Dell Alienware AW3423DW 34″ QD-OLED 175Hz (3440 x 1440)

You guys must be doing something wrong. When I put my PG32 next to my LG OLED, the PG32 wrecked it in color volume/saturation. LG OLEDs have pretty mediocre colors honestly (as the test data shows) and one reason why I got rid of it.
This just sounds like hyperbole a bit. Linus recently did a video with the G2 versus the s95b (s95b is wayyy better than the Alienware in terms of sustained brightness) they looked very close. The difference between the s95b and G2 is much more significant on paper than the difference between the Alienware and the LG C2.

I'm not saying the color volume wouldn't be noticeable, but there definitely is some unusual dimming behavior on the Alienware. Rtings rated the alienwares "Real scene brightness" at around the same nit peak as its 400 true black setting. In you average HDR scene the C2 is potentially brighter. Color volume not withstanding.
 
if you only play games here & There and dont watch movies on the AW would it better to just switch to True black 400 then keep it at the 1000nit setting?
 
if you only play games here & There and dont watch movies on the AW would it better to just switch to True black 400 then keep it at the 1000nit setting?

Some one can correct me if I'm wrong here, but it seems like the True Black 400 is the better looking setting. The 1000nit one is cool, but not where you should really leave it set.
 
if you only play games here & There and dont watch movies on the AW would it better to just switch to True black 400 then keep it at the 1000nit setting?

Some one can correct me if I'm wrong here, but it seems like the True Black 400 is the better looking setting. The 1000nit one is cool, but not where you should really leave it set.
People, including reviewers, seem to disagree so I think it comes down to personal preference. They each have advantages and disadvantages:

--The advantages of TrueBlack 400 are first and foremost that you won't get nearly as much ABL/changing in brightness. The screen can do 400 nits up to 10% of the screen, and just a touch under it at 25%. So unless there is a LOT of bright shit on the screen, it won't need to limit brightness. Likewise another advantage is that with a monitor you are close up and maybe you don't want it to get eye searingly bright and this keeps it from doing so. The disadvantage is it just doesn't get as bright in total. The screen can get over twice as bright as this mode will allow so you aren't going to get super bright highlights.

--The advantage of 1000nit mode is that you can get really bright highlights. 1000 nits is as high as a lot of displays peak out at, and is what a non-trivial amount of stuff is mastered for. So you can get some really bright, dynamic, highlights on things. Like as bright as many FALD LED bright. However the disadvantage is you can only get that brightness in a small area, and when more gets bright the screen will limit. 1% can do 1000 nit, 2% gets close enought o make no real difference but 5% is about 700 nit so noticeably darker. What that means is if games have large areas that get bright, you'll notice the ABL kicking in and the brightness will drop, and then go back up when it goes down to a smaller area.

Which is better? As I said, up to the individual. 1000 gets more dynamic range, 400 gets a more stable brightness overall. The tradeoffs of OLED, sadly.
 
People, including reviewers, seem to disagree so I think it comes down to personal preference. They each have advantages and disadvantages:

--The advantages of TrueBlack 400 are first and foremost that you won't get nearly as much ABL/changing in brightness. The screen can do 400 nits up to 10% of the screen, and just a touch under it at 25%. So unless there is a LOT of bright shit on the screen, it won't need to limit brightness. Likewise another advantage is that with a monitor you are close up and maybe you don't want it to get eye searingly bright and this keeps it from doing so. The disadvantage is it just doesn't get as bright in total. The screen can get over twice as bright as this mode will allow so you aren't going to get super bright highlights.

--The advantage of 1000nit mode is that you can get really bright highlights. 1000 nits is as high as a lot of displays peak out at, and is what a non-trivial amount of stuff is mastered for. So you can get some really bright, dynamic, highlights on things. Like as bright as many FALD LED bright. However the disadvantage is you can only get that brightness in a small area, and when more gets bright the screen will limit. 1% can do 1000 nit, 2% gets close enought o make no real difference but 5% is about 700 nit so noticeably darker. What that means is if games have large areas that get bright, you'll notice the ABL kicking in and the brightness will drop, and then go back up when it goes down to a smaller area.

Which is better? As I said, up to the individual. 1000 gets more dynamic range, 400 gets a more stable brightness overall. The tradeoffs of OLED, sadly.
It's actually so strange and something I have never seen with any other display. Reviewers pretty much unanimously recommend HDR 1000 mode, but many owners seem to prefer HDR 400 even though on paper it's much worse HDR (in content as well as it destroys detail in bright areas). The abl of this monitor seems to be on another level even compared to other OLEDs and I think that is the reason there is such a discrepancy. Some users even see the monitor noticeably "flicker" during certain bright game events, while other cannot notice at all.

Again, on paper the abl is more relaxed per Vincent's video and it has higher sustained peak brightness at larger window sizes. This doesn't seem to be the case in real content though.
 
People, including reviewers, seem to disagree so I think it comes down to personal preference. They each have advantages and disadvantages:

--The advantages of TrueBlack 400 are first and foremost that you won't get nearly as much ABL/changing in brightness. The screen can do 400 nits up to 10% of the screen, and just a touch under it at 25%. So unless there is a LOT of bright shit on the screen, it won't need to limit brightness. Likewise another advantage is that with a monitor you are close up and maybe you don't want it to get eye searingly bright and this keeps it from doing so. The disadvantage is it just doesn't get as bright in total. The screen can get over twice as bright as this mode will allow so you aren't going to get super bright highlights.

--The advantage of 1000nit mode is that you can get really bright highlights. 1000 nits is as high as a lot of displays peak out at, and is what a non-trivial amount of stuff is mastered for. So you can get some really bright, dynamic, highlights on things. Like as bright as many FALD LED bright. However the disadvantage is you can only get that brightness in a small area, and when more gets bright the screen will limit. 1% can do 1000 nit, 2% gets close enought o make no real difference but 5% is about 700 nit so noticeably darker. What that means is if games have large areas that get bright, you'll notice the ABL kicking in and the brightness will drop, and then go back up when it goes down to a smaller area.

Which is better? As I said, up to the individual. 1000 gets more dynamic range, 400 gets a more stable brightness overall. The tradeoffs of OLED, sadly.

Nice breakdown.
 
I have been comparing movies between 400 and 1000 a lot and I really don't ever see ABL kicking in in 1000 mode.

1000 mode is noticeably more dynamic looking and I must prefer it to the 400 mode.

However, the big issue with 400 mode is that it hard clips at 400 and this makes it overall un-usable for movies without a configurable tone-mapping solution like madVR.

The 400 mode works fine for games, because the peak nits can be set in the game for the 400 mode, so the game rolls of to 400 nits and doesn't clip.
 
thank you i do notice the ABL kick in alot especially in Destiny 2 when changing from my character to anything like destinations / seasonal tab /quests its very noticeable. ill give this a shot soon as i get a chance see if it makes a diff.
 
Has anyone found a way to clean this thing without damaging the coating? It seems to be absurdly fragile.

I have been cleaning mine with these:

https://www.amazon.com/Non-Abrasive-Sensitive-Telescopes-Microscopes-Binoculars/dp/B005TH5I2E

I use these to clean lenses and various things. I see no damage to the coating or any micro scratches left over even when looking up close with a flashlight on the screen at an angle. Looks perfectly smooth and clean after.


I would never use a re-usable cloth like a microfiber as those can easily trap fine particulates like dust from the air or from previous cleanings that can then scratch the surface you are cleaning.
 
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thank you i do notice the ABL kick in alot especially in Destiny 2 when changing from my character to anything like destinations / seasonal tab /quests its very noticeable. ill give this a shot soon as i get a chance see if it makes a diff.

I do notice ABL in games and I think overall I prefer 400 mode for games.

But movies are far lower APL than games and I have not noticed ABL in movies for what it's worth. Plus like I said, 400 mode has massive clipping in movies, unless you set up madVR and set it's output to 400 nits.
 
I would never use a re-usable cloth like a microfiber as those can easily trap fine particulates like dust from the air or from previous cleanings that can then scratch the surface you are cleaning.
That makes a lot of sense actually. I will check these out.
 
I've used camera and lens cleaning wipes for years with LCD displays specificly because the plastics are more prone to scratching. And those wipes tend to be ultra gentle and use really gentle cleaning solutions because optics can be extremely sensitive and generally designed to really never be touched. So they need to be gentle af. always read reviews though, because some are really crappy.
 
It's actually so strange and something I have never seen with any other display. Reviewers pretty much unanimously recommend HDR 1000 mode, but many owners seem to prefer HDR 400 even though on paper it's much worse HDR (in content as well as it destroys detail in bright areas). The abl of this monitor seems to be on another level even compared to other OLEDs and I think that is the reason there is such a discrepancy. Some users even see the monitor noticeably "flicker" during certain bright game events, while other cannot notice at all.

Again, on paper the abl is more relaxed per Vincent's video and it has higher sustained peak brightness at larger window sizes. This doesn't seem to be the case in real content though.
I think there's a couple reasons you are seeing this:

1) The biggest is just that other OLEDs don't let you control their ABL, there is no "cap to 400 nits" mode so you can't compare and contrast. So people simply accept that the ABL of an LG is what it is, because you can't choose to change it. Here you can try both, and so people are discovering perhaps they prefer less ABL but less brightness. I might liken it to speaker volume and distortion. If you have a system where you can't adjust the volume dial, you just deal with what you get and maybe those loud parts have more distortion but it is just normal to you. However if you then get one where you can turn down the max volume, perhaps you discover that you like that even though it is quieter, you like the fact that it doesn't distort.

2) Another is that the curve of the AW seems to be steeper than the LGs in the highlights. It goes higher, but falls faster. The LG is about 700 nits from 1% to 10% so you are going to be the same, no limiting, with any content up to 10% peak window. The AW falls between 1% and 2% and then keeps falling, there it can only max out a very small window. That said once the LG starts falling, it falls lower than the AW does and is lower for all the bigger window sizes but if that's not what you are seeing in actual content. The big difference is in the 5-10% range. The LG is steady at 700 nits, the AW falls from 700 to 450.

3) Content creators may well be working around the LG's limitations, but not the AW's since it is new. If you are designing something in HDR you may well test and grade on one of LG's screens to see how it looks and thus may avoid having bright scenes that go over 10% window very often, if at all. However, you might well push up to that as much as you like since it really doesn't hurt anything. That is not the same for the AW in its peak bright mode, it just has to limit sooner. I've noticed something related with some Netflix productions and videogames with FALD TVs, which I have one of. In some games, particularly something not designed for HDR but using auto HDR it is super obvious when things move across backlight zones. You get small bright objects that just cause everything around them to wash out and this overbright ripple as they move across the zones. However other things don't have this issue. Assassin's Creed Valhalla and Stranger Things are two good examples where you rarely notice the zones, even though they use a lot of bright HDR. I suspect this is because they test the visuals on FALD TVs and have designed them to try and mitigate issues when possible, not having small bright objects but rather bright areas that transition over a bit to darker ones.

Ultimately it is just something we have to deal with and get used to on OLEDs for the foreseeable future. At some point I'm sure they'll figure out how to overcome it, but for now there are just going to be limits to how much can be bright at once. I also think Dell made the right choice in offering people an option, even if it is generating much consternation on forums.
 
It probably really depends on the space you using it in. In a dark basement like most of us would probably prefer 400 true black. 1000nit are for the people that need to use this with the sun directly on it. I am really having a tough time picking between this and the Samsung G8. I do have a 15% discount through work for the Dell so that is a extra $200 off. I do miss UW.
 
did some testing its either a psychotic ABL or just how Destiny 2 is when switching between Destinations/inventory/settings. i am almost certain ill test with my old dell 32 inch.
 
My replacement monitor arrived today. It came packaged in a standard brown Dell box. Unfortunately it wasn't packaged well due to the inner padding being too thick for the box itself so it bulged out in the center and broke the tape in that area. The monitor didn't have the bubble wrap taped over the screen so it didn't have those markings but it came with lots of smudges and finger prints so I had to spend some extra time cleaning it off only to find this one too has etch marks that won't come off. I'm a bit disappointed in how Dell handled the packaging and shipping of this monitor.

Fortunately, I got the monitor set up and working and so far so good. It has the same firmware as the old one (M0B101) but was manufactured in February 2022 while my other was in January 2022. Hopefully this one goes more than two months without getting burn-in.
 


No Burn in just the way he labeled the video.

I will never understand some Youtubers. Here's a guy who seems to care about his sound quality enough to buy a DBX 286s mic preamp/processor which isn't hugely expensive but still is about $300... but then doesn't care enough to make sure his recording is centered in the stereo field. ><
 
So I recently got a S28G70A side monitor from work, a highly regarded 4k 144Hz HDMI 2.1 screen and connected a PS5 to it for HFW but as good as the monitor is for an IPS, I'd still drawn to this for the sheer gamut and HDR, 1080p 120 Hz HDR on this beats 4k 144 Hz kinda HDR :) (decent for 8 zone edge lit) on the IPS subjectively speaking.
 
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So I recently got a S28G70A side monitor from work, a highly regarded 4k 144Hz HDMI 2.1 screen and connected a PS5 to it for HFW but as good as the monitor is for an IPS, I'd still drawn to this for the sheer gamut and HDR, 1080p 120 Hz HDR on this beats 4k 144 Hz kinda HDR :) (decent for 8 zone edge lit) on the IPS subjectively speaking.
Lets hope Sony add 1440p support soon but would this mean no HDR?

Mine got delivered today, excited!
 
Contrast setting might have something to do with preference of 400 over 1000 in addition to room brightness, with higher contrast, I believe the ABL is more noticeable.
 
I have been cleaning mine with these:

https://www.amazon.com/Non-Abrasive-Sensitive-Telescopes-Microscopes-Binoculars/dp/B005TH5I2E

I use these to clean lenses and various things. I see no damage to the coating or any micro scratches left over even when looking up close with a flashlight on the screen at an angle. Looks perfectly smooth and clean after.


I would never use a re-usable cloth like a microfiber as those can easily trap fine particulates like dust from the air or from previous cleanings that can then scratch the surface you are cleaning.
Do you use these with the recommended eclipse/aeroclipse cleaning fluid? I'm planning on ordering a pack and giving them a try.
 
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Anyone calibrated it with an i1 display pro?

There are so many settings I need a good guide so I can just leave it in HDR mode.

The picture is stunning, finally good blacks and HDR on a monitor.
 
FPS Sweatlord Review: https://www.reddit.com/r/ultrawidemasterrace/comments/vi3pwa/aw3423dw_an_fps_sweatlord_review/

Background:
Former Counter Strike competitor that can't find joy in non-competitive games. If I'm not sweating, I'm not having fun. This gets harder every year because I just turned 41 years old. I take supplements, work out, do wrist/hand stretches, yoga and aim train like I'm going to a tournament almost every day. I'm the crazy guy that overclocks like mad, uses custom windows builds and does everything he can to reduce input latency in Windows. Opinions below are comparisons to the Asus TUF 280hz 1080p (VG279QM) monitor, it's been my main for the last 2 years.

Display Settings:
I like the normal preset, FPS is too bright and I crank digital vibrance up to 80 in the Nvidia Control Panel for most FPS games. Color accuracy doesn't matter, all my games run potato graphics anyway. Gsync enabled (See below for why).

Input Lag:
I would recommend disabling display scaling in the Nvidia control panel and enabling Gsync. Normally I would say to disable Gsync for lower input lag but the reviews at TFTCentral/PCmonitors.info report lower input lag with Gsync enabled. I emailed the editors to confirm Gsync was enabled for their tests and they confirmed it is. Rtings and every other review had Gsync disabled which seems to add 3ms input latency on this monitor which is VERY unusual. For reference, my VG279QM is the second lowest input lag monitor in Rtings database, 2ms total input lag with Gsync disabled.
"A sensitive camera and a utility called SMTT 2.0 was used to analyze the latency of the AW3423DW. Over 30 repeat readings were taken to help maximize accuracy. Using this method, we calculated 5.17ms (under 1 frame at 175Hz) of input lag and recorded similar values at lower refresh rates, including 60Hz and 120Hz."

Human Benchmark:
Usually I average around 160ms in human benchmark on the VG279QM. I can get under 150ms in the mid afternoon but that's a best case scenario. On the AW3423DW I get similar results in a direct comparison done back to back. I repeated the tests 10 times on each display. It seems like the 3ms higher input latency of the AW3423DW over the VG279QM is within my margin of error.

Kovaaks:
I'm at 900 hours in Kovaaks so I have years worth of benchmarks on the VG279QM to use as a baseline. So far the AW3423DW is doing an amazing job, most of my scores are similar to my daily averages. It's my first ultrawide display so the size of the targets on my standard 103 FOV is a big change. I haven't set any new personal records with this monitor yet but that is no surprise, it will likely take a couple weeks to really become accustomed to the display. My Tracking scores from 3 days of tests look very good, higher averages than normal. Flick scores are pretty much identical.
For reference, I'm Platinum in Voltaic Season 3 which means I'm very good but no where near current pro FPS players (Grand Master and above). Most of my Kovaaks time is spent on the Warzone playlist because that's my game of choice, in that playlist I have top 300 scores (98th percentile) in almost every scenario. My mouse sense is 32 CM/360 but I change it regularly and it varies from game to game.

Warzone:
Warzone is the primary reason I bought the AW3423DW, in the last year most of the competitive streamers have moved to 1440p displays for this game. They are switching to 1440p displays because Warzone has pretty severe visibility issues and higher resolution really helps with target identification. The game can't run much past 250FPS on any CPU at 1080P due to insane CPU demands, even with a 12900ks at 5.5ghz and super tight memory timings you still get drops to 210fps. At 3440x1440, with some overclocking skills it's not too difficult to run Warzone at 175fps constantly because the GPU is the bottleneck. I only have a 5600x and RTX3080 (Both heavily OCed) and I can almost maintain 175fps. I suspect the competitive streamers would use 3440x1440 if it wasn't so awful for streaming.
So far this AW3423DW is a game changer in Warzone. The colors and depth to the display allow me to see people better than I ever could before. It's actually shocking how awesome ultrawide is for this game. I'm using 120fov which I was concerned I would need to lower because targets would be too small but the clarity and motion smoothness makes target acquisition easy. OLED contrast is legitimately a competitive advantage for identifying campers in bushes. I primarily play solos and had 6 wins yesterday with a 7.5kd (Admittedly in the Champion of Caldera mode which has a lot of bad players but still).
For reference, I have a 3.93 KD in Caldera. This puts me in the top 0.5% of players and probably top 0.01% of mouse and keyboard players. Competing with controller aim assist demands near perfect close range tracking, rotational aim assist is literally better than any human can be because it's instantaneous, whereas mouse and keyboard players have to see the movement and react to it manually. No game dev will ever make a Battle Royale that is mouse and keyboard only ever again (Sadly).
Pro Tip: In season 2 of Caldera Raven added a setting that lets you move the minimap and horizontal HUD closer to the center of the display, this is VITAL for ultrawide users because you need to reference the minimap every couple seconds in Warzone.
Tracker: https://wzstats.gg/profile/Grifter#2115962/platform/acti
Tracker: https://cod.tracker.gg/warzone/profile/battlenet/Grifter#1231/overview

Rocket League:
Looks amazing, easy tracking, don't notice the reduction from 280hz down to 175hz thanks to OLED pixel transition speed. I'm not that good at Rocket League but it's fun with friends. Also ultrawide is very nice in this game, I can see more of what is happening around me.

HDR/Color Fringing/Fan Noise/Brightness/Reflective/Firmware/Order Date & Location:
I haven't tried HDR because it doesn't help competitive play.
I don't know what people are talking about, fonts look great and much better than they did on my 55 inch LG C7 OLED. Tested in W10 and W11, guess I'm just easy to please in that department coming from a 27inch 1080p display. Didn't mess with my font settings at all either.
I can't hear the fans pretty much ever. Who cares, I'm wearing headphones.
The display is very bright at 75%, at 100% it's WAY too bright. I don't know why 400nits is the goal for some folks, that is about 250nits above calibration targets for RGB.
I hate reflective displays but this one is pretty good, it's not distracting.
Firmware: M0B101
Ordered: March 5th, received June 20 Canada.
 
Do you use these with the recommended eclipse/aeroclipse cleaning fluid? I'm planning on ordering a pack and giving them a try.

I have not used any liquid yet as I have not needed to.


I have only needed to clean off occasional finger smudges and similar things.

If I needed more than a dry wipe clean I would start with distilled water, and then move to the Eclipse cleaning solution if the distilled water didn't work.
 
Finally got mine setup today. Moved from an LG 34GN850 gotta say that I am not super impressed initially - for all of the hype. I am looking into what I need to tweak, etc. Just fired it up and using in Windows and have played a couple rounds of Fortnite (5800X3D / 3090 Ti).

I'm also having sleep issues - display won't turn off and screen saver won't turn on. Windows 11, I'm sure.

Either way - gonna hang onto it and upgrade my son's rig to a new monitor. :) Not a bad hand me down for him (the LG).
 
Finally got mine setup today. Moved from an LG 34GN850 gotta say that I am not super impressed initially - for all of the hype. I am looking into what I need to tweak, etc. Just fired it up and using in Windows and have played a couple rounds of Fortnite (5800X3D / 3090 Ti).

I'm also having sleep issues - display won't turn off and screen saver won't turn on. Windows 11, I'm sure.

Either way - gonna hang onto it and upgrade my son's rig to a new monitor. :) Not a bad hand me down for him (the LG).
This monitor is for HDR and refresh rate, SDR use doesn't do it justice, yes uniformity and no BLB are great over IPS displays but not where it's true strength lies.
 
Hello,
I received the monitor yesterday and set it up today. I can slight marks at the top of the screen using a flashlight otherwise in regular use they aren't noticeable. My monitor's manufacture date is March 2022 and came with firmware M0B101. I have a question about the light by the joystick. Mine is flashing. Should it be flashing? I was looking through the menus and only see the option to turn it on or off. I don't mind leaving it off just wondering if it may indicate other issues to look out for with the monitor. thanks.
 
Hello,
I received the monitor yesterday and set it up today. I can slight marks at the top of the screen using a flashlight otherwise in regular use they aren't noticeable. My monitor's manufacture date is March 2022 and came with firmware M0B101. I have a question about the light by the joystick. Mine is flashing. Should it be flashing? I was looking through the menus and only see the option to turn it on or off. I don't mind leaving it off just wondering if it may indicate other issues to look out for with the monitor. thanks.
How long has it been in use? It's probably doing a pixel refresh.
 
Yeah mine did a refresh just now and I just started using it today - I’ve had it off a lot too (due to Win11 not sleeping correctly).

Turned on auto HDR in Win11 and now Fortnite is a bit more impressive. :)
 
I am a little annoyed with mine, I do have one stuck pixel, a dark red color, but knowing how long others have taken to get their replacements I am willing to wait a while to go for an RMA, I also get the occasional flash of a black screen, using both the provided DisplayPort cable and an Amazon Basics, no change. The Annoyance I have with it, I use it in the evening when I get home from work, I turn it on at say 7pm. use it till about 10pm, I turn it off and I see it goes in to refresh mode by slowly flashing green on the power button, the next evening I get home from work I turn it on and the on screen says it NEEDS to preform a refresh due to being past time to do so.... WTF was it doing the entire day it was turned off?

I believe it is using the M0B101 firmware everyone else has too, seems there are some bugs in this firmware that needed to be ironed out before release, BUT since Dell refuses to allow updates by the end user... all we can do is RMA it.
 
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