PaulKemp757
n00b
- Joined
- Jan 10, 2021
- Messages
- 8
Mine went out two days ago... The power button lights on but the screen does not... Dell should ship me a replacement monitor in the next few days.
![[H]ard|Forum](/styles/hardforum/xenforo/logo_dark.png){kind=logo}
AW3821DW (Nov 2020) with GSync Ultimate
- Thread starter thelead
- Start date
Luckily there's inventory. I had to request a replacement for my 27" and got it 2 days later. Dell FTW!
My 38" still going strong.
PaulKemp757
n00b
- Joined
- Jan 10, 2021
- Messages
- 8
That's a great news! Thanks for your feedback!
Out of 3 monitors, 1 became defective today. An hour later with Dell support, a replacement is on it's way. ETA Friday delivery. It is a refurbished unit for my replacement. I don't mind either way since I have 2 yrs left for warranty. This is why I always buy Dell. Their warranty is unmatched.
Last edited:
Yep. Good luck getting that with LG.
I wish they had a better warranty because I've seen a lot to like about their monitors but ultimately warranty was one of the things that pushed me to the AW. Dell isn't amazing at warranty service, but they aren't garbage which is more than you can say for many companies sadly.
I also dislike the external power brick.
Yep that was another factor for me. The final one was that you could have Gsync or HDR but not both. I wanted both since hey, why not? Granted the HDR isn't amazing on it, but it is usable.
Mystique
Limp Gawd
- Joined
- Mar 28, 2009
- Messages
- 366
Hey all,.. kinda crazy some people have already lost their displays... Mines going strong.
Anyone install W11 2022-01 Cumulative Update for Windows 11 x64 (KB5008353)?
For me, this washes out the non-HDR colors. I had to pull it.
Anyone install W11 2022-01 Cumulative Update for Windows 11 x64 (KB5008353)?
For me, this washes out the non-HDR colors. I had to pull it.
Hmmm.... I haven't noticed any issues. Do you have HDR enabled in the OS?
Mystique
Limp Gawd
- Joined
- Mar 28, 2009
- Messages
- 366
I do not.
I typically only turn on HDR when playing games because on the desktop it looks a bit washed out in general.
On github there's a tool "AutoActions" which does this automatically, fwiw, it's nice.
Hello
I love this 38 monitor i have it since one year, but i have a issue can you tell me if you have the same ?
I notice that with forza horizon 5 and grid legends if i activate the HDR on 144 hertz or 120 hertz gsync will not operate properly, i can see strange stutter in the background not smooth at all...
One the other side if i disabble the HDR in windows gsync will work...
Is my monitor must RMA ?
I love this 38 monitor i have it since one year, but i have a issue can you tell me if you have the same ?
I notice that with forza horizon 5 and grid legends if i activate the HDR on 144 hertz or 120 hertz gsync will not operate properly, i can see strange stutter in the background not smooth at all...
One the other side if i disabble the HDR in windows gsync will work...
Is my monitor must RMA ?
I have this and a 65" LG OLED in my office. I love both but they have different uses for me. As I work 10+ hours everyday looking at static content/menus/bars all day, I don't think I could replace my 38" with a current LG OLED due to potential burn in. The other thing that would bother me immensely with using it as a monitor is the ABL when you fullscreen white/light colored windows.
If you're definitely not going to work on it I would probably go with the 42" OLED.
cvinh
2[H]4U
- Joined
- Sep 4, 2009
- Messages
- 2,048
I have this monitor and I'm actually looking to upgrade to a 42" OLED (waiting for PG42UQ). Ultrawide is nice but sometimes 21:9 for games will just give you distorted/stretched viewing on the sides as it's just meant for peripheral. Also, the vertical space feels lacking imo. The C2 will give you better HDR also. I think it would be more immersive than ultrawide if you are gaming on it.
Nice setup, and cute doggy.
Only reason I'm hesitant on the LG 42 is potential burn in, and it not being a true PC monitor no Display Port, but is a TV.
And I'm not a fan of glossy mirror looking displays, always prefer more matte coating. My Office is in my basement, no windows in that room.
cvinh
2[H]4U
- Joined
- Sep 4, 2009
- Messages
- 2,048
Thanks! Yea that's why I'm waiting for the PG42UQ. It has antiglare, a cooling system, etc. More features for gaming but I'll see how the reviews are once it comes out.
Microcenter had an open box sale on the AW3821DW for $799 ( fully inspected and all parts and pieces included in perfect brand new condition, monitor was brand new ) , and offered a free full 2 year warranty for any pixel issues or backlight bleeding. So I jumped on this deal. Yeah the AW3423DW had me very interested too, but it's always out of stock and it's $1300, plus I always wanted to try out the 38" UW, and man this might be the holy grail perfect size display to me.
Attachments
Astral Abyss
2[H]4U
- Joined
- Jun 15, 2004
- Messages
- 3,039
That's a great price! Grats on the new monitor! I love my LG 38GN950. It really is the perfect size.
It's a nice screen, been using it since it launched. I'm still eying the AW3423DW, actually bought one but UPS destroyed it, and haven't yet decided to pull the trigger again. There's a lot to like about the 3821.
I love the OLED deep blacks I see from the AW3423DW, but it's always out of stock. Plus still $1300, if it was $999 and in-stock I'd probably would've gotten it. Now that I have had both sizes the 34" UW and 38" UW, no question the 38" is the dang near perfect size. And I just had the 42" LG C2 for a day before returning, but the C2 felt like I hooked up a basic TV to my PC, and was just too big for being on my desk right in front of me, the large flat screen just being 18 inches from my face was just too much, plus it didn't work like a desktop monitor I'm used too, not a big deal, but just not my cup of tea.
Right now the 38" is just such a sweet size, and I like the curved display too. I rather wait for the next gen OLED from Alienware after the 3423, hopefully they'll produce a 38" OLED in a year or two.
The blacks, response rate, and better HDR are what make me want the 3423. The size and no burn in is what makes me hesitate and keep my 3821 so far. Lately I've not been gaming much on my monitor, just using it for things like Nuendo and there the extra pixels are really nice. While 3440x1440 would work fine, 3840x1600 is just really nice. Particularly the extra vertical as it means I can see more tracks and the fader bars at the same time. I've always likes the :10 ratios on monitors better, I had a 16:10 1920x1200 NEC for years, then a 16:10 2560x1600 NEC for years after that. Moved down to a 16:9 2560x1440 Viewsonic because I wanted Gsync and high frame rate. This one got me interested because of the 24:10 aspect ratio.
Reading posts on Reddit scared me away from the AW3423DW, people with burn issues, and that Pixel refresh thing popping up often even while gaming. And some other funky issues.
Yes the OLED tech would be awesome, but I just love this 38" size so much, rather wait for a second gen OLED from Alienware.
Yes the OLED tech would be awesome, but I just love this 38" size so much, rather wait for a second gen OLED from Alienware.
I mean, always take Reddit with a grain of salt. There are a lot of dummies on there who do stupid shit then whine about it. I think basically every piece of hardware I own and like, including the 3821, has gotten shit on by plenty of people on Reddit. Nothing wrong with waiting though, and the 3821 should keep you very happy.
It even isn't terrible at HDR. It isn't great, but it does a better job than I thought it would. Has like 32 zones so it does an ok-ish job with differences in scene brightness. Can't do bright points of light without washing out, but it actually looks much better than I thought it would. I expected it to be totally unusable in HDR and it isn't.
Probably going to box up the AW3821DW and return it, and I'm back on my AW3420DW that I have custom calibrated and the picture looks at good as I can get this type of display to be, punchy colors, and decent blacks.
The AW3821DW had really bad backlight bleeding, like in dark scenes and even booting up Windows and the the black screen would be dark grey on the sides, and very light grey in the middle. not even remotely BLACK, but grey to light grey.. Don't know why, but this 3420 seems to have deeper richer colors than the 3821.
Anyways, I'll wait for the AW3423DW to come back in stock one day at Microcenter, both stores near me always show it Sold Out lately
Oh yeah, the size difference between the 34" and 38", yes the 38" is nicer no question, but honestly, between the two not a night and day difference, I had my 38" pushed further back on the desk to be able to see the sides better, but with the 34" I move it closer towards me, and now there's barely much difference to me, size wise. But 3440 X 1440 is much easier to crank out high FPS than it is on the 38", but really it was the washed out look on the 38" everything seemed very light, no matter what settings I adjusted or tried custom ICC profiles, I couldn't get it to look as vibrant or deep as the 3420. Oh well, I guess I'll wait for the OLED.
The AW3821DW had really bad backlight bleeding, like in dark scenes and even booting up Windows and the the black screen would be dark grey on the sides, and very light grey in the middle. not even remotely BLACK, but grey to light grey.. Don't know why, but this 3420 seems to have deeper richer colors than the 3821.
Anyways, I'll wait for the AW3423DW to come back in stock one day at Microcenter, both stores near me always show it Sold Out lately
Oh yeah, the size difference between the 34" and 38", yes the 38" is nicer no question, but honestly, between the two not a night and day difference, I had my 38" pushed further back on the desk to be able to see the sides better, but with the 34" I move it closer towards me, and now there's barely much difference to me, size wise. But 3440 X 1440 is much easier to crank out high FPS than it is on the 38", but really it was the washed out look on the 38" everything seemed very light, no matter what settings I adjusted or tried custom ICC profiles, I couldn't get it to look as vibrant or deep as the 3420. Oh well, I guess I'll wait for the OLED.
Microcenter is a joy to deal with.
I bought the LG C2 42," last month. Tried it out, returned it. No issues with them.
And now just returned the 38" Ultrawide, again zero hassle from them. Full return, no questions asked.
Now to wait for the OLED 34" to come back in stock.
Reason I'm sticking to MC is because I have major gift cards I've been using that I've had for a while.
I bought the LG C2 42," last month. Tried it out, returned it. No issues with them.
And now just returned the 38" Ultrawide, again zero hassle from them. Full return, no questions asked.
Now to wait for the OLED 34" to come back in stock.
Reason I'm sticking to MC is because I have major gift cards I've been using that I've had for a while.
I love how hassle free they are also. Also get 5% off if you use their credit card. Basically covers tax for me.
I would so shop at them if there was one here.
My 1 week with the 38" Ultrawide, I will say the size is just about perfect, I really liked it a lot. But it seemed sort of washed out, especially in dark areas when gaming, like light gray, not even close to black. But the colors looked good, in WoW, the monitor looked pretty good, and colorful.
But...it just didn't blow me away or anything, yes the size is probably perfect, and that's it. My 2 year old AW3420DW actually seems to be more vibrant, with punchier colors, and the blacks darker grey than the light gray on the 38". But at the end of the day I couldn't justify spending around $1,000 for pretty much the same exact monitor I already have just 4" larger, and in some way worse, with the light bleed and washed out look.
The difference between my AW3420DW and the AW3821DW wasn't that big, except the size. The colors actually worse on the 38, and blacks seemed faded on it. My 34" is also easier to run for higher fps.
Bottomline, I think the perfect monitor ever would be a 38" Ultrawide QD-OLED, but for now the best PC Gaming display is probably the AW3423DW.
But...it just didn't blow me away or anything, yes the size is probably perfect, and that's it. My 2 year old AW3420DW actually seems to be more vibrant, with punchier colors, and the blacks darker grey than the light gray on the 38". But at the end of the day I couldn't justify spending around $1,000 for pretty much the same exact monitor I already have just 4" larger, and in some way worse, with the light bleed and washed out look.
The difference between my AW3420DW and the AW3821DW wasn't that big, except the size. The colors actually worse on the 38, and blacks seemed faded on it. My 34" is also easier to run for higher fps.
Bottomline, I think the perfect monitor ever would be a 38" Ultrawide QD-OLED, but for now the best PC Gaming display is probably the AW3423DW.
https://www.microcenter.com/product...40-x-1440)-175hz-curved-screen-gaming-monitor
NOT CARRIED
Did MC stop selling this monitor? It's been sold out for weeks
NOT CARRIED
Did MC stop selling this monitor? It's been sold out for weeks
Did you have HDR enabled in Windows? I find the gamma and contrast way off in SDR but pretty good in HDR.
Yes. I tried it with HDR enabled in Windows for a few days, and then a few days with it off.
Actually with HDR on in Windows it seems too bright or washed out, but obviously better in games.
I guess just looking at the monitor, I was thinking, yeah this 38" is the sweet spot size, but....the display image wasn't any better than my current AW3420DW, and in some cases was a little bit worse. It had pretty bad backlight bleed, especially in the middle of the screen, blacks were washed out light gray in the center, and both sides of the screen were dark grey, but never truly black whatsoever.
So I thought this weekend, was it worth spending $1,000 for basically the same monitor that's just 4" larger, and maybe a little bit more washed out looking.
And I said, no it's not worth it, in gaming I saw nothing extra special compared to the AW3420DW besides the extra vertical height gained by 1600p which is nice, but is that worth $1,000 No, it's not.
Plus knowing the highly reviewed OLED AW3423DW is out and almost the same price made me say get that, or wait till it's in stock.
Is this someone's setup here? I'd like to get wallpaper;
https://www.reddit.com/r/ultrawidem...rx/alienware_aw3821dw_what_a_monster_love_it/
https://www.reddit.com/r/ultrawidem...rx/alienware_aw3821dw_what_a_monster_love_it/
Attachments
Returned the Asus ROG 42" OLED, and went back to the Alienware 38" Ultrawide LOL
Few reasons didn't like the Asus 42", number one the size, on my desk, which is 28" deep, even pushed all the way back it was just too big, I would be looking up and down to see all of it. But mostly, I realized I like 21:9 over 16:9 aspect ratio. Having an Ultrawide for a few years now, I have become accustomed to that UW view, and 16:9 everything looks so big, large and blown up in size, whereas in 21:9, game UIs and characters look more compact and tighter and I just prefer that look much more than the oversized inflated look 16:9 gives me.
Yes the OLED blacks are AMAZING, look so good, and the AW3821DW sucks for deep blacks, this monitor just can't do black to save it's life LOL. But colors and vibrancy and punchy reds and blues, once calibrated the Alienware gives a very pretty image.
I mostly play World of Warcraft and New World now, and those games are more outdoors and have bright colors and natural settings, very little deep dark parts of the game. So OLED blacks just don't matter as much, because in these MMOs it's not really there. But having a bright display with punchy colors are important, and this 38 AW gives me that in spades easily.
And I just love this size, 38" Ultrawide to me is the darn near perfect size for a gaming display, I have it set back on my 28" deep desk, but the way the monitor is set on it's stand it's closer to me than the Asus 42 is with it's flush feet.
So yeah, this Alienware 38" Ultrawide is my keeper until an OLED version comes out in something larger than a 34" that is still UW and curved. I found 34" just too narrow and small, but 38" the sweet spot.
Few reasons didn't like the Asus 42", number one the size, on my desk, which is 28" deep, even pushed all the way back it was just too big, I would be looking up and down to see all of it. But mostly, I realized I like 21:9 over 16:9 aspect ratio. Having an Ultrawide for a few years now, I have become accustomed to that UW view, and 16:9 everything looks so big, large and blown up in size, whereas in 21:9, game UIs and characters look more compact and tighter and I just prefer that look much more than the oversized inflated look 16:9 gives me.
Yes the OLED blacks are AMAZING, look so good, and the AW3821DW sucks for deep blacks, this monitor just can't do black to save it's life LOL. But colors and vibrancy and punchy reds and blues, once calibrated the Alienware gives a very pretty image.
I mostly play World of Warcraft and New World now, and those games are more outdoors and have bright colors and natural settings, very little deep dark parts of the game. So OLED blacks just don't matter as much, because in these MMOs it's not really there. But having a bright display with punchy colors are important, and this 38 AW gives me that in spades easily.
And I just love this size, 38" Ultrawide to me is the darn near perfect size for a gaming display, I have it set back on my 28" deep desk, but the way the monitor is set on it's stand it's closer to me than the Asus 42 is with it's flush feet.
So yeah, this Alienware 38" Ultrawide is my keeper until an OLED version comes out in something larger than a 34" that is still UW and curved. I found 34" just too narrow and small, but 38" the sweet spot.
One other thing to try on your 3821 is turning on variable backlight and see if you like that for helping with black levels. It can't do anything about "bright spot on dark area" or vice versa, but it can help when large areas are dark. The downside is that you'll see the zones flick on and off, so you have to decide if it is worth it to you. Mode 0 gives the best blacks, allowing the lights to go fully off as far as I can tell, but more noticeable zone flicking. Mode 1 reduces the intensity of the differences.
I go back and forth myself on what I like, and it can kinda depend on the game. Just something to play with and see if you like it.
I go back and forth myself on what I like, and it can kinda depend on the game. Just something to play with and see if you like it.
Thanks. What about Dark Stabilizer setting?
And for World of Warcraft I tried it in Windows 11 HDR off and it looked so much nicer. For some reason with HDR on in Windows 11 and playing Warcraft game got too bright in some areas and looked off. And general desktop use looks much sharper and nicer with HDR off on this monitor.
But on the flip side, playing Halo Infinite with HDR off looked kinda dull, it didn't have that super cool look like HDR gives, but Halo looked amazing on the Asus ROG 42 OLED, that monitor made the game look insane.
So for gaming what Visual Backlight mode? And what Dark Stabilizer setting?
Respond Time: Fast. Is that good setting?
Game Enhance mode: Off. Is that ok?
Last edited: