AutoHDR introducing input lag?

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improwise

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With HDR introducing some input lag, especially on some monitors, would enabling AutoHDR i Windows introduce a significant input lag across the board? It seems like this is particularly a problem with some LCD monitors which seem to have a significant input lag in HDR while others don't. Thinking that even in non HDR games, this might happen if Windows turns it into fake HDR in games like CS GO etc. and people not thinking about it.
 
i wouldnt expect autohdr to introduce more lag than regular hdr but i also dont see any comparisons out there...
also, autohdr only works in dx11/12. has csgo been updated to 11/12?
ps: if youre trying to play competitively you'd want it off anyways....
 
pendragon1 said:
i wouldnt expect autohdr to introduce more lag than regular hdr but i also dont see any comparisons out there...
also, autohdr only works in dx11/12. has csgo been updated to 11/12?
ps: if youre trying to play competitively you'd want it off anyways....
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My question was more intended to if AutoHDR would make it "all HDR" which would then in turn cause a problem if the monitor had much higher input lag with HDR. My understanding is that the AutoHDR is more of a "set and forget" option which most users would leave enabled all the time perhaps not knowing that it can cause much higher input lag. I should add that I don't know the inner workings of Auto HDR, but from what I have understood, it turns SDR into HDR, which made me think that it would be a global setting that would override any ingame HDR setting.
 
It depends. I believe OLED displays do not get any additional lag from enabling HDR, but FALD LCD's will since it takes extra processing time to adjust the brightness outputs of each dimming zone. At least that's according to MonitorsUnboxed. So if you have a FALD LCD then I would expect input lag to go up with HDR enabled.

 
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MistaSparkul said:
It depends. I believe OLED displays do not get any additional lag from enabling HDR, but FALD LCD's will since it takes extra processing time to adjust the brightness outputs of each dimming zone. At least that's according to MonitorsUnboxed. So if you have a FALD LCD then I would expect input lag to go up with HDR enabled.

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Yes, as mentioned in OP, this seems to be mostly an LCD problem and the fact that some of them have high HDR input lag. But my convern with AutoHDR is that if it does infact turn everything into HDR, even if the application itself never intended for it that could mean that you would ALWAYS get the HDR input lag, perhaps without even knowing about it. So even if you don't even enable HDR in a particular game, would you still get "fake HDR" via AutoHDR and higher input lag because of it if your monitor happen to have a much higher input lag for HDR?
 
improwise said:
Yes, as mentioned in OP, this seems to be mostly an LCD problem and the fact that some of them have high HDR input lag. But my convern with AutoHDR is that if it does infact turn everything into HDR, even if the application itself never intended for it that could mean that you would ALWAYS get the HDR input lag, perhaps without even knowing about it. So even if you don't even enable HDR in a particular game, would you still get "fake HDR" via AutoHDR and higher input lag because of it if your monitor happen to have a much higher input lag for HDR?
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Yeah that would be the case. Some games HDR implementation is insanely bad that people would rather use AutoHDR instead and the way to do that would be to disable the in game HDR but leave AutoHDR enabled. So by leaving AutoHDR on you would incurring the input lag penalty for doing so. But as mentioned before, highly competitive players would never use HDR anyway so I think it's unlikely they would even purchase a MiniLED LCD in the first place and ever consider turning on AutoHDR.
 
MistaSparkul said:
Yeah that would be the case. Some games HDR implementation is insanely bad that people would rather use AutoHDR instead and the way to do that would be to disable the in game HDR but leave AutoHDR enabled. So by leaving AutoHDR on you would incurring the input lag penalty for doing so. But as mentioned before, highly competitive players would never use HDR anyway so I think it's unlikely they would even purchase a MiniLED LCD in the first place and ever consider turning on AutoHDR.
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Well, while not being an exact science of course, I would imagine that there are many people like me with no dreams of becoming an eSports Pro, but still feel somewhat competitive while gaming even if it happens to be playing DOOM offline. I guess that most people don't know about the "HDR penalty" to begin with and might just have enabled AutoHDR without thinking twice about it. Now, we probably overestimate the impact of input lag on our gaming in general, but that is probably another discussion :)
 
improwise said:
Well, while not being an exact science of course, I would imagine that there are many people like me with no dreams of becoming an eSports Pro, but still feel somewhat competitive while gaming even if it happens to be playing DOOM offline. I guess that most people don't know about the "HDR penalty" to begin with and might just have enabled AutoHDR without thinking twice about it. Now, we probably overestimate the impact of input lag on our gaming in general, but that is probably another discussion :)
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There is definitely a lack of testing going on. I'm sure it would vary from monitor to monitor, maybe some monitors add 10ms of processing lag while another can add 20ms when enabling HDR. Perhaps the more dimming zones there are, the more lag you get? I wish websites like RTings and TFTC would start including input lag tests with HDR on/off as right now they only seem to be testing local dimming on/off purely in SDR mode.
 
MistaSparkul said:
There is definitely a lack of testing going on. I'm sure it would vary from monitor to monitor, maybe some monitors add 10ms of processing lag while another can add 20ms when enabling HDR. Perhaps the more dimming zones there are, the more lag you get? I wish websites like RTings and TFTC would start including input lag tests with HDR on/off as right now they only seem to be testing local dimming on/off purely in SDR mode.
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Agreed. I would imagine most people are not aware of HDR input lag being a thing, and perhaps ignorance is bliss. I am still on the fence if HDR all in all is good or bad with regards to PC and PC gaming, perhaps we are just better of without it?
 
improwise said:
Agreed. I would imagine most people are not aware of HDR input lag being a thing, and perhaps ignorance is bliss. I am still on the fence if HDR all in all is good or bad with regards to PC and PC gaming, perhaps we are just better of without it?
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it depends on what youre playing but you already know that...
 
improwise said:
Agreed. I would imagine most people are not aware of HDR input lag being a thing, and perhaps ignorance is bliss. I am still on the fence if HDR all in all is good or bad with regards to PC and PC gaming, perhaps we are just better of without it?
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HDR for PC gaming is good but still needs work I say. It's waaaay better than when I first tried it out back in 2018 though, AutoHDR didn't exist. HDR calibration tool didn't exist. Windows 10 HDR in general was absolute trash. It's come a long way but can be better.
 
MistaSparkul said:
HDR for PC gaming is good but still needs work I say. It's waaaay better than when I first tried it out back in 2018 though, AutoHDR didn't exist. HDR calibration tool didn't exist. Windows 10 HDR in general was absolute trash. It's come a long way but can be better.
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I never understood this take. Other than the toggling of HDR being needed support on the PC has never been any different than on consoles. The only difference being that for some reason developers would not keep HDR on the PC version of their games despite it being present on console.
 
Armenius said:
I never understood this take. Other than the toggling of HDR being needed support on the PC has never been any different than on consoles. The only difference being that for some reason developers would not keep HDR on the PC version of their games despite it being present on console.
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Windows 10 had some issues with the desktop being washed out in HDR. I never really see that problem anymore today. The SDR brightness slider also wasn't available back then. PC games on HDR would also have the same problem in that enabling HDR washed everything out until you disable/reenable it. I just had some really finnicky experiences back then and if you look around so did many others. I feel like the experience today is much improved. Do you feel it's been the same as always since day 1?
 
MistaSparkul said:
Windows 10 had some issues with the desktop being washed out in HDR. I never really see that problem anymore today. The SDR brightness slider also wasn't available back then. PC games on HDR would also have the same problem in that enabling HDR washed everything out until you disable/reenable it. I just had some really finnicky experiences back then and if you look around so did many others. I feel like the experience today is much improved. Do you feel it's been the same as always since day 1?
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I don't see any difference, no. I never use HDR for desktop use.
 
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