Monitor contrast different when any variable is changed

[CentreMetre]

About a month ago i got a new GPU, and when I used a new DP cable I noticed the contrast was a lot higher (or lower? im not to sure how it works), i thought maybe changing from the HDMI cable fucked with the monitor, so i left it as is. Recently Ive been playing around with other OSes (specifically Nobara, my normal one is windows 10) and noticed the contrast was different on that aswell, the same as when i switched the cable. Why is this?

 

Is there a way to fix it, the different contrast looks awful.

 

I can upload some pictures of the difference if requested (i assume screenshots wont work so pictures of the screen from my phone), but im not too sure you would be able to see the difference that much. Its most notable in Brace where the grey background meets the white boxes around the search results. Also on steam i notice the difference alot. 

 

My monitor is the AOC G2260VWQ6 LCD 21.5" 1920 x 1080 

My GPU is an RTX 2070 SUPER

The HDMI cable is (i think) the one i got with my Xbox One S in 2016. It just says 'HDMI High Speed' on it

[nmsxsu]

36 minutes ago, CentreMetre said:

noticed the contrast was different on that aswell, the same as when i switched the cable. Why is this?

So, when you switched OS, you got the same result as swapping cables? Or did you switch to DP on Nobara as well? This part confused me. Anyway, I don't know if windows recognises the display differently when you use HDMI and DP (other than the different technology of course) but something similar happened to me when I switched from hdmi to dp a couple of years ago, I had completely different colours, and I fixed it by changing the windows color properties, display calibration and some tweaks with the Nvidia control panel. I think it's because you are used to that image now so try to match it as much as you can with these options. If nothing works try different dp cables, sometimes you get faulty ones.

[ImWilly]

Try these tips:

1. In NVIDIA Control panel settings, change Limited to Full RGB

2. Change Color depth from Control panel. Display -> Change Resolution -> Color Depth

If there's an option to go higher than 8-bit, such as 10-bit, it will bring a difference

But depending on your your HDMI version, you may have to lower the refresh rate frequency to achieve higher color depth

[CentreMetre]

23 minutes ago, nmsxsu said:

So, when you switched OS, you got the same result as swapping cables? Or did you switch to DP on Nobara as well? This part confused me. Anyway, I don't know if windows recognises the display differently when you use HDMI and DP (other than the different technology of course) but something similar happened to me when I switched from hdmi to dp a couple of years ago, I had completely different colours, and I fixed it by changing the windows color properties, display calibration and some tweaks with the Nvidia control panel. I think it's because you are used to that image now so try to match it as much as you can with these options. If nothing works try different dp cables, sometimes you get faulty ones.

Sorry, yes i meant the same HDMI cable on Nobara that i use on windows. Yea maybe my only option is just just change system or monitor setting to try and get the best image, but im still confused as to why changing a wire or OS would make a difference and mess it up. Do you know if linux has nvidia control panel? Theres a programme called 'Nvidia X Server settings', is this it?

[CentreMetre]

5 hours ago, ImWilly said:

Try these tips:

1. In NVIDIA Control panel settings, change Limited to Full RGB

2. Change Color depth from Control panel. Display -> Change Resolution -> Color Depth

If there's an option to go higher than 8-bit, such as 10-bit, it will bring a difference

But depending on your your HDMI version, you may have to lower the refresh rate frequency to achieve higher color depth

For some reason nvidia control panel wont open on my windows, ill try reinstall it or something, and then try it with a different HDMI cable or a different DP, and try on nobara with 'Nvidia X Server settings' which i think is the linux version (?) and post the results on this thread. Also i didnt think it would be colour bitness so i guess that something to remember if it happens again., thanks.

[nmsxsu]

6 minutes ago, CentreMetre said:

Sorry, yes i meant the same HDMI cable on Nobara that i use on windows. Yea maybe my only option is just just change system or monitor setting to try and get the best image, but im still confused as to why changing a wire or OS would make a difference and mess it up. Do you know if linux has nvidia control panel? Theres a programme called 'Nvidia X Server settings', is this it?

Sorry I only use MacOS and windows so I can’t tell if that’s the right place but I found this: 

So yeah I think it’s what you have after reading this. 

[CentreMetre]

2 hours ago, nmsxsu said:

Sorry I only use MacOS and windows so I can’t tell if that’s the right place but I found this: 

So yeah I think it’s what you have after reading this. 

Ah thank you for finding out and link this for me, yea ill give it a go when i get a chance. Thanks

[CentreMetre]

Didnt mean to press CTRL+Enter, whoops

Edited September 12, 2023 by CentreMetre
my bad

[CentreMetre]

On windows i managed to get nvidia control panel open (fuck you microsoft for making me use your shite store) i decreased the contrast on 'Adjust desktop colour settings' from + 50% to + 0% and it went to being the same, at least it looked the exact same. On linux when i finally got Nvidia x server settings open by swapping from wayland to gnome on XORG i swapped it to -0.18 contrast and -0.01 brightness, might change it again tho since i couldnt get it perfect. 

12 hours ago, ImWilly said:

Try these tips:

1. In NVIDIA Control panel settings, change Limited to Full RGB

2. Change Color depth from Control panel. Display -> Change Resolution -> Color Depth

If there's an option to go higher than 8-bit, such as 10-bit, it will bring a difference

But depending on your your HDMI version, you may have to lower the refresh rate frequency to achieve higher color depth

I couldnt see a colour depth option, or if i could it was blurred out, everything i seen was either 6 bit or 8 bit colour i think, ill have another look to make sure.

 

Thanks for all your help. :)

[ImWilly]

4 hours ago, CentreMetre said:

I couldnt see a colour depth option, or if i could it was blurred out

Usually, this option is opted out if it's on laptop main display

But it will automatically unlocked if it's on external display (NVIDIA surely loves to hide UI if it's not configurable)

 

I suspect on the colour depth or dynamic range, because it does brings difference for the 'blackness' colour on the screen and it's software based setting, but I may have missed some point on the true root cause of difference between Windows and Linux colour setting

 

Here I share my NVIDIA control panel setting with HDMI attached on external display for reference

(For 144Hz, only topped at 8-bit, but at 60/75Hz, can push it to 10-bit or even 12-bit, even though my monitor is also rated at 8-bit by the specs sheet. The difference between 8 to 10 bit is noticeable, but not from 10 to 12 bit)

[CentreMetre]

11 hours ago, ImWilly said:

Usually, this option is opted out if it's on laptop main display

But it will automatically unlocked if it's on external display (NVIDIA surely loves to hide UI if it's not configurable)

 

I suspect on the colour depth or dynamic range, because it does brings difference for the 'blackness' colour on the screen and it's software based setting, but I may have missed some point on the true root cause of difference between Windows and Linux colour setting

 

Here I share my NVIDIA control panel setting with HDMI attached on external display for reference

(For 144Hz, only topped at 8-bit, but at 60/75Hz, can push it to 10-bit or even 12-bit, even though my monitor is also rated at 8-bit by the specs sheet. The difference between 8 to 10 bit is noticeable, but not from 10 to 12 bit)

Ah yea i think thats what i saw before but its just greyed out and stuck on 8bpc, on both the 'Use default colour settings' and 'Use NVIDIA colour settings'. I think iether way i wasnt todo with bpc since just lowering the contrast worked and made it look normal, but i have no clue, maybe it would work.