Nvidia has placed a strong focus on AI-centric features for several years now. Nvidia's latest driver update (551.23) takes this a step further by adding a new feature for RTX owners that automatically converts online SDR video to HDR on HDR10-compatible monitors and laptops.

The new feature comes a year after Nvidia launched RTX Video Super Resolution (which also received an update in the new driver), showing the company's growing interest in improving image quality for users whether they are gaming or just surfing the web. Unfortunately, the new feature is only available for RTX owners, but there is a good reason for this.

Nvidia RTX cards contain tensor cores, which operate differently from traditional FP32 shader cores on your GPU. Tensor cores are specifically designed to handle complex calculations and matrix multiplications. In other words, they are highly suited to run AI tasks and programs such as video upscaling, portions of the DLSS pipeline, and much more.

Tensor cores can be found in every RTX model since the RTX 20 series, but Nvidia hasn't used them to their full potential until recently. While the company has developed many AI-related features for gaming, like Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) or Deep Learning Dynamic Super Resolution (DLDSR), which improve frame rates and improve image quality in games. These new non-gaming features are a welcome addition for users who want a better viewing experience while consuming streaming video as well.

So why is SDR to HDR so important? Over 90% of videos uploaded to the internet are in SDR. And due to limitations in color space handling, if content creators upload HDR videos, they often look bad on SDR monitors used by the majority of their audience. Moreover, the HDR capture and editing pipeline is inherently more complicated for creators than using a standard SDR pipeline. This is where Nvidia's latest tech comes in to save the day for RTX users with HDR monitors.

This new RTX HDR Enhance feature combined with Nvidia's previous RTX Super Resolution means that users can now use AI to upscale older videos up to 4K and then also apply HDR to videos to improve image quality. However, these features are only available on Chromium-based web browsers like Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge. In contrast, it seems like the popular media player VLC is only able to use RTX Super Resolution at this time.

How to enable RTX Video HDR and RTX Super Resolution

Before you can take advantage of this new feature, you will need to change some settings in your systems tab and the Nvidia Control Panel:

1. Update to the latest Nvidia drivers, currently version 551.23 as of the time of this article.
2. Go to your computer's Settings menu and navigate to System > Display and make sure HDR is enabled for your display.
3. Open the Nvidia Control Panel and click the Adjust Video Image Settings tab.
4. Check the box to enable HDR and Video Super Resolution.
5. View online streaming video as you normally would, through any Chromium-based browser such as Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge

How good is RTX Video HDR?

While testing the new feature, the difference in image quality of well-lit videos was subtle but still noticeable. However, when watching videos with poor lighting, the difference was night and day. Dark scenes on an SDR display were often barely visible prior to enabling the software. However, enabling the HDR enhancements allowed me to see intricate details in the scene that were otherwise hidden. Both RTX Super Resolution and RTX Video HDR offer subtle benefits when used on their own, but when combined, videos become less blurry, more crisp, and have enhanced color and saturation. So if you have an RTX card, there's no reason why you wouldn't want to try this out.

Nvidia’s new AI-enhanced features are an amazing quality-of-life upgrade for desktop and laptop users alike and with the current race for tech companies to develop new AI technology as fast as possible. Nvidia is certainly pulling up its sleeves, and not only innovating with its new line of graphics cards but also implementing useful and meaningful features for existing users.

With so many companies nowadays shoehorning AI into everything and hoping it is flashy enough for consumers to be interested, it is refreshing to see a company like Nvidia working on projects that might not be as flashy but offer a tangible benefit to the end user experience when doing everyday tasks like watching online video.