Nvidia - Disable Dithering Fix (Windows)
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Does Win 7 have dithering btw? Or is 10 forcing it only? (trying to understand my beef with win 10 
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Disregard my post. I updated my CPU and Mobo so I had to switch to Windows 10 and it's fine. Started with 1511 build then upgraded all the way up, and no change. It is a bit brighter (more like, the color schemes are shit) than 7, but thats it, I always use 100% brightness and contrast anyway. I used the dithering registry fix too, just in case, but it was fine before that too (i had 10 on a secondary drive, but never used it much). I did install aero glass and win 7 theme + startisback though, which makes it more pleasant for the eyes, but I wouldn't say that its necessary, cause it was ok anyway. I also read that ppl claimed Win 7 had 252 252 252 whites instead of 255 255 255, but I checked it and found it wasn't true, even my XP has 255 255 255 for windows and stuff, and its like paper to the eyes. So I don't think that's an issue.
ASonic Great that you found a combination that you can use. I am still stuck with Windows 7 here...
Can you please let me know what CPU/Mobo/GPU you are using?
And where did you get the old Windows 10 build? Would like to try the upgrade approach as well...
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.
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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.
Searching the net I found these:
https://resources.amulethotkey.com/download/KBA_144_Disable_temporal_dithering_on_Windows_May_2018.pdf
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DOGVm1tjsT4
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ot3TWFtWl1M
Are they usefull?
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.
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.
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.
This is what my phone camera showed. There is a very obvious flicker.
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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
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.