Can't look at the display on Win11: advice for settings or for a new display

Hi,

I hope you will be able to give me some advice regarding settings I should use, or advice about a new display.  I apologize for lacking relevant technical knowledge.

Like many others, I have some visual sensitivity. Fluorescent tubes, strobe lighting, contrast stripes or CRTs with refresh rates below 100 Hz all cause eye strain, nausea, headaches, vertigo and other symptoms. Things get worse at lower brightness conditions. I have an old display which was fine, but I am not able to use if on my Windows 11 computer. I can't find the right settings and I am afraid that I need to buy a new display.  In case that is the solution, I would appreciate it if you could give me some advice as to what I should be looking for.

At the time of CRT displays, I was not able to use low refresh rate (I saw the flicker).  I had a display and a GPU allowing 100Hz or more and that was fine.

When LCD arrived, I did not see any flicker, but I got nausea, headaches etc. after looking at these screens.  Eventually, I realized the cause was temporal dithering. 

I got a high-end display NEC MultiSync LCD2490Wuxi2. I did not need its color calibration etc, but this display was true 8-bit and did not have temporal dithering.

I have been using this display since 2011 on Windows 7 and on windows 10 without any problems. 

Lately, I had to buy a new computer. This computer has Windows 11. I am hardly able to use it because I get nausea, headaches etc.  I can hardly look at the display.  The display is connected to the computer with a DVI-D cable. 

I have tried to change various settings, both at the windows 11 settings and through the Nvidia control panel (using both the gamer driver and the studio driver). However, I can't figure out how to get it right.  Moreover, it seems that settings keep changing by themselves.  I thought this is impossible and ridiculous, but then noticed other people complaining about this too.

I also read that this may be due to the incompatibility of the display's driver. Unfortunately, the most recent driver for my display is dated 2009. 

I know people vary regarding their sensitivities. Therefore, I should note I have to be in a room with strong light, and use a screen with high brightness and good contrast.

I do not use the computer for gaming. Mostly for office and browsing. 

I would appreciate it if you could help me:

1.       Is there a way to use this display without dithering, PWM or other issues that may cause nausea, headaches etc?

2.      If that is not possible, what should I look for in my new display?

a.      At the time, IPS was best for me, but since then, other technologies have evolved which I am not familiar with. Should I still look for IPS?

b.      Flicker-free? Some displays are sold as flicker free, but are they indeed flicker free or may some people be more sensitive and still experience this flickering?

c.      No PWM, no FRC

d.      Additional characteristics?

Any advice would be most welcome.

Thanks!

Below are some specifications.

Processor                13th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-13500   2.50 GHz

Installed RAM           32.0 GB (31.7 GB usable)

System type              64-bit operating system, x64-based processor

Pen and touch              No pen or touch input is available for this display

Motherboard

BaseBoard Manufacturer      ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC.

BaseBoard Product   PRIME B760M-A WIFI D4

BaseBoard Version    Rev 1.xx

GPU     Nvidia GeForce GTX1650

Driver Version:             32.0.15.7216

Display:            NEC LCD2490WUXI2

Desktop mode             1920x1200, 59.95Hz

Active signal mode     1920x1200, 59.95Hz

Variable refresh mode:           Not spported

Bit depth                         8-bit

Color format                 RGB

Color space                  SDR

Windows 11 Home

Version         24H2

Installed on   ‎31/‎12/‎2024

OS build        26100.2894

Experience      Windows Feature Experience Pack 1000.26100.36.0

simplex

Althogh Win 10 may indeed be better, I'm afraid it would be a short term solution because Microsoft will no longer support Win 10 toward the end of the year. That is why I hope to be able to use Win 11

DisplaysShouldNotBeTVs

My previous computer had Nvidia Geforce GTX 650.

Thanks

simplex

Thanks. The iGPU is UFD 730. Is that supposed to work without dithering? The display is old and its most advanced connection is DVI-D. I do not know whether I can find cables that make this connection possible, but even if there is such a cable, would't that be another possible source of visuall issues?

moonpie

Thanks. I needed the 100 refresh rate on CRTs. I have been using this display with its 60 Hz refresh rate without any problems on my previous computer. Is it possible that I was able to use it on on the old computer with GTX 650 +Win 10 and that in spite of that, I cannot manage with the new computer with GTX1650+Win 11? If that is the case, what may be causing the problem?

Since the display is good but quite old, I would not like to invest in additional hardware, especially if it is not certain that it would work. Therefore, in case I do not manage to find a solution with the current display, I would appreciate some advice regarding a new display.

I know I should look for a display with no dithering, no flicker, no PWM, no FRC, and preferably high brightness.

Is refresh rate important and if so, what refresh rate would be sufficient (I am not a gamer)?

Since my vision is far from perfect I need the text to have reasonable size. (currently I have a 24inch 1920x1200 display and I use windows scaling (125%). I assume that this implies that I should look for a display with 1920X1200 or 1920X1080. Is that right? Is there any reason to prefer one of these over the other?

I currently have a 24 inch display. It is big enough for me. Is there a reason to prefer a 27 inch?

What other specs should I take into consideration?

Thanks for any advice

Sunspark What is logical scaling? Is this the same as Window's scaling? I use Windows scaling on 125%. I had no issues with this on my previous Win 10 computer. But I do have problems on my new Win 11 computer.

moonpie Thanks. I use a dGPU becuase the screen is 1920x1200 and I have to connect it with a DVI-D cable. I was afraid that using a cable that is not DVI-D to DVI-D would cause additional problems. Was I wrong?

moonpie Thanks. I am not sure I understand what you wrote. My previous computer also had a dGPU and I used Windows10 125% scaling. I had no problems. Now with the new dGPU and Windows 11 125% scaling I have a problem. Is it possible that Windows 10 scaling does not cause problems whereas Windows 11 scaling does?

moonpie Do you mean I have to turn off the Windows11 125% scaling? and if so, is there another way to be able to see properly? (I use the Windows scaling because increading text size is not sufficient, as everything elese remains too small).