Please help. Difficulty getting all bars to center on MSI monitor

[cakesalllie]

Monitor: MSI Optix G241. Relatively new and cheap IPS monitor marketed towards gamers. Uses a wide-gamut IPS panel from Panda. Connected to PC with DP 1.4 cable.
OS: Windows 10 v1909
GPU: Nvidia GTX 1060
Colorimeter: ColorMunki Display
Correction: Spectral: LCD PFS Phosphor WLED family
Targets: 2.2 gamma, 6500K, 120cd

All default monitor settings except RGB channel changes and brightness changes. All DisplayCal settings are default except the target changes.

The monitor has some weird behaviors. Brightness setting seemingly has “preset levels”. It defaults to 80. Going UP from 80 changes brightness with each step. For example, 80 -> 81, there is visible and measurable change in brightness +7cd. However, going DOWN from 80 does NOTHING until the 6th or 5th step. For example, 80 -> 75, absolutely nothing happens on screen, no visible/measurable change in brightness at all, then go down 1 step to 74, brightness suddenly goes down by 7cd. Then the next change happens at 69, then 63 etc. the second last change happens at brightness 10, then final change at brightness level 5. Going down from 5 to 0 does nothing. Even at brightness 0, it is still too bright at 126cd.

RGB channel settings suffer from a similar weird issue. The RBG settings default to 50-50-50. If I go UP from 50, NOTHING happens to the measured numbers, the bars do not move AT ALL, but there is visible change on screen. For example, going from 50 -> 100 on Red channel will result in a visible red tint on screen, but the measured numbers do not change at all, red bar on the interactive adjustment does not move at all. Going DOWN from the default 50 works, the bars move and measured numbers change, but it also changes brightness. Green channel changes brightness the most, going down 1 on Green channel will lower brightness by 3cd. Red will lower it by around 1 cd. Blue however does nothing to brightness.

All these behaviors are making interactive adjustments very difficult for me. It’s very hard to get all the bars to center. Even at brightness 0, it’s around 126cd. So I have to lower the RGB settings to lower the brightness to reach 120cd. But then the RGB bars can’t get to center. Then I have to lower them even further, and up brightness, back and forth, finally get them all to center, but because RGB are lowered so much, the gamut coverage suffers and contrast suffers as well.

So what should I do for this monitor? Try to get RGB bars to center, and just try to get used to the higher than 120cd brightness? Should I try to adjust Contrast on the monitor? But everywhere I read says Contrast should be left at factory default to avoid problems.

Also why do results vary so much with same settings. Few days ago I got all bars to center more or less, with brightness 6, RGB 47-47-44. Days later, reset monitor and try to calibrate again and the same settings don’t work at all. Have to use brightness 29, RGB 42-42-39 to get all bars to center.

I’m new at this, please help. This is driving me nuts :<

Calibrite Display SL on Amazon  
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[cakesalllie]

anyone? ;_;

edit: i changed my brightness target to 80cd. used RGB channels to lower it, color coverage etc seemed ok. but why does the monitor behave this way?

• This reply was modified 5 years, 5 months ago by cakesalllie.

[MW]

What you are seeing is normal on a consumer/gaming display. I’d be happy if the white point lined up within 1 DE of the target. If you can use 126 cdm2 comfortably it’s is fine for general use. Anywhere between 100-120cdm2 is fine for gaming. 80-100cdm2 can be used in a constantly blacked out room but it’s not as common.

If you choose to fill in the custom white level box it will use the GPU to reduce brightness which comes with a penalty on contrast ratio.

Getting Red-Green lined up is much more important if you find you are forced to compromise. In other words Blue being offset in either direction, while not ideal, is acceptable. Just don’t expect the OSD controls to behave linearly, instead keep adjusting display settings until you reach your target.

If you are targeting sRGB you should have should have enough gamut coverage with a PFS backlight, unless some other OSD setting is limiting it. To find out check gamut coverage by generating a report in the verification tab, “Use simulation profile as display profile” box checked.

[cakesalllie]

Thank you! My red is a bit more from the center, followed by green then blue a bit less, it showed delta 0.8 and 82 cd/m2, 99.5% sRGB, contrast 892:1

[MW]

At DE of 1 it’s all will within the threshold of visibility.

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