Hey guys, I decided to test FRC/Dithering when connecting M2 or Intel based macbooks to my external 2K 8bit display with DP and HDMI. I used basic microscope from amazon. I also created a custom grayscale gradient image with a line, to put microscope on exactly the same place for each test.
Devices which I used:
- USB-C DisplayPort cable 1.2
- High speed HDMI with an apple dongle connection to USB-C
- Monitor ASUS VG27AQ (8bit panel) 144hz
- Macbook Pro M2 13 TB
- Macbook Pro 15 Intel 2018
- Carson 100x-250x LED MicroFlip Pocket Microscope MP-250
Youtube: https://youtu.be/LZMWduGGJvk?si=UpL-XtRg5GFHIwrK (youtube of course has a bad compression, so its better to take a look on a video from dropbox, but please like the video to share it on youtube.)
My conclusion
With HDMI connection it looks like FRC is visible at refresh rates 60/100/120, but not at 144. With Display Port its still bad at 60 and 100 hertz, but 120 looks much better and at 144hz it looks normal. At 144hz it flickers on video I think only because iphone camera is using 240fps and it detects the inconsistency/desynchronization with 144hz.
@aiaf @DisplaysShouldNotBeTVs So looks like it does proof that the cable and connection type really affect the FRC/Dithering on external displays.
Btw, even with 144hz enabled, when I'm connecting any apple silicon laptops top this monitor, it gives me weird light symptoms like FRC is enabled, don't know why.
Also I did some testing with StillColor app enabled/disabled and didn't see any changes at all.
I also can be wrong with my conclusions, because i've spent maybe 6-7 hours looking at these flickering pixels lmao..