diff --git a/WickedEngine/shaders/bloomseparateCS.hlsl b/WickedEngine/shaders/bloomseparateCS.hlsl
index 42c8d6c9c..39dbf8e63 100644
--- a/WickedEngine/shaders/bloomseparateCS.hlsl
+++ b/WickedEngine/shaders/bloomseparateCS.hlsl
@@ -20,11 +20,7 @@ void main(uint3 DTid : SV_DispatchThreadID)
 	color /= 4.0f;
 
 	float exposure = bloom.exposure;
-	[branch]
-	if (bloom.buffer_input_luminance >= 0)
-	{
-		exposure *= bindless_buffers[bloom.buffer_input_luminance].Load<float>(LUMINANCE_BUFFER_OFFSET_EXPOSURE);
-	}
+	exposure *= bindless_buffers[bloom.buffer_input_luminance].Load<float>(LUMINANCE_BUFFER_OFFSET_EXPOSURE);
 	color *= exposure;
 
 	color = min(color, 10); // clamp upper limit: avoid incredibly large values to overly dominate bloom (high speculars were causing problems)
diff --git a/WickedEngine/shaders/tonemapCS.hlsl b/WickedEngine/shaders/tonemapCS.hlsl
index 68b08b733..3dab04708 100644
--- a/WickedEngine/shaders/tonemapCS.hlsl
+++ b/WickedEngine/shaders/tonemapCS.hlsl
@@ -62,11 +62,7 @@ void main(uint3 DTid : SV_DispatchThreadID)
 		hdr = bindless_textures[tonemap_push.texture_input].SampleLevel(sampler_linear_clamp, uv, 0);
 	}
 
-	[branch]
-	if (tonemap_push.buffer_input_luminance >= 0)
-	{
-		exposure *= bindless_buffers[tonemap_push.buffer_input_luminance].Load<float>(LUMINANCE_BUFFER_OFFSET_EXPOSURE);
-	}
+	exposure *= bindless_buffers[tonemap_push.buffer_input_luminance].Load<float>(LUMINANCE_BUFFER_OFFSET_EXPOSURE);
 	hdr.rgb *= exposure;
 
 	[branch]
diff --git a/WickedEngine/wiRenderer.cpp b/WickedEngine/wiRenderer.cpp
index 2abd1bf8b..d14447c88 100644
--- a/WickedEngine/wiRenderer.cpp
+++ b/WickedEngine/wiRenderer.cpp
@@ -144,6 +144,14 @@ Texture texture_detailNoise;
 Texture texture_curlNoise;
 Texture texture_weatherMap;
 
+// A dummy luminance buffer with exposure set to 1.
+// This avoids having to branch in shaders that consume the exposure value
+// when eye adaption is disabled.
+// It also works around an apparent bug in the drivers for certain GTX 10xx cards
+// where just testing if a bindless buffer descriptor is valid requires that it is valid.
+// See: https://github.com/turanszkij/WickedEngine/issues/450
+GPUBuffer luminance_dummy;
+
 // Direct reference to a renderable instance:
 struct RenderBatch
 {
@@ -1795,6 +1803,21 @@ void LoadBuffers()
 		device->CreateTexture(&desc, nullptr, &textures[TEXTYPE_2D_SKYATMOSPHERE_SKYLUMINANCELUT]);
 		device->SetName(&textures[TEXTYPE_2D_SKYATMOSPHERE_SKYLUMINANCELUT], "textures[TEXTYPE_2D_SKYATMOSPHERE_SKYLUMINANCELUT]");
 	}
+	{
+		// the dummy buffer is read-only so only the first 'exposure' value is needed,
+		// not the luminance or histogram values in the full version of the buffer used
+        // when eye adaption is enabled.
+		float values[1] = { 1 };
+
+		GPUBufferDesc desc;
+		desc.size = sizeof(values);
+		desc.bind_flags = BindFlag::SHADER_RESOURCE;
+		desc.misc_flags = ResourceMiscFlag::BUFFER_RAW;
+		device->CreateBuffer(&desc, values, &luminance_dummy);
+		device->SetName(&luminance_dummy, "luminance_dummy");
+
+		static_assert(LUMINANCE_BUFFER_OFFSET_EXPOSURE == 0);
+	}
 }
 void SetUpStates()
 {
@@ -7610,7 +7633,7 @@ void ComputeBloom(
 		bloom.exposure = exposure;
 		bloom.texture_input = device->GetDescriptorIndex(&input, SubresourceType::SRV);
 		bloom.texture_output = device->GetDescriptorIndex(&res.texture_bloom, SubresourceType::UAV);
-		bloom.buffer_input_luminance = device->GetDescriptorIndex(buffer_luminance, SubresourceType::SRV);
+		bloom.buffer_input_luminance = device->GetDescriptorIndex((buffer_luminance == nullptr) ? &luminance_dummy : buffer_luminance, SubresourceType::SRV);
 		device->PushConstants(&bloom, sizeof(bloom), cmd);
 
 		{
@@ -12319,7 +12342,7 @@ void Postprocess_Tonemap(
 	tonemap_push.exposure = exposure;
 	tonemap_push.dither = dither ? 1.0f : 0.0f;
 	tonemap_push.texture_input = device->GetDescriptorIndex(&input, SubresourceType::SRV);
-	tonemap_push.buffer_input_luminance = device->GetDescriptorIndex(buffer_luminance, SubresourceType::SRV);
+	tonemap_push.buffer_input_luminance = device->GetDescriptorIndex((buffer_luminance == nullptr) ? &luminance_dummy : buffer_luminance, SubresourceType::SRV);
 	tonemap_push.texture_input_distortion = device->GetDescriptorIndex(texture_distortion, SubresourceType::SRV);
 	tonemap_push.texture_colorgrade_lookuptable = device->GetDescriptorIndex(texture_colorgradinglut, SubresourceType::SRV);
 	tonemap_push.texture_bloom = device->GetDescriptorIndex(texture_bloom, SubresourceType::SRV);