Your Gaming Monitor Probably Can't Handle 'Genuine' HDR: Causes and Fixes

HDR has made a huge leap in picture quality on TVs. Especially for console games, HDR delivers vibrant colors, high contrast, and stunning lighting effects—all of which help to offset some of the limitations in graphics power. With a good TV, games and movies can be a feast for the eyes.

 

But on PC, the story is… very shaky. HDR on computer monitors has never lived up to expectations, and there are quite a few reasons behind that. The good news is that with a little effort, PC users can still enjoy high-quality HDR, whether on a computer monitor or a TV.

HDR Reality on PC

HDR offers a wider range of brightness, contrast, and color than SDR—a standard that dates back to the days of CRT TVs. When displayed properly, HDR delivers deep blacks and vibrant highlights like sunrises, fires, or laser effects.

 

The problem is that most PC monitors, including gaming monitors, aren't bright enough or contrasty enough to do HDR justice. Many models still claim to be HDR, but the results are dull. On some monitors, SDR looks better than HDR—and that's a bad sign.

If the display doesn't have local dimming, doesn't hit 400 nits of peak brightness, and doesn't support 8-bit color with dithering, then HDR reception is pretty much meaningless. And even those specs are just the… bare minimum.

 

Windows is often blamed for poor HDR — and it has plenty of problems . HDR on the desktop suffers from incorrect tone-mapping, forcing users to constantly toggle HDR on and off when switching between watching videos and playing games. Windows 11 has a keyboard shortcut to enable HDR more quickly, but this is only a temporary solution because auto-switching is still very unreliable.

But the problem isn't just Windows. Many monitors don't comply with the EOTF standard—a standard that describes how digital signals are converted into real light. Two monitors with the same HDR label and specs can have drastically different results: one looks great, the other… looks… wrong.

 

If the screen doesn't meet brightness standards or displays the wrong light curve, Windows can't do anything about it.

Not all 'HDR' labels are created equal

The confusion comes from VESA's DisplayHDR certification system. These labels allow many monitors to pass themselves off as HDR even though they don't actually meet the standards.

Some important levels to mention are:

1. DisplayHDR 400: Not true HDR. No local dimming required, 400 nits is too weak to create HDR contrast.
2. DisplayHDR True Black 400: This is the minimum HDR threshold for PC monitors—and only OLEDs can achieve it because of the infinite contrast. Peak brightness is still low, though.
3. DisplayHDR 600 / 1000: This is the 'true' HDR level. 1000 nits is also the level at which most HDR content is mastered today.

Want real HDR? Choose a display with DisplayHDR True Black 400 or DisplayHDR 600 or higher.

Additionally, even if your monitor is HDR-compliant, if you're still using HDMI 1.4 or older DisplayPort, the bandwidth may not be enough to properly transmit HDR signals. HDMI 2.1 or DisplayPort 1.4 is required at the very least.

 

And of course, the GPU must support these standards, too. This is why many people run into HDR limitations when using a PC with a TV: many older GPUs don't have HDMI 2.1, while TVs almost never have DisplayPort.

Games make things…more confusing

HDR on consoles is better than PC because the hardware is fixed. On PC, each game is its own ecosystem, and many developers… struggle to get HDR right.

As a result, users have to manually adjust HDR for each game. Some games have such bad HDR that Windows Auto-HDR looks better than native HDR.

In short, to have a delicious HDR experience, you need to ensure the following factors:

1. Choose the right display — DisplayHDR 600+ or ​​True Black 400 or higher.
2. Update GPU driver, set 10-bit color.
3. Turn on HDR and run the Windows 11 HDR calibration tool.
4. Use the correct cable — HDMI 2.0b/2.1 or DP 1.4 or higher.
5. Fine-tune HDR in each game.

If you want to go all out you can have your monitor professionally calibrated, but most good quality monitors will give you fine results without this step.