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WhisperingWind for finding the register addresses, the manual may be helpful:
For example:
Not sure if the right manual for What card. But there are similar manuals.
WhisperingWind for finding the register addresses, the manual may be helpful:
For example:
Not sure if the right manual for What card. But there are similar manuals.
jordan It's working well for me on a potato PC. Intel N95, So its lightweight, definetly.
The good thing about zorin Os linux, is that it feels like windows, so if we improve eye strain for it, it could help more people, which is good.
And more people using it would mean more effort in making it even more comfortable for eyes.
autobot I just looked it up you're right it does look similar to Windows. I quickly asked chatgpt and seems it uses gnome? I remember some people said gnome wasn't the most comfortable so maybe that could be why ? I think I may start with cbpp since it seems the most light weight. I just need to find a safe baseline with a computer so I can start trying other distros. I don't have a safe PC yet
Yes, its gnome. Maybe its because of that.
LUbuntu can work relatively well too.
https://ledstrain.org/d/238-i-found-a-linux-distro-that-fixes-my-eyestrain-with-the-default-setup/20
I will try 18.04. I used a later version and it was pretty good.
autobot I don't have a safe PC yet. I was going to use a arc a770 and I have that spectrum view incandescent lit monitor I was going to use soon.
Edit: I mean I do have a HP spectre x360 13" that I occasionally use ONLY with an eink display but I don't count that since I'm sure eink bypasses alot of sw/driver strain. It's Intel iris gpu and 20h2 win10
I have tried working for two days in Linux and Windows (one day in Windows and one day in Linux) with the A770.
In Windows 11, white isn't completely white; it has a sort of golden tint, which gives a 3D effect but quickly leads to eye strain when reading. Using the Basic Microsoft Driver offers slight improvements, but it doesn't fully solve the problem. However, when watching videos on YouTube, my eyes don't get tired.
Regarding Ubuntu Linux Desktop 24.04, my eyes feel less strained when reading because the golden tint effect is less pronounced. Watching videos on YouTube is also fine.
As I've been using macOS (with dithering disabled) as my daily driver for over 10 years, I have compared them. Linux is closer to macOS in terms of comfortable white color display and screen reading. However, there's still room for improvement; while I don't feel any strain with a macOS, I do feel slight tension with Linux, which currently prevents me from using Linux fully for 8 hours a day, five days a week.
In Windows 11, my eyes get very tired after 30-40 minutes of reading text, leading to brain fog. So, I can't work in Windows 11 fully yet. The standard A770 driver seemed slightly worse to me than the usual Intel UHD (which can be installed by force, even if the system warns about incompatibility, but it works). During experiments with "non-native" drivers, I noticed occasional flickering in YouTube videos, but it quickly passed.
I plan to try Windows 10, but probably only by the end of next week.
WhisperingWind wow thanks for the update! Do you think a Linux distro not using gnome could make it more comfortable? Something that is basic like x11 + openbox? Also how did you force the uhd driver? Do you think a uhd driver would install on 1507/1511 win10? Supposedly those have zero os strain.
I thought macos wasn't the greatest nowadays? Which version and which Mac/specs? Thanks!
I was unable to switch the A770 to 6-bit mode in Windows. The standard registers don't work. I went through a couple of dozen port addresses from the driver code, but nothing helps. No progress here yet.
Do you think a Linux distro not using gnome could make it more comfortable?
I spent a lot of time with Linux in 2009-2013, but since then I returned to it a couple of months ago and have only tried Manjaro XFCE and Ubuntu Gnome. It's hard for me to compare them since it was on different hardware. But they feel roughly the same.
Something that is basic like x11 + openbox?
I haven't had the chance to try Openbox yet, but based on my experience, window managers typically don't manage rendering, and dithering usually isn't dependent on them. You need to check which library is used as the renderer, as it is responsible for turning everything into an 'image' and is usually where the chain of requests for enabling dithering begins. In Ubuntu Gnome, the renderer is Clutter.
I thought macos wasn't the greatest nowadays? Which version and which Mac/specs?
I have an MBP M1 (16 Gb RAM, 1 Tb SSD, Sonoma 14.1.2). I use it with a Benq GL2450 monitor (TN 6bit+FRC). So far, this is the best setup I have. I've tried other monitors, such as the GIGABYTE G27Q, BenQ BL2711U, etc. But I can't work with them for long. I also have my old Mac Mini 2018 (i5 8400) connected to a Sony KD-49XG8096 TV, and this setup is also very comfortable. But recently, I bought an MBP M1 Max and sold it almost immediately because I couldn't work with it.
Do you think a uhd driver would install on 1507/1511 win10?
I'll try next week.
WhisperingWind gotcha okay!
WhisperingWind
I'm shocked the mbp is fine. Do you use stillcolor app? The frc doesn't bother you on that monitor but GPU dithering does?
Sounds good! Would love to know if it's possible. I connected my a770 to my z390 strix itx board but it had no output during OS setup so I connected to the igpu on the 8700 i7 which felt uncomfortable when connected to my eink monitor. I tried win11 setup and crunchbang++ and both felt off during setups. I think I am going to go back to my 7950x / msi b650 unify itx which felt comfortable on its Raphael amd igpu. How would I force 8bit with the AMD igpu in Linux? Or would that xrandr command you told me earlier also work on this? Might even try the arc on this board too.
I think the motherboard/bios strain is definitely a thing because x670e on the same 7950x igpu felt AWFUL when the b650 unify itx / 7950x is fine. That was in the BIOS where I noticed the substantial difference in comfort. Also on the b650 unify board is felt comfortable booted into HiveOS distro when I was using it to mine crypto. I believe it uses open box / x11?
I'm thinking this z390 board also is just no good. I tried manually flashing a OLD bios but it wouldn't boot, assuming it lacked microcode for the 8700. Earliest is 2019 that worked, maybe if I had a compatible CPU for the 2018ver it maybe would be better ? Dunno. I used the cha341a in pic to force bios downgrade
WhisperingWind also if 1507/1511 doesn't work I think the next good one would be 1809 win10. I know 20h2 is the minimum for arc driver but hopefully uhd driver install could allow older os
WhisperingWind such as the GIGABYTE G27Q
this monitor has same panel as my xiaomi mi 27 2k which I sold week ago. Panel is M270DAN02.B with agressive vcom - look how it "refresh pixels"
I read in a few places here that LUbuntu 18.04 is best for eye strain.
Another thing that could be done, is to disable the gpu and use software rendering.
This may be done by using the vesa driver, which uses software rendering, and bypasses most of the gpu(but not sure if all of it).
I also wonder if changing configuration files can be done on a live usb, and that way, its possible to try similar configuration changes on different distros, fast.
I'm shocked the mbp is fine. Do you use stillcolor app? The frc doesn't bother you on that monitor but GPU dithering does?
I use Stillcolor with my MBP M1 because, without it, I can't work for extended periods. In my case, the macOS interface has subdued colors and is rendered without harsh transitions and strong contrast. My hypothesis is that this makes the FRC on the monitor less active. However, when switching to Windows and Linux, I notice an increase in sharpness and contrast, and the image becomes more vibrant, which leads to more "active" FRC operation. I immediately notice this as eye strain.
How would I force 8bit with the AMD igpu in Linux?
I’m not sure off the top of my head, but you can run the command xrandr --verbose
. This will print the available variables for modification in the terminal.
Or would that xrandr command you told me earlier also work on this?
Xrandr can work with any video driver. It receives a list of properties from the driver and simply sends the property along with its value to the driver when setting it.
I'm thinking this z390 board also is just no good
My motherboard is based on the Z390 chipset, and when I tried switching from A770 to UHD 630 in Windows 11, I noticed that it became less comfortable for my eyes.
It turns out that the minimum 8-bit limitation for HDMI on my Intel UHD Xe (12th gen CPU) is not a hardware issue
I have experimented with i9-9900K (UHD 630). I tried to enable 6-bit on Windows with this iGPU. However, Ditherig returned 0 as the pipeline state register value (the same situation occurred on Linux), which is strange. I attempted to write data to the register, but UHD 630 did not respond.
Gotcha I see. I wonder if hackintosh would feel on a PC with decent hardware. I originally thought macos was bad it's self.
Oh alright I didn't know that. I'll have to try that soon. Thanks. I was running hiveos on the 7950x igpu and it felt ok I wonder what normal distro would be on par with that in terms of windows manager, compositor, etc
Oh yeah that's the version I remember hearing about too. I wonder if any newer ones are also okay. I wasn't aware of that driver and running it as software rendering. That sounds like it could help? Live USB also would be very useful to check
.
I also wonder if changing configuration files can be done on a live usb, and that way, its possible to try similar configuration changes on different distros, fast.
I looked into how the video stack works in the latest version of Ubuntu Desktop X11. It turns out that in the source code of the Mutter/Clutter rendering engine, there are no external settings for controlling dithering - it is enabled by default. In older versions of Mesa OpenGL, there used to be an environment variable called MESA_NO_DITHER, but in modern versions, it has been removed because the relevant code was taken out. When the data reaches the driver level, it's the drivers that decide whether to enable or disable dithering, regardless of what the lower layers request. Although theoretically possible to replace some components, I didn't find a straightforward way to change dithering settings through default configuration files.
I read in a few places here that LUbuntu 18.04 is best for eye strain.
Lubuntu does not use Mutter/Clutter. It definitely needs to be tried.