"deep color" causes screen to flash black every 1 second

HG01 · ‎12-02-2023

My system:

- LG 55QNED82 as a Display
- Intel ARC A770 16GB ASRock
- MSI B500M Bazooka
- Ryzen 5600x
- 32GB Ram G.Skill 3200

I have enabled ReBAR in the BIOS, installed the latest drivers and performed a clean installation of Windows 11.

The issue is that as soon as I enable deep color on HDMI, the screen starts flashing, meaning that it goes black for about 1 second, then it comes back for 1 second, then black again and so on.

This is a bigger issue than just deep color, because that is automatically activated when I set game mode, which is required for VRR to work on my display.
That means VRR is currently not working for me and that's very annoying.

I case it helps, I think the flashing is caused by the display constantly switching color profile, because if I keep the settings menu open, I see it changes.

Note that I did not have this issue with my previous card, a Radeon Rx590.

Also note that my display only has HDMI inputs, so I cannot try to connect it via displayport.

I also don't have any other display to try, but considering that the other GPU was just fine, this looks a lot like a drivers issue.

Any advice would be very appreciated, since I got the card 3 days ago and I can't still make it work properly.

Thanks!

Andres_Intel · ‎12-04-2023

Hello HG01,

Thank you for posting on the Intel®️ communities. Given that your Intel® Arc™ A770 Graphics is experiencing color problems, please answer the following questions to better understand this issue:

Take a video of the issue to have a visual guide, in case we need to replicate it.
Run and attach the Intel® System Support Utility for Windows (SSU) report, you can find the steps on the link How to get the Intel® System Support Utility Logs on Windows, to know your hardware and software information.

Regards,

Andres P.

Intel Customer Support Technician

HG01 · ‎12-04-2023

An update:

- I noticed that even though the connection is via an HDMI cable (certified for 8k@60Hz, 4k@120Hz), the Intel utility would still say "Connector type: DP".

- So, because my TV does not have a DP connection, I got an adapter cable from DP to HDMI (again, also certified for 8k@60Hz, 4k@120Hz).

- This changed things quite a lot, but they're still far from perfect.

Current situation with the adapter cable:

The good:

- "Deep color" can now be enabled and the image is stable

The bad:

- The refresh rate for 4K is maximum 60Hz, while my TV is capable of 4K @ 120Hz (as I said, the cable is more than enough to support it)

- VRR is still not detected, and the Intel utility says simply "unsupported". Note that VRR was working just fine with my previous card.

What I tried:

- "List all modes", but it shows only up to 60Hz for 4K. It shows 120Hz only up to 1440p.

- Multiple reboots

- Updated the TV software (there was indeed an update, but no change)

- Disabling and re-enabling VRR on the TV menu

- Changing AMD Freesync from "high" to "wide" to "off" in the TV menu

I cannot run the utility right now, I'll do it as soon as possible.

As a note: I'll give this a couple more weeks, just because the interaction with a forum is not the fastest feedback loop possible. After that I'll just sell the card and be done with it, customers should not be your beta testers.

HG01 · ‎12-05-2023

I put back the HDMI to HDMI cable just so I could take the video.

After updating the TV the problem is still there but slightly different: instead of the screen flashing, now the screen stays black with minor flashes, but still no picture. I attached a video of it.

Also, I attached the intel utility saved text file.

Andres_Intel · ‎12-05-2023

Hello HG01,

Thank you for all the information provided, that helps a lot.

For the resolution issue that you have once to connect the adapter, open another thread to keep this one organized and help you in the best way.

I noticed in the Intel® SSU report that there are some pending updates, please follow the steps below and let me know the results:

I see there is a newer graphics driver version. Clean install it with Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU) to version 31.0.101.4972. For guidance, How to Use the Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU) to Uninstall an Intel® Graphics Driver.
We recommend have the BIOS up to date, since this can improve compatibility, performance and stability with the graphics card, update it to the latest version. For installation steps, you can contact MSI.
What is the adapter make and model?

Regards,

Andres P.

Intel Customer Support Technician

HG01 · ‎12-05-2023

- Not my first rodeo, so I ran DDU from Windows safe mode and installed the drivers. This was Not easy, because without the drivers I get 5 seconds of a black screen, 1 second picture and so on. I hunted down an old 24" monitor and did it from there. Anyway with the new driver nothing changes. Also, the connection is still detected as DP, while instead it's HDMI.

- The BIOS is/was already updated to the latest version.

- Not sure which adapter you're talking about now? If you mean the DP/HDMI adapter, then it's this one: https://amzn.eu/d/iEAZFE6

Andres_Intel · ‎12-05-2023

Hello HG01,

Thank you for your response and for completing the steps.

I see that you mentioned previously, you noticed that even though the connection is via an HDMI cable (certified for 8k@60Hz, 4k@120Hz), the Intel utility would still say "Connector type: DP.

What software or tool are you using to check this status? This we will help me to clarify the situation and proceed with the next step.

Regards,

Andres P.

Intel Customer Support Technician

HG01 · ‎12-05-2023

Yes, it doesn't matter if I connect via HDMI or DP, it's always detected as DP.

I see that in the Intel Arc Control app. I attached a screenshot.

Andres_Intel · ‎12-06-2023

Hello HG01,

Thank you for your clarification.

Seems that is a different issue, to continue keeping this thread organized, please open a new thread for the connector issue, and we will be more than glad to help you.

I will start an investigation for the deep color issue, as soon I have further information I will let you know.

Regards,

Andres P.

Intel Customer Support Technician

Andres_Intel · ‎12-14-2023

Hello HG01,

Thank you for your time.

We still working on the investigation, we will start with the replication of your issue, and as soon I have the results I will let you know.

Regards,

Andres P.

Intel Customer Support Technician

MUC · ‎12-15-2023

HDMI Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) cannot be provided via HDMI port on Intel Arc Alchemist/DG2. VRR is an HDMI specification. Since the HDMI 2.1 port is not native there is no way to provide VRR. This is also the reason why the connection is always shown as "DisplayPort" in the diagnostic data.

Intel Arc Alchemist DG2 Topology

If you connect a DisplayPort monitor with VESA Adaptive Sync, you may also need to activate this:

Go to Windows Settings > System Settings > Graphics Settings.
Under the Graphics Settings section, you’ll find these 2 options:
- Variable refresh rate
- Graphics Performance Preference
Locate the slider below the first option and turn it to On position.

However, the image problems that can be seen in the video should not occur. The HDMI port is basically able to output 4K @ 120 Hz RGB 10 bpc HDR. Please turn off the options "VRR", "VRR & G-Sync" and "AMD FreeSync Premium" in the TV settings to see whether the mentioned HDMI signal with a fixed refresh rate is displayed properly.

HG01 · ‎12-15-2023

A few things:

- If I understand correctly HDMI on Intel ARC doesn't support VRR. Whatever the reason this is a big thing, because even on my RX 590 from 2019 VRR worked just fine on HDMI. Seems like a poor (rushed?) design to me.

- As I mentioned in the very first post, in the TV settings I literally cannot enable VRR, because that's dependent on "Deep colour". Enabling VRR automatically enables "Deep colour" and the display goes black. So VRR is already disabled, otherwise I'd see nothing.

- I do appreciate your time and efforts, they're much more than I was hoping I'd get, but please close this thread now (but don't mark it solved, that would give the false impression that there is a solution to this issue). I said I would give this card a couple of weeks, and those are gone now. I'll sell it and get a card from a more seasoned producer of gaming cards. I do appreciate the price to performance ratio, so I might come back to Intel in the future. But if I buy something I want to spend my time using it, not debugging it.

Thanks anyway for your time.

Andres_Intel · ‎12-18-2023

Hello HG01,

Thank you for all the information provided.

Since we already started with the issue reproduction, we will finish with it to try to find the root of the issue and provide you with the results, if you do not want to continue at that moment so we will proceed with the thread closure.

We appreciate your patience and understanding.

Regards,

Andres P.

Intel Customer Support Technician

HG01 · ‎12-18-2023

I understand you having to investigate. Just be aware that I'll not be able to verify if the issues are solved because I don't have the card anymore.

Maybe suggest that card producers put a sticker on the box or a warning somewhere that says that VRR is not supported on HDMI.
I think it's a ridiculous design choice in 2023, but at least people won't get surprises like it happened to me.

Andres_Intel · ‎12-25-2023

Hello HG01,

Thank you for your patience.

I am still working on the replication, as soon I have the results I will let you know.

Regards,

Andres P.

Intel Customer Support Technician

HG01 · ‎12-25-2023

Hi Andres,
Thank you for keeping working on it, although as I already stated I don't own the card anymore, so I will not be able to verify any result/patch.

Obviously I don't have access to the internals of either the card driver or the TV firmware, but in case it can help, here are a few suggestions coming from me being both a regular user and a software engineer with 29 years of experience.

- We know that the full capabilities of the TV cannot be used. This is evident because 120Hz cannot be selected as a frequency above 1440p. Also note that the checkbox about hiding unsupported display modes is grayed out. This means that Windows detects this as a generic display and it kind of relies on the video card to do the right choice and provide the supported modes through the display handshake
- Clearly this isn't happening, and we know that LG TVs are quite infamously bad at handshakes with HDMI connections.
- A possibility would be to use an EDID override to specify a custom resolution, but I understand that this card (i.e. the driver) does not support EDID overrides.
- Another possibility would be to start building a display database, where you have the "actual" display capabilities as opposed to the ones presented during the handshake. Most likely this is what AMD and nVidia do.

Mine are just suggestions, without proper tools and access to source code it's only possible to speculate.
Anyway unless you get hold of a TV that is this specific model, I doubt you'll ever be able to reproduce the issue.

I'd say at least add support for EDID overrides so that people that are a little technical can find a workaround.

Off topic: merry Christmas 😊

Andres_Intel · ‎12-25-2023

Hello HG01,

Thank you for your suggestion, they are going to be really helpful. We are aware that you do not own the card anymore, thank you for letting us know that. Once we have any news we will let you know.

Have a merry Christmas too.

Regards,

Andres P.

Intel Customer Support Technician

Andres_Intel · ‎12-27-2023

Hello HG01,

Thank you for all your time and patience.

We have been working on the investigation, and the issue was replicated on an older driver, so it seems that the issue was solved in the new driver update 31.0.101.5084/31.0.101.5122. Based on our results we can say that the issue was related to the driver.

I understand that you do not have the graphics card anymore, but please let me know if you have further questions

Regards,

Andres P.

Intel Customer Support Technician

HG01 · ‎12-27-2023

Hi Andres,
Thank you for the update.

I can confidently say that driver 5122 does not solve the issue (even with a clean DDU install), because that's the last chance I gave the card right before I gave it away.

I'm quite confident also for another reason, which I noticed only on the last day: this does not happen just on Windows, but also if I'm in the BIOS setting screen for my motherboard.

This looks much more if a card firmware problem than a driver issue.

That said, I do understand your need to close this issue, so go ahead if nothing else can be done, I'm ok with that. Just keep in mind that someone else might have the same issue.

Thank you for your time 😊

Andres_Intel · ‎12-27-2023

Hello HG01,

Thank you for all the information provided.

For now, we will close this thread. If you need any additional information, please submit a new question as this thread will no longer be monitored.

Best regards,

Andres P.

Intel Customer Support Technician