Do Intel video cards have dithering disabled for external displays with <8bpc?

Firemaker

Hey folks,

I stumbled upon something. Some of you are aware of an older app that used to disable temporal dithering for Intel video cards. It's called igfxtweak. This isn't maintained anymore and nowadays folks from the forum use ditherig.

In that older repository it says:

Intel intentionally disables dithering and FRC for external displays with <8bpc.

This is very odd and doesn't make sense. Does somebody know something about that? Do they really use to disable it? And why? Not sure what is the source of that statement. And if that was true back then, what are the chances this is valid now?

I am thinking maybe I can edit the display EDID of an 8 bpc monitor to appear as if it is 6 bpc. And that could potentially disable dithering. Colors would be worse, but I don't care about colors. What do you think?

Best regards.

JTL

Firemaker This is very odd and doesn't make sense. Does somebody know something about that? Do they really use to disable it? And why? Not sure what is the source of that statement. And if that was true back then, what are the chances this is valid now?

I've seen that statement as well and I don't know where it was even sourced from.

jordan

Firemaker I was wondering if that would work too. How would you edit the EDID?

Elever

When you say 8 bpc I assume you mean 8-bit colours?

Do they even sell monitors with under 8-bit though now? Almost everything is either 8 bit or 6 bit + FRC and a lot of the better ones are 8 bit + frc (10-bit).

Firemaker

jordan It appears there are different ways of doing that. It's easier with modern monitors. I think I might purchase an older monitor just to test this. I'll post in that thread if I decide to do that.

Elever Yes, 8 bpc is 8-bit color depth. I agree, I don't think there are many consumer monitors that have true 6-bit colors if any. Maybe such displays would be used by some specialized medical or defense equipment, who knows. With a great level of certainty I think there is logic in all of the video drivers how to handle 6 bpc internal and external displays.

Firemaker

I found the source of this statement. Thread is here.

It seems the statement is partially true but it is still promising. Intel says it disables dithering for 6bpc external displays connected via DisplayPort. Funny thing is they contradict themselves about the reasons - firstly they say it impacts accuracy, secondly they say such displays simply do not exist.

Event though these are older drivers and older video cards, there shouldn't be a reason this rule won't be valid even now.

Anyways, that is a pretty good lead. I'm curious now. I think I'll burn some more money and look for a second-hand monitor to play with. I'll keep you posted.

jordan

Firemaker wow that's very good to know. I think my old asus pg278qr is 6bit or 6+2 FRC. I wonder if that applies to all Intel hardware even today?