use any recent NVIDIA Quadro cards?

          This is because many of them have more display outputs, and I might look into multiple monitors in the future.

          Second of all I'm seriously looking into a Dell UP3017 (2560x1600 IPS that can supposedly do 10-bit color without dithering, and GT(X) series don't do 10-bit output, and I am a photographer)

          Gaming isn't important to me

          • No PWM according to Dell support I've talked to.
          • Uses GB-R backlight so it's not as blue as white/blue LED backlights (explanation here)
          • Supports calibration in hardware itself with the X-Rite calibrators, think it mitigates the need for an ICC profile.

          I can get it from a local store with a 1 month return policy for $1450 CAD but want to get my GPU situation sorted out before hand.

            JTL

            That article is really great. Some stuff from the WLED section:

            This light is filtered through the red, green and blue subpixels of the monitor to produce a wide range of colours and allow further refinement of the white point. After filtering a considerable amount of the initial spectral energy of the backlight is lost; the ‘filter’ is far from perfect and the initial spectral imbalance of the backlight is still an underlying issue.

            and check out the picture of the spike at 450 nm.

              JTL

              Hey, I'm using Nvidia Quadro 4200 and one Dell U2415 at work. With Artelac Complete eye drops working for 9+ hours is ok for me.

              • JTL replied to this.

                  Harrison I just did some googling and said monitor might be 6-bit+FRC. I know NVIDIA's dithering algorithm (if used) might be better than others, but a true 8-bit IPS/VA panel might help as well. Dell has some other IPS panels that are 8-bit without dithering.

                  The Dell U2415 utilises an LG.Display LM240WUA-SSA1 AH-IPS panel which is capable of producing 16.78 million colours. We have not been able to verify via the panel spec sheet as to whether this is a true 8-bit module or a 6-bit+FRC panel, but we expect the latter given most of the current standard gamut IPS panels used today are 6-bit+FRC, especially in this size range. This is a measure commonly taken on modern IPS panels, and the FRC algorithm is very well implemented to the point that you'd be very hard pressed to tell any difference in practice compared with an 8-bit panel. The panel is confirmed when dismantling the screen

                  from: http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/dell_u2415.htm

                      8 days later

                      I just re-re-tested both my 1070 and 908Ti cards. Both caused discomfort on the desktop (latest version of W10), so they're both getting sold and I'm persevering with my trusty 970.

                      JTL
                      thanks for your information JTL.
                      Maybe I'll try a true 8bit monitor with this setup too.

                      Do you have any recommendations?

                      • JTL replied to this.
                          4 days later

                          Harrison The K4200 is based off the GTX 670

                          With regards to 8 bit monitors I'm not really sure what the best options are. Maybe a BenQ VA panel might work, they are 8bit. Dell might have some other options (would be higher resolution and more expensive though)

                            a year later

                            hpst He hasn't posted in nearly a year.

                              20 days later

                              After trying Nvidia 980, 980Ti, 1070, and 1080 cards and finding they all cause low levels of eye strain I'm now using my trusty Gigabyte G1 Gaming 970 (V1.0) card. In fact I bought a second one for the kids' PC to eliminate any issues there (again it's all good), where previously that had an AMD 6950 card (no strain on that one either).

                              So, as a final last-gasp I've picked up a second hand AMD Vega 64 card to try...

                              I've only had a couple of hours with it so far, but it feels 'uncomfortable'. Not "ouch! That's awful" just a low level sense of not being right and a quietly, slowly building headache.

                              I'll try it a little longer, but I feel reasonably confident that the moment I drop my 970 card back in things will feel super-comfortable again - like they should.

                              Barring Nvidia's new 2000 series, and AMD's older slower 5XX series, that means I've tried pretty much everything out there without success.

                              a month later

                              I've had another go with the Vega 64 card, this time turning off the dithering, which you can do via registry settings.

                              It might feel a little bit better but sadly it's not outright fix, as the feeling vaguely uncomfortable sensation described above remains. I'm really at a total loss as to what it is in ALL these modern cards that causes this discomfort.

                              Put the 970 back in and the strange sensations disappear immediately.

                              • JTL replied to this.
                              • KM likes this.

                                AgentX20 The "DisableDither" registry keys?

                                I took a 5 minute look at the AMD drivers sometime in the middle of last year (so a 2018 version) and I could see the *_DisableDither registry entries in the driver files but it didn't appear they were being used for anything. So it could be a dead end. Like I said it's not conclusive, but it's a damming sign.

                                    dev