BloodyHell619

The last laptop i could use extensively with 0 problem was one with intel hd530. I am gonna try to get myself one with this igpu. Maybe you could try. Still all other things need to be perfect (windows versions, screen...) but having a good gpu is a good start. Now it could be I was just lucky and another mobo with hd530 will create problems, who knows.

8 days later

So in the continuation of my efforts to fix this shit, I found an old laptop of my dad and even though I found out that the screen of this ancient laptop uses PWM (another device that I can now no longer use), I connected it to both my monitors and there was no eye strain with either of my monitors. So the laptop surely doesn't use dithering.

And this means that there is nothing wrong with my monitors either.

So the root of the issue is surely the graphics cards. What now horrifies me is that if I buy the exact card again and put it in the system will the issue be solved, or has something gotten baked into the motherboard or Windows registry which might infect the other card too.

I also tried putting the disgusting 3070ti back in again and updated my drivers to the latest versions and then fully wiped them with DDU and then put my GT 1030 back in again and sadly the strain was still there. It's like something has set a "Dithering" switch in the GT1030 to "ON" and the is literally no command in any driver or anywhere with the command "Dithering=off" in its code.

If I can offer one more suggestion…

I was playing around with my good Win 10 1511 setup, obviously with a spot of trepidation while exploring updating a few drivers using a driver updater app. Most of my system has newer drivers available…

Although I didn't leave them in place for long, I felt like when I updated the chipset drivers, that eyestrain might have started. I reverted to the previous drives via restore point and (touch wood) things are good again.

I know it's not very scientific… but perhaps something to try is to NOT install the manufacturer mobo/chipset drivers. Just use the basic Microsoft versions.

Maybe something to try…

    16 days later

    AgentX20

    I had tried uninstalling my chipset and mobo drivers prior to this and even installing them from my mobo DVD, but I did a deeper search, found an AMD uninstaller and used that even though the description stated clearly that it doesn't delete chipset drivers, but I used it just to be sure. It made no difference. Then I found the Microsoft uninstaller and used that, uninstalling the drivers one by one with it. It made no difference either.

    Right now, I am saving for the only option that's left that I can think of. I'm going to buy a new CPU with an integrated GPU. A Ryzen 4000G or 5000G series, probably. This way, the graphic card will be taken out of the equation. I am hoping that that integrated GPU doesn't dither, or I'm able to disable its dithering with "Ditherig".

    Have any of you done this? Do the integrated Ryzen GPUs dither, and if so does "Ditherig" really disable the dithering for good? Do you think this might actually work?

    Sorry to hear it didn't work.

    I think Ditherig only works on Intel GPUs.

    • JTL replied to this.

      AgentX20 Dihterig theoretically has functionality for some AMD GPUs, but if it actually does anything with an implementation on a given chipset is a different question.

      @AgentX20 Yes as @JTL said v2 of Ditherig now also supports some AMD GPUs.

      @JTL @AgentX20 Do you or anyone else here know any AM4 socket AMD CPUs with integrated GPUs that don't dither at all?

      By the way, today I tried one more thing which didn't work either. I installed Linux mint on my local drive and switched its driver to NVIDIA so that I get the dithering option and from there I disabled dithering, but it made no difference.

        BloodyHell619 @JTL @AgentX20 Do you or anyone else here know any AM4 socket AMD CPUs with integrated GPUs that don't dither at all?

        I've never tested those so I can't comment. Sorry.

        BloodyHell619 I had a ryzen 1700 + RX480 that was perfectly fine with some W10 version like 1809 and previus and 21H1.
        Then I tried to change the CPU and mobo with a ryzen 7900 and i am not able to use that system more then 30 minutes. I've tried to clone the old SSD in order to have the same OS / driver, tried different GPU the integrated one, RX480, 970, 1660 SUPER and 4070, nothing work for me.
        I am convinced that the problem is the MB/BIOS.

          Just to make sure, check that the software dithering is 100% disabled through the registry since it has a habit enabling itself again, i noticed that with the Nvidia disable dither registry key that if your monitor goes to sleep or if you turn the monitor off and on again it will revert to temporal dithering. First disable dithering from the post here https://forums.guru3d.com/threads/nvidia-and-dithering-controls-how-to-enable.436621/ and then download ColorControl from here https://github.com/Maassoft/ColorControl. ColorControl will display your current dithering status and it will keep the settings locked in.

          16 days later

          Lauda89 This is what horrifies me. Even though I have placed my card in another system, and it still gave me eye strain, I feel like it's something I got baked into the motherboard that infects every card I put in my system and this is so devastatingly sad because I literally have to trash this pc and get a new one whole.

          @Jack Yes sadly I have tried all those methods and registry hacks and sat behind my pc without turning my monitors off, but the disgusting pain was still there.

            Any chance you could dig out an older firmware for your video card and refresh things at that level? (They can be rather hard to find these days, and it is complicated by some cards having not one but two VBIOS slots).

              a month later

              AgentX20

              I know for a fact, having bought and sold multiple of these video cards that they're not all the same. Of the dozen or so G1 Gaming 970 cards I've owned:
              ...

              • V1.0 hardware is a lottery - Hynix RAM is A-OK, and Samsung RAM is bad (they get sold too).

              I was actually thinking about buying a G1 Gaming 970 after reading about your experience, but I must admit now I am a bit confused: In this thread you seem to state the opposite:

              You may be right, but I have had multiple Gigabyte G1 Gaming cards, and there certainly seemed to be some sort of correlation.

              All of them (2 or more) with Hynix ram caused eye strain.

              All of them (3) with Samsung ram were OK.

              So I am wondering are the Hynix or Samsung ones working for you?

                Garman So I am wondering are the Hynix or Samsung ones working for you?

                Sorry about the confusion. I hope my observations have been consistent after all…

                I'm currently starting at a Hynix based 970 G1, so pretty sure it's the Samsung ones that I've found to be 'bad' (for me).

                What's also important is to find V1.0 hardware. It's on the white box label and also on the card near the slot connector.

                  AgentX20

                  Thanks for the update. I was indeed able to find people selling this GPU, where the revision number was visible in the product image of the card, so a version with rev 1.1 should be easy to avoid.

                  What I was wondering: Is there any way to determine the memory type aside from running GPU-Z? Asking a seller to look for the revision number in case it isn't visible shouldn't be a big deal, but I am wondering if people will be willing to reinstall the card and take a screenshot with GPU-Z.

                    10 days later

                    Switched lightning setup in the room since the last time it worked fine? Move the computer by the window, test the devices outside.

                    In my experience (from Mac at least) you can test with a lot of stuff by simply disabling hardware acceleration in Chrome and using that full screen for a while.

                      7 days later

                      Lauda89

                      Then I upgraded the BIOS on the old motherboard with the intent of putting a 5800 on it and it became inusable as well, even going back through the BIOS.

                      I'm not entirely clear, did you manage to return to the old BIOS version?

                      could you please tell me the motherboard model, old bios version and new bios version?

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