u/LessMilk3

This has been a problem for a very long time. I've troubleshooted many many times over the last couple months.

Whenever I enable HDR in a game, the game is able to "detect" that HDR is on but looks completely wrong, brightness responds to setting/slider changes but looks completely clamped and is significantly dimmer and less contrasty than SDR regardless of setting.

These are the facts:

-my monitor is 1650 nits OLED (ASUS_XG27AQDMG)

-Auto HDR and RTX HDR are both always disabled

-Nvidia control panel settings are all correct

-Problem persists whether or not I allow windows to automatically manage color settings

-Monitor settings are all correct, I am not using any modes that modify the image or clamp HDR brightness

-Display is correctly calibrated using the windows HDR calibration tool but sometimes the peak brightness is inexplicably capped at 900 nits instead of 1600. I'm not able to recreate the instances, sometimes it simply behaves this way. Even when the calibration tool responds correctly (to my memory) it does not fix the problem of games being completely dim and washed out. I can't tell if the brightness is actually being limited to 900 or if the tool is displaying something wrong.

-I can play HDR videos in my browser but I'm honestly not sure if they look how they are supposed to

-Windows 11 is always up to date and I update my Nvidia drivers, I frequently restart my PC

-I do not use any tools like reshade

-I have not modified my color profiles