diop Have you tried Windows 8/8,1?

No, but this is a good point. I always disliked the new start screen but just found out that it is possible to bring back the "old" start menu from Windows 7. Good to know to have this option.

diop Are you affected by temporal dithering?

Well, I am not sure what kind of dithering it is (seems there is also spatial dithering) but I am highly affected by pixel flickering. Also DLP projectors give me strain after a while.

diop Nvidia driver settings


Please let me know if you need anything else.
I need to add that I have disabled "ClearType". Not sure if this is off by default. Turning it on makes the screen unusable again.

diop I can see these Quadro K420 cards are very affordable on the used market

Yes, I started with the Quadro NVS 295 for 4 EUR on Ebay and gave this another shot and have to say it is really worth it. Of course I cannot guarantee that yours will be the same because of revision differences. However I have hopes as @JTL had a similar experience with his Quadro K4000 ( https://ledstrain.org/d/337-nvidia-quadro-k4000 ). So it seems to me that the Kepler Quadro cards may generally be good (?).

diop It really is becoming a joke.

Yeah, I know what you mean. My wife is also already fed up with all this "buying new screens and returning them". There are still 7 or so standing around there that I need to sell or dispose. Based on the positive response from some people it is definitely worth it and to never lose hope!

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              AGI I figured out it is mostly caused by the ceiling fluorescent lamps.

              Hmm, are you sure these are fluorescent lamps? I have seen mostly LED tubes recently here in Germany. Not sure if they sell normal fluorescent tubes anymore.

              • AGI replied to this.

                  deepflame are you sure these are fluorescent lamps?

                  Quite sure, but if you do not mind taking a look at the spectra, I had posted them here.

                      AGI Hmm, and I assume the "bad fluorescent" line matches the ones of the good one? If so, this is really strange indeed. Maybe some flickering then? (guess we should rather change the thread as this gets off topic).

                      • AGI replied to this.
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                          deepflame Sorry, my bad. I have an iPhone 6 Plus, not 6s. My wife has a 6s. However that got worse after she upgraded from iOS10 to iOS12.

                          The vendor website says with regard to OS of my "future" phone: iOS 9, upgradable to iOS 10.2.
                          You sure an iPhone 6s can go up to iOS12?

                              deepflame Danke sehr!
                              Item has been dispatched minutes before I asked not to update the OS. I will see what comes.
                              I have been without phone since February. Can't stand anymore people asking what I am saving my money for :-)

                                deepflame Thanks for the info - much appreciated. Will have to consider testing this for personal use.

                                  4 days later

                                  deepflame Thank you for your input, your input is very interesting. You said S-PVA is better than IPS panel. Did you experience Eizo IPS panel monitor? Is there any chance that just Eizo monitor is good for eye strain?

                                      7 days later

                                      Just wanted to bump this to ask if anybody has tried any recent (last 6 months) laptops/graphics cards?

                                      I'm eyeballing the new Dell 'eyecare' laptops - great spec and discreet Nvidia graphics but I just know that either a) it will have PWM or b) Nvidia driver dithering or c) W10 rendering issues. 🙁

                                      • KM likes this.

                                      Hi everyone,

                                      this is my list of devices that works for me:

                                      • Gaming monitor: Allienware AW2518HF FULL HD 25" TN 240hz
                                      • Work notebook: Dell Latitude E5550
                                      • TV: LG B8 OLED
                                      • Phones: Iphone X and Iphone 6S (i had also iphone 3g, galasy s2, nexus 4, galaxy nexus and nexus 5. All witout problems).
                                      • Tablet: Ipad Air 2

                                      And this is my list of devices that din't works:

                                      Monitor: LG 27UD68 4K 27" IPS LED, AOC I2481FXH FULL HD 24" IPS LED and all dells from P23XX series.
                                      Notebook: Macbook air 13" 2017 and i think also all the new macbook pro but i din't try it. I would try but i am scared so i want to wait the OLED MBP.
                                      Tablet: Ipad pro 10.5 2017. also in this case i want to change my ipad air 2 but i'll wait the OLED ipad.

                                      I am sure that in my case it's not a flickering problems but somethig about the led tecnology.

                                        cdprice Did you experience Eizo IPS panel monitor?

                                        No, not yet.

                                        cdprice Is there any chance that just Eizo monitor is good for eye strain?

                                        I am not sure what could make only Eizo monitors be ok. The manufacturers are also bound to the available display technology out there. So Eizo e.g. does not produce their own panels but gets them from Samsung, LG, ... , then adds their own bezel, software etc. .

                                        Unfortunately I have not gotten a second VA panel yet to prove my claim. But I will update as soon as I get one 😀

                                            Lauda89 This is a big list of devices you can still use that I cannot. Happy for you!

                                            I also had an iPhone X but had to return it after around 2 months because of the OLED PWM flickering (and maybe also dithering, not sure).
                                            Which iOS version do you run on your 6S? In my experience it got worse with iOS 11 (10 was really good)

                                            • AGI replied to this.

                                                deepflame Which iOS version do you run on your 6S? In my experience it got worse with iOS 11 (10 was really good)

                                                Sorry for jumping it. I just got my 6s with iOS 10 and had three bad days following 20 minute usage. Sticky eyes and a very annoying neck tension causing enormous difficulties to work with laptop and PCs which are normally fine. It could be that my eyes are not in the best shape to tell what is causing what, but it is quite obvious that the 6s is not for me. I also asked the office who lent me the iPhone last year. They could not tell me its OS version but it was a 6 and not a 6s. So it is not the 6s worked earlier and does not now, as I initially speculated.

                                                    I am pretty sure that flickering is not an issue for me. I tryed a lot of monitor flicker free that killed my eyes.
                                                    My problem it's really strange because i have never had any problems with TV and phones. But i had a lot of problem with monitor pc, notebook and now with the last ipads.
                                                    I think that my problem is related to the light emitted by the LED and/or the coverage of the monitors. With the ipad pro 10.5 i feel like i can see the glass reflection. But it's strange because i feel like the screen it's not fused well with the glass.

                                                    My iphone 6S is used by my mother now, but i've never had any problems with IOS update or software update in general.

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                                                      Lauda89 I tryed a lot of monitor flicker free that killed my eyes.

                                                      What are your symptoms? How long do they take to develop? In particular, do you get immediate neck tension? How long does it take to recover?
                                                      I remember the iPhone X gave problems to many, and on forums fingers were pointed at the 240 Hz PWM. If you can stand that, it looks like PWM is not your problem?
                                                      However, I do not recall all members' stories and issues. I guess you know that a flicker-free monitor can give troubles if connected to "bad" hardware, do not you? That is something I was not aware of until I found this forum an year ago, so I am not the expert for sure.

                                                      I can use most computers but I can't find a smartphone that does not make huge damages. I owned only one so far, which worked beautifully until an year ago. I had no chance but to re-sell the other three phones I recently bought. Impossible to use them.
                                                      I too do not think PWM is my problem. In the recent past I used devices at very, very low brightness, and could watch as long as I wanted. I am clueless. And demoralized. I can only say, the newer the technology, the worse.

                                                        AGI Sorry to hear this. Strange. I can recall a forum post where a person bought multiple iPhone 4s and said that only 1 of 3 (do not remember the exact number) iPhones worked for him. Maybe Apple uses different screens for their phones like for their laptops?

                                                            deepflame I did not read that post, but I think someone, probably @KM, mentioned he had two nominally identical monitors, only one giving eyestrain. Of course when connected to the same computer.
                                                            I have no idea what display specs are. One would expect them to be pretty stringent, given that soon it will be cheaper to buy a second-hand car than a new iPhone.
                                                            However, since almost all modern phones induce strain within seconds, I think it is not a faulty component but the technology which my body cannot cope with.
                                                            Yesterday night I got rid of the iPhone. At least iPhones have a lot of sex-appeal so it is not so difficult to sell them. I placed an order for an "open box" OnePlus 3. I will try Paranoid Android. That is my last chance. Otherwise I will forget about smartphones and go ahead with my Nokia 3310.

                                                                deepflame I've read the same about my ipad pro 10.5:
                                                                https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/eye-fatigue-on-my-new-ipp-10-5.2051665/page-8
                                                                "I wound up returning my first IPP 10.5 after a few days due to eye fatigue and headaches. Read somewhere else on these forums of others having the same issue, blaming it on faulty screens on random devices. Picked up another IPP 10.5 a month later to test that theory and have enjoyed the newer one from day 1. Have had it for over 5 weeks now without any eye or headache problems. Perhaps yours has a bad screen and simply needs to be returned and replaced?"

                                                                I would try to sell my IPP 10.5 e rebuy another one but i risk to lose over 200 euro..

                                                                  14 days later

                                                                  AGI I think someone, probably @KM, mentioned he had two nominally identical monitors, only one giving eyestrain. Of course when connected to the same computer.

                                                                  ok, thanks, that would support the theory. Maybe the manufacturer used different panels in their screens. This is also the case for Dell in some models. Do you remember if he used the same connectors? I currently feel better when using an old VGA cable with a Thinkpad W530 (NVidia Kepler GPU running Linux).

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