Just an FYI I am not convinced that dithering or PWN is an issue. I have eye strain on my screen with both dithering turned off and 100% brightness to disable PWM. I think they may be red herrings. On the TV front I have had plasma's that cause eye strain and don't and LED TV's that cause eye strain and don't. More and more it is looking like the screen itself may not be the correct thing to focus on (pardon the pun), but the hardware driving the screen is the culprit. Some hardware/driver settings are causing some screens to emit some sort of display that cause eye strain in sensitive people. This is the only explanation that fits in with all my experimental evidence I have gathered.

I'm similarly perplexed (and hugely frustrated). I cannot for the life of me work out the root cause of my issues. I wear glasses as of a few months back, but that doesn't really change anything re the eye strain bit.

Recently I've tried and failed with:
- iPad Pro 9.7 and 12.9
- Acer 144Hz, Low blue light, Non-PWM IPS screen
- Samsung VA 34" panel
- Nvidia 1070, 1080 and 980Ti - trialled on known OK screens (with Win10)
- Wife's recent 15" Acer laptop

I'm now utterly stuck on my 10 year old CFL Dell monitors, iPad Air 2 and iPhone 6S, and Nvidia 970 video card - as well as my 2013 Macbook Pro (proving I can use some IPS screens).

Now I'm going to try to try out Windows 7 and perhaps Windows 10 pre-Anniversary.

a month later

AgentX20 Did you measure the in-game frames per second (FPS) for the 1070 card when you were playing? I was just wondering whether that could be a related factor for your symptoms.

    Frame rates were fine, great in fact - the 1070 and the 980ti were generating significantly faster frame rates than my trusty Nvidia 970 card.

    I have a ATI 6950 and an Nvidia 970 that work A-OK on the same screen and in the same PC, that naturally are generating lower frame rates.

    I've tried DVI and Displayport connections to no avail, and the latest drivers etc.

    Note I am aware of PWM and drive the screens at 100% brightness to eliminate PWM using the video card brightness controls to make things usable.

    It's something about how the image is being rendered on the screen by these cards, that at least to me appears to have changed.

    Still maybe I need to look into more detail about minimum and maximum frame rates, and latency in general.

    • Gurm replied to this.

      Yeah, it will be great if there is a version of MSI afterburner for general purpose, not just for gaming.

      AgentX20 Definitely, they changed something. They even changed it mid-generation for the 9x0, since some brand new 970's are no good for me in exactly the same way.

        6 days later

        anyone tried the SLI/crossfire technology for dual graphics cards?

        AgentX20 I have had problems with lcd/led monitors for several years and some have been better and others worse.
        I know that PWM has been one of the causes of my problems.
        But despite that most of today's monitors are flicker-free, i have still more or less got problems.
        Previously, i have not thought about the video card can cause problems.
        But a few days ago i sold my 980ti and started to use the integrated graphics card (Intel HD520)
        and to my surprise, i do not get sore eyes anymore.
        My eyes have not felt as good as they do now since the time when CRT monitors existed.
        The monitor i use is an Asus MG248Q 144hz and to my eyes it is definitely the best lcd/led monitor I've ever tried (and I have tested many monitors from different manufacturers over the years).
        Before i bought this screen i had a Dell u2515h, but i was forced to run F.lux and even turn the brightness down to the lowest setting.
        But despite those measures, i still had a little trouble with the eyes.

        Another thing that was strange, i got alot more trouble if I used displayport connector on the 980ti.
        It was like the signal became more oversteering than it was through the HDMI-connection.
        I tryed to run calibration patterns from the AVS 709 calibration disc and there was actually a difference between HDMI and DisplayPort.
        When i drove through the displayport it was almost hopeless to get the right balance between brightness and contrast, but through HDMI it was no problem at all.
        One thing is clear and that is that something is not quite as it should be with current Nvidia cards :-/

        • KM likes this.

          So AgentX20, Gurm, and Jimbo66 have all confirmed problems with new Nvidia cards. Not looking good.

            degen Have the correct ICC profiles been loaded for thier monitors?

              I cannot confirm that they were, but ... never needed to be, before.

                Gurm I never have either, until I checked, and it has pretty much cured my symptoms with my most troublesome setup. Try it out

                  It has made Win10 Anniversary BETTER but not perfect. I don't have problems with Windows 7, usually. Early Windows 10 I have to try troublesome hardware. I'll give it a shot.

                  a month later

                  Wrightpt1 That's the one I've seen that has ZERO problems for me. My son's friend has it. It is sadly one of the pricier ones.

                      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

                        dev