LBenny91 I wish I knew what the deal was with newer cards as well. It doesn't make sense to me. The only things I am aware of that may cause our pain/discomfort are forms of flicker. The only forms of flicker I am aware of are PWM, Temporal Dithering (FRC), and the refresh rate cycles (OLED and LCD handles these differently).
These forms of flicker can come from the video card, but won't always. By that, I mean that the monitor usually handles the brightness where PWM can be introduced. The video cards handle frame rates, color, etc..
Does windows turn on HDR by default if your card is capable of it? I know I made sure it was off. I keep my refresh rate at 60Hz. That's all my monitor can handle anyways.
While everyone here can have different issues, I noticed this first when I checked out the iPhone 11 or 12 years ago. I felt very uncomfortable looking at them even for a short time. I thought nothing of it just thinking they were in store mode and the brightness was getting to me but it all came to a head when I bought an OLED TV a few years back. I sat there trying to watch a show and I just felt my brain get overloaded and I began to feel very sleepy. Fast forward to today, I have experiences similar to you when I walk into an apple store and look at pretty much any panel in there for longer than 10-15 seconds and I feel off for hours.
- They use OLED and that is a known "no no" for me
- Apple boasts of the wide color gamut they can display (P3). P3 cannot be natively shown on these displays as they are highly likely 8 bit displays using FRC
- Pro models use variable refresh rates. I don't know if this specifically bothers me.
- iphones have notoriously been known for low frequency PWM in the recent past. Supposedly higher frequency is better.
To end this rant, I wish panels would move to authentic true 10 bit displays (no FRC as most are today). The issue I foresee with that is companies including apple will then decide that P3 isn't good enough and want even higher bit color depth like 12 or 14 bit which will have them use FRC even on a 10 bit panel. Sigh…