Intel HD Graphics 530 lags in 4K on Zenbook Pro UX501VW

[PProd3]

Hello!

I have an Asus Zenbook Pro UX501VW with i7-6700HQ, 16GB of RAM, GTX 960M, 512 PCIe SSD and UHD display. From the moment I bought this laptop, it is constantly lagging.

By lagging I mean: Windows 10 UI (animations when Start is on fullscreen for example) is around 30FPS, sometimes even below. The performance in browser is just as poor: scrolling is between 15 and 45 FPS (The FPS was measured in Google Chrome with a plugin). Playing 4K 60FPS on YouTube is impossible. The sound is not synchronized with the video and the video itself lags.

I have a clean installed Windows 10 Home with the latest drivers (now running Intel HD Graphics version 4664).

Could you help me? It's really annoying for such an expensive ultrabook.

I also contacted Asus but they told me to go in service. I still believe that there aren't any hardware faults.

Thank you!

[PProd3]

Unfortunately, 1080P or 2K resolution doesn't scale perfectly on the screen and the text is blurry, so it's unusable. My eyes are struggling to see clearly, so it's not healthy at all.

Do you have a fix for this too? Interpolation technology seems to be the guilty, but from what I've read on Internet, this is the normal behaviour (even if UHD is 4 times the 1080P, you can't map exactly 4 pixels to one. Why? I don't know). So I think this is the way the things work and it's normal and there isn't any fix.

Anyway, I'm waiting for the results and I hope you will come with a fix. I'm keeping the fingers crossed!

[idata]

Hello PavelProdaniuc,

I apologize for any inconvenience this issue may be causing to you. At this moment the best option would be waiting until our debugging team finds out if the issue is our driver or the operating system. I will update this thread as soon as I have any information. Regards,Fred D.

[MMali4]

Hi, so that Intel knows, I can also confirm that I experience the same problems as PavelProdaniuc on Asus ROG GL502VT laptop with UHD screen on Intel HD Graphics 530. I am really looking forward to receiving a new version of drivers that would fix the issues.

[idata]

Hello Maxim_Maliarov,

I apologize for any inconvenience this issue may be causing to you. As soon as I have any information available I will post it on this forum thread. Regards,Fred D.

[SBara4]

Hello.

I have the very same problem with this laptop, it is incredibly laggy compared to my other 4-years old Asus N56VZ.

I noticed that the video lag disappears for some time if i kill Explorer

taskkill /f /im explorer.exe

start explorer.exe

I also noticed that the file indexing service makes the problem worse, so i stopped it.

I have reinstalled many times, and now i am trying to sell this laptop because it is really less usable than an old laptop with full-hd screen.

I hope Intel can find the root of the problem which seems to be some interaction between their drivers and Windows 10.

Please let us know!

[RonaldM_Intel]

Hello Everyone,

Our debugging team is looking into this. Our test case now is resizing windows (from different apps like Chrome, LibreOffice) and observing if there is any lag.

Example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIJEOWC32sE 4K Lagging animation - Intel iGPU - YouTube

During their investigation, they found that the same lagging can be observed with 3rd party video cards, which would suggest the issue is coming from somewhere else (e.g. Operating System).

Can you help us confirm if you can observe the same behavior on 3rd party cards? if you can provide a video showing it behaves differently I'll share it with our debug team.

Kindest Regards,

Ronald M.

[PProd3]

Hello Ronald!

Any updates from the debugging team? We want this problem to be solved as fast as possible. As you already know, it's very annoying to use the laptop this way.

In my case, it doesn't matter if I open a program with the GTX or with the integrated graphics. It runs exactly the same. Just the games runs normally on GTX (I tried some games to debug the laptop for myself).

Thank you!

[SBara4]

I reverted to switching resolution to 1920x1080.

That means low image quality on the display, but the PC is usable again... of course I am absolutely not happy.Another question: the Intel Driver update utility signals an update in the Intel Graphics.I have version 21.20.16.4678 while the update is version 15.46.05.4771

I do not really understand how the second version could be higher than mine, maybe it refers only to the last number 4771?

Should i update?

Thank you

[RonaldM_Intel]

Hello everyone,

PavelProdaniuc precisely that is the issue our debug team ran into... the lag is also observable when they tested using 3rd party video cards, which suggest this being an issue with a different component (i.e. not the graphics drivers), possibly even the OS.

Case in point, running at 4K and opening some windows (e.g. LibreOffice, Paint) and resizing the window, the lag is visible regardless of the video card used.

If anyone here can help me get a recording comparing the same actions showing lag on Intel while not on other cards, then I can show it to the debug team and force them to debug that specific test case scenario.

tabulatouch the driver build is determine by the last 4 digits. You can get a better explanation of the driver versioning here: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/graphics-drivers/000005654.html Understanding the Intel® Graphics Driver Version Number

Kindest Regards,

Ronald M.

[PProd3]

I know, I know the feeling. The interpolation simply destroys the image. You're struggling to see clearly but you can't and your eyes are getting weaker over time, which is not good at all. The pixels mapping is disastrous. You simply can't use 1080P on UHD screen and especially to view everything clearly.

As about driver versions, Ronald already answered you. The only thing that matters is the number after the last dot.

[PProd3]

Hello Everyone,

Any updates from the debugging team? Time passes and our hope is diminishing. We still have to use the laptop with this issue everyday. It destroys our minds and eyes. Truly.

With all due respect, Pavel.

[PProd3]

Hello.

Please keep us in touch. It's been so much since you last told us how the debugging is going. Please don't forget us.

With all due respect, Pavel.

[RonaldM_Intel]

Hello PavelProdaniuc,

Please check my post from August 28th 2017 which I'm quoting here:

"the lag is also observable when they tested using 3rd party video cards, which suggest this being an issue with a different component (i.e. not the graphics drivers), possibly even the OS.

Case in point, running at 4K and opening some windows (e.g. LibreOffice, Paint) and resizing the window, the lag is visible regardless of the video card used.

If anyone here can help me get a recording comparing the same actions showing lag on Intel while not on other cards, then I can show it to the debug team and force them to debug that specific test case scenario."

Without this information, I would recommend contacting your laptop manufacturer and have them reproduce the issue for you, and if they find the problem is indeed related to Intel they can contact us directly.

Kindest Regards,

Ronald M.

[PProd3]

Hello.

Thank you for your answer. Unfortunately, in my case, the lag is observable on both video cards (so, on dedicated too). I can't give you a video 'cause I don't have what to show.

I'm gonna keep waiting for the debugging team to come with a solution. Meanwhile, I'm trying to find alternative solutions.

Thank you very much!

[SBara4]

Hi there,

Yesterday i upgraded Windows to the Fall Creator's update, and suddenly the whole system started to behave as it should, very fast UI refresh in 4K.

I am crossing my fingers but it seems the lag has disappeared or is vastly reduced.

Best

[PProd3]

Hi.

Please fully test it and tell me how it behaves.

My laptop is right now in service. Coil noise/whine appeared and I couldn't bear the noise, so I've sent it to service. From what I know so far (a guy from service told me), they are changing my motherboard, so any potential defects related to graphics will also be solved. While my zenbook is servicing, please tell me how the lag is on your machine with Fall Creator's update. I'm very curious.

Thanks!

[SBara4]

I can sense your happiness

Yes everything is perfect, my laptop had an incredible lagging problem that forced me to kill explorer.exe at least once per hour...Now everything is gone, if i maximize window i can still see some refresh below 60fps, but that's barely noticeable.

So let's hope for the best!

SB

[idata]

Given that I have been struggling with the same problem for over a year (I hardly use this laptop, partially because of this problem), I was hopeful to read about the Falls Creator's update resolving this issue for some. Unfortunately, I notice no difference on my XPS 15 9550.

This laptop has been lagging as demonstrated in the videos posted earlier in this thread ever since I got it over a year ago. Judging from the information you can find online and the feedback from Intel and Dell support, this seems either to be a rare problem or people generally don't care. For example, in none of the XPS 15 reviews this problem is mentioned, although I have seen it firsthand on 4 laptops of the same model (my original laptop, one with a motherboard replacement, a full replacement, and a similar model from a friend).

Some sources mentioning this issue:

- https://superuser.com/questions/1172870/dell-xps-15-9550-4k-intel-530-ui-performance-windows-10 Dell XPS 15 9550 4k Intel 530 UI performance Windows 10 - Super User

-

- https://www.reddit.com/r/Dell/comments/5iqaid/dell_xps_9550_4k_poor_ui_performance_do_i_have_a/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Dell/comments/5iqaid/dell_xps_9550_4k_poor_ui_performance_do_i_have_a/

- https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-performance/maximizing-window-animation-of-4k-windows-has-a/239553c7-94d3-4556-904f-19238488b28c# LastReply Maximizing window animation of 4k windows has a severly reduced - Microsoft Community

- I've posted this resize issue also on Microsoft Feedback Hub: https://aka.ms/Fjuwtk https://aka.ms/Fjuwtk Probably most important observation here is: "It is only windows which near about 3/4th of the full 4k size (3840x2160) which stutter when maximizing."

- ... There might be more sources I can try to dig up based on my searches in the past, if this could be of any help.

What always has been reproducible for me so far:

- Resizing windows lags immensely, in particular in Chrome where black bands show up while resizing.

- Stutter in the maximize windows which are larger than a certain resolution.

I found the https://superuser.com/a/1174979/91613 answer on the Super User post interesting:

I've since added a second ram module, to have the ram operate in dual channel mode now. The animations have improved on the 4k laptop monitor so much so that the choppiness is virtually gone!

He has since reported in the end the problems still occur, but perhaps Intel support can provide more insights into whether/how much of a difference this could make?

I currently have 1X16GB. Is there any chance buying another 16GB stick would make any difference? By now, is it known where the bottleneck is coming from? To me (judging on the maximize animation only stuttering above a certain resolution), it could be related to memory size where no big enough buffers are available (or allocated) in the operating system.

Using hWinfo, I can tell the Intel HD 530 card currently is allocated 1GB of RAM, which unfortunately I can not change to be more from the Dell BIOS to try out this theory.

[idata]

Hello Whathecode,

Thank you for contacting Intel® technical support.We apologize for any inconvenience. Please submit a new thread since we handle every case individually and every scenario is different even if the same product is being used. The next agent will be able to further assist you on this matter.Regards,Xavier A.

[SBara4]

Thank you.

Is updating recommended, even if drivers are not issued by Asus?

Regards

[PProd3]

It's ok. Your Zenbook will run without any trouble with drivers taken directly from Intel.

However, Intel is our last chance to make the laptop behave just as it should have done from the first day. Basically, so far, we've only lost money with it. It's not the laptop it should be.