Auto HDR

What it changes

Turns on Windows 11 Auto HDR, which renders DirectX 11 and 12 games that only output SDR in HDR on an HDR display.

Why it helps

• Highlights and colour range are expanded at the compositor, the same tone-mapping Xbox Series consoles use, so older games gain HDR without a patch.
• Works per game and can be excluded per game from the same Graphics settings page in Windows.

Trade-offs

• Purely a visual change. It does not raise frame rates.
• On a display with weak HDR (low peak brightness, no local dimming) it can look washed out. That is why it is opt-in here.
• Only does anything when the display HDR mode is on. Pair it with the Enable HDR option under Performance Profiles to switch HDR on only while a game runs.
• Windows 11 only, and only offered when a connected display reports HDR support.

Details

• Adds AutoHDREnable=1 to DirectXUserGlobalSettings under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\DirectX\UserGpuPreferences. Revert removes the token.
• Same as Windows Settings, Display, Graphics, Default graphics settings, Auto HDR.

---

Part of Performance Tweaks. This page is the same text as the app's Learn more button, generated from Help/tweaks/auto_hdr.md. To fix something, edit that file (or open an issue); wiki edits are overwritten on the next sync.