As I suspected as I read through this post, the problem turned out to be a color profile settings issue, NOT a problem with the hardware or graphics card. I'm an IT guy by day and while Microsoft has put considerable work into trying to manage color profiles from the memory card to the printer, it is complex and hard to manage, esp when trying to find the thing that went wrong. It is also dependent on many different entities writing drivers and software to contribute to the whole.
I'm not trying to offer a magic answer here or bash anything or anyone. What I am saying is that most computer problems are rarely a problem with the hardware per se. Color problems are almost always a settings problem in the OS or on the hardware itself. Of course, if you bought a bargain basement LCD, it won't be possible to change the settings enough to offset the narrow limits of the display. Like speakers on a stereo system, the LCD display is the biggest factor in how good your work looks on the screen. It's NOT the video card, the computer, the OS or the graphics software. So it doesn't matter if you use Lightroom, Aperture, Windows, Mac or Linux.
So I'll echo the previous post in saying that the graphics card is not a big factor for improving quality or performance. And the Intel 4000 series graphics is fine for photo work. Photo work is not gaming or 3D rendering. It's 2D work. I have a high end system and a decent video card and I still have a 2 second delay with images in Lightroom focusing and sharpening up. It's a Lightroom 4 problem, NOT a problem with my system. (It wasn't this bad until I upgraded from 3 to 4.) I have a discreet video card for one reason, so I can have multiple displays better and easier. Otherwise, I would spend that extra $100 on a better display, better lens, more coffee, whatever helps me more than wasting money on a fancy video card.
So set your hardware priorities right. Get a midrange computer that is solid and reliable with RAID storage protecting your images and running the OS and photo software you use best. Invest in a high quality IPS LCD and a color profile device for calibration and keep most of the Windows and hardware LCD settings at default. Invest in backup drives and a good UPS to help prevent power related problems. Don't buy a $300 graphics card only to get a cheaper LCD or blow off getting backup drives. Don't buy the best i7 CPU with a smaller hard drive so you run out of space.
Oh, and don't forget that shooting pictures is still a LOT more fun than working at the computer!
