Windows 11 HDR: Stuttering/freezing during video and gaming only when HDR is enabled

Question

Service:

Windows 11 HDR / Advanced Color, in combination with AMD Adrenalin GPU driver

(Radeon RX 6800)

Scenario:

I'm experiencing recurring brief stutters/freezes during video playback (YouTube/

Netflix in Chrome) and while switching windows during gaming (alt-tab or the

Windows key). This happens exclusively when HDR is enabled — system-wide or

per-app. With HDR fully disabled, the system is completely stable, no other

changes needed.

Result:

• Random, brief freeze-frames during video, regardless of framerate or windowed/fullscreen mode
• Noticeable stutter on alt-tab/Windows key while gaming, roughly once every 1-2 minutes
• Occasionally: a second monitor briefly goes black and recovers after a following stutter
• Confirmed via GPU-Z: GPU core clock drops to 50-500MHz during a stutter (sometimes measured at 0MHz), even when a manual minimum clock is set both through Adrenalin's Tuning UI and through a direct SoftPowerPlayTable edit (via MorePowerTool) — both are ignored during this transition
• No Event ID 4101 (TDR) or any Reliability History entry correlates with these moments — so this is not a full driver crash/reset

Environment:

• GPU: AMD Radeon RX 6800 (RDNA2)
• CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 7600
• Motherboard: ASRock B650M PG Lightning
• OS: Windows 11, build 26200
• Driver: tested on Adrenalin 26.6.1, 26.6.4, and 26.7.1 (issue present on all)
• Two monitors tested (one Mini-LED, one standard panel), both via DisplayPort

Troubleshooting steps already taken:

Already tested with no effect: OC/undervolt curve reset to stock, hardware

stress test (FurMark/3DMark, 20+ min, fully stable), ULPS disabled via

registry, HAGS (already disabled by default), MPO disabled (OverlayTestMode=5),

VBS/Memory Integrity disabled, Chrome hardware acceleration disabled, PCIe

ASPM (Windows side) disabled, background processes ruled out (live wallpaper

software, taskbar customization tools), DPC/ISR latency checked with

LatencyMon (nothing abnormal), VRR/FreeSync disabled, bit depth tested at

both 8-bit and 10-bit, chroma subsampling tested at RGB 4:4:4 — none of

these changed the behavior.

Supporting materials:

GPU-Z screenshots available on request showing the clock dip during a

stutter, as well as screenshots of the ignored SoftPowerPlayTable edit

via MorePowerTool.

Reproducible steps:

1. Enable HDR (system-wide) on an HDR-capable display
2. Play a video in Chrome, or launch a game and press alt-tab/Windows key
3. Random stutter/freeze occurs
4. Disable HDR entirely, repeat step 2 — no stutter observed

I've also filed a formal bug report with AMD containing the same diagnostic

information. In a now-locked question here

(learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/3891763/hdr-causes-stuttering),

someone with an RX 9070 XT (RDNA4) reported what sounds like the same

behavior, which may suggest this isn't limited to one GPU generation.

Answer 1

Hi Enzo van Horrik,

I understand how frustrating this must be, especially since the stutter appears only when HDR is enabled and you have already tested many of the common graphics, overlay, VRR, and driver-related causes.

For one controlled test, please try the following with all AMD tuning and third-party display/registry changes restored to default first:

1. Disconnect the second monitor and test with only one HDR-capable display connected through DisplayPort.
2. Go to “Settings” > “System” > “Display” > “Advanced display” and temporarily lower the refresh rate for that display, then enable HDR again and test the same YouTube/Netflix and alt-tab scenario.
3. Go to “Settings” > “Windows Update” > “Advanced options” > “Optional updates” and check whether Windows offers a display/graphics driver update. If not, install the latest recommended AMD driver from AMD’s official support page.
4. Install and run the official Windows HDR Calibration app, then restart the PC and test again.

Microsoft’s HDR guidance also recommends using a certified HDR display path and the latest WDDM graphics driver, and for HDR display problems it suggests testing display connection, refresh rate, and resolution changes. You can refer to these official pages:

• HDR settings in Windows
• What is HDR in Windows?

To narrow this down further, could you please confirm these points:

• Does the issue still occur with only one HDR monitor connected?
• What refresh rate and resolution are you using when HDR is enabled?
• In “Settings” > “System” > “Display” > “Advanced display”, does Windows show an HDR certification value for the affected monitor?
• Is your Windows 11 build 26200 an Insider Preview build, or is this a regular release build?

Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.