Intel HD video driver update forced antialiasing problem [ Edited ]

[Puppy]

X220, Windows 7 x64. After video driver update from version 8.15.10.2769 to 9.17.10.2843 I noticed the text is blurry because some kind of antialiasing has been applied. I use Windows Classic theme and have ClearType turned off. The kind of anti-aliasing was different than the one used in Windows. I had to revert back to driver version 8.15.10.2769 to get rid of that.

I haven't found any setting in Intel video advanced settings to disable it. Note that I'm talking about anti-aliasing in 2D mode, not 3D games. It seems as some kind of subpixel antialising has been applied by the driver

Attached screenshot not a very good quality but the difference is noticeable:

http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/20661iED4444BA658573DD/

[goretsky Community Moderator]

Hello,

I am not sure if this will make a difference or not, but have you tried enabling ClearType and using the ClearType Tuner (filename: CTTUNE.EXE) to see if you can come up with a setting that you like?

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

[Puppy]

No, that wouldn't help because it makes blurry any kind of graphics, not the font only. If you have a screenshot in BMP or PNG format of a non-aliased text it will make it blurry as well. The same is valid for text inside a virtual machine. It is very sofisticated It looks more like a hardware setting or something like that since it affects rendering of virtual machine output as well.

Digital output to external monitor is not affected (it is not blurry). It seems as the new Intel driver sets something in the ThinkPad display controller that has applied a hardware antialiasing and/or manipulates the subpixels ? I have tried all Intel advanced settings and nothing helped.

Is anyone from Lenovo able to say what exactly have been changed between these two driver versions ? I asked the same question in Intel support forum but they are redirecting me to Lenovo since it is a customized driver.

[Puppy]

More observation. I've tested latest Intel generic display driver and it also have the issue. It looks like a hardware sharpness settings (more blurry) of the notebook display because it does not affect digital output on external display. Is that possible ?

The easiest way would be if someone else could test it as well. Just take a detailed picture by a good camera (subpixels must be recognizable) of following image on X220 or X230 IPS display and send it to me as private message, including the video driver version. Do not resize it, it must be displayed in original size:

Thanks.

[Puppy]

There is another X220 user who confirms the issue in Intel forum http://communities.intel.com/message/197852#197852

[Puppy]

More references to the issue  http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=111111

By the latest post in Intel forum Lenovo E520 and Lenovo SL510 are affected as well.

[TSY-X1]

I've done a bit of searching and found that Lenovo's HD4000 drivers are quite out of date compared to those available from Intel directly. HOWEVER, when attempting to upgrade vis Intel site, warning shows up about how Lenovo driver is custom, and installing Intel HD4000 latest driver may have unexpected conflicts. C'MON LENOVO - your drivers are from Oct 1012, and Intel's are date Sep 2013. Seriously?

[Puppy]

Lenovo has just released new version 9.17.10.3347 http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/downloads/detail.page?DocID=DS014907

And no, the blurry output on the internal display is not fixed.