Reduced colors?

I had to strain my eyes to see that "clearly visible" banding issue, turning my monitor to full brightness, and these aren't even in-game screenshots. Do you have any of those, because already I'm feeling like this is a menu thing?

Don't worry about movies, they always do that, unless you pay for some good software. :?

Have you tried other games? Are they having the same issue? I can see the difference though, at least not with my monitor.

Same issue.

Have you tried different monitor?

Yes, and it worked. But when I first bought this monitor it also worked - so it is not the monitor.

Just because the monitor worked when new does not guarrantee that it is working now! If a different monitor works, then original is FAULTY!
Mike.

Yes, and it worked. But when I first bought this monitor it also worked - so it is not the monitor.

OK, so it worked at one time. That gives the hint that either the video card is failing or the monitor is failing. Might be easiest to try the monitor on a couple other machines. If the problem continues, then the monitor is bad. If it runs clearly, then try the video card elsewhere and see what happens. If both monitor and video card test good, then a possiblity is that the motherboard is failing.

Yeah, lots of work, but you've been doing a lot of work anyway.

Yes, and it worked. But when I first bought this monitor it also worked - so it is not the monitor.

OK, so it worked at one time. That gives the hint that either the video card is failing or the monitor is failing. Might be easiest to try the monitor on a couple other machines. If the problem continues, then the monitor is bad. If it runs clearly, then try the video card elsewhere and see what happens. If both monitor and video card test good, then a possiblity is that the motherboard is failing.

Yeah, lots of work, but you've been doing a lot of work anyway.

So if I have done much work already it's just go and do some more?   Think over mate
It dosent halp that you state the obvious.

Sorry, didn't mean to offend.

How about a screenshot of one of your standard windows desktop backgrounds? Maybe change your background to the "Windows XP" one and take a screen shot of it. It does look to me like there is a video mode switch going on. 16 Bit color vs 32 Bit color on my standard Windows XP 64 Bit wallpaper is quite noticable just like what you are outlining in your images. Have you recently updated your Video Drivers or possibly a game patch that may have changed how the menu's are being displayed? Are you running any video tweaking software that forces the display into 16 bit mode regardless of what the game or windows settings are? Let us know what you find. Also is there any way to change the cable going between your monitor and your VC? It's possible that there may be a fault in the cable as well.

I have checked this all up, none of it solved the issue. I understand what you mean by a windows wallpaper screenshot; you cannot see the banding there.

Hmmm that's weird. It must be an in-game thing.