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  • Feedback from Microsoft OS engineers and something that is helping me

Oshim

Relatively new here but I have been reading up some of the suggestions posted by different members of the community.

So I have ordered multiple monitors both 8bit +144hz and (8bit +FRC) 144hz to test out with windows 11 machine. So far from my early testing I can say windows 11 is little easier on the eyes. Best way to describe is W10 gives me the cluster migraine that starts building up around my forehead while W11 is slow build up of dry eyes.

I will make another post soon of my different testing of devices, right now I am testing Mac Mini M1, MacBook Pro 14 M1 Pro and couple of surface laptops one with intel chip and other one Ryzen. I have also bought multiple monitors. Fingers crossed 🤞🏼

      Nickx

      Wow, great news and great approach @Nickx ! I really like the idea of variety that you are going for!

      I would take dry eyes any day of the week compared to a deep brain discomfort/pain. I use artificial tears eye drops so I think I can live with dryness and moisturizing from time to time (1 to 3 times daily).

      I will give Win11 a try tonight with my Win10 build backed up on a hard drive ready to be restored.

        13 days later

        @ensete Have you given Neurolens a try? They unfortunately didn't help me, but the company who makes them gives a full money-back guarantee on the lenses, which is honored by most Doctors. I know you have spent a lot of money on this condition, but given this will not cost, it might be worth a try.

        Neurolens can now measure/prescribe with precision of 1/100 of a prism diopter.

        If you go, make sure you ask about vertical misalignment. The Neurolens measurement device measured vertical phorias but doesn't prescribe anything; the Doctor needs to write in what to do (since sometimes vertical prism is split between the eyes, or just one eye).

        They also collect data from patient outcomes and improve over time (I've been watching their clinical videos).

        Nickx (8bit +FRC) 144hz

        Hi, can you (or anyone else) please elaborate on 8 bit + FRC? I assume FRC stands for Frame Rate Control as described here. In other posts, I read that one should set the color depth to 8 bit rather than 6 bit. Why would you add FRC to 8 bit? And by the way, how do you add or remove FRC from the equation? Via a dedicated software? Thanks!

            AGI

            @AGI 8 bit + FRC is an attempt to emulate 10 bit colors. That is why you would add FRC to 8 bit.

            If your panel is 6 bit and you want to remove FRC colors will be unreal and washed out (I assume as I have never had a 6 bit panel). You remove it by going into NVIDIA Control Panel and selecting Color Depth to be 6 bit (Full).

            If your panel is 8 bit + FRC you can just select 8 bit color depth (Full) from NVIDIA Control Panel and you have removed the FRC from the equation.

            Hope this helps.

            • AGI replied to this.
            • AGI likes this.

                My IPS screen will list 8 and 12 bit, I understand it is a 6+FRC panel though. - what is 12 bit if its 8 or 10? (maybe I am not understanding)

                My TN screen only lists 8bit as it does not have FRC.

                  HAL9000

                  As I said, I have never had a TN panel…

                  And these 12 bits I have never seen before 🙁

                  Sorry! Maybe someone with a TN panel should reply here.

                    HAL9000 afaik, TN panels accept up to 8 bit signals natively. Some are 6. If you are seeing any color profile above 8 bits and your panel isn't OLED or didn't currently cost thousands of dollars, odds are it's an 8 bit panel. Choosing anything above 8 bit will just use FRC (temporal dithering) to obtain those colors.

                    If you are not sensitive to FRC, I'd say by all means, use the higher bit profile.

                      Oshim Many thanks. I got a grasp of what you mean now. However, I am not given the option to change the color depth (or I do not know where to find that parameter) in the NVIDIA Control Panel. I believe that by default the OS determines what graphics processor is to be used, and the display is controlled by the integrated graphics.

                      I see that in principle it is possible to select the GPU for each application. I was unaware of that. It looks like all applications except NVIDIA Control Panel and Adobe Acrobat rely on the Intel GPU.

                      Do you set your computers differently, i.e., do your displays use the NVIDIA GPU?

                      Cheers.

                          AGI

                          What do you mean "by default the OS determines what graphics processor is to be used, and the display is controlled by the integrated graphics" - this is completely untrue.

                          You have power over that. Just go to the back of your computer and plug the monitor in some of the GPU display ports or HDMIs or DVIs. Once plugged there, the OS has no say but to take video signal from the GPU 🙂

                          If you keep your monitor plugged to some of the motherboard's outlets, then yeah, you are going to be using the integrated graphics for sure… But you don't want that, you want the GPU to be displaying.

                          Hope this helps…

                          • AGI replied to this.

                              Oshim

                              Hey, thanks for your patience. I meant that the laptop standalone (without external monitor) and as shipped is configured to use the Intel graphics card for the display and for all the apps except Adobe Acrobat and NVIDIA Control Panel. As a non-expert, I was wondering why there is an extra graphics card then! I was not implying that I am not allowed to change those settings, I was just reporting what the default settings are.

                              Believe it or not, I have not made use of an external monitor since 2010 because of my unaddressed visual issues. But now I am struggling on the laptop too, so I should give a monitor a go.

                                Oshim Just go to the back of your computer and plug the monitor in some of the GPU display ports or HDMIs or DVIs. Once plugged there, the OS has no say but to take video signal from the GPU

                                Hey, I have just done that. The system uses Intel UHD Graphics even when it is connected to an external monitor.

                                NVIDIA customer support confirmed that that is how it is supposed to be. NVIDIA Quadro kicks in only when using Adobe Acrobat and when playing games (which I do not do).

                                    4 days later

                                    ryans Kind of the same. The monitor solution has completely failed and my symptoms are now exactly like they were before. I am back to patching to get through the workday.

                                    I am trying to get an early client build of my companies Windows 11 setup to see how that works for me. My home PC is still on Windows 7 and will be forever.

                                        7 months later

                                        ensete I am trying to get an early client build of my companies Windows 11 setup to see how that works for me

                                        Did you have any luck with this?

                                          ensete Are you still symptomfree on Windows 7? I am thinking about reinstalling everything on Windows 7, because i could live without win 10 on my home pc.

                                          Is Vertical Blanking on Win 10 off when (example) playing a fullscreen PC game? I think i have less symptoms wenn using any game than watching a video, dont know why. Perhaps Direct X is doing something different in games?!

                                          Is it vertical blanking always alternating upper and lower half of the screen or is it somehow more complex? If it is only upper and lower half alternating it should be sufficient to only use upper half for watching videos(e.g. small window in the upper right corner) and reading should only be a problem when scrolling on fullscreen.

                                            2 months later

                                            ensete Vertical Blank Locking

                                            While reading the Linux Kernel Mode Setting (KMS) docs, I came across something called Vertical Blanking. It looks to have originated from CRT monitors.

                                                ryans You can disable vertical blanking if you make a custom resolution in the AMD driver. It is disabled by default for my setup, even without custom resolution.

                                                  You can't disable it, but you can use reduced blanking.

                                                  There is nothing special about it, it's just a different timing standard (shorter).

                                                    dev