Best Dell S2716DG Calibration Settings [Color Profile]

These Dell S2716DG calibration settings are designed to help you get the most out of your monitor in terms of image quality and overall performance. The Dell S2716DG is known for having a pretty poor color quality out of the box as many users have complained that it comes out of the box washed out. Some have even experienced issues like ghosting and unbalanced brightness in both bright and dark environments.

After we finish with this calibration, you’ll see better, sharper, crisp, and improved image quality and color production. I’d like to point out that this guide will also work for Dell S2716DGR calibration as both monitors have the same technical specs. So whichever you use between these two, these calibration settings should work just fine. To begin, let’s do a strip-down of some of the things we need for this calibration.

Looking for an ultrawide monitors for gaming and productivity? Here are the best.

Dell S2716DG Calibration Settings Requirements (Reviewed)

1. A Newer Model of Nvidia GPU
2. Nvidia Drivers (confirm that it comes with the latest Nvidia Control Panel for your GPU Installed)
3. A DisplayPort since you can only get the G-Sync and 144Hz refresh rate of the monitor via DisplayPort, not HDMI.
4. The Dell Monitor Driver, which can be downloaded from Dell Support. (You can see this guide in case you don’t know how to download and install the drivers) Ensure that the correct operating system and Binary Digit (bit) is selected when downloading the driver.
5. The Dell S2716GD Manual that can be downloaded from Dell Support.
6. You would also need the Nvidia GeForce Drivers and Nvidia Control Panel from GeForce Support. You’d also want to ensure that the driver version you download matches your GPU.

How to Calibrate Dell S2716GD

Before we can begin our calibration, I’d like you to connect your monitor properly to the GPU. Ensure that it’s displaying an image from the desktop and that you have downloaded and gotten every one of the tools and software required for the calibration. You would also want to set your display resolution to 2560 x 1440p and the refresh rate to 144Hz. You should also have your G-Sync settings to levels that you prefer. If you got a DisplayPort cable, you shouldn’t have issues with any of these.

In case you’re having issues with what to set the Response Time to, I will recommend setting it to Normal or 3ms, as that seems to provide the most balanced settings between the response time and the quality of the picture. Of course, this doesn’t mean you can’t set it to Fast or 1ms, some users have complained that this produces noticeable ghosting, but if it doesn’t in your case, can stick to Fast or 1ms.

Disclaimer:

Please note that in rare cases, the outcome of this process could be something different from what you expect. I don’t imply that this will work for everyone, so proceeding and following this process means you understand that you are doing so at your own risk and that you understand that you are responsible for the outcome.

Step #1. Install the Nvidia Drivers and Dell S2716DG Drivers

1. Here is an official step-by-step guide to installing the Nvidia GeForce Drivers for Windows 10, 8, and 7.
2. Users have confirmed that you don’t really need to run the installer as an administrator especially when installing it on your home computer. If you do run into issues, then you might run it as an administrator and see if that helps.
3. You could also select the Custom installation instead of the Express installation. Check all the boxes except the Perform Clean Install box. Don’t use the clean installation if you don’t have issues with installation and/or if you haven’t installed a driver from the GPU OEM.

After the installation of the Nvidia Drivers, reboot your computer, ensure that everything is working fine before you proceed to the installation of the Dell S2716DG Drivers.

Looking for a Cheap Gaming Monitor for PS4 and PS5? Here are the best.

While the Dell S2716DG Drivers don’t seem to bring a major improvement to your color quality, I have discovered that they install a color profile, and for some reason, the color profile helped to get an improvement in the look of the image than when it wasn’t on the computer.

The driver installation is pretty seamless and friendly for even beginners. As soon as you’re done with this, I will recommend that you reboot your computer once more before proceeding to the calibration proper.

Step #2. Calibrating the OSD (On-Screen Display Control Panel)

You will be able to navigate between and work on this setting using the physical buttons on the bottom-right-front of the monitor. Have them set to the following levels.

Monitor

1. Brightness (level): 75%
2. Contrast (level): 77%

Custom Color

1. Red (level): 97%
2. Green (level): 99%
3. Blue (level): 96%

Step #3. Calibrating the Nvidia Control Panel

To open the Nvidia control panel, right-click on the desktop background and select Nvidia Control Panel. You can also find the Nvidia control panel by typing it into the search bar if you’re on Windows 10.

After you open Nvidia, select the Adjust Desktop Color Settings on the left-hand side of the monitor >>> select Use Nvidia Settings on the right >>> we will be using the Color Channel dropdown to switch between the different group of settings, but confirm that its set to All Channels by default. If all checks out, use the following settings.

All Channels

1. Brightness (level): +45%
2. Contrast (level): +55%
3. Gamma: +0.96
4. Digital Vibrance (level): +45%

Red Channel

1. Brightness (level): +40%
2. Contrast (level): +70%
3. Gamma: +100

Green Channel

1. Brightness (level): +50%
2. Contrast (level): +50%
3. Gamma: +0.89

Blue Channel

1. Brightness (level): +50%
2. Contrast (level): +50%
3. Gamma: +1.00

Ensure that you have entered the settings correctly and Apply the changes. You should close the Nvidia Control Panel, then reboot your PC to see if the settings are applied. The Dell S2716DG calibration settings aren’t too complex, and following these steps should help you have everything set up with a visible improvement in the quality of the color seen already.

Read also: what is anti-aliasing in games?