Any solution for Windows 10 LTSC 1809 / AMD RX 480?

Jack

I recently had to upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10 to use my new DAC since Windows 10 supports USB Audio 2.0 from builds 1703 forward, so that means if i downgrade to Windows 10 LTSB 1507 my DAC wouldnt work. Is there a way to disable dithering with my configuration or a way to get USB Audio 2.0 support in the older LTSB 1507 builds? Has anyone had success disabling dithering with an RX 480 in Linux?

degen

Jack

EDIT: More testing revealed eye twitching on 1803.

LTSC 1809 gives me strain as well, quickly. I tried 1803 recently and found it good, not as good as 1507/1511 but maybe the better of the modern Windows builds. More testing required.

I would rate 1507/1511 > 1803 > 2004/20H1 > 1809. I didn't test 1903/1909 on the same day but while I didn't get strain as quickly as 1809, I felt very strange after a while, so I would rate it badly as well.

Jack

Just an update, i decided to install Linux Mint 20 XFCE with my RX 480 and that strange clear fuzz from Windows 10 that causes me eye strain is gone. I think my eyes are only strained by whatever Windows 10 is doing, since im running a stock Linux Mint install and havent tried to disable it on the RX 480, but im going to look into that next since more comfort is always good. I ordered an old AMD card pre-2012 since i read here those might be better for comfort and will test it both with Linux Mint and Windows 10 to try and narrow the cause down more.

degen

Jack Great news. Appreciate the update.

Jack

I did some more testing with a AMD Firepro V5900. I installed Windows 10 1507 LTSB on one SSD, and Windows 10 1703 on another SSD, both with the last Firepro driver for this card from 2017. Everything on the LTSB 1507 install was much more relaxing and natural looking, photos even looked better. On the Windows 10 1703 build it just looks like everything was very tense, overly sharp, and more stressful to my eyes. Im going to compare 1507 vs 1803 build next but i doubt the 1803 build will be much better. These composition layers in later builds of Windows 10 are really just a horror.

Sunspark

I've been using 20H2 quite a lot lately but in YCbCr mode. Next big under the hood change is fall 2021.

I think the outcome really depends on so many different moving pieces, both hardware and software.. I never really spent more than an hour or so in 1507 before hating how rough around the edges it was. Support for 1507 ends on Oct. 14, 2025 in case anyone was wondering.

Oh, speaking of drivers for my specific hardware anyway, there are 2 that are automatically offered by the catalog for my hd graphics 6000 igp. YCbCr doesn't look the same in both versions nor does RGB, and it was the same in Windows 7 for me as well.. different versions all looked different.

I'm so low on drive space, I literally cannot install it as a test to compare again at the present time without offloading a ton of stuff to external storage, though I do have the enterprise iso build of 1507. Out of curiosity, what activator are you guys using these days for the enterprise one? I know where to get them, just there's like 5 of them.. which one is considered the "best"?

Jack

Sunspark
I was thinking about testing newer versions past 1903 but fdossena hasnt published any new guides to remove Windows 10 spying components, so for my uses im limited 1903 and below. KMS VL ALL is what most people use for enterprise builds with option 2.

I was able to enable 10bit color on Linux Mint 20 by creating a file named "30-screensetup.conf" in "/usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/" which contains the following:
Section "Screen" Identifier "Screen0" Monitor "Monitor0" Device "Card0" DefaultDepth 30 EndSection

This improved things further for my setup, my monitor is the Dell UP2716D which is fake 10bits, 8bits+FRC, i suppose i could upgrade to a true 10bits monitor and that would improve things more but with Linux Mint/RX 480 im at the same comfort level i was as with my Windows 7 installation so im happy with that. I still want to try and find a GPU/Driver/Build 1703+ combo thats comfortable though for when i want to use Adobe Premiere and Photoshop though so i still have a bunch of combinations to test for Windows.

Sunspark

I went and looked at this guide.. you might be waiting awhile.. he wrote he quit Windows.

For me, all I did was install as a local account with everything off. I only signed in separately with an MS account for the store only.

I also disabled forced updates in the group policy editor.

I didn't bother with uninstalling anything or turning off services, etc.

Jack

@ "degen" # p16091

Just posting an update, i have been using Linux Mint 20 XFCE since creating this post and have been very happy with it. For my situation its only Windows 10's composition layers that causes me severe eyestrain. I also decided to put my RX 480 into a mining machine so now i bought an old Firepro W7000 and it has a more "flat" effect than the RX 480 under Mint 20, the RX 480 never caused me eye strain like Windows 10 1703+ builds do, but using a Firepro W7000 or V5900 under Mint 20 has a more "flat" effect, which is very nice and comfortable.

I've also tested more builds since, and my experience mirrors yours, i find 1507/1511 then 1803 the best. I recently got a Vaio SX14 laptop that came with Windows 10 1809 installed, and with the Intel UHD 620 it wasnt as bad as with the RX 480 on a desktop, but it was still pretty terrible. I just shrank the Windows 10 partition and installed Linux Mint MATE on the laptop and just like with my desktop, it is perfect for me now. I just need to find a comfortable Windows 10 build for the laptop for when i need to use Adobe software etc. I think ill try build 2004 next since i read positive things about it here, if that fails i'll try to find a way to get 1507/1511 to run on it.

degen

Jack

What are the specs of the laptop? I noticed there are different specs of that laptop. If the Intel processor is 9th Gen or earlier it is usually possible to get 1507/1511 running using official drivers (some digging required), which is great. If it’s 10th Gen then it is sometimes possible with a modded graphics driver, although it’s less than ideal as sometimes the brightness slider does not work. If it’s 11th Gen then it will not work.

Glad to hear Linux is working for you.

Jack

degen

My Vaio SX14 is the Intel Core i7-8565U 8th gen with UHD 620. That would be simply amazing if i could get 1507/1511 to run on this laptop, do you know which version of the drivers i need for 1507/1511 with the UHD 620?

degen

Jack

Intel graphics driver required is 22.20.16.4836. Only one I found that runs UHD 620/630 on 1507/1511.

Jack

I tried installing 1507 on the SX14 but the touchpad didnt work correctly, all gestures were broken and there are no drivers provided for it by Vaio, it just works out of the box on newer versions of Windows 10 and Linux. The Qualcomm wifi drivers also didnt work. I'll probably just run Windows 7 in a virtual machine since there doesnt seem to be any other options unless version 2004 is strain free on this laptop.

degen

Jack

You might try Snappy Driver Installer Origin. (https://sourceforge.net/projects/snappy-driver-installer-origin/). Some people don’t feel comfortable using this product, but it is an open source version of a similar product (I use the non open-sourced version).

It draws on a large collection of drivers which are compatible with the Hardware ID of your devices, and I’ve had success finding rare drivers this way which I didn’t know existed and I didn’t think would be compatible. It provides the OS compatible such as 10.0.162xxx, which is a number I’m just throwing out there but is pretty similar to the 1607 build. You would look for NT 10.0.0 without any large number after it (indicating Windows 10 1507/1511), or lower.

I have used these tools at least a dozen times with success. You will encounter a drop down list of drivers for each device, each driver matching the Hardware ID, but having different OS requirements. It’s worth it to look through the different options.

That Qualcomm adapter has drivers going back to 2015, including drivers for Windows 7. There is a pretty strong chance in my opinion that there is a driver which will work in 1507/1511. They would have to have released a Windows 10 driver for Windows 10 products available at that time and it is likely to be archived somewhere.

Quad43

degen

What's the paid alternative?

Jack

degen

That worked perfectly for the Wifi and touchpad, whats interesting once i installed these two drivers "Intel(R) Serial IO I2C Host Controller 9DE8 and Intel(R) Serial IO GPIO Host Controller - INT34BB my touchpad was automatically detected by Windows as a precision touchpad and all gestures were enabled and additionally Snappy driver installer detected two more options after installing those two Intel drivers and presented two extra ELAN touchpad drivers but i didnt install those since i want to use the precision touchpad.

I still cant get the UHD 620 drivers to install though, Snappy Driver Installer gives an error "Failed to install error 103".

When i manually try to install the drivers through the inf file it says "The driver selected for this device does not support this version of Windows." Even though im using the 22.20.16.4836 driver. Is there a way to mod these drivers to accept version 1507/1511? So far i got everything working except the graphics drivers and ELAN fingerprint driver, but i dont use the fingerprint login feature so thats fine if that doesnt work.

degen

Quad43

It’s not paid. It’s called Snappy Driver Installer (no Origin). Russians made this non open source version, so some feel more cautious.

degen

Jack

There are modded UHD 620 / 630 drivers meant for Win 7 / 8 and pre-1607 Windows 10.

Try this mod first by DeathBringer. Have to follow the instructions closely. Will probably have to turn off driver signing:

EDIT: removed link to now broken download link

degen

Jack

Added link to my above post

Jack

degen

This worked perfectly, i followed the instructions exactly as in the post and now i have a fully functional Windows 1507 install on my Vaio SX14, thank you so much.

Do modded drivers exist for 10th gen Inte UHD Comet Lake GT2 as well?

degen

Jack

Awesome. That same modded driver works with Comet Lake GT2. I was unable to get any other driver to work for it in 1507. However the brightness slider is not working for me. That was also reported by someone else on the win-raid forum (OS unknown, but most there are trying to use Windows 7). I am now using this driver and the app Dimmer to have an acceptable brightness on my Comet Lake GT2 laptop. Note that apps like this which manipulate colors to lower perceived brightness can introduce temporal dithering and eyestrain, but in my case whatever strain the Dimmer app adds is less than using the same laptop on a newer version of Windows 10. Sometimes I just like to turn it off though and use the laptop at full brightness. If ambient light is high that is the most comfortable way to use it.

What I would like to do is have some kind of physical filter. That would theoretically allow me to use it without any potentially eyestrain inducing software and use it at night as well.