Hey everyone! I’m running a 9070XT with a 9800x3D, and I’ve got a 4K 144Hz HDR screen hooked up to Fedora 42 with KDE. I’ve been itching to dive into Control in HDR, but since the Proton 10 update won’t have Wayland support until possibly next year, I’m forced to use Gamescope. I’m also curious about the downsides of using Gamescope. I’ve heard it essentially overlays X11 on Wayland, which seems a bit odd and potentially unoptimized. Do I need to enable HDR in KDE to use it in my games, or can I keep HDR off while doing regular tasks like browsing? If a game doesn’t support HDR, does launching it through Gamescope still provide any advantages? What’s the best way to set everything up to ensure HDR works seamlessly? Thanks in advance for your insights!
4 Answers
Yes, you’ll want to enable HDR in your desktop environment (DE) to let Gamescope utilize it. There’s also a neat trick—if you’re running Steam inside a Gamescope session from another terminal, you can toggle HDR on-the-fly right from the Steam menu. Just a heads-up, this requires some initial setup and if you’re using multiple monitors, the second one will be inactive during that session.
Remember, HDR support on Linux can be hit or miss right now. Some games, even with the best setups, might not behave as expected with HDR. It’s worth checking a guide or the latest community updates to see how others are managing!
There are some current issues with variable refresh rates (VRR) in Gamescope, especially if you cap your frames per second. I noticed stuttering with a 60fps cap, but playing without Gamescope has them running smoothly. Unfortunately, HDR needs Gamescope, so it’s a bit of a trade-off.
From my experience with Gamescope, it did work well for HDR, but keep in mind it might limit your games to lower resolutions, like 1080p, unless you specify otherwise when launching. You can set your resolution and refresh rate when starting—like this: `gamescope -h 1440 -w 2560 -r 144 — %command%`. Just adjust those numbers for your display!
