Acer Predator X38 impressions (broken IPS)

Murzilka

[H]ard|Gawd
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Here are my impressions.

The Acer Predator X38 has absolutely no backlight bleed. It looks like OLED with IPS glow.

The LG 38GL950G display that uses the same LG Nano-IPS Panel has vignetting in the corners. The corners of this Acer X38 P are perfect. Not only there is no vignetting, but there is no backlight bleed either.

IPS glow is present though in full force.

I am coming from 55” OLED display LG C7, the image quality of the ACER in games is exactly the same or better than OLED due to higher pixel count. I was told in another thread that I would be disappointed by the image quality of the ACER vs my current OLED, and I cannot wait to inform you that, that is complete bullshit and the image quality is the same. On both calibrated displays – it is exactly the same. Like, completely same reproduction of the displayed image in terms of colors, tones, etc… The only difference is the black color, which is unbeatable for the OLED. But, how often do you enjoy your completely black images? I play the Vermentide 2 game quite often, and this game has maps with very dark locations, absolutely black, that can only be lit with special torches… The ACER X38 displays the same pitch black color as my OLED does in these locations. The only difference is IPS glow. People don’t realize (me included up to this point), that blacks on IPS monitors suck mostly because of the backlight bleed. No backlight bleed – things become way closer to the OLED blacks.

The fan is there and is annoying. If you don’t enable Deep Sleep (on by default), it will never stop spinning unless you unplug the monitor from the socket.

Another important thing is you can set the sRGB color space to any input separately AND! you can adjust brightness, contrast AND RGB levels of the sRGB color gamut. You can also choose between 5 different gamma level presets.

DSC05971.jpg


The curvature is comfortable, and I am generally not fond of the curved displays.

I would like to add that 38” is as big of a monitor as it gets for a desktop PC. If you think, that you need a 43” monitor, you might want to think again. That's the 55" TV in the back:

DSC05969.jpg


Haven’t tested the HDR yet.

Now, the problem is that all the advantages get ruined by a single flaw - in motion a dark spot is visible right in the middle of the screen as well as at the top of it. You can't notice it when things are stationary, like solid colors, or images or even in games with dark palette. It becomes visible when you start dragging windows around the desktop, like for example the nvidia control panel window. In Vermentide 2 game I never noticed it, but as soon as I launched the Far Cry 5 game, well, the issue surfaced and dark spots became visible every time you pan the camera around in game. So, the Predator X38 is pretty much broken monitor in general, since I tried 2 monitors from 2 different stores, and both exhibit the same issue with dark clouding in the exact same spots - in the middle of the screen and at the top of it. It looks like some kind of structural defect of the display, that becomes visible only in motion with bright or light grey color patterns. Probably the reason why it slipped through the quality control.


To summarize (random order):

Positives:

+ No backlight bleed.

+ Perfect size. Big enough to not want anything bigger than this.

+ Perfect resolution, easy to drive in conjunction with the G Sync hardware module. Single 2080Ti might be enough. I fly through Vermentide 2 maps like it’s a 1080p with gsync.

+ Amazing, thought through support of the sRGB content.

+ Very good factory calibration

+ HDR support, spec say it can go as high as 750nits, which corresponds to the HDR600 VESA standard. Haven’t tested though, just saying. Probably Acer didn’t have enough time to pull the certificate due to the Covid, but this is my speculation.

Negatives:

- Dark clouding visible in motion in the center and at the top of the display, that ruins the whole experience. Just move the nvidia control panel window around desktop to see it. I tried 2 Predators X38 and both had this issue.

- IPS glow

- Audible fan
 
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I bought it in Moscow, Russia.
There was a limited supply of 4 boxes into the local store, I bought the 4th. All sold out in 3 or 4 days. Although they say they can bring more in 2 weeks.
 
I bought in Moscow, Russia.
When you get Taiwanese products in Moscow before they're available in North America...

I'm also going to assume that LG really didn't invest significantly in their own version with this panel and instead sent the bulk to their partners.

I do hope that reviews confirm your findings and support a finding of low variation with this monitor! I'm tired of VA smearing and uncalibratable colors.
 
Yeah, this X38 - the 38" nano IPS panel done right. No backlight bleed, this is crazy... I'd kill for such monitor 7 or 10 years ago.
 
that is simply too much. 1800-1900 euro i would find maybe acceptable if it's as good as you say, but THAT price is just out of the question :D

Yeah geez never thought I'd say I'd prefer an OLED because it's CHEAPER.
 
My Dell 3818dw was less than 1k, yes that does not have HDR or GSync but it does have the same screen size, no bleed and probably the best input set I have seen including 3 way KVM switch. Though I have a 48 CX on order to test, that is what I'd still recommend in the 38" space (rtings favorite as well fwiw) and likely going to be with me for sometime: intuition tells me 48" is likely too big for a monitor OLED or not. Though try OLED once we must :)
 
My Dell 3818dw was less than 1k, yes that does not have HDR or GSync but it does have the same screen size, no bleed and probably the best input set I have seen including 3 way KVM switch. Though I have a 48 CX on order to test, that is what I'd still recommend in the 38" space (rtings favorite as well fwiw) and likely going to be with me for sometime: intuition tells me 48" is likely too big for a monitor OLED or not. Though try OLED once we must :)
It is insane that high refresh rate doubles the cost or more.

This display costs 2249 euros in my country. The LG CX 48” is 1400. At that price I would rather get the OLED and spend a bit more for another one if you get burn in.
 
I'm thinking that the limited market for such a display would be the primary price driver. Bit of a feedback loop there with increasing price further limiting market... assume that's what Calculus is actually for.

Regardless, the CX48 is a high-volume product and the X38 is a low-volume product. I think I'd still rather have the X38, personally, probably just for the 'comfort' of having a more traditional monitor experience on the desktop, but I'd have to try a CX48 first before I could really make a decision one way or the other.
 
what is the static contrast ratio on that? without high contrast ratio of 1600 and up I wont pay a $100 bucks for any monitor.
 
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Nice, but seems similar to my 38GL950G and you paid almost $1k more than what I did. The vignetting issue is way overblown, have you actually seen it?

It's not in the corners specifically - at least on my unit, it's just across the very top of the monitor. (about half an inch in height and spans the entire width). The older 38" from LG had the exact same characteristic. So I am surprised this X38 doesn't have it, since it uses the same panel, but who knows. I can't really tell from your pics if it's there. You'd have to take a photo of a full white screen. That's about the only situation where I really notice it. And it's more noticeable if you are using a lower brightness.

Most people would not even notice it at all... I'm just trained to look for flaws in displays after reading reviews on here and TFTcentral hah.
 
While I love the idea of owning a CX 48", 48" is simply too big for my desk, and I suspect it is for many people. I really look forward to seeing more 38" options.
 
what is the static contrast ratio on that? without high contrast ratio of 1600 and up I wont pay a $10 bucks for any monitor.
It’s the same panel as the LG 38GL950G, in fact it is probably the exact same display in a different housing with minor OSD differences.

Anyway, the contrast ratio according to TFTCentral reviews is pretty low at ~ 900:1. That is about the same as my 2014 TN panel...
 
While I love the idea of owning a CX 48", 48" is simply too big for my desk, and I suspect it is for many people. I really look forward to seeing more 38" options.

I can agree with this. The 38" 3840x1600 is a great size/res combo. The cost, fan, lack of HDR and low contrast ratio are the main drawbacks of these panels. At a lower cost you could forgive a lot of these things.
 
The LG LM375QW2-SSA1 panel that is used in both the LG and Acer is a housing packaged unit, rigid "bezel"-less case design with integrated LED back-light. Both the LG and Acer will have identical "vignetting" and "back light bleed". Both are pretty minimal on my LG, but the Acer isn't going to be magically any better with regards basically anything than the LG. The G-Sync unit is tweaked by NVIDIA for the panel. Only differences between the monitors really is the plastic housing/stand, the input IC daughter-board, OSD controls, and the on-screen display/firmware.

1585130372791733.jpg
 
2.3k for a probably less than 1000:1 contrast ratio? That is very bad, no gravity, no depth, no blacks. I fail to see how an IPS can have blacks that don't glow.

I had higher contrast in my 3$ box of Crayola crayons when i was a kid, than what this monitor gives.

That crayola analogy, good one, but yea, the importance of contrast ratio has been forgotten by mainstream, today it is almost like, as soon they see the word IPS, zoom, must be good. TN and IPS are the same thing in a sense, but one has better color filters and angles and have always shared the same contrast ratios. Anyway, without high contrast the image looks very flat and boring, there is no 3 dimensions to it. I will trade slower pixel response for 3x-4x higher contrast than IPS/TN any day. The new VA displays are doing pixel response now in single digits that came out this year, and over 3000 contrast ratio, that is very good.
 
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That crayola analogy, good one, but yea, the importance of contrast ratio has been forgotten by mainstream, today it is almost like, as soon they see the word IPS, zoom, must be good. TN and IPS are the same thing in a sense, but one has better color filters and angles and have always shared the same contrast ratios. Anyway, without high contrast the image looks very flat and boring, there is no 3 dimensions to it.
Using VA with significantly more contrast than IPS... I'd still rather have IPS. VA panels aren't TN bad, but next to a solid IPS, they're ass. Serviceable ass, but ass nonetheless. At least an IPS could actually be calibrated!
 
Speaking of calibration. I run the calibration yesterday on the display using my i1Display colorimeter. The default color temperature of the display was approximately 7000K. I changed the RGB values to match the 6500K temp, and set them to R57 G45 B46. Man, does this display look gorgeous. After setting the correct main colors it has become simply ideal. It is a joy to look at the content displayed.

At the same time, I found a flaw. There is dark cloud, in form of a 2 cm circle right in the middle of the screen and at the top edge of the screen. Thing is these are hard to notice. They do not appear on static colors, or in games their are not visible, but they are visible on the desktop when you start moving windows around. You might even not notice it while moving same windows and just looking at the screen, you have to concentrate your view on the content of the moving window, then you will notice that the window moves behind a small dark cloud in the center of the screen. So, the diamond turns out to be flawed. You can't see it on static images or in games, youtube etc, though. Just moving windows around in the OS. I will compare it to another display that will arrive in July, and if it is just my unit, I will exchange it. If all the Predators are like that, I will keep it. The OLED has immense banding visible everywhere - on desktop, in games, movies - everywhere, and I was perfectly fine with it. I can live with a small dark cloud in center visible only when I move empty pages around... I can't see it when I move this window around for example... I just need the 3080Ti to maximize the gameplay smoothness :cool:

Yeah, and there is no vignetting or backlight bleed, even if it is the same panel design as the LG 38GL950G.
 
It’s the same panel as the LG 38GL950G, in fact it is probably the exact same display in a different housing with minor OSD differences.

Anyway, the contrast ratio according to TFTCentral reviews is pretty low at ~ 900:1. That is about the same as my 2014 TN panel...

900:1? Yikes. I had an original NEC IPS 2490wuxi with about the same number and that allowed display to do accurate color matching for printing, why are people using these for entertainment buggs my mind. Movies and games need high contrast to bring the best out of them.
 
Using VA with significantly more contrast than IPS... I'd still rather have IPS. VA panels aren't TN bad, but next to a solid IPS, they're ass. Serviceable ass, but ass nonetheless. At least an IPS could actually be calibrated!

calibrate them for what? color matching prints? out of box monitors for gaming and movies are much more fun and pleasing than after people calibrate them, all look dull and boring with low contrast after calibration.

It appears people are not buying monitors for what they really want to use them for.

for example: I would rather drop $600 for this Dell monitor for games and movies than any IPS monitor that costs much higher but given to me for less.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B089VZ7QP...uPWNsaWNrUmVkaXJlY3QmZG9Ob3RMb2dDbGljaz10cnVl

IPS is a great tech and it has its purposes in certain fields, but i just dont find them for entertainment purposes.
 
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calibrate them for what? color matching prints? out of box monitors for gaming and movies are much more fun and pleasing than after people calibrate them, all look dull and boring with low contrast after calibration.

It appears people are not buying monitors for what they really want to use them for.

for example: I would rather drop $600 for this Dell monitor for games and movies than any IPS monitor that costs much higher but given to me for less.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B089VZ7QP...uPWNsaWNrUmVkaXJlY3QmZG9Ob3RMb2dDbGljaz10cnVl

IPS is a great tech and it has its purposes in certain fields, but i just dont find them for entertainment purposes.

The problem I had with VA at the 32" size(LG 32GK850G) is the color shift. It might be that I sit to close but I find it pretty distracting just moving around in my chair.

This Dell might solve that problem since it has a slight curve but for now ill stick to my 38" ips lg.
 
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calibrate them for what? color matching prints? out of box monitors for gaming and movies are much more fun and pleasing than after people calibrate them, all look dull and boring with low contrast after calibration.
Not prints, no -- but calibrated nonetheless. I still want blue to be blue, red to be red, fucking magenta to be fucking magenta, and so on.

It appears people are not buying monitors for what they really want to use them for.
I game. I take pictures. That's exactly what I want to buy a monitor for.

for example: I would rather drop $600 for this Dell monitor for games and movies than any IPS monitor that costs much higher but given to me for less.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B089VZ7QP...uPWNsaWNrUmVkaXJlY3QmZG9Ob3RMb2dDbGljaz10cnVl
I have what is probably that exact panel, but in an LG monitor, and I'd rather have an IPS. I also have a 27" 1440p 165Hz IPS, and I like it more.

IPS is a great tech and it has its purposes in certain fields, but i just dont find them for entertainment purposes.
I'd prefer OLED for entertainment purposes. For LCDs, it's just which limitations you're most willing to live with. I can live with lower contrast if it means that everything else is perfect, and that's what IPS gives me. VA gives me a stack of annoyances, to include no way to actually get it close to accurate across a range of input levels.
 
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The problem I had with VA at the 32" size(LG 32GK850G) is the color shift. It might be that I sit to close but I find it pretty distracting just moving around in my chair.
Yup! Agreed on this panel and the 32" 4k VA I have next to it. Not only can I not get them to calibrate to look remotely the same with a Spyder 4, with two 32" monitors side by side that exhibit color shift, well, there is no consistent color. On anything.

I'll take a single 38" IPS panel instead quite happily. This VA trash can get demoted to server duty.
 
2.3k for a probably less than 1000:1 contrast ratio? That is very bad, no gravity, no depth, no blacks. I fail to see how an IPS can have blacks that don't glow.

I had higher contrast in my 3$ box of Crayola crayons when i was a kid, than what this monitor gives.
It has a 1152-zone mini-LED FALD. You can utilize the variable backlight in SDR to increase the contrast ratio. On my PG27UQ with 384-zone FALD the static contrast goes up from 1000:1 to around 3000:1 with the variable backlight and blacks look black.
 
It has a 1152-zone mini-LED FALD. You can utilize the variable backlight in SDR to increase the contrast ratio. On my PG27UQ with 384-zone FALD the static contrast goes up from 1000:1 to around 3000:1 with the variable backlight and blacks look black.

you may be referring to the x32 or pg32ugx. The 38 has no fald.
 
Yup! Agreed on this panel and the 32" 4k VA I have next to it. Not only can I not get them to calibrate to look remotely the same with a Spyder 4, with two 32" monitors side by side that exhibit color shift, well, there is no consistent color. On anything.

I'll take a single 38" IPS panel instead quite happily. This VA trash can get demoted to server duty.
server duty? are you aware that Samsung, LG, Sony, Vizio, TCL are using VA for their televisions to rival OLED? what are you smoking?
 
server duty? are you aware that Samsung, LG, Sony, Vizio, TCL are using VA for their televisions to rival OLED?
I do, and I also have an OLED. They're not 'rivaling' OLED, they're just making what they can actually make as opposed to... nothing.

Contrast isn't everything for desktop use, or gaming use, especially not with the downsides that VA brings.

[and yes, if it's not hooked up to one of three desktops, it's hooked up to a server if it's hooked up at all]
 
I do, and I also have an OLED. They're not 'rivaling' OLED, they're just making what they can actually make as opposed to... nothing.

Contrast isn't everything for desktop use, or gaming use, especially not with the downsides that VA brings.

[and yes, if it's not hooked up to one of three desktops, it's hooked up to a server if it's hooked up at all]

ok
 
I'd love to get one of these, but not at that price. At $1,500 or $1,600, I'd probably be in for one. At $2,000+, I'm out.
Really needs to be <US$800 here. But at this rate, I'm probably more likely to go with a 48CX and whatever Ampere GPU I can afford. I'll just have to get used to it.
 
If it doesn't have the vignetting like the LG, it's a winner. This is still the best non OLED gaming panel out there that I'm aware of.
 
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