Issues with colour using Radeon HD 4890

Hi,

I'm really hoping someone can help shed some light on an issue I've had since picking up my new PC last weekend.

Essentially I have a fairly high spec PC but for some reason my graphics card isn't working properly and I can't seem to view images properly, they come out low in colour depth and resolution (hard to explain), it's almost like they are cartoony.

Here is my spec:
Windows XP Professional x64 Edition
3.10 gigahertz AMD Phenom II X2 550
256 kilobyte primary memory cache
1024 kilobyte secondary memory cache
6144 kilobyte tertiary memory cache
64-bit ready
Board: ASUSTeK Computer INC. M4A88TD-M EVO Rev X.0x
ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series (4890) [Display adapter]
Panasonic-TV [Monitor] (s/n 16843009) - Viera 1080p LCD 32@ TV

I am running the latest ATI drivers for my card, downloaded from the website and updated during a clean install after formatting using Hirens BootCD.

I first had Windows 7 32 bit running on my PC - managed to get a copy of 64 bit as thought that may help. No dice! I then bought a copy of Windows XP 64 bit as
I read that Windows 7 is no good with ATI drivers but this hasn't helped either.

I have gone through all the advanced settings on the CCC panel that I can, changing resolution (no issues pushing it up to 1920x1080 but just makes icons smaller), hertz freq, identifying monitors etc.

I am completely stuck.

The best way I can think of describing my issue is to imagine someone taking a photo and turning it into a watercolour using photoshop or similar - that is how all my images look now - very grainy and low in quality.

I've tried my computer on another monitor (a samsung 46" TV) and had the same issue, so I am pretty sure it's the card and not the TV/Monitor.

Any ideas?

While, you could have a defective card, you should try reinstalling the ATI drivers. I would suggest the following steps after downloading a program called Driver Sweeper (Google search): –

1: Go to your control panel and uninstall programs. Find the driver and uninstall it.

2: Restart in safe mode and run Driver Sweeper, and sweep out the ATI driver section.

3: Restart
Normally you should not need to use driver sweeper, but given your issues and to eliminate any corruption in the originally installed drivers, I would strongly suggest that.

4: Install new drivers.

Thank you for your message - I don't think it is the drivers because I did a clean install, but will certainly try and see if it makes any difference.

What are my other options, simlpy buying a new graphics card?