Rubin Shrestha
Rubin Shrestha
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Why are CSS colors are different on different GPU’s within CMYK gamut, and colorimeter doesn’t fix it?

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I have some websites that make good use of certain colors with CSS, all within the CMYK gamut.

Long story short: different GPU’s and screens, which all have 99% or more of the entire CMYK gamut all show up different on each. They’re usually more saturated when they shouldn’t be.

For example, I have a color that should look more like this:

.proper_color { background-color: #a7e0f3; }

But it looks more like this:

.incorrect_color { background-color: #0fb9f1; }

Hardware Specs

The things below are all part of the same laptop that give this problem. I don’t really care about the other devices.

  • Screen: BOE NV156FHM-NY5 … Has 99% of Adobe RGB gamut, unless I’m understanding it wrong… But I never get this problem unless I switch to the integrated GPU.
  • CPU: Intel Core i7-12700H
  • Integrated GPU: Intel Iris Xe Graphics, comes from the CPU as far as I know.
  • GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 Ti (Max-Q), 80 Watts

Steps to Reproduce

  1. On Windows 10: download and install Spyder 5 Pro colorimeter software, then run through it to create the ICC profile. Worked perfectly, and changed colors properly.
  2. Turn off dedicated GPU by disabling it device manager, then restarting computer so it switches to integrated graphics.
  3. Run the same software for a icc profile for the integrated GPU. Checking device manager shows the dedicated GPU is off too. Creates a icc profile that is slightly different.
  4. Whether using the dedicated GPU icc profile, or the integrated GPU icc profile: most colors is always oversaturated. This happens even after another restart (set icc profile > restart).
  5. This same issue happens when I dual boot into Linux. I’d take the same icc profile onto linux > use it > same problem, even when restarting the computer for each profile.

Details

I read this question (which is 14 years old now), and I have a colorimeter like someone suggested (a Spyder 5 Pro) and I balanced each screen with by letting it create a custom icc profile with their software. Then I set each operating system to use that profile.

After that, the color changes noticeably, but it’s not the same on each screen. In fact it’s still quite saturated on some when it shouldn’t be.

I noticed that a dedicated GPU shows colors exactly as I want when compared to an integrated one (Intel CPU in this case).

This even happens on the same device and screen, and even when doing something that’s printed. The dedicated GPU with a proper icc profile for that GPU (RTX 3070 Ti) = those same CMYK colors are correct, whether on screen, or printed. It looks exactly the same…

But the same screen / device (same age too) with an icc profile made for the integrated GPU (which I think is part of the Intel CPU?) = those same colors are still over saturated.

Question

Since that question is 14 years old now, does anyone know if it’s possible to fix this problem? If yes, how?

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