Gamma off, color banding

[QuantumPion]

I just received my Swift from newegg this week. When I first turned it on, the image was very washed out looking. I used the lagom gamma test and it seems that my monitor has a default, out of the box gamma around 1.6-1.7, which is far too low. I tried installing the ASUS swift monitor driver and icc color profile but this had no effect. I can calibrate the gamma to be 2.2 using the nvidia control panel color adjustments (lowering gamma to about 0.6), however doing so introduces bad color banding. The lagom banding test, as well as in games such as BF4 and Elite Dangerous show significant, and what I consider abnormal, color banding. Are these signs of a defective display? Or is it some sort of software problem that can be fixed?

[Anarion]

Mine also comes with lower gamma than 2.2. Applying the stock .icc that came with the official DVD does not have any effect. I use the PCmonitors.info gamma fix .icc but it introduces slightly banding on lagom tests. Other than that I did not notice any banding in the games I play.

EDIT: According to official geforce forums there is a bug in Nvidia drivers setting DP and HDMI to limited RGB this will be fixed in the next drivers according to them. I though this bug was only for HDMI 60hz but it seems not. The forums mention specifically DP too. SO we will see soon.

EDIT 2: Indeed the latest BETAS have included full and limited RGB setting over DP however this does not solve the problem. My Swift came with an average gamma around 2.0 instead of 2.2. I fixed it with the .icc profile from pcmonitors.info

[QuantumPion]

Anarion wrote:
Mine also comes with lower gamma than 2.2. Applying the stock .icc that came with the official DVD does not have any effect. I use the PCmonitors.info gamma fix .icc but it introduces slightly banding on lagom tests. Other than that I did not notice any banding in the games I play.

EDIT: According to official geforce forums there is a bug in Nvidia drivers setting DP and HDMI to limited RGB this will be fixed in the next drivers according to them. I though this bug was only for HDMI 60hz but it seems not. The forums mention specifically DP too. SO we will see soon.

EDIT 2: Indeed the latest BETAS have included full and limited RGB setting over DP however this does not solve the problem. My Swift came with an average gamma around 2.0 instead of 2.2. I fixed it with the .icc profile from pcmonitors.info

I ended up RMA'ing mine. I might be able to live with 2.0 gamma but 1.6 was just way too far off, the required gamma adjustment to bring it back made the color banding severe and unacceptable.

[ssn683]

QuantumPion wrote:
I ended up RMA'ing mine. I might be able to live with 2.0 gamma but 1.6 was just way too far off, the required gamma adjustment to bring it back made the color banding severe and unacceptable.

QuantumPion, Did the RMA'd Swift resolve your problem? I am in the same situation and am wondering if I should go through the pain of RMA'ing the screen.

[LocutusEstBorg]

You can set just the gamma using the Windows Display Calibration tool.
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1860962

[Strider]

ssn683 wrote:
QuantumPion, Did the RMA'd Swift resolve your problem? I am in the same situation and am wondering if I should go through the pain of RMA'ing the screen.

I have the same problem on my Swift. Gamma between 1.4 and 1.7, according to this test: http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/gamma_calibration.php . And I see banding everywhere in games. The new screen arrives tomorrow. I'll let you know if it resolves the issue.

LocutusEstBorg wrote:
You can set just the gamma using the Windows Display Calibration tool.
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1860962

Tried this on my broken gamma Swift and couldn't get the target to look totally grey. I dropped the gamma slider all the way down in Windows and I think the banding on my GTA V screenshots got even worse and more perceptible. 😕