Acer Monitor Is Brighter After Upgrading Video Card

[Vyndicu]

Pretty much what the title says. I used to have an AMD HD 5570 Video card. The monitor didn't look so bright back then.

When I swap out the video card and connect both monitor (Acer and another monitor I forget brand name). One look the same "bright" as before but Acer look like it is in perpetual sunshine glare mode while using Nvidia's control panel to set bright/contrast to 50% with a GTX 660 card.

Googling this seem to yield result that are contradictory or even just flat out unhelpful. I would like to figure out why my monitor is so bright despite using the same cable/setup as before except for swapping out video card.

[Azza ☠]

The monitor itself normally has a Brightness/Contrast option on it with cooler/warmer settings.

Also understand your AMD vs Nvidia card uses different 'Color Profiles', make sure the display is using the correct ones and the old AMD drivers/profiles have been fully uninstalled when swapping over.

Uninstall any and all ATI drivers.

Any settings on the monitors themselves, restore to default settings.

Clean install both monitors latest drivers and ensure they are named rather than using Windows native drivers, if possible.

Clean install Nvidia drivers or use GeForce Experence software. No third party.

Check under: Start > Control Panel > Nvidia Control Panel. Set to application controlled. Under Manage 3D settings > Global Settings, restore to default. Adjust desktop color should be application controlled as well. Adjust video color/image settings should be with video player settings.

Set the refresh rates and color depth on both monitor to the same highest (but equal) available.

Then check under: Start > Control Panel > Display > Change Display Settings > Advanced Settings > Color Management > Select each display and look at the ICC Profiles. If it's using the old AMD ones, replace with Nvidia ones or factory released for that monitor type (repeat per monitor). If your unsure, just leave it alone or set as default.

Leave the monitors running on for 2-5 minutes and check any color/brightness change once warmed up.

Since they are different brand monitors, they will have different color profiles each and you should adjust the brightness/contract on the monitor individually itself rather than the Nvidia Control Panel (global settings).

Any monitor preset mode: Standard. Set warmth level the same on both. Gamma should be at 1.0 or 1.2 if a little washed out. Brightness, Contrast and Sharpness levels, start at 50% on each then adjust slightly to match each other.

[Safari / Dice]

was geht jo

[UberFiend]

Nice reply Azza.

OP check the Color Temperature, that 'could' be the difference.

[Vyndicu]

I have already uninstalled ATI control center. Not sure how to check if any AMD driver are still lurking around.

My Acer's "Standard" setting is actually way more brighter than my "User" setting. So I doubt resetting to default will help much if at all. My Acer monitor is S232HL and bit old.

My other monitor is a LCD TV Insignia NS-22E400NA14. Look like there is no firmware upgrade for my insigna or even a driver at that.

I download the latest Acer driver and windows 7 said the downloaded driver is the same one as the installed one.

I am on Nvidia driver 337.88 version. There is no third party software for monitor other than Nvidia control panel itself.

Edit: Looks like Acer only has 3 'color temperature': User, Warm, Cool but none of them look good. Cool is too dark, Warm is bad as User.

[Vyndicu]

I went into color management it is showing as "Display: 1. Acer S232HL (Analog) Nvivida GTX 660" and Display 2: General PnP Monitor.

[Azza ☠]

Any reason for using an analog signal to your Acer Monitor? You should use DVI cable if possible. The TV could use HDMI or the DVI-I. Avoid VGA/Analog if possible to get a much better image quality. Are you using any VGA adaptor for an older cable or something? Also check the DVI ports, you have two of them, but they are actually slightly different (DVI-I vs DVI-D). A DVI-D connector on a graphics card sends out a digital signal only, while a DVI-I connector, which carries both an analog and digital signal. Use the DVI-D for your Acer Monitor as it can do full digital.

Your TV is unknown by Windows, so it's just using it's standard native drivers (General PnP Monitor).

The refresh rate for both will probably have to be at 60Hz for both monitors.

For color warmth, use normal/standard or warm. Cool will give a blue cast tone to the screen. Neutral will give the best whites. Warm starts to off tone to reds if not careful. In short, pick the color temperature that gives you the best true 'white' or at least matches with your TV warmth. If you have a Input Color Format, try standard RGB.

[Vyndicu]

My Acer is using HDMI cable no idea why it would "say" analog. If anything my Insignia is using VGA converter to DVI. The only reason I am using VGA on my Insignia because I don't have another cable that can connect the TV although I could connect directly to motherboard using VGA and take the converter out of the equation. But I still don't think it will affect my Acer's HDMI cable function.

[Azza ☠]

Updated post above to explain more...

Suggest using DVI-D for your Acer Monitor and having your TV on the HDMI or DVI-I. However, you are right, Acer on HDMI should function fine, just curious why it's saying it's using analog only for it (TV might be upsetting it). You could temporary unplug the TV cable, then reboot and see if the Acer switchs to digital and appears different?

[Vyndicu]

OK.

Acer -> HDMI cable -> HDMI socket on GTX 660. (Despite the HDMI it still say analog)
Insignia -> VGA cable -> VGA to DVI converter -> DVI socket on GTX 660.

[Azza ☠]

Pin pointed it down. That's part of your problem at least.

I suggest (even if it doesn't resolve you main issue):
Acer -> DVI cable -> DVI-D socket on GTX 660.
Insignia -> HDMI or DVI cable -> HDMI or DVI-I socket on GTX 660.

Avoid VGA to DVI converters/adapters, they are seriously bad. It sounds like your Acer Monitor might be degrading itself to match your TV monitor performance (due to those analog signals). Shouldn't really affect brightness levels, rather image quality, but you never know, it could be a side effect of the graphic card attempting to sync monitors together.

Note: HDMI does both analog or digital plus audio, it's the same image quality as DVI. You probably don't need HD Audio sent to your Acer Monitor, but the TV might like that (inbuilt speakers).

[Vyndicu]

Well I am deaf so I don't care much for the sound.

I switch the cable around and the brightness seem to be less bad on my TV. I don't have a sparse HDMI cable to switch out the VGA yet. Now I am running Acer on VGA cable and it still say it is Analog. >>

However another problem has show up. On my TV now part of the 1920 * 1080 gets cut off despite having 1920 * 1080 fine as secondary monitor from before. If I try to resize it goes down to 1820 * something while running HDMI cable.

[Vyndicu]

Nevermind after bit of tweaking on the TV's menu turn out "overscan" was on. So I turn it off and everything is now as it should be.

[Azza ☠]

VGA is analog only with lower quality/resolutions - You really just need to go to your computer store and purchase an extra DVI cable to use. Then the HDMI cable you already have can be used on the TV. That VGA cable and adapter should be removed completely.

The DVI cable your after should be DVI-D or DVI-I Monitor Cable. About $10-15 bucks. Single vs Dual Link doesn't really matter too much, unless going above 1920x1080 resolutions. For that 1080p, Single Link will do.

Then you can set both monitors to 1920x1080 at 60Hz nicely synced.

Glad everyone is working at least, but still consider replacing that VGA cable.

[Vyndicu]

So far it has been working pretty swell. I have a very very MINOR issue. I hope there is an easy way to fix it.

When I play an old run as "ME/98" compability video game. It will goes for my Insigna screen which is to my right instead of the Acer in front of me. I rather have it pick "Acer".

I suspect that the issue comes from swapping the cable which cause my Insigna to be assign "One". Despite my Acer bieng assigned Primary, This video game will pick Insigna which perhaps has to do with dual monitor being a non-exist thing back in 98 days.

[Vyndicu]

I google a bit about this "Monitor number" issue and it seem I may have to swap the cables back! to the way it was before due to how Windows 7 dynamic assign HDMI cable 1 over other cables.

Because of the brightness I rather I don't do that if at all. Perhaps a solution would be to buy a second HDMI cable sooner than I thought...

It seem there is not an easy way to do it without a third party software or swapping cable.

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windows/en-US/f9e088f5-5449-4ae6-97a3-92a972d3e1c6/multiple-monitor-change-number?forum=w7itproui

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-hardware/how-to-change-monitor-assignment-in-a-dual-monitor/84aa64cd-bcf4-47b1-8c93-03d96d224d82?page=1