🚀 go-pugleaf

Hi,

I just installed CS4 Production Premium on a new Mac Pro. The system specs are:

2x 3 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
10GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT 512MB
2x 1TB SAS drives
Samsung 30" Syncmaster 305T Plus
OSX 10.5.6 (both OSX and CS4 are up to date)

When I was working in After Effects, I noticed some dramatic banding issues when lighting a scene. I was curious, so I created a gradient and the same banding was visible. I tried creating a gradient in PS, AI and Flash: same results. Consistent across all CS4 products, and the image depth (8bit, 16bit or 32bit) doesn't affect it at all. Applying a blur effect to any image also produces banding.

I tried finding some gradients through Google image search. They look fine in Firefox, but when I open them in Photoshop the banding once again pops up. Same in Preview to some extent, but not as drastic.

Two other guys in my office are running CS4 with the same monitor. We're running identically calibrated color profiles, and working in the same color space. They have no problems. The only difference between their setup and mine is that they're using Macbook Pros.

Things I have tried: turning OpenGL on/off and toggling the individual GPU settings, working in all available color spaces, working with variable DPI, using another monitor, changing the synchronized color space through Bridge, changing the conversion options (dither, engine, etc), changing the color management policies, working in CMYK/RGB/Gray/Lab, changing the pixel aspect ratio, altering the scratch disks and memory allocation, dumping my CS4 preferences and starting over... none of this affects the banding. A 16bit 72DPI image that's a straight black to white gradient consists of nothing more than 12 or so very visible steps. I'm starting to wonder if this is a graphics card issue.

All the work I'm doing is for screen, so printers don't factor into the equation. I'd appreciate any tips or suggestions anyone can offer.