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iGPU Colors appear limited on external display, fine with eGPU

Nichy
Novice
3,385 Views

Recently I bought a Framework laptop, 12th Gen version, for graphical work. I draw digital art and sometimes like to use an external monitor. The laptop supports swapping out so-called expansion cards so you can turn any port on it in what you want it to be, with the base connection being USB4. (Soon Thunderbolt 4 once the new BIOS update drops for this device.) I only have expansion cards for HDMI, and the monitor I use is HDMI or DVI-D only. (So, I'm using HDMI-to-HDMI.)

I also have a GPU enclosure that I can put my GTX 1080 in and connect that to the laptop, and then connect my monitor to the GPU directly. When I do this, I notice a clear difference between both outputs.

GTX 1080GTX 1080

Intel Iris XEIntel Iris XE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Both images were taken right after each other with my phone's camera set to manual, fixed ISO, White Balance, Environmental Value, Shutter Speed, Focus and I had HDR disabled.

I tried finding a setting in Intel Graphics Command Centre along the lines of Limited Range colors, as this behavior looks similar to when I first hooked Nvidia cards to HDMI, where they would limit the color output to 16 - 235 instead of the full 0 - 255, any setting related that I could find were in Video Playback settings and didn't seem to affect normal use at all. I also tried the Beta version of IGCC, but there seems to be little that has changed and the output still appeared limited.

People have suggested to me to get the *.icc profile of the monitor, but it seems Acer (this panel being the R241Y bmid) doesn't provide one for this display. Also, if it is indeed limited, it'll only stretch out the existing range and not adhere to the goal here, getting as accurate as possible colors.

So, my question is, is there something that I'm missing, is this a known issue, is there something that I can do to fix this? I've been looking everywhere and only found some older posts speaking of a bug with older versions of a driver where indeed colors would look washed-out when using a type-C connection, but those posts seem to be from 2018, and with Intel HD Graphics 630 for example, while here I have Intel Iris XE, so I don't think they're relevant? Is anyone able to help me out here?

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Alberto_R_Intel
Moderator
3,054 Views

Nichy, Thank you for posting in the Intel® Communities Support.


For this scenario, it is important to mention that it is expected for a graphics card to have a little bit better performance than the Intel® graphics controller on the processor since this is a component completely dedicated to graphics tasks with its own parts working exclusively in that field.


In order to answer your questions and to try to find a possible solution for this scenario, we just wanted to confirm a few details about your system:

What is the complete model of the laptop?

Did you notice this behavior/difference with the colors between the graphics controllers before? 

When did the issue start?

Did you make any recent hardware/software changes that might cause this problem?

Which Windows* version are you using?

Does the problem happen at home or in the work environment?

Please attach the SSU report so we can verify further details about the components in your platform, check all the options in the report including the one that says "3rd party software logs":

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/25293/Intel-System-Support-Utility-for-Windows-?product=91600


Any questions, please let me know.


Regards,

Albert R.


Intel Customer Support Technician


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Nichy
Novice
3,031 Views

Hello Albert,

The laptop model is simply Framework laptop, 12th Gen Intel Core i5 1240P with 32 GB of RAM and 1 TB NVMe SSD using PCIe 4.0. There's no actual model number as this is a Right-to-Repair oriented laptop that can be upgraded, i.e. the entire mainboard can be swapped out to newer generation Intel products in the future.

To answer your second, third, fourth and sixth question all at once, the laptop is still fairly new, as is the GPU enclosure, so no, no recent changes that may have caused the issue.

The laptop runs Windows 11 22H2 (OS Build 22621.963)

Lastly, the SSU software you're asking me to download appears to link to a page that no longer exists.

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Nichy
Novice
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@Alberto_R_Intel, the download works now, I guess the server that it was hosted on was down when I tried it earlier, but got it up and running.

Report has been attached to this reply. (Thanks @n_scott_pearson, for explaining the steps.)

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n_scott_pearson
Super User
3,006 Views

Follow these instructions for SSU:

  1. When you start the tool, select Everything and then click on Scan.
  2. Once the scan is complete, click on Next and then Save. Pick a name for the text file to create and click on Save to create it.
  3. You can now close the app.
  4. Open a response post here and then, using the Drag and drop here or browse files to attach dialog (below the edit box for the body of your response post), upload and attach this text file to the response post.

Hope this helps,

...S

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Alberto_R_Intel
Moderator
2,997 Views

Hello Nichy, Thank you very much for providing that information and the SSU report.

 

According to the SSU document, currently, the graphics driver version installed on your computer is 31.0.101.3222.

 

For this scenario, even though this is a Right-to-Repair laptop, it is important to mention that it is always recommended to install the graphics driver provided by the manufacturer of the computer/board, since that driver was customized by them to work with that specific platform.

 

In this case, taking into consideration that the Intel® graphics drivers are generic, for testing purposes, try a clean installation of the latest Intel® graphics driver version 31.0.101.3790 following the instructions in the links below:

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/download/19344/intel-graphics-windows-dch-drivers.html?

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000057389/graphics.html

 

We also recommend, if it is possible, to verify the model of the board currently installed in the laptop and get in contact directly with the manufacturer of it, to make sure the latest BIOS version is installed or to gather the instructions on how to update it.

 

Once you get the chance, please let us know the results so, if necessary, we can further assist you 

 

Regards,

Albert R.

 

Intel Customer Support Technician

 

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Nichy
Novice
2,975 Views

Thanks for the quick reply, Albert, I tried the steps that you described and the driver is now updated to the latest one. Sadly, this did not change the color output.

The BIOS version is the latest as well.

I have a little more information on the laptop's method of video output, by the way, if that helps. The laptop has four USB 4 outputs and an audio combo jack only, in order to connect video out one has to use USB-C Alt-mode. From what I understand, HDMI Alt-Mode is not a thing anymore, so the adapter that the laptop uses first uses DP Alt-mode, then converts it to HDMI. I can also get DP adapters for the laptop, however, my display has only HDMI and DVI-D inputs. Maybe this info can give the insight needed to come up with a possible solution.

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Alberto_R_Intel
Moderator
2,950 Views

Nichy, You are very welcome, thank you very much for letting us know those details.


We are sorry to hear the problem persists after trying the troubleshooting steps provided previously.


We will do further research on this matter, as soon as I get any updates, I will post all the information on this thread.


Regards,

Albert R.


Intel Customer Support Technician


Alberto_R_Intel
Moderator
2,922 Views

Hello Nichy, I just received an update on this matter.


While we are still working on this case, we just wanted to confirm:


Does it happen with a specific application? 

Have you tested any other applications?

Have you tested different monitors?

Could you please let us know what is the application being used, how you use it, and how you modify the colors?

Is this computer some kind of tester device for developers?


Regards,

Albert R.


Intel Customer Support Technician


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Nichy
Novice
2,912 Views

It seems to be system-wide, tried comparing my desktop wallpaper on internal and external display, both differing, as well as comparing colors in Chrome, Intel Graphics Command Center and in the drawing program Clip Studio Paint.

I shall once home test my other monitor as well, I will get back to you about as soon as possible.

For colors, I'm making sure that everything is unaltered and reset to defaults in Intel Graphics Command Center, external monitor runs the same unaltered colors on both the iGPU and eGPU.

Lastly, this computer is a consumer purchasable device, see https://www.frame.work/ for more info.

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Alberto_R_Intel
Moderator
2,907 Views

Nichy, Thank you very much for confirming that information.


Perfect, no problem at all, take your time and once you get the chance please let us know the results of testing a different monitor so we can further assist you.


Regards,

Albert R.


Intel Customer Support Technician


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Alberto_R_Intel
Moderator
2,874 Views

Hello Nichy, I just wanted to check if you were able to test a different monitor and if you need further assistance on this matter?


Regards,

Albert R.


Intel Customer Support Technician



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Nichy
Novice
2,854 Views

Hello Albert, busy life has sapped me of free time to try this out, hopefully this weekend I will be able to test this properly, so sorry for the delay. Also, yes, would like further assistance on this matter as it is still not solved. You also mentioned having an update on this in an earlier post, but didn't say what, would you be able to share this in advance?

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Alberto_R_Intel
Moderator
2,840 Views

Hello Nichy, No problem at all, thank you very much for your response.


Yes, the update is that while we are still working on this matter, for us to be able to continue with our research, we need your response if the problem is also happening with another monitor.


Take your time to do the tests and once you get the chance, please let us know the results.


Regards,

Albert R.


Intel Customer Support Technician


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Nichy
Novice
2,821 Views

Hello Albert, I've finally found the time to test out another display and it indeed occurs there as well.

Interestingly, I tried to see if it was Limited Range colors by making an image that has blacks and whites with steps of eight in luminosity, so adding to black or subtracting from white R: 8, G: 8 and B: 8 every time, to if indeed anything under 16 or above 235 would look the same. Curiously, only black levels would look the same, but not near white levels, so it's not Limited Range I think? 

Still, it doesn't seem to be a monitor thing since two different brand monitors show the same behavior.

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Alberto_R_Intel
Moderator
2,797 Views

Hello Nichy, Thank you very much for letting us know those results.


Yes, it seems is not a monitor thing since, as you mentioned, it is happening on two different screens, that is actually what we wanted to confirm. So, we will continue with our research on this matter, as soon as I get more updates, I will post all of them on this thread.


Regards,

Albert R.


Intel Customer Support Technician


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Alberto_R_Intel
Moderator
2,775 Views

Hello Nichy, I just received another update on this matter.

 

While we are still working on this matter, we just wanted to check if there is a way that you can provide the reproductions steps? Besides an image or video reference on how the color should look vs how they actually look?

 

Regards,

Albert R.

 

Intel Customer Support Technician

 

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Nichy
Novice
2,763 Views

Hello Albert, what I used to test is two configurations. Both configs have been tried out on the same monitor with no color alterations and contrast set to 50. I compare the colors between the output of these two configs.

One is simply the laptop's own connection to a monitor with HDMI. The connection starts initially as USB 4 (Framework laptops are still awaiting Thunderbolt 4 verification and firmware updates) and a so-called module converts the output to DP Alt mode, and then to HDMI. Intel Graphics Command Center color settings are set to default, no alterations whatsoever. This is for either the external monitor and the internal display. Internal display show correct colors while the external monitor shows decreased black levels.

The second setup has an external GPU enclosure, in my case the Razer Core X equipped with a Nvidia GTX 1080, connected with a Thunderbolt 3 or 4 cable to one of the USB 4 ports. The monitor is directly connected to the HDMI port on the GPU. With this setup the output colors are excellent.

I want to note that this device only has four USB 4, soon to be all Thunderbolt 4, ports and a combo jack, and nothing else. I could get modules that have Display Port, but my monitor is HDMI, I don't believe it would matter much.

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Alberto_R_Intel
Moderator
2,566 Views

Hello Nichy, Thank you very much for confirming those details.


We will continue with our research on this matter and provide a response as soon as it becomes available.


Regards,

Albert R.


Intel Customer Support Technician


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Alberto_R_Intel
Moderator
2,458 Views

Hello Nichy, I Just received an update on this matter.


We will try to replicate this scenario in our Intel® lab. For us to be able to do that, could you please provide the exact specific steps to try to reproduce it? Please include the applications you are working with.


Regards,

Albert R.


Intel Customer Support Technician


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Alberto_R_Intel
Moderator
2,436 Views

Hello Nichy, I just wanted to check if you saw the information posted previously and if you need further assistance on this matter?


Regards,

Albert R.


Intel Customer Support Technician


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