If you’re one of the many gamers enjoying Windows 11 and high dynamic range (HDR) content, you might want to pay attention to this small public service announcement. Recently, I faced a frustrating issue regarding HDR that could set back your gaming experience, especially if you’ve been playing titles like Diablo 2: Resurrected.
During a troubleshooting session aimed at resolving persistent performance problems with Diablo 2: Resurrected—an issue unfortunately common among many players—I made a change that seemed sensible at the time: I disabled both HDR and Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling. While this tweak offered a slight improvement in performance, I was met with an unexpected consequence: I could no longer enable HDR after turning it off.
For those who don’t know, HDR is designed to enhance your gaming experience with richer colors and more vivid image quality, providing a more immersive experience. This is especially beautiful on modern displays, like my Alienware OLED, which is known for delivering stunning visuals. I was using an NVIDIA RTX 4090 graphics card and, importantly, I was using the correct cables to make sure everything was set up properly. Everything should have worked without a hitch.
After disabling HDR and switching off Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling, the initial troubleshooting did little to alleviate my gaming woes. What’s more disappointing was discovering that after these changes, there was seemingly no way to re-enable HDR. I found myself searching through various menus in Microsoft Settings, the NVIDIA application, and even the legacy NVIDIA control panel, all to no avail.
What I eventually learned is crucial: disabling Hardware GPU scheduling also disables HDR functionality with the current NVIDIA drivers. So, if you find yourself in a similar situation, here’s what you need to do. Navigate to the settings by going to System > Display > Graphics > Advanced graphics settings, and then enable Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling. After enabling this, make sure to restart your PC before attempting to enable HDR again. This should restore your ability to enjoy HDR seamlessly.
I decided to share this information not for accolades or recognition, but to help fellow gamers avoid the headache I endured. This kind of oversight can be incredibly annoying, particularly when all you want is to enjoy high-quality gaming.
As a side note for fellow Diablo 2: Resurrected players, it’s worth mentioning that hard lockup issues and graphics corruption still seem to exist in the latest Windows 11 versions. If those issues persist, I might be casting an eye towards alternatives like CachyOS, especially considering that D2R runs smoothly on Linux systems with both NVIDIA and AMD graphics cards. So, Microsoft, it’s time to sort this out.
In this fast-evolving digital landscape, sharing these little tidbits can save a lot of frustration for all of us. Keep these tips in mind, and happy gaming!
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