Elden Ring "HDR not working" error: Possible fixes, reasons, and more

Elden Ring's PC port, despite getting several major updates over the course of the last two years, is still very flawed, especially in terms of user experience and performance. While the performance aspect of the game has been addressed to a great extent, the user experience and lack of basic PC options are major issues with the game's PC port.

One of the biggest issues that still hasn't been addressed is regarding the game's shoddy implementation of HDR support. Although Elden Ring looks incredibly amazing and mesmerizing even on SDR, it can look even better with a good HDR display, especially in areas like Liurnia, Limgrave, and the Crumbling Farum Azula.

However, making HDR work properly in Elden Ring is a battle of attrition. Thankfully, there are some really easy fixes for the "HDR not working" error in Elden Ring. These barely take a few moments and can drastically improve the game's visuals.

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Possible fixes for the "HDR not working" error in Elden Ring

The biggest and most annoying thing about Elden Ring's broken HDR implementation is that instead of making the game's visuals bright, it ends up making the colors feel washed out and devoid of saturation. Even if you tinker with the game's default Gamma settings, the washed-out look doesn't go away, which is admittedly quite annoying.

Nighttime and the snow-covered lands look a lot worse with HDR enabled if you don't calibrate it according to your display (Image via FromSoftware)

However, I did find a few ways that you can potentially fix this issue without having to fiddle with your monitor's default settings. The first and most important troubleshooting step to diagnose the HDR issue is to make sure your GPU drivers are up to date.

If you have either AMD's Adrenaline or Nvidia's GeForce Experience installed on your PC, you won't have to worry too much about updating your GPU drivers, since these apps usually auto-update drivers. However, I highly recommend manually checking for any pending driver updates in both the app and Windows Settings, just to be on the safer side.

Once you make sure your PC's drivers are up to date, you should head directly to your Graphics driver settings and make sure you have the Gamma settings adjusted there based on your display's brightness. I highly recommend keeping it at either default or setting it to closely match your display's brightness levels.

Do make sure you have HDR enabled in Windows (Settings > System > Display) and if you're on Windows 11, make sure the "Auto HDR" setting is disabled. Once that's done and you've updated your GPU drivers, do a system reboot and then launch Elden Ring.

Fixing the HDR can have a drastic impact on the game's visuals (Image via FromSoftware)

After launching the game, head to Options > Display and make sure HDR is enabled. Once that's done, head to the Brightness settings, and set it to a few points lower than the default value. If the brightness seems too low, increase it from your monitor's end. After making these changes, load a save and HDR should be working as intended.