HDMI + GPU + Monitor = faded out colors?

harrylawls

Reputable
Nov 28, 2014
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4,510
I have a problem with my display monitor (All-In-One Inspiron One 2305 computer) where I plug in a HDMI to the graphics card and to the monitor and I get a very dull/faded colors on the display monitor.

I can temporarily fix this by going to the Nvidia control panel and change the digital vibrance slider to left or right and all the colors came back to normal like it supposed to but comes back when I boot up the computer or change resolution.

This does not happen to my AMD R9 270X (returned it to the store) when I plugged in the same HDMI cable to the monitor and the graphics card.

I tried it with a new monitor (Acer K242HL) and the problem still remains. I tried it with 4 different HDMI cables and it still does the same thing. Surprisingly, my Sony HDTV does not get affected by this problem so I took out the HDMI cable from the HDTV and plugged in the graphics card and to the monitor. Yet again, the problem is still there.

I plugged in my DVI cable and that fixed the problem with 2 of my monitors.

I also noticed that when I uninstalled my Nvidia display driver, the colors are back but when I reinstalled it, the problem came back, even with the latest driver.

Is it my graphics card? Is my HDMI cable outdated or do many people have this similar problem too? Will DisplayPort do the same thing? Because I'm getting a new monitor with an IPS display and return my Acer monitor because it is a TN display and colors are already bad with DVI plugged in but not as bad as what I described on the title.

Yes I'll be using my computer for gaming but I'm not very pleased with the color accuracy on a TN display and response time does not matter to me. In fact, I like the blur (but not too much) so +1 for me. And I have good eyes so I did see a difference in gaming and color.

My computer is a XPS 8700 Dell computer and these are the important specs:
Nvidia GT 720 1GB DDR3 (3GB shared)
Intel i7-4970 3.6GHz (4.0 Turbo)
8GB 1600MHz RAM
1TB hard disk
PSU 460w (OEM)
Acer 24" K242HL monitor TN panel with 5ms response time and anti glare.

Anything else to add in?
 

harrylawls

Reputable
Nov 28, 2014
3
0
4,510
I've found a temporary solution to this problem:

1:
Apparently it was Nvidia Control Panel causing the problem and AMD had the same problem too but fixed it.

On this forum, there's a patcher you can download and fix it for you. This guy also explains a little bit more about color range and why it happens.
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1729604

Just load the patcher every time you install a new Nvidia driver.

2:
You can change the color space to YCbCr444 in the Nvidia Control Panel -> Adjust desktop color settings -> Digital color format.
vMiS2Bq.png


This color space is different and some colors may appear more vibrant than others and helps clear out yellow artifacts on a desktop wallpaper.

For an average person, you won't see the difference.