Just bought the 2019, 16-inch MBP and I also suffered from severe eyestrain, headaches, nausea, etc. Someone posted this Reddit link that contains a solution to the dithering eyestrain problem. It worked for me!
Perfect description.It's a really odd feeling when looking at the screen of my 2020 MBP as superficially it often looks fine but after reading for a few seconds I notice text around what I'm focussing on shimmer/flickering/shaking as though it isn't stable.
Also, it feels like a strain trying to focus on the text I'm reading. When focusing on the display if feels like I'm going almost cross-eyed. As though what I'm trying to focus on isn't stable and is constantly shifting in and out of focus. Very strange as I've never noticed any issues with any kind of display in the past and I have an up to date eyesight prescription?
If it is an issue with the Intel drivers would that also mean we'd see the same issue if we connected an external display to the Macbook as presumably it would use the same dithering algorithm for the display?
Just bought the 2019, 16-inch MBP and I also suffered from severe eyestrain, headaches, nausea, etc. Someone posted this Reddit link that contains a solution to the dithering eyestrain problem. It worked for me!
Hi Baryon,No way. It's hardly larger than my previous 15.4 inch MBP. And I've used 27 inch iMacs for years before, as well as 17 inch CRT monitors, even TV screens and the LG ultrafine 5K. Never, in my 30 years of existence, has a screen caused me eye strain. I've used computers for 13 hours straight, 5 days a week, with and without glasses, sitting way too close to the screen, turning the brightness way too high, and I have never had any discomfort.
But now, the moment I open my 16 inch MBP, it's like there's this invisible, damaging energy emanating from it. I can sit close or far from it, I can turn the brightness up or down, I can spend 1 minute or 10 hours in front of it, and it hurts like hell. Every minute of using this computer feels like my eyes are going to explode. I have never experienced anything even remotely similar to this.
[automerge]1578133016[/automerge]
Not yet. I have 3 more days to decide. The issue is that returning it would mean switching back to Windows (previous generations of MBP have the butterfly keyboard, and the ones before are too slow for what I need). It's quite a big and permanent life-changing decision and I was really not prepared to have to make this decision now. This kind of sucks right now. I'm doing tests and so far here are my results:
MBP screen brightness tests
- Dec 22-23:
- True Tone: OFF
- Auto Brightness: OFF
- Brightness level: 100%
- NO EYE STRAIN WHATSOEVER
- Supports PWM theory: max brightness usually does not use PWM
- There may be other brightness levels that don't use PWM, but hard to determine which ones. Need to test further.
- Dec 24:
- True Tone: OFF
- Auto Brightness: OFF
- Brightness level: 3 notches below max
- Some eye strain after 5-10 minutes (feels like wearing the wrong prescription glasses: pressure, strain, I constantly want to look away from the screen)
- Pain behind eyes when looking from side to side after 30 minutes
- More pressure and pain after more time
- No redness
- Dec 25 (same settings):
- A little eye strain
- Does not get worse over time
- Dec 26
- Not much eye strain today
- Dec 27:
- 6 notches below max brightness
- No eye strain
- Jan 1:
- 3 notches below max
- Turned off night mode on all websites (= more white backgrounds instead of black/dark backgrounds)
- This is now definitely worse
- Noticeable eye strain after 20 minutes when looking left/right/up
- Pain behind/around eyeballs
- Feels like invisible burning force is pushing against my eyes from the screen’s direction
- Maybe lack of eye strain was due to limited white screen areas thanks to dark themes on websites?
- Jan 2:
- Auto brightness enabled
- Noticeable pain after a few minutes
- Pain behind eyes when looking left/right/up
- Very difficult to keep eyes on screen, the longer I stare at it, the more it hurts
- Looking away is relieving, almost pleasurable
- Jan 3:
- Auto brightness still enabled:
- Eye pain after just a few minutes
- Pain increases with time
- Screen feels like it’s emanating some kind of damaging light (feels like staring into the Sun despite not being too bright at all)
- Auto brightness disabled:
- Less eye strain
- Jan 4:
- Auto brightness disabled
- 4 notches below max
- A bit of eye strain after 10 minutes
- In the past few days, I have been waking up every morning with sore, dry eyes, friction pain when opening/closing eyes. Subsides after 10-20 minutes of being awake. This was definitely not happening before.
Which profile did you end using? My MBP had "Color LCD" selected and not P3 as the post says, and I dont recall changing it before.