JonnyT I guess the machines are configured differently by the manufacturer. On the Lenovo Legion 5, Intel graphics is removed from the device manager completely when disabling hybrid graphics in the BIOS (this still didn't make the machine usable for me, but this is a different story). I remember that clearly.

I also remember that in the Nvidia control panel in Display Modes, when Advanced Optimus is enabled (I believe you have disabled it now), you can see which display adapter "drives the laptop display" (as in the Nvidia link si_edgey posted). It will say:

Current Status: [Depending on settings, Intel or Nvidia GPU here]

That the machine is noisier is a good sign that you are set to the Nvidia graphics.

The display output is different when in Nvidia vs Intel graphics mode. With experimentation, I think you will be able to feel it. For me, Nvidia output wasn't the cure, but it was definitely different. Since you have the machine, spend some time in each mode.

Edit: For posterity. One of the interesting things about the Lenovo Legion 5 I briefly owned is that the Intel graphics could be completely disabled from the BIOS by switching to Discrete graphics mode (MUX switch). This had the advantage of allowing me to install the Nvidia graphics adapter in Windows 8 with no need to install the Intel adapter (which would not install in Windows 8 or older versions of Windows 10 anyway), and have full control over the brightness, etc. The Intel graphics adapter was not present in the device manager, at all, when in this mode.

      degen having spent the day on it today- I still felt nauseous :-(
      I would have thought there would have been an obvious improvement but to be honest I don’t see much difference. I want to give it longer than the 2 weeks I’ll have but think I’ll be sending it back most likely. What to try next I don’t know but I don’t think the whole nvidia cpu gsync thing is the solution for me :-(

      I wish I had a usable laptop to work on :-(

        a month later

        I am wondering if dithering on PCs would be limited to laptop chips and not desktop ones? Is there any merit in that thought?

        My understanding is Intel has specific chips for laptops and different ones for desktops. There would be no need for dithering to occur on a desktop chip.

          ryans I would bet on no. If companies want to keep up with the neighbors, they will likely want an extended color pallet. Since 10 bit displays aren't the norm yet, I think it may be mainstream for a while. These are all just my guesses.

            a month later

            Sunspark It appears that on the Windows drivers for Broadwell that I use, when the HDMI cable is set for YCbCr w/ IT Content off (I have not tested if the combo of both is required or just one or the other, will have to test this out later on) dithering is actually DISABLED by default in the Intel drivers and ditherig is not needed.

            I found something very interesting:

            "YCbCr w/ IT Content off" (in the intel settings) does give banding (so, probably, no TD) on my external monitor! Ditherig.exe alone does not.

            Until now, I had thought I could never cure TD on my external monitor.

            I wonder why this combo gives banding (and what "IT Content" does in the first place).

            Edit: Found a great explanation of "IT Content":

            This option enables the display to use its own video quality processing algorithms, instead of the Intel® Graphics Driver, for movies played in full screen mode to ensure videos quality. The user can enable or disable IT Content.

            Note that this option is only visible if you plug a HDMI monitor (or HDMI adapter cable) to your laptop.

                logixoul Are you sure about it? I had this option off by default, and I have never seen any banding on my laptop + HDMI screen configuration

                    ryans Unfortunately not.

                    I think if my monitor actually supported HDMI, this trick would help. But my monitor doesn't (I'm going thru a HDMI-to-VGA adapter).

                    I'm considering buying Dell 2408WFP soon (which is a HDMI monitor).

                      arturpanteleev I suppose your HDMI screen is higher-quality, i.e. it supports true 8-bit color (or even true 10-bit color). My screen is 6-bit, I believe.

                      Note that I'm using YCbCr ON (and IT Content OFF). They're not both off.

                          logixoul You are right. I use Dell2715h with natural 8 bit. I have another display at work (6+2frc). I will try it next week.

                          Thank for correcting with it content.

                              arturpanteleev btw - if we use 8bit display(without fcr) - laptop doesnt use dithering?

                              I think so, yes.

                                arturpanteleev It's supposed to. Both the monitor and/or the gpu can determine whether dithering is used or not though.

                                  4 days later

                                  Part of the problem is that many GPUs these days are just forcing dithering on, so there's no smarts involved.

                                  7 months later

                                  si_edgey Hello, I'm having pretty much same troubles. Does it happen to you to be color blinded? Cause I'm slightly color blinded and I wonder if there is a link..

                                    I am currently using Dell XPS 13 9310 2-in-1 as a business laptop on Windows 10 Pro version 21H2 and built 19044.2006. I connect it to a CCFL display Samsung B2240.

                                    I use it daily either connected to the external display or directly and strangely it is fine. To connect to the external display i use dell's docking station.

                                    I get tired eyes after many hours of work and mainly when looking directly to the laptop's screen. Very seldom i may have some migraines, again after hours of use without rest.

                                    This laptop has the eyesafe.com technology, but i don't know if this is affecting anything.

                                    It may worth to try, if i can use it perhaps it is ok for some of the people in this forum as well.

                                    For those of you who have experienced the eye strain issue on both WIndows and Macs, and have deployed the technique described here to turn off dithering in Windows and had success in eliminating the problem….has anybody tried using the now non-strain Windows machine to remote into a Mac and see if the eye strain is still there when looking at the Mac through the Windows machine?

                                    19 days later

                                    MPaz Asus PG259QNR is 8 bit +FRC so potentially it can use dithering. Maybe that's why the strain. Idk

                                    • JTL replied to this.
                                    • MPaz likes this.

                                        Allekss In theory only outputting an 8-bit signal to a monitor should not result in any FRC stage by the monitor circuitry.

                                          For example i have an AMD GPU (Stationary PC ) and an 6 bit + FRC monitor. Can i limit the AMD GPU (or Nvidia) output to 6 bit so my setup don't use dithering? 🤔

                                            dev