Intel HD Graphics 4600 worse than 4000 drawing static diagonal lines

Windows 10 Pro 64-bit, Version 2004 Build 19041.572
The Intel HD Graphics 4600 Driver version 20.19.15.4835 on my refurb Dell Optiplex 9020 draws scratchy broken static diagonal lines, example attached. This is on the same VGA-connected HP 24" display at 1920x1080 as my last broken pc which had Windows 7 Pro 64 with Intel HD Graphics 4000, where the lines were perfect. I tried the suggested Intel® Driver & Support Assistant and it reported there's were no updates available. I wonder if there's something in the OS similar to font smoothing that could improve this. Or Something else, for no money.

This had been how Intel behaved up till its 8th edition of GPUs , its called "staircasing" and was common in all GPUs in the beginning of time till AMD and NVIDIA came up with "Antialiasing" option in their drivers and supported games to fix it while Intel stand to that was "if you do not like staircasing change to higher resolution and you wont see it" despite the stupidity behind those directions since Intel GPU hardly manage on low resolutions .

In Intel control panel >> 3D section there are a couple of options that may improve staircasing by a very slight margin and those are :


You can also try enabling Antialiasing in games that support it even though Intel doesn't as sometimes this surprisingly work on a level .

Thanks nIGHTmAYOR. I just made those settings and it didn't make any difference. Extra info now, I only see this staircasing problem in my screensaver (shown above) which re-draws lines in a VERY slow progression, maybe 1 pixel in 5 minutes. I don't play any motion games so haven't seen it. As for Intel's approach, I hear you, but one would expect a version change from 4000 to 4600 wouldn't show a degradation. Then again, cars!

Beldar said:

Thanks nIGHTmAYOR. I just made those settings and it didn't make any difference. Extra info now, I only see this staircasing problem in my screensaver (shown above) which re-draws lines in a VERY slow progression, maybe 1 pixel in 5 minutes. I don't play any motion games so haven't seen it. As for Intel's approach, I hear you, but one would expect a version change from 4000 to 4600 wouldn't show a degradation. Then again, cars!

No there shouldn't be any change in staircasing up till Intel 8xxx when they revised their Multi Sampling Anti Aliasing (MSAA) which was always there as an option in their drivers but worked very mildly to not working at all , so nah processors pre 8 series GPU were all same crap .

nIGHTmAYOR you seem very knowledgeable. I take it then that adding a GPU ~might~ fix the staircasing? But for me it's hardly worth the expense.

Since you plan to stick to Intel GPU the best you can do is switch from Balanced to Performance in both 3D options and Power settings in Intel Control Panel , kinda gives you max of what that GPU can offer , then Turn-Off the fake Anti-aliasing options they have as they just slow down things some at no gain .

nIGHTmAYOR said:

Since you plan to stick to Intel GPU the best you can do is switch from Balanced to Performance in both 3D options and Power settings in Intel Control Panel , kinda gives you max of what that GPU can offer , then Turn-Off the fake Anti-aliasing options they have as they just slow down things some at no gain .

Hmmm, I found and toggled to Performance. But i couldn't find any Power or Anti-Aliasing toggles in the Intel HD Graphics CP.

Beldar said:

Hmmm, I found and toggled to Performance. But i couldn't find any Power or Anti-Aliasing toggles in the Intel HD Graphics CP.

The ones I pointed in first post , and yea if you are a desktop they remove the power option , so you are down to setting performance on 3D just and you are good .

Bearing in mind those lines are only 2-3 pixels wide and a primary colour, such that only 1 red subpixel is lit, there is very little that any anti-aliasing can do.

Helmut said:

Bearing in mind those lines are only 2-3 pixels wide and a primary colour, such that only 1 red subpixel is lit, there is very little that any anti-aliasing can do.

Mind you that there is no valid mean to enable anti-aliasing for a screen saver unless it was an executable , but I just wanted to tour the poster around the dilemma that this had always been the case with Intel up till the intro of UHD series so for him to figure he is asking for the impossible .

However Anti-Aliasing may surprise you at times even on a fine line like this , the up scale then down scale of produced image may create a change in color resulting in a color gradient that may actually fool the eye into believing the line got slightly smoother .