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Decrease in color depth; Intel HD v 330M (bug/feature?)
- Thread starter Jof
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2contagious
macrumors 6502a
We are talking about the 2010 MacBook Pros with Intel HD integrated graphics and Nvidia 330M discrete graphics. I don't think older models are affected at all.
I've taken a picture to depict this as best I can.
First off, nvidia:
Next up, intel:
You can see banding in the orange/yellows of the intel version. I don't think I'd notice it unless I was specifically looking for it, but it's quite curious. I'm interested to see what apple says. Except I expect they'll never say anything - if this is a hardware issue that's a whole lotta macbook pros to have to replace.
If you'd like to see full res photos, they're here:
http://kramer.smugmug.com/gallery/12258438_w3axk
First off, nvidia:
Next up, intel:
You can see banding in the orange/yellows of the intel version. I don't think I'd notice it unless I was specifically looking for it, but it's quite curious. I'm interested to see what apple says. Except I expect they'll never say anything - if this is a hardware issue that's a whole lotta macbook pros to have to replace.
If you'd like to see full res photos, they're here:
http://kramer.smugmug.com/gallery/12258438_w3axk
What we're seeing here are two approaches to driving the 6-bit LCD panel, which only display 262144 pure colours. To show the rest of the normal 8-bit colour space dithering is used, this may be either static or temporal in nature. You can see examples here... http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/black.php
The integrated graphics appear to be using static dithering (the visible patterns and banding in smooth colour transitions) whilst the dedicate GPU is using temporal dithering.
It wouldn't surprise me if static dithering uses less power than temporal dithering, so this may be why Apple chose to configure the display outputs in this way.
The integrated graphics appear to be using static dithering (the visible patterns and banding in smooth colour transitions) whilst the dedicate GPU is using temporal dithering.
It wouldn't surprise me if static dithering uses less power than temporal dithering, so this may be why Apple chose to configure the display outputs in this way.
You are exactly right. I'd forgotten I'd started this thread, but I'd come to the same conclusion after some thought.
On a related note; "stupid 6-bit screens".
PS, why don't they use diffuse dithering?
2contagious
macrumors 6502a
I wanted to see if it really only affects some MacBook Pros or all of them since some people have said that they cannot see any difference. I went to the Apple Store Regent Street (London UK) and checked all of the 15" and 17" models they had on display and the dithering difference is present on all of them. I guess it is a "feature" after all and part of the low-power consumption nature of the Intel graphics. Quite disturbing though since even the crappy graphics card in my 8 year old iMac G4 uses temporal dithering.
It really makes me wonder why the quality of Apple's hardware has gone down so much in the recent years. I have never seen any of the older Macs (also with TN panels) with yellow tinge issues and that many dead pixel/stuck pixel cases.. now there are tons of people having screen issues. What happened?
It really makes me wonder why the quality of Apple's hardware has gone down so much in the recent years. I have never seen any of the older Macs (also with TN panels) with yellow tinge issues and that many dead pixel/stuck pixel cases.. now there are tons of people having screen issues. What happened?
runebinder
macrumors 6502a
Think I might need to go to Specsavers as I can't see what people are talking about on mine, looks identical whichever of the 2 GPUs are in use.