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Nvidia vs Amd color quality

gilang01

I need your help with this one. Is there ANY DIFFERENCE in color quality between nvidia and amd cards?

Those who have had both or currently have both please help me on this.

Thx Heaps

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There is a difference. AMD is better.

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The tech review sites are usually looking out for any major image quality differences, because that is one possible way for Nvidia/AMD to "cheat" on benchmarks. If I'm not mistaken, both have been caught doing so at various times in the past. So, I don't there's any real difference, because if their rendering differed greatly it could become a PR nightmare.

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People in my circle INSIST that nvidia cards output washed out colors

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People in my circle INSIST that nvidia cards output washed out colors

There is a bug on NVIDIA cards which causes it to output Limited RGB by default which causes washed out colors, but you can easily change it manually. AMD has the same setting available (it's for TV compatibility), the only difference is it isn't enabled by default.

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There is a bug on NVIDIA card which causes it to output Limited RGB by default which causes washed out colors, but you can easily change it manually. AMD has the same setting, it just doesn't default to it.

I thought they fixed it last year with a driver release.

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I'm not sure if this is correct but I remember reading somewhere that AMD Radeon Cards could handle 10 bit colour. 

Anyone know if this is true?

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As glenwing says It's not really that AMD is better. The hardware on both GPUs is capable of outputting equivalent color quality.

It's just that NVIDIA has a longstanding HDMI driver issue where they send out the wrong limited range color signal which is not suitable for PC monitors. The result is a washed out look with weak blacks and lack of contrast. You can fix it with a hack by manually setting the refresh rate to a custom value which is slightly off such as 60.000001. I was using this fix during my NVIDIA days until last year. Not sure if it was fixed since then. It used to piss me off LOL thinking about how many thousands of people are getting subpar image quality as a result without realizing it. They probably think it's normal.

AMD allows proper control of the color quality via catalyst and it defaults to the full range signal.

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Do you have both cards?

Yes. I had a gtx770 which I replaced with a r9 290. The colors on the 290 are much more vivid. A huge example is Tomb Raider. The colors just looked washed out on my nvidia card. The black were grey-ish. I've noticed difference in other games as well. And in some games (like saints row 3/4) I noticed no difference. Maybe it's engine dependent, or there's some AMD conspiracy.

 Here are some videos that show the difference.

As you can see in TR even the hue is different.

Also, it's not just the "limited range color" problem that nvidia has. That particular issue is present only on 1080p and if using HDMI. I was tearing my hair out with tomb raider trying to fix the colors, the registry hack/fix didn't help me. I use DVI on 1920x1200 display btw. And the most funny thing is, my old GTS250 didn't had these problems.

 

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Yes. I had a gtx770 which I replaced with a r9 290. The colors on the 290 are much more vivid. A huge example is Tomb Raider. The colors just looked washed out on my nvidia card. The black were grey-ish. I've noticed difference in other games as well. And in some games (like saints row 3/4) I noticed no difference. Maybe it's engine dependent, or there's some AMD conspiracy.

 Here are some videos that show the difference.

As you can see in TR even the hue is different.

Also, it's not just the "limited range color" problem that nvidia has. That particular issue is present only on 1080p and if using HDMI. I was tearing my hair out with tomb raider trying to fix the colors, the registry hack/fix didn't help me. I use DVI on 1920x1200 display btw. And the most funny thing is, my old GTS250 didn't had these problems.

 

interesting. I'm using DVI on both my 970 and 280x, so maybe that's why I can't see the difference I color.

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interesting. I'm using DVI on both my 970 and 280x, so maybe that's why I can't see the difference I color.

Probably. According to this great article nvidia has included a setting for the color range in the NCP since the 347.09 drivers. (no idea how I missed that) No idea why I couldn't fix my situation with TR at the time. All I I know that it was pre 347.09 and the "nvidia full/limited range toggler" wasn't working for me. If you can, please post some comparison screenshots. It would be good if we put this issue to rest.

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I've never used HDMI so I've never noticed the issue everyone's speaking of. I always use DVI.

 

However, I remember about a year ago I was looking up performance comparisons for the R7 260X and GTX 750 trying to see which was better, and I saw a few videos where a guy tested two games on the cards side by side... and in a couple of them I could notice that the colours on the R7 260X were MUCH better. It had better contrast and more vibrant colours. Not sure if this is due to the issue other people are talking about.

 

Having said that i notice almost no difference in colour between my friend's R9 270 system and my GTX 760 system in Battlefield 4 (although it's well known for being made out of many shades of grey lol)... his seems to have a bit better saturation in GTA V although his monitor is probably better than mine so... I'd wager the gap is pretty small.

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Probably. According to this great article nvidia has included a setting for the color range in the NCP since the 347.09 drivers. (no idea how I missed that) No idea why I couldn't fix my situation with TR at the time. All I I know that it was pre 347.09 and the "nvidia full/limited range toggler" wasn't working for me. If you can, please post some comparison screenshots. It would be good if we put this issue to rest.

the thing is my 280x is no longer with me :/ 

I'll ask my buddy if he can give me some screenshots with his 7870

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screenshot won't show much differences

 

and it's really about personal preferences if one must insist

 

the problem with this Color profiles differences is when you need accuracy color

 

for example, when I was student I make extra money by designing and printing business card

 

often most the color I pick when I design it doesn't really match with the color when it's get printed (specially with red/green/blue), most of time it's too light.

since it was personal business and the quality isn't that far my clients wasn't really mind or fuss about it, but when I start getting bigger deal for banner and poster... it is matter.

 

I was using G2MX/G4MX/and Geforce 256 and of course, glorious CRT for design.

the obvious differences showing up when I grab Radeon 8500, it doesn't show that much on LCD probably because color profile for most LCD wasn't really priority back then, but with CRT it is obvious unless you are color blind.

 

after that, I just can't go back even if the GPU isn't really at the top for gaming performance.

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screenshot won't show much differences

and it's really about personal preferences if one must insist

the problem with this Color profiles differences is when you need accuracy color

for example, when I was student I make extra money by designing and printing business card

often most the color I pick when I design it doesn't really match with the color when it's get printed (specially with red/green/blue), most of time it's too light.

since it was personal business and the quality isn't that far my clients wasn't really mind or fuss about it, but when I start getting bigger deal for banner and poster... it is matter.

I was using G2MX/G4MX/and Geforce 256 and of course, glorious CRT for design.

the obvious differences showing up when I grab Radeon 8500, it doesn't show that much on LCD probably because color profile for most LCD wasn't really priority back then, but with CRT it is obvious unless you are color blind.

after that, I just can't go back even if the GPU isn't really at the top for gaming performance.

but that was a long time ago. Does the current gpus have different color quality?
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but that was a long time ago. Does the current gpus have different color quality?

No idea, I don't have any complaints with mine thus far.

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...for example, when I was student I make extra money by designing and printing business card

 

often most the color I pick when I design it doesn't really match with the color when it's get printed (specially with red/green/blue), most of time it's too light.

since it was personal business and the quality isn't that far my clients wasn't really mind or fuss about it, but when I start getting bigger deal for banner and poster... it is matter.

 

For printing working in CMYK color mode is a must. That was probably your problem and it has nothing to do with the color output of the GPU. :)

 

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Heyyo,

There's a quality difference between YCrBr 444 8bit Vs RGB Full and the default of RGB Limited on DisplayPort and HDMI cables if that's what you mean.

RGB Full has a wider range of darker colors.

YCrBr 444 tends to have oversaturated reds at least on my monitor (Asus VE278Q) so they sometimes even blur over other colors... it's crazy and it sucks lol. :P

NVIDIA and AMD has the same thing where you can select between RGB or YCrBr for DisplayPort and HDMI...

Read this article to see both:

https://pcmonitors.info/articles/correcting-hdmi-colour-on-nvidia-and-amd-gpus

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  • 2 years later...

Sorry my friends I must tell that all of you were wrong. Regardless of the values on paper nVidia has way too beautiful colors. That depends on the user but that is not same AT ALL. There is obvious A difference. nVidia has the brighter and pastel like colors where AMD has more realistic and washed out colors ACTUALLY. lol. I've been used AMD since 2009 to today. It was HD 4650 and HD 6970 and I used nVidia 3 times. It was GeForece 7300 LE first then GTX 580 and now I'm using the GTX 1050 Ti. Regardless of technical datas I'm telling that as a user of the both. Sometimes theorical things don't match with experience you know? You say that "No, it should be like that." But that DOES not being like THAT mostly. That would be about signal or not, I have no idea and it still does not matter. There is the difference standing here. And you can't see the difference by recorded videos. Because color difference changes or at least the current color difference only applies inside of the monitor that I believe. So that's why there is like no difference or at least so little from the videos. So if you are gonna answer the question that you don't know the truth about, then don't talk so confident if you don't experienced it. And even if I set it to full range signal colors haven't changed so differently. It just gave it ability to adjust colors "a little bit" brighter nothing else. But also I have seen same "brighty" colors on AMD too but that didn't last too long. Sometimes when I unplug the cable out of my GPU card then replugging that occurs then couple of minutes later or after restarting the PC -I don't remember- it changes back. But nVidia has the more balanced one while AMD has way too brighty that bothers you. At least it bothered me. I choose nVidia just because they have the most supported technologies and amount of. And it's colors' beauty is way too attractive to me instead of AMD's washed out colors. :P I don't want to be mistaken. I'm not an nVidia fan. Actually I was like an AMD fan for years but I wasn't. I just had a sympathy on AMD then I moved on.

 

For example when I was played the Warhammer Online that I built my PC for the green was way too more greeny. And Tomb Raider can't taken as a reference since it's optimised for AMD since it uses AMD's TressFX technology. That is why nVidia's colors washed out, no wonder.

 

Hope it helps. Cheers! \m/

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