HDR in Games
HDR (High Dynamic Range) expands the range of brightness and contrast. Dark colors become even darker and light colors even brighter. So, the whole image becomes more vibrant.
The technology is also used in games, however in a quite limited way.
TVs and monitors supporting HDR brighten specific areas of the video. Naturally, to make the magic happen the game must support HDR as well.
Although HDR does not influence hardware load, still you need a video card with HDMI 2.0 or DisplayPort 1.4.
NVIDIA has a lot of such cards — the entire GeForce 900, GeForce 1000 and GeForce 2000 (RTX) series.
It’s worth to mention that G-Sync HDR (technology which eliminates tearing) is supported by cards starting from GTX 1050 and only by Windows 10. AMD FreeSync 2 has no such problem.
AMD Radeon R9 380, 380X, 390, 390X support HDR but with serious limitations which were illuminated only in RX 400, 500 and Vega series.
4K HDR-display costs like a new gaming computer. 2K HDR models are not so expensive, though not quite cheap either yet. Therefore, we wouldn’t recommend to rush buying HDR monitors or TVs and let’s explain why.
HDR technology still has the same problem as 4K — just not enough content. That is especially true when it comes to games.
Now, HDR support is implemented in only 51 games, and not all of them are that great. For example, have you heard about Celestial Command, Chess Ultra, Grabity?
Among AAA projects you can find the following games: Far Cry 5, Destiny 2, Final Fantasy 15, Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, Battlefield 1, Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey, Hitman 2, Middle-earth: Shadow of War, Monster Hunter: World, Shadow of the Tomb Raider …
Upcoming actions that will get HDR support are the following: Anthem, Crackdown 3, Metro Exodus and The Division 2.
Therefore, for now HDR in games is unnecessary and too expensive, like 4K. In our opinion, Full HD and smooth frame rate are much more important for most players.
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