[SOLVED] [Gsync/HDR/refresh] How do you simplify switching your monitor/GPU from Windows use to gaming use?

[Adamsan11]

RT/HDR/Gsync question here

I just upgraded to an RTX 3080 + Asus Rog Strix XG27AQ (27" 1440p) monitor.

I've been using the game Control as an RTX 'let's see what it can do' debugger, and I saw a weird phenomenon. I had been getting screen tearing (with GSync on!) specifically when I make quick panning moves, turning quickly, etc. I first thought it was that HDR and GSync couldn't coexist, but then I figured it out -- I only had the monitor set for 60 Hz in Windows! Once I flipped it up to 144 Hz it was fine. That problem was solved. Gaming looks terrific so far.

But it begs a question. While ray-tracing and DLSS can be managed in game for games that support it, many games (at least from this first pass with Control) do not manage:

• HDR being on/off
• Gsync being on/off
• refresh rate of the monitor

At least on this monitor (which works great once it's all set up), HDR is not something I can turn on/off in monitor settings. It has a host of monitor controls for when Gsync or HDR are NOT on, but the call to flip on Gsync seems to be Nvidia control panel driven and HDR (at least in some games) is not called / activated in-game through menus. And the monitor controls themselves do not set refresh -- Windows does.

This means I either leave the monitor in a gaming setup even when I'm using Windows, or take the 60 seconds to flip on/off the HDR and the higher refresh depending on whether I'm gaming or just using Windows, browsing, etc.

Gsync I'm just going to leave on, but I don't need/want HDR for Windows and why waste the juice for 144Hz if I'm web browsing?

Is there a third option that can manage all this for me? Ideal situation is to a vanilla setup for windows (no HDR, 60 Hz, really don't care about Gsync) and a gaming setup with everything turned on, and starting a game triggers the gaming mode to activate. Is this possible?

Thx
A

 

[hotaru.hino]

The short answer is no, because these are system wide options and having the system change depending on if an application is running or not isn't something that's advisable.

A workaround is to create a Windows macro script to record the actions that it would take to set everything up (such as this https://www.addictivetips.com/windows-tips/toggle-hdr-with-a-script-on-windows-10/ ), but you'd still have to run it manually.

EDIT: I believe running games in full screen exclusive could solve the G-Sync and refresh rate problems, since the default option in G-Sync is to work under full screen exclusive and games can detect what refresh rates are available. The only option that I think can't be configured is HDR. If the game isn't launched with HDR enabled, the game won't be aware of it.

 

[madmatt30]

The short answer is no, because these are system wide options and having the system change depending on if an application is running or not isn't something that's advisable.

A workaround is to create a Windows macro script to record the actions that it would take to set everything up (such as this https://www.addictivetips.com/windows-tips/toggle-hdr-with-a-script-on-windows-10/ ), but you'd still have to run it manually.

EDIT: I believe running games in full screen exclusive could solve the G-Sync and refresh rate problems, since the default option in G-Sync is to work under full screen exclusive and games can detect what refresh rates are available. The only option that I think can't be configured is HDR. If the game isn't launched with HDR enabled, the game won't be aware of it.

Capcom have managed to enable HDR in their last 4 resident evil games irregardless of whether it's enabled in windows or not.

I wish other developers could/would follow suit because windows itself from a desktop perspective is awful with HDR enabled, the balance is completely off even with the sdr content slider maxed out.

144htz refresh? I'm not really seeing that as being an issue for Windows use, from a 2d clock standpoint the extra gpu usage is going to be negligible so I'd juat leave it as is.

 

[hotaru.hino]

The only issue with running at 144Hz is if you have another monitor that doesn't divide into 144Hz evenly. The video card doesn't idle down as much. Setting the display to 120Hz solves this.