Massive artifacting issue with any dark areas on any image displayed on my desktop

Massive artifacting issue with any dark areas on any image displayed on my desktop

My computer is an i7-3770K running two EVGA GTX 670 FTW cards in SLI and Windows 10.

I am not sure how long this has been going, but it appears to have started a few days ago as this is when I first noticed it. At first I assumed it was an issue of badly compressed video since I was watching livestreams at the time and thought the video was not being compressed well or my connection was being poor. But I have been noticing it more and more all over YouTube... and now finally after testing I realized that it's not even limited to video, on top of movies themselves also showing this issue, even still images show it.

I tried displaying those same videos and images on my laptop, and they looked fine there! But on my desktop anything with any dark gradients look horrific.

Here are two example images:

https://i.imgur.com/A3Ve2Vm.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/fJEqc4z.jpg

On my laptop, and for anyone else I asked to look at those links, they look fine.

But when I view them on my desktop... well, here's photos of that I took with my smartphone:

https://i.imgur.com/77zwrAv.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/NpUqM7N.jpg

I have no idea what is causing this. My video drivers haven't changed and I have disabled Automatic Updates in Windows 10 since I prefer to install them manually, so it couldn't have been a new driver or OS update.

I did install an app designed to trim MP4 files, but I uninstalled it, and it didn't seem to have modified my codecs... plus even if it did, that would not explain why even still images are displaying this issue, it would only occur in video.

It's driving me nuts how horrible everything looks on my desktop, especially since I watch a lot of streaming video on it. I have already tried resetting my Windows and Nvidia Control Panel settings to default, as well as updating my GPU drivers and even changing my refresh rate just to see if anything fixes it, and nothing.

To make sure it's my desktop and not my monitor, I also tried connecting my desktop by HDMI to my TV, as well as connecting my laptop by that same HDMI to my monitor and to my TV. The results were pretty conclusive, the image always showed the artifacting when displayed off my desktop, and didn't show artifacting when displaying off my laptop.

Any ideas where I can even begin trying to figure out what's wrong?

May need to calibrate you monitor. Looks to be out of wack.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Train

May need to calibrate you monitor. Looks to be out of wack.

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Again, when I connected my laptop to my monitor, the issue wasn't there. And the issue was still there when I connected my desktop to my TV. It's definitely the desktop itself, not my monitor.

Did a windows update change your graphics driver?

I disabled them so I can manually update, so that can't be the case. I checked and it was still an older version. Even if they did, I just tried installing the latest version, and nothing changed.

The latest many times are not the greatest, many a time we may have to back up to a older version. Figuring out which one can be a PITA. Be sure to burn it to cd/dvd so you have it.

Does that system have a built-in video adapter? If yes, you could try using that as a test to see what happens.

Alternatively, you could try using the Windows default VGA driver to see if the same issue occurs.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Train

The latest many times are not the greatest, many a time we may have to back up to a older version. Figuring out which one can be a PITA. Be sure to burn it to cd/dvd so you have it.

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I am not sure what you are saying here.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jdc2000

Does that system have a built-in video adapter? If yes, you could try using that as a test to see what happens.

Alternatively, you could try using the Windows default VGA driver to see if the same issue occurs.

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Yes, though from my understanding it's disabled when you have a discrete video card connected.

New video drivers are not optimized / designed for older hardware. Therefore we have all kinds of problems with the drivers. The solution is to find older drivers that do work. Guru3D is where I usually find them.

I was on older drivers though, and the issue started happening out of nowhere all of a sudden with no driver change.

Also, new drivers do add support for newer games for those who also game on their systems.

Heat is the enemy of video cards. Check to make sure that all fans are running. Make sure any heatsinks are properly seated. Check for dust accumulation. Try running the computer with the side panel off the case and an auxiliary fan blowing on the components.