Not that it may help for Live distros - I'm just adding the current "xorg.conf" way of disabling dithering for NVIDIA cards:

Section "Device"
Identifier "Nvidia Graphics"
Option "FlatPanelProperties" "Dithering=Disabled"
EndSection

Source: ftp://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86_64/375.26/README/xconfigoptions.html

I have no xorg.conf and add my options in a custom file: /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-nvidia.conf. Not sure if all distributions can read those files. It works for Arch Linux.
But for testing the NVIDIA tool is probably better, for it can switch dithering on and off on the fly.

By the way, slightly off-topic but I'm currently testing another Option, "ForceFullCompositionPipeline" "true". Due to the shallow documentation I'm not sure how exactly it works and if it acts as a full compositor, but similarly it seems to prevent tearing everywhere. Which is also some kind of flicker.

And on Reddit someone said he had eye strain which got fixed just by using "compton" (a compositor):
https://www.reddit.com/r/i3wm/comments/4x3seb/eye_strain_with_i3_seems_solved_with_a_compositor/

Edit: I just combined the option ForceFullCompositionPipeline with compton, which works. Compton additionally reduces some clutter when moving windows over WebKit browsers. What's going on in this chain remains a mystery: Program's drawings and accelerations -> X Server -> Driver -> Driver Options -> GL/X Render -> some screen buffers -> even more buffers (compton, "CompositionPipeline") -> graphic card's final output, including unknown forced video mode optimizations -> Monitor -> Monitor's dithering/whatever ...

    JTL By the way, the png pictures are pretty clear in my computer. I was just wondering does the forum somehow reduce the size of pictures in any way after the pictures are uploaded?

        KM I assume the commands ("FlatPanelProperties" "Dithering=Disabled", etc) should be typed in a terminal. For some reason, I can not open a terminal at all. I tried right click to open in terminal or "ctrl+alt+t", nothing happens. I also clicked on the small terminal icon on the task bar, nothing. Then I try to install the gnome-terminal package according to some suggestions from internet search, but the computer tells me it is already installed 🙁.

        • KM replied to this.

            Jerry Are you sure your Mint runs with NVIDIA drivers? Because normally distros don't have official NVIDIA drivers enabled. Instead, they use an open source driver called "nouveau". It is totally different and has other options to control dithering. I once was told by a nouveau dev that nouveau does not enable dithering by default - only on laptop LCDs.
            One can disable it with xrandr. I'll try to find the needed options and then edit my post.

            Edit: https://nouveau.freedesktop.org/wiki/Dithering/

                KM You are right, in the driver manager, there is a "xserver-xorg-video-nouveau (open-source)" item. It seems selected by default for the nvidia card, but there are also two other items "nvidia-367 (recommended)" and "nvidia-340". When I played with "nvidia-settings" software yesterday, I switched the driver to "nvidia-367", but nothings changed in the nvidia-settings window after the switch. It will be great if there is a way to disable dithering in nouveau. Thank you so much!

                  Could you please provide detailed information on the linux distribution you are using?

                  I am currently using Linux Mint 18.1 Cinnamon (64-bit)

                  JTL You need to make bigger screenshots that are readable.

                  Jerry I was just wondering does the forum somehow reduce the size of pictures in any way after the pictures are uploaded?

                  That was my fault, it does not do resizing any more.

                  Getting nvidia drivers to load is a bit of a PITA in linux. In fact, if nouveau is enabled in the kernel, nvidia drivers won't load! You have to disable the nouveau driver by the boot manager (grub) with nvidia drivers installed.
                  It's strange your terminal isn't opening.. There is a tool called inxi that can show what drivers are enabled.
                  For example,

                  $ inxi -G
Graphics:  Card: NVIDIA GM107 [GeForce GTX 750 Ti]
           Display Server: X.Org 1.18.3 drivers: nvidia (unloaded: fbdev,vesa,nouveau)
           Resolution: 1920x1080@60.00hz
           GLX Renderer: GeForce GTX 750 Ti/PCIe/SSE2 GLX Version: 4.5.0 NVIDIA 375.26

                  For disabling the driver, you need to place the below in your /etc/default/grub file and run update-grub (and update-initramfs -k all -c after for good measure🙂)

                  GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="nouveau.blacklist=1"

                  Unfortunately, this all doesn't work very well on a live boot since to load graphics drivers, you need to reboot and rebooting erases changes on a live boot!

                  KM I'm just adding the current "xorg.conf" way of disabling dithering for NVIDIA cards:

                  That is interesting.

                          Slacor Wonderful! Looks like I need to install the linux system on my computer. Thanks!

                            Not so much about dithering, but Linux eye strain in general: I found this 3 years old post in the MacBook thread: https://discussions.apple.com/message/24447115#message24447115

                            User mvanier believes DRI (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_Rendering_Infrastructure) could possibly be a source of eye strain in Linux. I think he may be right. Since I get eye strain not only inside Xorg but with some (all?) KMS drivers also in tty consoles, the Kernel module drm (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_Rendering_Manager) which also interacts with DRI might play a part, too. I don't know how to disable any of them. Some drivers, like nvidia, have options to disable GPU acceleration, but even then DRI is still being used. If anyone knows how to work around this, please share.

                            By the way, did anyone notice any relief after turning off NVIDIA or nouveau dithering? I didn't feel a change...

                            5 days later

                            ooh, look what i just found here http://www.root6.com/broadcast-engineering/temporal-dithering-good-for-colour-depth-bad-for-extending/
                            "WIndows: search the registry for the 2D driver settings;
                            Inside the registry location, create a DWORD value called DP_DisableDither and set it to 1"
                            - there's a section for linux too, but sounds like you have that already. havent been able to get this to work... may just be for radeon cards

                            • KM replied to this.
                              6 months later

                              With the Nvidia 750Ti, I noticed effects when updating the driver to nvidia-384 (linux)
                              This is despite marking dithering to disabled in the nvidia-settings..

                              Reverting back to Nvidia 370 resolved the issue.

                              I'm wondering when it starts being a issue (trying 375.82) and whether this is why newer Nvidia cards (like 1080) are a issue as they require a higher version.
                              I think this has already been noticed but I couldn't find the thread.

                                Slacor Yeah. Something looked a bit odd to me with recent Linux drivers and 1070, using a TN panel monitor though.

                                Will downgrade.

                                    JTL Watch the kernel version if you revert. I had issues with the 4.8 and 4.10 kernel versions with graphics when using the nvidia 370 drivers, so had to revert to the 4.4 kernel.

                                    • JTL replied to this.

                                        Slacor Thanks.

                                        I don't really use my desktop right now with the 1070 because I'm looking for a new IPS monitor. TN viewing angles and colors aren't very good

                                        Want something beyond 1080p though.

                                        Hmm

                                          JTL Slacor If it works for you, too, you might want to try the alternative open source driver, nouveau. It doesn't have a lot of energy saving features but at least the dithering options should still work (and chances are by default it won't enable dithering).

                                          Did both of you get eye strain or what exactly are the latest issues?

                                          • JTL replied to this.
                                                9 days later

                                                Slacor Motivated by your post, I reverted to 2014 drivers for my nvidia GeForce cards (730, 750TI) in windows 7 and I have to say it made a noticeable difference. Now I am looking for the oldest nvidia card that can work in 64 bit windows 7 and will try it. Currently looking at nvidia Quadro FX 4400 with 512 MB memory. Not sure if there are any other better options.

                                                    Jerry I was never ever unhappy with my 670SC+, it was a beast of a card and will even now play the latest games in pretty high resolution. I may very well order another one at some point.

                                                        Gurm Nice. Looks like I need to get one. Thanks.

                                                          a month later

                                                          KM Just an update.

                                                          i reverted to Debian 8 and tried the older nVidia driver (367 I think) and still get some strain there.
                                                          To be honest I never really used this card much except for GPU accelerated computing (think password cracking and stuff) so I never really used it's display outputs until recently, just briefly to install an OS.

                                                          I am using an EVGA GTX 1070 reference edition purchased in July 2016.

                                                          I switched to a BenQ GW60HS (27" VA) to rule out monitor dithering as well.
                                                          I have a 560 i can swap with so i will try that tonight.

                                                          I could also a) Contact EVGA and warranty the card (Warranty is until 2019) or b) I noticed on NewEgg that some Nvidia Quadro cards from ~2015 are still being manufactured. Should figure out what generation they are from.

                                                            There is definitely something that changed in the output of the 10x0 series. It happened, actually, midway through the 9x0 generation. I had no problem at all with an MSI GTX970 which was introduced in 2015 I suspect... whereas the Zotac and EVGA models (which were the "lower power consumption" variety which only needed one power header) were instantly problematic. The display actually LOOKED FLICKERY, leading me to suspect that Temporal Dithering is on by default in hardware for those chips.

                                                              dev