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How Enabling HDR and G-Sync HDR Affects Game Performance

Updated on Apr 05,2024

How Enabling HDR and G-Sync HDR Affects Game Performance

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Performance Impact of HDR Mode in Games
    1. Star Wars Battlefront 2
    2. Hitman
    3. Assassin's Creed Origins
    4. Far Cry 5
    5. Middle Earth Shadow of War
    6. Battlefield 1
  3. Impact of G-Sync HDR
  4. Chroma Subsampling and Performance
  5. Varied Approaches to HDR Implementation
  6. Conclusion

Performance Impact of Playing Games in HDR Mode

🎮 Star Wars Battlefront 2

Star Wars Battlefront 2 has a decent HDR implementation, although it's not the best. In this Game, there are three configurations that we tested: standard SDR mode with G-Sync enabled, HDR mode with G-Sync disabled, and both HDR and G-Sync enabled. We played the game at 4K with ultra settings on a 98Hz monitor connected via DisplayPort. The SDR mode had the best performance, with no difference whether G-Sync was on or off. Enabling HDR mode without G-Sync resulted in a 4% performance reduction, but the significant performance hit came when both HDR and G-Sync were enabled. Frame rates were 13% lower compared to SDR mode on average and 11% lower in 1% lows.

🎮 Hitman

Hitman has one of the oldest HDR implementations, and the impact from HDR is relatively lower in this game. Enabling HDR mode reduces performance by around 3-4%, with no significant difference whether G-Sync is on or off.

🎮 Assassin's Creed Origins

Assassin's Creed Origins performs similarly to Star Wars Battlefront 2 when it comes to the impact of HDR on performance. Enabling HDR mode alone cuts down performance by 6%, but when HDR and G-Sync are both enabled, frame rates take an 11% hit.

🎮 Far Cry 5

Far Cry 5 stands out from the other games tested as it shows no appreciable performance difference between HDR and SDR modes. This game has an excellent HDR implementation with no significant performance impact. It also supports AMD FreeSync 2 technology.

🎮 Middle Earth Shadow of War

Middle Earth Shadow of War does not have a built-in HDR switch. Instead, it relies on the Windows HDR and WCG setting. Enabling HDR results in a 5% performance reduction, while enabling HDR and G-Sync leads to a significant 14% hit in frame rates.

🎮 Battlefield 1

Battlefield 1, using the same Frostbite engine as Star Wars Battlefront 2, shows similar results. Enabling HDR mode results in a 4% performance hit, which increases to 11% when G-Sync is added.

Impact of G-Sync HDR

The combination of G-Sync and HDR in some games can have a substantial performance impact. In games like Shadow of War, enabling G-Sync alongside HDR leads to a 10% performance penalty. While the visual quality improvement may be worth the performance hit, it's disappointing that enabling G-Sync, which has zero performance impact in SDR games, also affects frame rates in some titles. The driver needs to do additional processing to support both adaptive sync and HDR metadata, causing a higher performance cost. However, some games, like Far Cry 5, show no performance impact when enabling HDR or G-Sync, indicating that different HDR implementations handle performance differently.

Chroma Subsampling and Performance

On the ASU Rog Swift PG 27, enabling 4:2:2 chroma subsampling at 144Hz has no effect on performance compared to not using subsampling. This result is consistent across games like Star Wars Battlefront 2, indicating that subsampling does not hurt performance on this monitor.

Varied Approaches to HDR Implementation

The impact of HDR on performance can vary due to different game engines and HDR techniques. Games like Battlefield 1, Star Wars Battlefront 2, Assassin's Creed Origins, and Shadow of War show a similar performance reduction of approximately 4% when enabling HDR. However, some games, like Far Cry 5, have no performance impact. This suggests that some engines require more processing for HDR support, resulting in a performance hit, while others implement HDR differently, minimizing its impact.

Conclusion

Enabling HDR mode in games can have a performance impact, with some games showing a reduction of up to 13% in frame rates. When combined with G-Sync, the performance hit can be even more substantial. However, there are games like Far Cry 5 that implement HDR without any performance impact. It's clear that HDR implementation varies across games and engines. While there is still room for improvement, the early stages of HDR support on PC show promise for future implementations.

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