Why is GPU dithering on Apple Silicon Macs causing banding issues on some external monitors, and why isn't there a built in way to disable it?

Ever since getting my MacBook Air M3 last year I noticed that when plugged into my external TN-based display (an HP v22) that it showed weird banding artifacts on certain shades (slightly grainy vertical lines on bold colours and greys and slightly distorted colours) that my monitor doesn't have when using my Windows PC or PlayStation 5 on it. Earlier today I came across a third party piece of software that disables the built in GPU dithering, and it completely resolved the problem I've been having for a few months with my monitor. From what I read, only Apple Silicon (M1 or newer, not Intel) Macs do this. I believe it's officially supposed to enhance the range of colours on some displays, however in my experience it works badly on external displays that use the older TN technology like my own, and simply makes them prone to both unwanted noise, inferior colour and screen burn.


Why is there no way to turn off GPU dithering in the built in MacOS settings menu? It would be easy for Apple to implement, and would save others in a similar situation to me the hassle to find out why their monitors were displaying a subpar image.

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 15.3

Posted on Apr 14, 2025 10:04 AM

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Apr 14, 2025 10:54 AM in response to RJDG141

RJDG141 wrote:

Why is there no way to turn off GPU dithering in the built in MacOS settings menu?

This is a user-to-user technical support forum for Apple customers.


We are not Apple. The one question we can never, ever answer is "why". We don't know. Apple isn't going to say. The best we could ever do is speculate, and no one wants that.

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Why is GPU dithering on Apple Silicon Macs causing banding issues on some external monitors, and why isn't there a built in way to disable it?

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