#Contrast(/gamma?) issue (resolved)

1 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

granite cedar
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Issue: Graphics are notably higher contrast when using Linux as opposed to Windows, increasing eye strain and making some games impossible.

Spec:
Operating System: Ubuntu Studio 25.10
KDE Plasma Version: 6.4.5
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.17.0
Qt Version: 6.9.2
Kernel Version: 6.17.0-8-generic (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: Wayland
Processors: 12 × AMD Ryzen 5 5500
Memory: 32 GiB of RAM (31.2 GiB usable)
Graphics Processor 1: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti
Graphics Processor 2: llvmpipe
Manufacturer: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
Product Name: B550M DS3H
System Version: -CF

Monitor is an AOC27G2G4.

Things I have tried:

  1. Adjusted monitor settings - no dice

  2. ddcutil - my understanding is that this lets you access the monitor osd via the pc instead of the monitor buttons; already tried that

  3. gammastep - 'Error: Failed to start adjustment method: wayland'

  4. Extracted the .icm file from the windows driver, and added to display settings - made the screen even darker.

  5. Tried several other distros on a live key, took a photo of the screen each time with a test image - appears the same

  6. nvidia-settings gives following error:
    (nvidia-settings:18068): dconf-WARNING : 20:40:07.290: unable to open file '/etc/dconf/db/site': Failed to open file “/etc/dconf/db/site”: open() failed: No such file or directory; expect degraded performance
    (nvidia-settings:18068): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL : 20:40:07.361: g_object_unref: assertion 'G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed
    Message: 20:40:07.394: PRIME: No offloading required. Abort
    Message: 20:40:07.394: PRIME: is it supported? no
    (nvidia-settings:18068): Gtk-WARNING : 20:40:07.396: Theme directory places/128 of theme ubuntustudio-dark has no size field
    (nvidia-settings:18068): Gtk-WARNING : 20:40:07.396: Theme directory places/scalable of theme ubuntustudio-dark has no size field

I have spent two days bashing my head against various search engines. Any advice/help sincerely appreciated, thanks for reading 🙂

ashen herald
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Have you enabled HDR

granite cedar
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it's disabled on my monitor - I thought it might overcomplicate things 🤔 will give it a go and report back!

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I haven't seen any hdr setting on the system itself

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there's an 'hdr effect' on the monitor osd, I switched it on and it looks worse, like someone's overdone it with a sharpness filter

ashen herald
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I don't know the handling of HDR on kde, but if it is trying to use an HDR profile things can look washed out if the monitor isn't accepting it properly. I would have to look where the setting is in kde itself.

granite cedar
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hmm, interesting - a new lead! thanks for your thoughts on all of this, genuinely appreciate it 🙂 will do some research and update here

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whereas my version looks like this

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so I am assuming that a) my monitor can't do hdr and b) kde knows that (because there isn't an option to enable/disable) - therefore it's not on?

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hopefully this info might help people in the future searching for stuff at least 😄

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hmmm okay. so I might have figured this out

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and gsync was enabled on the monitor.. I turn gsync off, and adjust the motion blur reduction and BOOM we have decent contrast again

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my suspicion is that there was something wonky going on between the graphics card/the monitor/linux

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@ashen herald thank you very much for helping, genuinely appreciate it 😄