Eye Strain - personal PC (MBP M1 Pro fine?)

Chrissoa1994

Hi all

I posted recently, still struggling to providing new info.

at work, I use a MacBook Pro - M1 Pro 14”. I can use this machine for 8 hours a day absolutely fine. I generally don’t pop it onto a monitor as I’m still struggling with monitors tbh.

When I come home and try to use my own setup, I struggle a lot to last two hours or so (I do abide by 20-20-20). It just feels like my eyes strain at the top of the eye ball, as In if I touch just below the socket ridge, onto the top of the eyeball it is very tender…

Home setup:

AMD RX5700XT GPU - had for two years

Monitor: BENQ Mobiuz EX2710R

The monitor is flicker free, low blue light with various certification, in theory it should just work?

I have the “blue light filter” set to its max of 20, it gives a solid orangey hue but I’m used to it.

I used a spyderX colour calibrator and found that with the blue light filter to max and brightness at 40, contrast 50, the light output is 65 cd/m2

This brightness is super low.

I can use my MacBook on significantly higher, I can use my iPhone 12 pro on around 700 nits no issue.

I’m really struggling to pinpoint the cause of this issue.

I’ve tried many monitors prior to the above, curved, non curved, VA, IPS.

I don’t know if it’s worth grabbing hold of a cheaper end Nvidia Card (1660 super for example) and just trialling it to see if it helps?

Equally; should I give the built in “adaptive brightness” a go? I don’t think it would be perfect but it won’t hurt to give it a week maybe

degen

Chrissoa1994 Some people are very triggered by Windows 10/11 and/or modern GPU, AMD or Nvidia, such as you have. There is no easy solution to this problem. However, if you are using a modern Mac, as you say, 8 hours a day, just stick to that. Forget about using a PC. Some cannot use a Mac at all and can only use a PC, so I would consider yourself lucky here with an easy solution.

P.S. Nvidia GTX 1660 Super is not confirmed as a good card for all users. You can't buy that card with the expectation that it will solve GPU related temporal dithering.

AgentX20

Chrissoa1994 When I come home and try to use my own setup, I struggle a lot to last two hours or so (I do abide by 20-20-20). It just feels like my eyes strain at the top of the eye ball, as In if I touch just below the socket ridge, onto the top of the eyeball it is very tender…

What's changed?

Windows version upgrade?

mike

Chrissoa1994 Have you tried patching/covering one eye?

Chrissoa1994

degen what card would you recommend?

Only checking a 1660Super because my dad has one I can borrow 🙂

JTL

While my results are inconclusive I have reason to believe newer AMD cards could suffer from similar output quality issues much like recent NVIDIA cards.

Chrissoa1994

AgentX20 stayed on 10 the whole way through.

tried various monitors but found the same issues, kind of frustrating which is why I think it could be the GPU

AgentX20

Chrissoa1994 I was curious about whether your home PC setup was good before but now it's not, or has it always been problematic?

Chrissoa1994

AgentX20 used to be absolutely fine for two years

The turn of 2022 saw the issues begin

AgentX20

Chrissoa1994 The turn of 2022 saw the issues begin

If you're up for it, then I would reinstall Windows 10 to an older version to see if that helps. Note you will need to read up on how to stop the new install from auto-updating back to where you are now. There's info in some threads here at ledstrain.

I run a older Windows version this way and it's much more usable to me than newer releases.

Chrissoa1994

mike I haven’t, what is the benefit of this

Chrissoa1994

AgentX20 yeah I will try!

mike

Chrissoa1994

I have trained with one eye covered, so now I can use all screens with both eyes like a normal person. Before that I couldn’t find a screen newer than 2011 that worked for me. So a total game changer.

AgentX20

Chrissoa1994 yeah I will try!

Search for discussions about installing Windows 10 version 1611, or even 1507.

Chrissoa1994

Changed my monitor and amd card from full rgb to limited, will report back

Chrissoa1994

mike I don’t understand how this works can you briefly explain?

Which eye do I patch

for how long per session of work? (Hours?)

When do I stop patching

mike

Chrissoa1994 This is what I have done: Covered my right non-dominant eye. Started with one hour a day (behind a bad screen), and increased the time after a while. You can find more info in my older posts.