POLL: How bright do you keep your display

[robotkiller]

This is stupid poll, but I'm just curious. The full brightness setting is like a nuclear explosion and practically burns my retinas. I'm curious if anyone uses it at that level.

Oddly enough, I did for the first couple of days without realizing how insanely bright it is.

For the record, I run it -1

EDIT: Just realized I should have put an "other" option and reversed the positive side of the poll. My bad

 

[Transporteur]

In general I keep my 30" Cinema (which is a little brighter than all iMac displays) at 100% cause my office has very large windows.

At nighttimes I regulate it down to half it's brightness.

 

[jonwd7]

If my room light is on, anywhere from 80-100%. If not, between 60-80%. Just depends on what I'm doing.

By the way, the screen on this 27" still uses an incredible amount of energy.

Idle, screen off: 40W
Idle, fully dimmed: 56W
Idle, fully bright: 146W

So that's 90W between 0% and 100% brightness! Fully off is an extra 16W less. My numbers also include a 2TB Caviar Green in an external enclosure, but I didn't feel like forcing it to spin down to take the numbers. (I'm reading from my PSU display to get the Wattage)

Nuclear explosion indeed. =p

Oh also, I have my fans nudged up from default, I doubt that makes a large impact on the Wattage either. I felt that I'd rather have a cooler, louder iMac than an overheated one. Funny thing is I still can't hear it.

 

[robotkiller]

If my room light is on, anywhere from 80-100%. If not, between 60-80%. Just depends on what I'm doing.

By the way, the screen on this 27" still uses an incredible amount of energy.

Idle, screen off: 40W
Idle, fully dimmed: 56W
Idle, fully bright: 146W

So that's 90W between 0% and 100% brightness! Fully off is an extra 16W less. My numbers also include a 2TB Caviar Green in an external enclosure, but I didn't feel like forcing it to spin down to take the numbers. (I'm reading from my PSU display to get the Wattage)

Nuclear explosion indeed. =p

Oh also, I have my fans nudged up from default, I doubt that makes a large impact on the Wattage either. I felt that I'd rather have a cooler, louder iMac than an overheated one. Funny thing is I still can't hear it.

Regarding energy consumption: I believe it. I cranked the display to max in a dark room last night -- the screen lit it up like a 100W lightbulb. It's obnoxiously bright.

 

[53x12]

If my room light is on, anywhere from 80-100%. If not, between 60-80%. Just depends on what I'm doing.

By the way, the screen on this 27" still uses an incredible amount of energy.

Idle, screen off: 40W
Idle, fully dimmed: 56W
Idle, fully bright: 146W

So that's 90W between 0% and 100% brightness! Fully off is an extra 16W less. My numbers also include a 2TB Caviar Green in an external enclosure, but I didn't feel like forcing it to spin down to take the numbers. (I'm reading from my PSU display to get the Wattage)

Nuclear explosion indeed. =p

Oh also, I have my fans nudged up from default, I doubt that makes a large impact on the Wattage either. I felt that I'd rather have a cooler, louder iMac than an overheated one. Funny thing is I still can't hear it.

Yeah I get the same numbers:

Idle, fully dimmed= 53W
Idle, half-brightness= 83W
Idle, fully bright= 143W

 

[MultiFinder17]

I have a 20" Cinema Display and a 19" Samsung SyncMaster 172N hooked up to my mini, and I keep both of them at around half brightness. On my MacBook Air, since the screen on that thing is amazingly bright, I usually keep it on half at max, and normally 1/4.

 

[Alrescha]

I have a 23" Apple Cinema Display HD and I keep it at 25%. If it's a bright day it might get pushed up to 50%.

Back in March I purchased one of the new 24" iMacs and had to return it after a couple days - in part because I could not turn the brightness down by any meaningful amount. The default setting was 'surface of the sun' and I could only turn it down to about 95% of that. My eyes had had enough after a few hours.

A.

 

[sharkync]

On my iMac fairly low - on my MacBook usually three clicks down.

 

[sascha h-k]

+ shades at 30 - 60% .. (imac 24"), soon 27" i7.

 

[Hellhammer]

I keep mine at half brightness because my room is usually quite dark especially now because there is no sun shining due season and I get headaches if I have it at full brightness

 

[Trek2100]

I keep mine at half brightness because my room is usually quite dark especially now because there is no sun shining due season and I get headaches if I have it at full brightness

I keep mine a little above half brightness. I'm in a darker area and after a while in full brightness my eyes begin to blur and I start to get a headache.