Weird HDR behaviour with AMD GPU

[BuzzingBee]

Currently my main PC has AMD GPU 6900XT with Gigabyte MO34WQC2 QD-OLED monitor, and I'm losing a battle so far against HDR. I'm not getting supposed brightness as it should, looking as if it's washed out or lacking thereof. I don't think my monitor is the problem, as I have a laptop with Nvidia GPU to cross-check and I have my own i1 Display Pro colour calibrater.

 

I followed this guide to check my monitor's EOTF & Luminance charts: https://www.avsforum.com/threads/hcfr-guide-for-hdr-pq-eotf-graph-measurements.3278618/

I have similar results to Monitors Unboxed's review when using my Nvidia GPU, so at this point can safely rule out monitor being at fault.

But going back to my main PC with AMD, as mentioned before HDR performance is lacking, with one example of EOTF & Luminance chart of APL 10% and monitor's APL stabilise set to medium (unofficial HDR-400TB mode).

 

https://imgur.com/a/4oTjkLu

 

Not only is my max brightness capped at around 280nits, it also rolled off fairly early around 40% white. I also tried APL 2% and APL stabilise set to high (unofficial HDR-1000), with similar behaviour but instead capping at 620 nits when it should be around 1000 nits. 

 

There is a post to potentially fix the problem using CRU method from a comment:

 

 

But at this point is where I'm going crazy. I THINK this fix originally worked, and I even saved couple of graphs afterwards. But my memory was hazy and wanted to make sure I did CRU method properly, so I reset my CRU, did the fix and... I couldn't get it to work anymore.

 

I tried various combinations for hours trying to get it back working, including turning on/off AMD Freesync Premium Pro, using Windows HDR calibration program, swapping DP to HDMI cable, uninstalling DisplayCal, deleting colour profiles and so on. Despite all of this, I might've missed couple of things I haven't try yet. There was one setting that came close, is to set Windows SDR slider brightness from 40 to 100. For APL 2% with APL stabilise high, that would get my 1000 nits back but the brightness roll-off behaviour maintained, so it still didn't look right. (Update: Upon further thought this shouldn't be happening as the SDR slider supposed to affect SDR content, yet somehow madTPG colour checker which is in HDR was also affected. This doesn't happen once my issue is fixed.) 

 

Okay I hope I explained my problem in detail. I am honestly out of options and leaning towards reinstalling Windows 11 if I can't find a solution. I am happy to provide more graphs if wanted but it needs to wait when I'm back home from work. 

 

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Update: I reinstalled Win11 and the problem ran away at first until some moments later, whether it's AMD driver installation, enabling FreeSync Premium Pro, or simply restarting PC, the problem reappeared. I also want to point out this issue does not occur on my other display: LG C1. EOTF graph followed nicely upon checking.

 

I'm leaning towards Windows 11 auto driver installing, so I disabled it as soon Windows detected my Gigabyte monitor, and upon writing this the issue hasn't come up since. 

 

Guide: https://www.windowscentral.com/software-apps/windows-11/how-to-prevent-drivers-from-installing-automatically-on-windows-11

 

However reinstalling Windows 11 is an overkill of a solution, so I'm hoping one day when the problem reappear again, perhaps using DDU for graphics driver then apply gpedit would solve the problem. I'll update that once it happens (if I remember).

 

Feel free to add explanation of all the hell I was experiencing. I don't know why AMD, Windows 11 and my monitor aligned together to form this mess. I also admit I didn't measure this problem in games as I was afraid it would be unreliable, I do notice games become more washed out but there's a possibility my eyes might deceive me.