ASonic Congrats on finding a good setup - hopefully a W10 driver/feature update doesn't break it..

I've got a low-end desktop lying around from around 2009, core2quad cpu and 8gb ram, thinking of adding a GTX 750ti - there is the KalmX version which doesn't need additional power and apparently is very similar to a 1050ti - they are very cheap to buy online so might pick one up and report back.

deepflame Ok so my new CPU/Mobo is i5 8400 on ASUS h310M-E. GPU is the old one, 960GTX which was always great for me on Win 7. And the screen is the same, AOC e2051Sn, so, the only thing that could be problematic was switching to Win 10, and it didn't matter.

Most games didnt work with DX12, so I had to update to the latest 1809 build. As I said, still no problems, nothing changed. I dont really remember, maybe it was less bright before (not sure), but I'm using Nvidia profile anyway with contrast down to 2% and gamma at 0.86 -ish. Overall Win 10 seemed brighter to me than Win 7 so I decided to lower it just in case, im sure it wont be a problem even if I dont (other than my eyes getting bombarded by bright lights ofc 😃). The 1511 build I got is pirated, got it from PTB or somewhere similar. If you wanna take the risk, those builds are easy to find. I dont know if links are allowed here, especially to pirated software, if they are I can link you to the exact release, I'll just have to find it.

And for reference, the setup that I changed was i5 3330 on ASUS p8h61-m lx3 r2.0. Which was also fine. Not that I believe CPU/MB has anything to do with eye strain, but just saying in case someone needs to know.

2 years later

JTL

This was my experience also. I tried the linux option to disable dithering. Still got eye strain / pain.

With an EVGA 3080.

    caboy Unfortunately the fact I don't have said 3080 in front of me to further test it means I can't comment further. And no, the current supply chain and pricing situation doesn't make me enthusiastic about buying more GPUs for research.

    caboy I tried the linux option to disable dithering

    How did you try to disable the dithering on Linux?

      ryans

      The linux nvidia control panel has an option to disable dithering. It does not work though. At least, it did not work for me. Still got eye strain and filming from my phone shows a flicker.

      There is also an option (same screen shot) to lower the number of colors via "Color Range". I tried setting it to "Limited". It visibly reduced the number of colors on the screen, but still seemed to both give eye strain and have a flicker when filming from my phone.

      • KM replied to this.

        caboy Your phone camera can't reveal temporal dithering. Whatever you see there, it is not temporal dithering.

          KM In addition, because photodiodes react by a change in luminance I think using one with an oscilloscope is the wrong tool for the job.

          Sorry, but is there a way to disable Nvidia dithering in windows or not?

            Short answer: Nothing that has been empirically verified by anyone

            Long answer: I'm beginning to suspect certain GPUs are hardwired with the VBIOS to always have dithering or other image quality issues by default, so even the case of "working" software solution such as ditherig.exe (for Intel and some AMD GPUs), if the program stops working or the internal GPU state changes due to external factor (vague I know), that can cause dithering to be re-enabled.

            Maxx

            All the Nvidia cards I tested had (gtx660, gtx1060, possibly others I don't remember) had one colour setting (ie RGB 8bit, YCbCr444, etc) where they did not dither. I believe what was occurring was that there was a 'native' colour setting for the card, which was then dithered to convert to other colour formats. Unfortunately, I recall the dither-free setting being different from card to card, however you can still experiment and see how you react to different settings.

            9 days later

            caboy That's capture artifacts not of the display itself

            • caboy replied to this.
            • KM likes this.

              JTL

              I can film my laptop which has no eye strain and there is no flicker. It is not an artifact of capture from the phone.

              Here is another video showing temporal dithering on a Macbook Pro. This video is shot from an iphone 11 at 240fps: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JCQ_p4olWw

              • KM replied to this.

                caboy You have observed the moiree effect: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moir%C3%A9_pattern
                This picture is what you have seen: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moir%C3%A9_pattern#/media/File:Moir%C3%A9_pattern.png

                Notebookcheck uses magnification, slow motion, and a steady camera setup to reveal temporal dithering (a strong variant in this case). You did not magnify, did not use slow motion, and you moved your hand a lot. This is not adequate for detecting temporal dithering.

                When using the control panel's switch, it may be difficult to consciously notice the differences. You are more likely to see changes on solid dark gray colors, and if you change the setting with your keyboard back and forth. You may also see a slight change in gradients. The changes may be more visible if you set the color depth to 6 bit instead of 8. In my experience they are most visible when using 6 bit depth and static dithering.

                  KM

                  I see what you mean now. I repeated my test with my good computer. Got the same moiree effect. Looks like my earlier impression of that test with my good computer was erroneous.

                  Thanks for that information. It looks like I will need some better equipment for future empirical testing.

                  • KM likes this.
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