How to edit Nvidia settings?

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1

Hello,
I am using Kinoite 43, fully updated, with a RTX 3060 Nvidia GPU and I would like to edit some things, but can’t find where to do that.
I do have a program called: NVIDIA X Server Settings which is started as nvidia-settings. But this is a program with which I can’t do very much, it’s more a readout of what’s going on in the GPU. This is what I get when I start it:

image
image919×838 86.3 KB

Yes, there are other tabs but they also don’t have possibilities to change the GPU.

What I would like to change is the color bit depth. I think I don’t have enough colors because when watching something with (almost) 1 color I see lines separating one color from the next:

image
image679×822 17.6 KB

With a higher color depth this should not be visible.

So, simple question, how do I change the Nvidia settings?

2

Do the KDE Plasma display settings present an option for it? It seems to depend on your hardware.

3

Hi P G,
I’ve switched on HDR and I managed to get the built-in monitor even to 16 bits color depth, but the external one, the one I almost always use since it is way bigger, is limited to 10 bits so here nothing changed.
I have these lines as I showed on the second picture for some time now, can’t imagine I have always had them. Could it be it has something to do with X11-Wayland?

The Nvidia-settings program is that the only one available? It’s impossible to change settings with it.

4

Are you saying that:

  • The hardware supports > 10 bits, but you’re limited in software to 10 bits?
  • Or: the hardware is limited to 10 bits and the software is limiting you to less than that?

There are third-party apps for GPU settings, but ultimately they can only work within what the driver is capable of.

5

The external monitor has 30 bits color depth, or 10 bits per color since there are 3 colors. So, that is the limiting factor.
I have never used the HDR setting before, I have it switched on now but it doesn’t really do a lot, I see no improvements.
I guess I have to live with it

As said, the monitor goes up to 10 bits per color, but I don’t know how many bits it is using. I saw 10 bits in the KDE settings app but as it turned out later, that was a setting for the internal monitor. I can not find any bit depth in the setting for the external monitor, so I don’t even know what I am using? Could be less, it sure looks less but I don’t know.

6

In the linked thread on the KDE forum they said:

There’s no way to know really, the driver APIs for that is unfortunately still entirely missing KWin always uses 10bpc though on all GPUs that support it

But it seems difficult to investigate what is actually happening. (I don’t even have HDR on my hardware so I can’t really test what happens with the Plasma settings when it’s enabled.)

7

I saw in the KDE thread this command:

kscreen-doctor -o
Output: 1 eDP-1 adad079c-0929-4d53-92b6-a069e4db87b0
        enabled
        connected
        priority 1
        Panel
        replication source:0
        Modes:  1:2560x1600@165.00*!  2:2560x1600@60.00  3:1920x1200@165.00  4:1920x1080@165.00  5:1600x1200@165.00  6:1680x1050@165.00  7:1280x1024@165.00  8:1440x900@165.00  9:1280x800@165.00  10:1280x720@165.00  11:1024x768@165.00  12:800x600@165.00  13:640x480@165.00  14:1600x1200@59.87  15:1280x1024@59.90  16:1024x768@59.92  17:1920x1200@59.88  18:1280x800@59.81  19:2560x1440@59.96  20:2560x1440@164.90  21:1920x1080@59.96  22:1600x900@59.95  23:1600x900@164.77  24:1368x768@59.88  25:1368x768@164.98  26:1280x720@59.85 
        Custom modes: None
        Geometry: 2560,0 2328x1455
        Scale: 1.1
        Rotation: 1
        Overscan: 0
        Vrr: Never
        RgbRange: unknown
        HDR: enabled
                SDR brightness: 330 nits
                SDR gamut wideness: 0%
                Peak brightness: 497 nits, overridden with: 1820 nits
                Max average brightness: 497 nits
                Min brightness: 0.099 nits
        Wide Color Gamut: enabled
        ICC profile: none
        Color profile source: sRGB
        Color power preference: prefer accuracy
        Brightness control: supported, set to 100% and dimming to 100%
        Color resolution: automatic (16), range: [8; 16] bits per color
        Allow EDR: always
        Sharpness control: unsupported
        Automatic brightness: unsupported


Output: 2 HDMI-A-1 8627554e-c8fb-4dea-a441-2eb37ec4a4ca
        enabled
        connected
        priority 2
        HDMI
        replication source:0
        Modes:  27:2560x1440@59.95!  28:3840x2160@59.94  29:3840x2160@50.00  30:2560x1440@143.91  31:2560x1440@120.00*  32:1920x1080@119.88  33:1920x1080@60.00  34:1920x1080@59.94  35:1920x1080@50.00  36:1280x1440@59.91  37:1280x1024@75.03  38:1280x1024@60.02  39:1280x720@59.94  40:1280x720@50.00  41:1024x768@119.99  42:1024x768@100.00  43:1024x768@75.03  44:1024x768@70.07  45:1024x768@60.00  46:800x600@119.97  47:800x600@100.00  48:800x600@75.00  49:800x600@72.19  50:800x600@60.32  51:800x600@56.25  52:720x576@50.00  53:720x480@59.94  54:640x480@120.01  55:640x480@99.99  56:640x480@75.00  57:640x480@72.81  58:640x480@59.94  59:640x480@59.93 
        Custom modes: None
        Geometry: 0,0 2560x1440
        Scale: 1
        Rotation: 1
        Overscan: 0
        Vrr: incapable
        RgbRange: unknown
        HDR: enabled
                SDR brightness: 190 nits
                SDR gamut wideness: 50%
                Peak brightness: 418 nits, overridden with: 510 nits
                Max average brightness: 418 nits
                Min brightness: 0 nits
        Wide Color Gamut: enabled
        ICC profile: none
        Color profile source: sRGB
        Color power preference: prefer accuracy
        Brightness control: supported, set to 75% and dimming to 100%
        Color resolution: unknown
        Allow EDR: unsupported
        Sharpness control: unsupported
        Automatic brightness: unsupported

Almost at the end of the listing per monitor you see the color resolution which is set to 16bits for internal and unknown for the external one.

I give up, I was hoping to be able to improve the picture but it’s not happening.
Thanks for your tips (pun intended) and time.

8

No problem. It might be worth asking on the KDE forum although I’m not sure you would get a different result than in that linked thread from 6 months ago…