Windows HDR in Games?

[LordHiler]

Hello All,

 

I recently upgraded to the 2021 refresh of the Acer Predator X34 and so far it's fantastic. I'm having more trouble than expected selling my old monitor to offset the cost which is causing some anxiety, but disregarding that... Great color, ultrawide 1440p which is my sweet spot (I prefer the wider aspect ratio to 4k 16x9), and overclocked to 180hz with G Sync... all great. It also has display HDR 400. Now I know this isn't "real" HDR - I also have a true 10bit 4k TV with FALD and Dolby Vision and the difference is obvious. However, if I turn on windows HDR and HDR in the monitor and actually watch HDR video content it's pretty good. While yes, due to the lack of local dimming and truly HDR level brightness there is still black crush and highlight clipping, but the higher color gamut is noticeable at least to me. Its an improvement over the same content in SDR when doing a direct A/B comparison. 

 

Games, not so much. I went through a variety of games in HDR mode and they ranged from "meh" on the high end (Forza Horizon 4) to "unplayable" on the low end (Jedi Fallen Order). Is it just me? Is it just my monitor? What do you guys think? And if there is a consensus that HDR in games = terrible, why is that true for games and not true for HDR video content? 

 

Thank you in advance!

 

P.S. when using HDR on a monitor all I REALLY want is to take full advantage of the wider color gamut rather than sticking with 8-bit sRGB color space. Is there a way to do that in windows without making it do weird and sometimes terrible things in games? I just want the best color I can get out of this monitor (not that it's bad out of the box). 

[DarkEnergy]

I also have issues using HDR in games. When I turn it on, some games like Destiny 2 refuse to load (this was a while ago, might be fixed). Most other games look dimmer and colors are washed out. Whites turn to light grey and everything is less vivid. Turning HDR off actually looks better lol.

[LordHiler]

1 minute ago, DarkEnergy said:

I also have issues using HDR in games. When I turn it on, some games like Destiny 2 refuse to load (this was a while ago, might be fixed). Most other games look dimmer and colors are washed out. Whites turn to light grey and everything is less vivid. Turning HDR off actually looks better lol.

I've had exactly the same experience with it looking washed out/dimmer, which is the opposite of what you would want or expect (I would think) with a wider color gamut. Very disappointing.