very odd HDR issue

[killer1479]

Hello all!

for christmas i got a brand new, BenQ EW3270U 32inch 4K HDR monitor for my PC

i was excited to get it and play some games in HDR, games such as ME:LE, looks great on a huge screen but my issue was, as soon as i set up in options menu to go HDR, only option was OFF or AUTO

yet, with it set to auto, the game looks very dull and SDR like, but the odd part is.......if i raise or lower system volume from my keyboard, the HDR immediately kicks in, almost blinding me with its brightness and beautiful colours ( drive core in ME1 ) but when the volume pop-up vanishes, it returns back to a dull look.

any idea why this is ? i have tinkered with settings on my monitor and no luck, only seems to literally temp fix for a few seconds when changing the system volume, did a quick try in ME2 to see if it was an issue there, and it was, but it also happens in games such as destiny 2, but not in doom ?

i have tried with both, windows HDR settings set to ON and set to OFF, same result unless i raise / lower volume

this is actually upsetting me some, as i hoping it is not a monitor issue

i tried updating the game and nothing changed

AMD drivers are update and Windows is up to date also

any ideas would be greatly appreciated as this does have me a little upset

P.S ; game runs fine, does not crash, just odd HDR issue

system specs :-

Windows 11

AMD RYZEN 7-3800X

AMD RX 5700 XT

BenQ EW3270U - manufacture : august 2021 *with latest firmware i would imagine ?*

32GB 3200MHz RAM

[krismate]

Hi there,

When launching the game, it kicks HDR on automatically for me. This might be from a semi-recent windows update, as I don't think it did this when ME:LE launched. However, I would try turning HDR on, on windows, and checking your video card/GPU settings for bit depth, colour space, dynamic range etc. I have these settings for my Nvidia video card, not sure if AMD cards have something similar but take a peek in your video card settings and make sure those are set up for HDR.

Also, are you using an HDMI cable or DisplayPort? HDR (I think) requires 10bit and older versions of those cables may not be able to carry sufficient bandwidth. I'm using a DisplayPort 1.4 cable.

The volume control showing HDR is interesting, though. Are you running the game in full screen?

This could also be a windows 11 issue. I'm on windows 10 so do not have any experience with windows 11 and working with HDR on it.

EDIT: 

After looking at the specs for your monitor, it appears to not be that great for HDR, with a 265 nit max brightness. That isn't high enough for proper HDR, and appears to be no higher than its SDR brightness. Are you sure when you're bringing up the volume control, the colours/light isn't super blown out and clipping? For me personally, if I had a 265 nit monitor, I'd probably be better off running games in SDR only.

How does the game look when you run it in SDR?

[killer1479]

hi, thanks for reply!

i was using an DP cable, not sure what version, it came with my samsung 4K monitor that was only DP 1.2

all settings were 10bit on DP

tried with the HDMI lead that came with my BenQ but that lead only supports 8bit =/

other problem is (and this could be tied to W11 as you say) i changed sound settings, HDR went from bright and vivid, to screen going off, to going dimmer and less vivid, yet, HDR video works flawlessly (must be windows by this point ?)

i will search amazon for a decent DP 1.4 lead

EDIT:

in SDR the game looks ok, but this was only HDR monitor could afford as true HDR is still stupidly expensive for a majority of folks

[killer1479]

@krismate hi, thanks for reply!



i was using an DP cable, not sure what version, it came with my samsung 4K monitor that was only DP 1.2



all settings were 10bit on DP



tried with the HDMI lead that came with my BenQ but that lead only supports 8bit =/



other problem is (and this could be tied to W11 as you say) i changed sound settings, HDR went from bright and vivid, to screen going off, to going dimmer and less vivid, yet, HDR video works flawlessly (must be windows by this point ?)



i will search amazon for a decent DP 1.4 lead



EDIT:



in SDR the game looks ok, but this was only HDR monitor could afford as true HDR is still stupidly expensive for a majority of folks..

EDIT :

bought a new 8K capable DP 1.4 that arrived today, exact same issue, HDR is on and wonderful in game, untill i adjust volume using media controls on keyboard, then it goes back to being dull.

and yes, game was in fullscreen also, tried it in windowed and oddly, the option for HDR was not there for me.

like you say, im beginning to think this COULD be a windows problem, as recently it was announced there was an HDR issue with W11, but they claimed it was only affecting " creators "

also to add, HDR video looks fantastic on it