Hey everyone, I was wondering if others have noticed how washed out SDR games look when using HDR on Windows. Is there any way to improve this besides just turning off HDR when I’m not playing HDR games?
3 Answers
So, it turns out that Windows isn’t the best at tone mapping SDR content for HDR displays, which is why things might look washed out. A quick way to manage this is with the Windows shortcut Alt+Windows+B to toggle HDR on and off. You could also try using a game launcher like Playnite that can automatically manage HDR settings for you when you start and exit games.
Seriously, this reminds me why I switched back to consoles. Way less hassle!
A lot of it comes down to your monitor’s calibration. Check sites like Rtings for recommendations, make sure Windows HDR settings are calibrated correctly, and you can adjust the brightness slider for SDR content in HDR mode to make it look better. Using Nvidia’s RTX HDR can help too if you’re on an RTX GPU, but it’s still not perfect.
I looked into RTX HDR, and it seems promising, but I might keep toggling HDR on and off like you suggested.
Avoiding HDR entirely for SDR content is a solid option. If you’re determined to play SDR games in HDR, tools like Windows AutoHDR and others like SpecialK or RTX HDR might be something to look into, but they can be hit or miss.
Good to know! I’ll stick to that keybind for now.
Thanks! That shortcut is definitely handy. It’s a bummer that the tone mapping isn’t great.