NVIDIA control panel 8 bpc vs 10 bpc

[Kevinjr12]

So I have an LG 27GN950-b and an RTX 3080. My monitor can do 10 bit color, but by default windows shows it at 8 bit (I have monitor at 4k 144hz DP 1.4 DSC). I can go into the NVIDIA control panel->Change Resolution-> and switch from "Use default color settings" to "Use NVIDIA color settings" and then switch output color depth to 10 bpc. But what does that actually switch to 10 bpc? I read that most things on windows will just stay 8 bpc, and almost all games use 8 bpc anyway. Is this true (I have read some conflicting things lol)? Also if I turn on HDR it does switch to 10 bpc automatically (even if it was set to "Use default color settings"), do I only benefit from the 10 bpc in HDR? Should I always switch from "Use default color settings" to "Use NVIDIA color settings" and turn on 10 bpc? Any info would be greatly appreciated!

[Skiiwee29]

biggest thing is the much wider color space. 8 bit is the standard 16.7million colors with SRGB. 10 bit has over 1 billion colors within it so it helps to be even that much more precise with color accuracy. 

[Glenwing]

It changes the output signal transmitted across the cable to 10 bpc. The windows desktop and applications that only support 8 bpc will just be scaled to 10 bpc values.

[Stahlmann]

2 hours ago, Skiiwee29 said:

biggest thing is the much wider color space. 8 bit is the standard 16.7million colors with SRGB. 10 bit has over 1 billion colors within it so it helps to be even that much more precise with color accuracy. 

Bit depth has nothing to do with color space, as this is only limited by the monitors gamut coverage. The min and max values (black and fully saturated colors) will stay the same no matter if you use 8bit or 10bit. A higher bit depth introduces more steps in between the min and max values. So theoretically you can achieve any color space coverage you want, be it full sRGB, DCI-P3, AdobeRGB or Rec2020 with just 8bit. But like you said it will introduce more colors in between. With 8bit there are 256 steps in between black and fully saturated. I can't remember atm how many steps there are with 10bit.

 

Theoretically you will only need 8bit in most cases. The only reasons to use 10bit is if you are a professional working with colors or if you want to use HDR, where 10bit is part of the spec. But even in HDR you can easily get away with 8bit if you're bandwidth limited with next to no visual difference to 10bit. The only thing 10bit really does is improve gradient performance. (Gradient performance is basically how very close colors can "wash" into one color rather than being distinguishable)

 

But in the end, if you can enable 10bit without limiting your refresh rate and resolution, (if you have the bandwidth left) then there is no reason not to use it. It doesn't bring any drawbacks to the table. Anything that is 8bit will just be scaled like @Glenwing said. And everything that is natively 10bit will just run in 10bit. 

[Kevinjr12]

Ahh ok. So I should switch to 10 bpc in the NVIDIA control panel? Also do you know why the control panel defaults to 8 bpc, even though I can do 10?

[Kevinjr12]

On 8/6/2021 at 3:18 AM, Stahlmann said:

Bit depth has nothing to do with color space, as this is only limited by the monitors gamut coverage. The min and max values (black and fully saturated colors) will stay the same no matter if you use 8bit or 10bit. A higher bit depth introduces more steps in between the min and max values. So theoretically you can achieve any color space coverage you want, be it full sRGB, DCI-P3, AdobeRGB or Rec2020 with just 8bit. But like you said it will introduce more colors in between. With 8bit there are 256 steps in between black and fully saturated. I can't remember atm how many steps there are with 10bit.

 

Theoretically you will only need 8bit in most cases. The only reasons to use 10bit is if you are a professional working with colors or if you want to use HDR, where 10bit is part of the spec. But even in HDR you can easily get away with 8bit if you're bandwidth limited with next to no visual difference to 10bit. The only thing 10bit really does is improve gradient performance. (Gradient performance is basically how very close colors can "wash" into one color rather than being distinguishable)

 

But in the end, if you can enable 10bit without limiting your refresh rate and resolution, (if you have the bandwidth left) then there is no reason not to use it. It doesn't bring any drawbacks to the table. Anything that is 8bit will just be scaled like @Glenwing said. And everything that is natively 10bit will just run in 10bit. 

Ahh ok. So I should switch to 10 bpc in the NVIDIA control panel? Also do you know why the control panel defaults to 8 bpc, even though I can do 10? (sorry, forgot to quote you the first time)

[Stahlmann]

13 hours ago, Kevinjr12 said:

Ahh ok. So I should switch to 10 bpc in the NVIDIA control panel? Also do you know why the control panel defaults to 8 bpc, even though I can do 10? (sorry, forgot to quote you the first time)

Idk what the reasoning is behind it defaulting to 8bpc. But long story short: Just switch to 10bpc if you have the option to.

[thejackalope]

I use 10 bit with my Dell G3223Q but I'm not sure if it impacts performance.

 

I figure using 30 bit color gives more color gradations to allow for things like Night Light and color profiles

[e22big]

On 8/6/2021 at 2:18 PM, Stahlmann said:

Bit depth has nothing to do with color space, as this is only limited by the monitors gamut coverage. The min and max values (black and fully saturated colors) will stay the same no matter if you use 8bit or 10bit. A higher bit depth introduces more steps in between the min and max values. So theoretically you can achieve any color space coverage you want, be it full sRGB, DCI-P3, AdobeRGB or Rec2020 with just 8bit. But like you said it will introduce more colors in between. With 8bit there are 256 steps in between black and fully saturated. I can't remember atm how many steps there are with 10bit.

 

Theoretically you will only need 8bit in most cases. The only reasons to use 10bit is if you are a professional working with colors or if you want to use HDR, where 10bit is part of the spec. But even in HDR you can easily get away with 8bit if you're bandwidth limited with next to no visual difference to 10bit. The only thing 10bit really does is improve gradient performance. (Gradient performance is basically how very close colors can "wash" into one color rather than being distinguishable)

 

But in the end, if you can enable 10bit without limiting your refresh rate and resolution, (if you have the bandwidth left) then there is no reason not to use it. It doesn't bring any drawbacks to the table. Anything that is 8bit will just be scaled like @Glenwing said. And everything that is natively 10bit will just run in 10bit. 

It doesn't do anything for professional photo editing either. People are struggling to identify any advantage going from 8 to 14 bits even. 

[Tan3l6]

People don't agree even how many colors can human eye see.

16 million colors it's surely not. Some google searches report 1 million, others up to 100 million.

 

Not sure about 1 million, as even 16 million color digital photos have often quite a lot of colour banding.

[Andrewtst]

Just switch to 10bit if your display is capable. Windows default 8bit I think is to prevent any compatibility issue. I not sure. 

 

10bit give you more smooth gradient as it is more colors can be produce, at least I can notice the differences, and no worried they won't impact your pc performance. 

 

Some display even can choose 12bit when using HDMI 2.1 only but normally most will have G-sync issue and frank speak I can't notice the differences of 10bit vs 12bit anymore. I prefer better support in G-sync and since I cannot notice the differences, I remain in 10bit rather than 12bit, basically I think for the moment no content in 12bit also. 

[e22big]

16 hours ago, Andrewtst said:

Just switch to 10bit if your display is capable. Windows default 8bit I think is to prevent any compatibility issue. I not sure. 

 

10bit give you more smooth gradient as it is more colors can be produce, at least I can notice the differences, and no worried they won't impact your pc performance. 

 

Some display even can choose 12bit when using HDMI 2.1 only but normally most will have G-sync issue and frank speak I can't notice the differences of 10bit vs 12bit anymore. I prefer better support in G-sync and since I cannot notice the differences, I remain in 10bit rather than 12bit, basically I think for the moment no content in 12bit also. 

Should be noted that it's not necessarily help with banding, and can even make the matter worse in some case

 

@Stahlmann used to mention his experiences with LG C2 at one point, I've tested it out myself and can personally confirm that the going from 8 bit to 12 bit (or 10 bit even) resulted in significantly more gradient than just stay at 8 bit (which resulted in 8 bit + FRC despite the dispay being a native 12 bit panel)

 

So it's kind of just depend on that department as well. 

[Andrewtst]

4 hours ago, e22big said:

Should be noted that it's not necessarily help with banding, and can even make the matter worse in some case

 

@Stahlmann used to mention his experiences with LG C2 at one point, I've tested it out myself and can personally confirm that the going from 8 bit to 12 bit (or 10 bit even) resulted in significantly more gradient than just stay at 8 bit (which resulted in 8 bit + FRC despite the dispay being a native 12 bit panel)

 

So it's kind of just depend on that department as well. 

In general this not supposed happen, and seems only C2 got this issue. Asus also using C2 panel but did not have this issue as well. 

[jesseinla]

On 8/6/2021 at 12:18 AM, Stahlmann said:

Bit depth has nothing to do with color space, as this is only limited by the monitors gamut coverage. The min and max values (black and fully saturated colors) will stay the same no matter if you use 8bit or 10bit. A higher bit depth introduces more steps in between the min and max values. So theoretically you can achieve any color space coverage you want, be it full sRGB, DCI-P3, AdobeRGB or Rec2020 with just 8bit. But like you said it will introduce more colors in between. With 8bit there are 256 steps in between black and fully saturated. I can't remember atm how many steps there are with 10bit.

 

Theoretically you will only need 8bit in most cases. The only reasons to use 10bit is if you are a professional working with colors or if you want to use HDR, where 10bit is part of the spec. But even in HDR you can easily get away with 8bit if you're bandwidth limited with next to no visual difference to 10bit. The only thing 10bit really does is improve gradient performance. (Gradient performance is basically how very close colors can "wash" into one color rather than being distinguishable)

 

But in the end, if you can enable 10bit without limiting your refresh rate and resolution, (if you have the bandwidth left) then there is no reason not to use it. It doesn't bring any drawbacks to the table. Anything that is 8bit will just be scaled like @Glenwing said. And everything that is natively 10bit will just run in 10bit. 

REC 2020 requires 10-bit or 12-bit as stated in the Wiki article. Sure, you can enable REC 2020, however, if anything below 10bpc is being used then you are not taking advantage of the full color space that REC 2020 offers. Rec. 2020 - Wikipedia

REC 2120 is for HDR.

[Glenwing]

7 hours ago, jesseinla said:

REC 2020 requires 10-bit or 12-bit as stated in the Wiki article. Sure, you can enable REC 2020, however, if anything below 10bpc is being used then you are not taking advantage of the full color space that REC 2020 offers. Rec. 2020 - Wikipedia

REC 2120 is for HDR.

ITU-R BT.2020 defines two complete image systems known as 4K UHDTV and 8K UHDTV. Color gamut is one of the parameters defined by the standard for these formats. Color depth is another one. So are resolution and frame rate. None of these are inherently related to each other. Yes, the BT.2020 standard defines the 4K UHDTV format as having either 10 bpc or 12 bpc color depth, and color primaries as defined in Table 3 (which determines the color gamut). But saying that, because the standard specifies 10 bpc color depth, that must mean you can't use the full color gamut without it... Well the standard also specifies 60 Hz refresh rate (or a few other allowed values), why not say "without 60 Hz refresh rate you can't use the full color gamut"? The color depth is just one of the parameters defined by the standard, and color gamut is another one. That's all. That don't have any dependence on each other. If you have one without the other, it just means your system does not meet the definition of 4K UHDTV as per the BT.2020 standard.