Text & Photos soft on new Vista PC

Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8G ED

04/10/2009 11:43:54 PM · #1

I just hooked up my new computer to my old monitor and the text is more difficult to read and photos look softer in comparison. Both PCs are hooked up with a KVM switch so it's easy to put up the same thing and switch back and forth. As far as I can tell, all settings are the same: resolution, refresh, clear type, both calibrated, updated drivers, etc. I'm not sure if it's a Vista thing or the graphics card. Old PC is running XP and has a Nvidia Geforce FX 5200 and new one has Vista and the ATI Radeon HD 3200. Any ideas?

Covert_Oddity

Nikon D700

04/11/2009 12:09:38 AM · #2

It could actually be your KVM switch is causing softness. Try hooking the new PC up directly and see what it looks like then. Make sure your VGA cable isn't running nearby a power cable or some other cable that could be causing interference.

It's unlikely the new PC is causing softness itself, it's more likely something between that and the monitor.

Nikon AF Zoom-Nikkor 18-135mm f/3.5- 5.6G ED DX

04/11/2009 12:18:29 AM · #3

It would be fairly easy to just flip-flop the kvm cables between computers than go directly. If switch is the issue then the softness should go to other pc, correct?

JeffryZ

Nikon D80

04/11/2009 12:51:41 AM · #4

Are you using the same sort of connection- say a DVI connection from both instead of a VGA on one and a DVI on the other? DVI is usually better.

Nikon AF Zoom-Nikkor 18-135mm f/3.5- 5.6G ED DX

04/11/2009 12:59:49 AM · #5

Originally posted by JeffryZ:

Are you using the same sort of connection- say a DVI connection from both instead of a VGA on one and a DVI on the other? DVI is usually better.

Yes, the switch has identical cables and I'll switch 'em tomorrow to see if that's it. I want to use the DVI on the new one but not sure if the switch would work then anyway. But even with VGA the monitor should look much better than this.

JeffryZ

Nikon D80

04/11/2009 01:06:57 AM · #6

Try just running from the DVI out directly to the monitor and skipping the switch.

Yo_Spiff

Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark III

Olympus 12-100mm f/4.0 M.Zuiko ED IS PRO

04/11/2009 01:08:17 AM · #7

Is your monitor running at its native (maximum) resolution? If you have it running at anything less, then images on screen will look slightly fuzzy due to upsampling of the pixels. That's the nature of LCD monitors.

04/11/2009 01:28:50 AM · #8

Originally posted by Yo_Spiff:

Yes, it's native on both pcs.

Jeff - will bypass switch tomorrow and see what happens.

04/11/2009 11:21:29 PM · #9

I switched the cables on the switch and the new computer still has softer text. It seems like the actual lines in the letters of text are fatter, and have less contrast.

Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark III

04/13/2009 09:53:10 AM · #10

It appears to be the refresh rate. It defaulted to 60Hz and during my troubleshooting I boosted it to 75Hz but the text was still soft so I looked elsewhere for the solution. After pulling my hair out for a couple days I decided to look into it again and tried 70Hz and that fixed the problem. I'm guessing it's just something with that card, but makes me wonder how many others out there have it set to default and don't even realize it could be better.

Yo_Spiff

Olympus 12-100mm f/4.0 M.Zuiko ED IS PRO

04/13/2009 09:58:43 AM · #11

Originally posted by Ken:

It appears to be the refresh rate.

That's interesting and worth keeping in mind. I didn't think the refresh rate made any difference on LCD monitors, but apparently it does have a visible effect. Thanks for the update.

justamistere

Nikon D3s

Nikon AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8G IF-ED

04/13/2009 11:18:16 AM · #12

I recently installed a Vista PC and A Windows XP on a KVM switch, that suports/switches DVI and USB for mice/keyboards. Are you using DVI or VGA video connections?