GTX 460 Black level problem

[big_cliche]

I just installed a GTX 460 video card. The first thing I noticed was that the display didn't look as "bold" and "colorful" as it did with my 8800GTS.

Blacks look grey, and the other colors are too...accurate. I don't want my LCD to look like a plasma! I played with the color, gamma, and brightness/contrast in the nvidia control panel but couldn't get the deep inky blacks and delicious color that my 8800 lovingly rendered.

BTW, I used the default color settings (no custom profile) with the 8800GTS, as I'm doing now with the 460. And my display is digital, so there's no analog to mess the color up.

Anyone else notice this? If so, how did you fix it? I really don't want to waste time redoing my monitor's OSD.
Thanks

 

[Lonyo]

Did you mess about with Digital Vibrance at all?
I know yu said you messed about with colour, gamma and brightness/contrast, but I think DV is a different setting to those, although I'm not on NV anymore.
http://www.nvidia.com/object/feature_dvc.html

 

[big_cliche]

Yeah, I also played around with digital vibrance.

I know digital is digital, but I wonder if the mini-HDMI would look better than the DVI output. I was using HDMI with my old 8800GTS. I'm gonna give that a try.

 

[bryanW1995]

did you update to the gtx 400 series drivers yet?

 

[MerrickAggie97]

Are you using RGB color or YCBr?

I use YCBr when I hook it up to my LED TV since it gives deeper and more natural blacks.

 

[nenforcer]

On my 1080P DLP TV when I use HDMI I get more options for Ultra White and something like full or extended RGP range. Don't know if this makes a difference on a LCD Monitor using HDMI inputs, however.

 

[lopri]

Well, it sounds like a good change to me. NV used to default colors for that 'bold' feel in both 2D and 3D at the cost of accuracy. The perceived black level may be due to your display. (TN panel?)

AMD


NV


Could be seen here as well.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/2640/5

 

[big_cliche]

Well, no difference at all using the Mini-HDMI, but that's not surprising since the HDMI and DVI probably use the same signal.

"did you update to the gtx 400 series drivers yet?"
Yes.

"Are you using RGB color or YCBr?"
RGB. I don't think my monitor supports YCbCr. It's just a plain PC display with no extra TV features.

"On my 1080P DLP TV when I use HDMI I get more options for Ultra White and something like full or extended RGP range."

Couldn't find anything like that in the control panel.

"Well, it sounds like a good change to me. NV used to default colors for that 'bold' feel in both 2D and 3D at the cost of accuracy. The perceived black level may be due to your display. (TN panel?)"

It is a TN panel, but the black level shouldn't be so weak. Actually, blacks look just fine during the POST sequence and Win7 boot screen. Black turns to grey after Windows loads, so it must be a software setting somewhere. Yet, my 8800GTS was using the same driver (258.96) and it definitely put out a better picture.

 

[Anarchist420]

Maybe trying a different video BIOS would bring you back to the old color. What board did you get?

 

[lopri]

If you see the difference in black between BIOS and Windows, then there should be a room for calibration. Though my calibration in the past went the total opposite way.

I used to like that 'bold' and 'colorful' feel (and still do in games, to an extent) but that was a problem with photos/pictures because the colors I saw on screen didn't match with printouts. I calibrated the colors so that they're less bold and vivid but truer to actual colors.

No help for you, I know, but there's gotta be a way to tune the colors to your liking. Maybe try a 3rd party calibrating tool?

 

[Xarick]

That is a very good representation of the color diff between ati and nvidia that I noticed going from an 8800 to a 5850. I personally find ATIs colors more pleasing to the eye, but it is all a personal preference thing.

 

[big_cliche]

Are you using RGB color or YCBr?

I use YCBr when I hook it up to my LED TV since it gives deeper and more natural blacks.

RGB. I don't think my monitor supports YCbCr. It's just a plain PC display with no extra TV features.

You were right all along. I finally switched the color format to YCbCr444. All of the deep blacks and beautiful, artificial colors are back!

I always thought RGB was for monitors and that YCbCr could only be used with TVs.

Thanks for the help.

 

[thilanliyan]

You were right all along. I finally switched the color format to YCbCr444. All of the deep blacks and beautiful, artificial colors are back!

How do you do that?

 

[big_cliche]

How do you do that?

Open the nvidia control panel, select "adjust desktop color settings", scroll down and select "YCbCr444" from the digital color format drop down menu.

 

[footballrunner800]

can you do this on an ati card?

 

[thilanliyan]

Open the nvidia control panel, select "adjust desktop color settings", scroll down and select "YCbCr444" from the digital color format drop down menu.

Thanks.

 

[big_cliche]

There's one other thing I've been wondering about. With the new 460 installed, Deferred Procedure Calls (in Process Explorer) use 1-2% of the CPU. Just wondering if this is normal GTX 460 behavior. With the 8800GTS (and every other card I've owned), my CPU idled at 0%.

 

[nenforcer]

What kind of LCD do you have, BTW? I assue you don't have an LED LCD display so this should work with any standard cheap TN panel LCD display?

Also, I assume in the ATI Cataylst Control Center you would get something like this. Can anyone confirm?