Historically, PG games don't have a great track record of handling HDR (High Dynamic Resolution). This display feature, when working as intended, should make your games more dynamic and impactful—provided you're playing on an HDR-capable display, of course. Luckily, there's an app I recently discovered that handles HDR better than Windows 11the integrated equivalent of.
First released around the turn of the year, NvTrueHDRwhich I will now call “RTX HDR,” is “Nvidia’s AI-powered HDR converter,” according to its Nexus Modules page. It's completely free, fairly simple to use, and can dramatically improve the look of older games that don't natively support HDR.
I was first alerted to the existence of RTX HDR by Alex Battaglia's excellent YouTube analysis of Digital Foundry back in February, and I've been using it ever since. Why? Because it simply handles high dynamic resolution in games better than Windows Auto HDR, which you can find in System > Display > Use HDRthen scroll down and activate the appropriate slider.
While Auto HDR is a pretty effective tool for making some of the best PC games more engaging, RTX HDR is simply better. It improves game snappiness more effectively than the official Windows alternative, and this driver-level software is so good that I enable it in modern games that already have an HDR setting built into their menus.
There is one small catch, however.
Performance vs. Beauty
This isn't an issue that affects me personally, as I'm lucky enough to own an RTX-4090 gaming PC, but if you're gaming on a less powerful system, be aware that running games on the app's “Very High” preset can cause frame rate performance to drop by around 5-10%, depending on the title. As for lower presets, they don't really cause any FPS drops, from what I understand.
How do you enable RTX HDR after downloading the software? Luckily, it’s a fairly simple process. Once you have the application on your system (and I suggest creating a desktop shortcut for easy access), all you need to do is locate a game’s executable file, drag and drop it into the RTX HDR window, press Enter, and then type in “Very High,” “Medium,” or “Low” depending on your preset preference.
If you are planning to use RTX HDR with any of the best steam gamesThe executable file for the title you want to activate it in is located in the drive where your Steam library is located. So, assuming you have your Steam games installed on your primary SSD/HDD, that's C:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\, so whatever title you want to add a little extra HDR touch to.
I used RTX HDR mainly in Rockstar Epic Red Dead Redemption 2; a game (which, despite being an all-time open-world classic), has never had the best HDR mode. With RTX HDR working its magic, however, Arthur Morgan's wonderful Wild West quest looks particularly alive on my Samsung Odyssey OLED G9.
So if you own one of the best gaming monitors and want to enhance HDR in-game, I highly recommend checking out this awesome app that was created by the very talented “emoose“, who then kindly uploaded it to Nexus Mods for PC gamers everywhere to enjoy.
And all this for the exorbitant price of nothing.