Hardware & Technical Dodgy monitor?

[STARSHOT]

Hi All,

A bit of advice please if you'd be so kind

Just got myself a shiny new monitor, with the intention of a shiny new graphics card in the next few weeks. The new monitor is a Dell U2415 (1920x1200) and I'm coming from a much older Dell 2005 (1680x1050).

First impressions we're really good, lovely IPS display. Now for the problem, I noticed that the main menu on ED was suffering from a lot of banding in the dark areas, checked this on the old monitor and its not present. In game things again looked great until I jumped into a system and just as I was pulling away noticed slight but noticeable banding where the edge of the stars glow fades away to black. Again i checked this on the old monitor and its not present.

The graphics card is an old GTX 560 TI 448 core which has coped ok so far, in space is a consistent 60fps (VSYNC enabled) on both monitors but drops in stations on the new monitor to around 40-50fps. This is on the high graphics preset. If I drop it to the medium preset it happily holds 60fps on the new monitor as well.
The monitor is connected via display port but I've tried HDMI as well with the same issue. There's no DVI on the monitor so i cant test the same connection as the old monitor was using.

I did a lot of research before buying this monitor and all the reviews confirmed banding was not an issue at all, so the question is I guess whether this model is potentially faulty or whether there is some sort of issue with/between my graphics card and the monitor. I plan to get a new gpu in the next few weeks so I'm wondering whether to wait until then the see if the problem goes away with the new card or whether to send it back and try another one?

Any advice would be appreciated

 

[Surfinjo]

Personally, I would start by looking at your connections, especially the cables, including the power supply. What you have sounds like induced noise.



It could be your new monitor, but I doubt it.

Apologies. Had better look at your current GPU, it isn't too bad at all. Kinda limited on the memory though

This might be interesting. It's a site that allows users to test their PC performance using a standard set of tests, then compare these with similar equipment from other users.

Your current GPU comes out very handsomely. It seems pretty popular as well.https://novabench.com/gpuchart.php

 

[Zelos1983]

In the nVidia control panel, there is an option to reduce the dynamic range per monitor. It is per default on for some monitors and per default off for others. This produces sometimes weirds effects. Check that all monitors have full dynamic range.

DP is better than HDMI. Both are digital, so if signal errors occur, you will usually not see noise (or all the monitor will be totally noisy, a bit like an old TV without a station), but rather the input will go dark or flicker.

 

[CMDR MAIN SEQUENCE]

Now for the problem, I noticed that the main menu on ED was suffering from a lot of banding in the dark areas, checked this on the old monitor and its not present.

Can you describe this banding or maybe take a picture (an actual photo not a screenshot)? Is it vertical banding or banding around the bottom left of the planet? Here is a thread I created a few months back about the latter issue, it would be interesting to see if you are talking about the same thing. One guy in that thread says that everyone gets it but you only notice if the display is not adjusted properly (i.e. contrast/brightness etc.). I just tried it on the Xbox version on a new Samsung 32" 1080 TV (the blacks are excellent) and although the banding is present I really had to look for it (but at least this proves it's not my graphics card).

 

[STARSHOT]

Thanks for the replys.

I'll try and take a photo later when I'm home so you can get a better idea of what I'm talking about.

With regards to the GPU i completely agree its in need of an upgrade and I will be doing this in the new few weeks. What interesting though is that my new Dell IPS which has great reviews and numerous tests that show no banding does seem to be showing it on ED but not my old Dell IPS monitor! I have looked at some of the banding test images and it doesnt show a problem, only in-game. Maybe its not banding at all but something else. Regarding the calibration of the monitor its pretty good as those models are now calibrated at the factory, the only thing i needed to do was drop the brightness a little as it was a little high for prolonged viewing, this was recommended in all the reviews as well.

 

[STARSHOT]

A couple of photos, the quality isn't great but you get the idea. For info the photos make it look a lot worse than it is, its more subtle in reality.

 

[Porina]

Visit a monitor image test site, like http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/

In particular, adjust your brightness and contrast settings to make sure whites are white, and blacks are blacks, and see if that helps. I find in general most monitors these days come shipped with rather high brightness settings which makes the blacks suffer.

 

[CMDR MAIN SEQUENCE]

A couple of photos, the quality isn't great but you get the idea. For info the photos make it look a lot worse than it is, its more subtle in reality.

Yeah looks like the same thing I get. Tonight I had a play with my monitor's (Benq G2420HDBL) settings. I found that if I set it to one of the Movie or Photo or Game modes the banding was much much better (still there on the main menu but only noticeable if you looked hard). It didn't seem to change the brightness or contrast values so it's probably just changing the colour settings (seems to be no way to change them manually). Actually I prefered it as stars are now properly bright! It might be worth you messing about with your monitor's settings to see if that helps.

 

[STARSHOT]

A quick update.

I've had a good play with the monitor and was able to improve the banding by using the custom colour setting, however its still way more noticeable than my nigh-on 10 year old Dell 2005. The point is of course that all the reviews state the factory calibration for the standard setting is very good, and many make a point of stating there's no banding present which doesn't reflect what I'm seeing. To eliminate my gpu/cables I also plugged my PS4 into it over HDMI and popped Arkham Knight in to see how that looked (lots of blacks and dark colours etc seemed a good test). I didn't need to get past the main menu where you have Batman in the shadows and there was some quite horrific banding that got a little better or worse depending on the settings. That cant be correct surely?


Anyway I gave Amazon a call this morning and explained what I was seeing (to be fair they had no idea what I was talking about) and they want to send me another to try in case its faulty. Its coming tomorrow so I'll give it a good look over and fingers crossed its fine. If its not I guess I'll have to get a refund and start looking for another model

 

[Surfinjo]

A quick update.

I've had a good play with the monitor and was able to improve the banding by using the custom colour setting, however its still way more noticeable than my nigh-on 10 year old Dell 2005. The point is of course that all the reviews state the factory calibration for the standard setting is very good, and many make a point of stating there's no banding present which doesn't reflect what I'm seeing. To eliminate my gpu/cables I also plugged my PS4 into it over HDMI and popped Arkham Knight in to see how that looked (lots of blacks and dark colours etc seemed a good test). I didn't need to get past the main menu where you have Batman in the shadows and there was some quite horrific banding that got a little better or worse depending on the settings. That cant be correct surely?


Anyway I gave Amazon a call this morning and explained what I was seeing (to be fair they had no idea what I was talking about) and they want to send me another to try in case its faulty. Its coming tomorrow so I'll give it a good look over and fingers crossed its fine. If its not I guess I'll have to get a refund and start looking for another model

Great news.

Amazon are an amazing place to shop.