Svperstar on 11/4/2026 at 05:37
I just finished Mission 7 in The Black Parade for the second time since release. I was on LCD the first time, there is no single upgrade you can make to make Thief a better experience then an OLED monitor.
HDR wasn't even on my radar, and I didn't even turn HDR on till I had had my OLED for I think a week? I learned how to use RTX HDR to make games that are too old or just don't support HDR have it. With 1,000 nits mode The Black Parade looks absolutely amazing. Especially the Hammer and Keeper missions.
OLED is the best upgrade I have made in years.
Niborius on 19/4/2026 at 19:49
Quote Posted by Svperstar
I just finished Mission 7 in The Black Parade for the second time since release. I was on LCD the first time, there is no single upgrade you can make to make Thief a better experience then an OLED monitor.
HDR wasn't even on my radar, and I didn't even turn HDR on till I had had my OLED for I think a week? I learned how to use RTX HDR to make games that are too old or just don't support HDR have it. With 1,000 nits mode The Black Parade looks absolutely amazing. Especially the Hammer and Keeper missions.
OLED is the best upgrade I have made in years.
Once I had the monitor I've been switching back and forth between HDR and SDR and experimented with RTX HDR as well, but in the end I could never tell if it looked better with or without it. I think RTX HDR looked better than Windows' HDR, but I couldn't tell if it was better than no HDR at all. If I read your experience I think I should at least try RTX HDR again, if it's not too much of a hassle to configure? Like I don't feel like fine tuning every new game I play but maybe that won't be necessary?
Svperstar on 19/4/2026 at 20:03
Quote Posted by Niborius
Once I had the monitor I've been switching back and forth between HDR and SDR and experimented with RTX HDR as well, but in the end I could never tell if it looked better with or without it. I think RTX HDR looked better than Windows' HDR, but I couldn't tell if it was better than no HDR at all. If I read your experience I think I should at least try RTX HDR again, if it's not too much of a hassle to configure? Like I don't feel like fine tuning every new game I play but maybe that won't be necessary?
RTX HDR doesn't need to be tuned per-game. Its set it and forget it. Thats the beautiful thing. I backup my Nvidia Profile Inspector Revamped settings and restore them when I update my drivers.
If you can't tell if RTX HDR looks better or not, then I don't think your monitor was calibrated properly, or RTX HDR wasn't working with Thief, or RTX wasn't tuned to your monitor, or some combination of the previous.
When setup correctly on an OLED with Peak 1000 HDR, RTX HDR looks amazing in Thief. The best example is Mission 3 in The Black Parade, Trial of Iron, the Hammer compound level. The hammer windows looks absolutely amazing. I don't know if you have a savegame for that but it isn't subtle at all.
Unfortunately I don't have a guide for RTX HDR up to date for April 2026. I've been messing with it for a couple years now.
Make sure your monitor is calibrated for HDR with the Windows HDR Calibration utility from the Windows Store
Download Nvidia Profile Inspector Revamped:
(
https://github.com/xHybred/NvidiaProfileInspectorRevamped/releases)
This is going to be different for every monitor/monitor setting. I am using HDR Peak 1000 BRIGHT. I think that maxes out at 950 nits or so, so I put in 950 nits for Max Brightness. That was translated to 3E1.....you can manually type in your max brightness in nits and it will change it automatically
Low Debanding is higher image quality and performance:
Inline Image:
https://i.imgur.com/5MrPTYF.pngI think RTX HDR should work with Borderless Windowed mode now but YMMV, it used to only work Fullscreen
Niborius on 21/4/2026 at 14:13
Thanks Svperstar, think I'll have a go at it again. I forgot, do I disable windows' HDR & AutoHDR when using RTX HDR?
One thing I struggled with playing Thief using OLED is how I constantly get flashbanged from having my eyes adjusted to the dark areas and suddenly getting a lamp or bright window in my face :cheeky: That's going to be extra extreme with HDR lol
Svperstar on 21/4/2026 at 14:25
Quote Posted by Niborius
Thanks Svperstar, think I'll have a go at it again. I forgot, do I disable windows' HDR & AutoHDR when using RTX HDR?
One thing I struggled with playing Thief using OLED is how I constantly get flashbanged from having my eyes adjusted to the dark areas and suddenly getting a lamp or bright window in my face :cheeky: That's going to be extra extreme with HDR lol
HDR needs to be ON in Windows, AutoHDR off, AutoHDR is a competing HDR method to RTX HDR. I've had it off so long I honestly don't remember how to turn it off.
You will know if RTX HDR is works when you see Hammer windows, its not subtle.
Niborius on 22/4/2026 at 07:48
Alright so, I did everything you said. I noticed that most settings in Nvidia Profile Inspector are also available in-game using the nvidia overlay in the RTX HDR filter options, but I used it anyway, especially since debanding option isn't in the overlay and could solve some color banding I saw in the game at times.
Anyway, having tweaked everything and going over the windows HDR calibration tool again to make sure it's correct, I can still say I see no difference, maybe a little bit but I can't tell which looks better. And I usually have a good eye for those things.
I think SDR content on this monitor just looks really good already with the right settings.
I'll have some more tests later, but for now I am not yet convinced HDR is the way for me:D
Just to add: I did have a look at various bright windows in the game. They look awesome in both settings. I can tell RTX HDR works because if I change my peak brightness setting a little above to what it is capable (1300 NITS), some bright orange windows turn white
Svperstar on 22/4/2026 at 21:32
Quote Posted by Niborius
Alright so, I did everything you said. I noticed that most settings in Nvidia Profile Inspector are also available in-game using the nvidia overlay in the RTX HDR filter options, but I used it anyway, especially since debanding option isn't in the overlay and could solve some color banding I saw in the game at times.
Anyway, having tweaked everything and going over the windows HDR calibration tool again to make sure it's correct, I can still say I see no difference, maybe a little bit but I can't tell which looks better. And I usually have a good eye for those things.
I think SDR content on this monitor just looks really good already with the right settings.
I'll have some more tests later, but for now I am not yet convinced HDR is the way for me:D
Just to add: I did have a look at various bright windows in the game. They look awesome in both settings. I can tell RTX HDR works because if I change my peak brightness setting a little above to what it is capable (1300 NITS), some bright orange windows turn white
Based on what you just said I don't think HDR is functioning on your monitor. It's like going from seeing a window to seeing a window with someone holding a bright light behind it.
Besides Windows, what are the settings on your monitor? Are the brightness controls disabled with HDR enabled?
I think I will film a video on my phone when I get home later so you can see the difference
That or maybe your monitor is one of those that says it's "HDR ready' but doesn't actually do HDR. A YouTube video from a few years ago really made some people mad because it pointed out some monitors that say they do HDR don't
[video=youtube_share;XPzM3NDGuSc]https://youtu.be/XPzM3NDGuSc?si=i7uWr2o69E-obCNW[/video]
Svperstar on 22/4/2026 at 21:36
I would forget about Thief for a minute and make sure HDR works in a native HDR game or an HDR YouTube video in Chrome. Then mess with Thief
Svperstar on 23/4/2026 at 02:04
So this won't show the HDR effect like seeing it in person, but I figured filming it on my phone in a dark room might help you see.
I set my phone to 4k 60fps and HDR10+, I don't know if YouTube is going to turn this into an HDR video or not. I've never tried to upload something in HDR.
No audio besides background sounds so you can mute it if you want
[video=youtube_share;yaE1CXrw76c]https://youtu.be/yaE1CXrw76c?si=hVt5wwZogOs0Xskg[/video]
Niborius on 23/4/2026 at 12:12
Yeah HDR works, my monitor tells me HDR is on in its config panel, and I'm locked out of brightness settings etc. It's a new high-end OLED monitor so I'm sure it natively supports HDR but I'm not 100% sure (link to monitor is in the first post of this topic).
It's hard to tell in your video but I think my game looks similar, except the windows aren't THAT bright, but I don't think that's a bad thing per se. I also don't have bloom on but that's a seperate setting.
