martin That command never worked for me on my 2015 MBP with El Capitan. It just says "Color LCD" and doesn't give me a model number :/

Assuming it's a Samsung. I'm not going to take it apart just to find the model number.

      JTL Wouldnt want you to do that with the only working mac🙂 The command changes depending on the OS unfortunately, can be googled for specific OS. Btw I want to ask you about your cannabis medicine, could I via chat or email?

        16 days later

        cont-temp What is the configuration of the 2013 macbook that doesnt hurt your eyes? Also, did you try it without external monitor?

            yesanton Hi, It was Late 2013 15" with Intel Iris Pro only, no added graphics. What panel of LCD I do not know yet. Will try to find out tomorrow.

              martin I have LG panel on the 2018 MacBook Pro. I dont think I can test the 2013 Intel Iris one with external screen anytime soon, but I'll but it in my backlog.
              Right now my daily Mac is late 2010 with NVidia and this is all good for me with the integrated screen. Haven't tried any externals with it yet.

                Found some new stuff while poking around with the blurred pictures.
                Still with the 2018 MacBook Pro 15” intel UHD 630/ATI Radeon Pro 555X with LG Screen

                1.Color profiles to make a difference - the default profile (color lcd) is a lot smoother than say Adobe RGB1998 - so the older Adobe1998 might have less dithering. Who knows - but it does produce more color bands.
                Link to video

                https://streamable.com/d2was

                2.With both True Tone OFF and Night Shift OFF the display adds like an additional dithering layer when either of them is turned off (and the other one is off as well)
                Link to video - notice the black color bands on the left changing, stoping and after a second the final pop of smoothness.

                https://streamable.com/yjljj

                3.ATI is the devil indeed. When running the display with Intel I see more bands (maybe this means less dithering) but with ATI enabled - everything is smoothed out - means more dithering I guess.

                https://streamable.com/54m3s

                Will try to do a full workday with this new configuration soon-ish and see how it holds up.
                The integrated LG display on this model is sluggish as hell though, so even a couple of back and forth swipes in that place where all the app icons are is making me puke 😃

                Also this has got me thinking that maybe the 2018 15” are ok cause they have only Intel stuff and with older color profile and nightshift on (not for the yellow tone but somehow nightshift removes some dithering) that they might be ok.

                Maybe someone has some newer MacBooks they can test this out on. 2015 or 2017 ones.

                Steps to reproduce all of the above. - open Spotify web player playlist (it has this nice gradient there) and mess around with the display settings (eg color to Adobe RGB1998 or default), TrueTone on and off (with adobe color profile and nightshift off at the same time) and performance settings Automatic graphics switching on and off.

                • JTL replied to this.

                  I've found various "better than others" Macbooks, but the only one I found that was AWESOME was an early 2013 with nVidia graphics. The screen was glossy, it was just a standard unit. The problem is that the config was sub-optimal - 8GB - and by now the screen was quite scuffed. But ZERO pain when using it, which is a great thing for me. I'd love to find a loaded-up one with the same config.

                    deepflame 15" Early 2013. nVidia chip. I've found some newer 13's that aren't too terrible, but they're far from perfect. They're what I'd call "ok", but not what I'd want to relax and play a game on.

                        Gurm I see. Would you mind making a list of MBPs you tested with ratings of "eyefriendlyness" from 1 to 10 or something? Would be really interested in your findings.
                        Currently I was using a 2018 13'' model that I cannot stand anymore after looking at it for some seconds. Really bad. Now I am trying my 2015 13'' model again which seems to be better.

                          Not to rain on this or anything, but be aware that Apple does issue firmware updates in addition to software updates. A used system from years ago would have had an update or two along the way. It's not enough to identify a model, it is also required to identify a point in time as well.

                          • JTL replied to this.

                            Sunspark Do you have any evidence that the firmware updates for Mac hardware impact the display quality?

                            The most major Macbook firmware update in recent times enabled NVMe SSD support in a few recent Macbook Pro models (pre touchbar)

                                JTL It would be a pretty major update that would touch the vBIOS. I'm not even sure if the nVidia firmware CAN be flashed on a Macbook. That said, I wouldn't be surprised if the Intel firmware could.

                                • JTL replied to this.

                                    JTL Hi, no I don't have evidence, but, I remember from my old Macbook that firmware updates included EFI updates and to the SMC as well. They did not come fast and furious, but they existed and as such represent a material change separate from that of an OS. You can see a list for older models here, https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT201518

                                    Apple probably never touches the vBIOS, but if they did, it would probably be bundled into something like the SMC.. SMC stands for system management controller, and is the logic board. You just don't know, unless one has a tool that can query the system at a low-level in some manner and compare before and after.

                                    OS updates include the firmware updates.

                                    • JTL replied to this.

                                        Gurm In theory it might be possible but Apple does things differently from most OEM's.

                                        Sunspark You just don't know, unless one has a tool that can query the system at a low-level in some manner and compare before and after.

                                        Its probably possible under Linux.

                                            a month later

                                            Gurm Deep within the depths of the 10.14 installer DMG.

                                            (Still on 10.11 here, looking to upgrade soon because 10.11 is getting long in the tooth.

                                            jtl-macbookpro:AMDFirmware jtl$ pwd
/Volumes/jtl/10.14 firmware/extract/Scripts/Tools/AMDFirmware
jtl-macbookpro:AMDFirmware jtl$ ls
total 472
drwx------  1 jtl  staff    16K 20 Sep 21:27 .
drwx------  1 jtl  staff    16K 20 Sep 18:13 ..
-rwx------  1 jtl  staff   179K 17 Aug 15:47 AMDvbiosupdater.efi
-rwx------  1 jtl  staff   2.9K 20 Sep 21:15 AMDvbiosupdater.efi.j132ap.im4m
-rwx------  1 jtl  staff   2.9K 20 Sep 21:15 AMDvbiosupdater.efi.j137ap.im4m
-rwx------  1 jtl  staff   2.9K 20 Sep 21:15 AMDvbiosupdater.efi.j680ap.im4m
drwx------  1 jtl  staff    16K 20 Sep 18:13 Payloads

                                            I'll see if I can find anything else interesting.

                                              2 months later

                                              Have anybody tried SwitchResX app? It has the switch labeled "Millions of Colors/Billions of Colors". Should be a 8bit/10bit switch.

                                              When I set it to millions — screen starts to look much more "static" for my eyes and gradient banding appears.

                                                ryans Yes, sorry. Macbook Pro 2017, Radeon Pro 560/Intel HD 630, Mojave.

                                                  dev