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

It is OLED property that's too organic to emit steady light at the start of each frame. There is oscillation happening. Or it doesn't have involuntary/general PWM behavior in a short period enough to cause eye strain.

Eyes cannot stare at a flickering monitor at just average 200nits brightness for long.

I have said it somewhere before.
https://hardforum.com/threads/the-3...s-started-wait-for-it.2002618/post-1045498268
Kram, have you tried to use custom timings on the DW based on CVT-RBv2 ? I'm curious if tightening the refresh parameters and removing blank cycle may have an effect on that flickering you've been showing in that video.
 
Kram, have you tried to use custom timings on the DW based on CVT-RBv2 ? I'm curious if tightening the refresh parameters and removing blank cycle may have an effect on that flickering you've been showing in that video.
It's already tightened to the max. The flickers happen even at 60Hz with custom resolution. It happens on the bottom level.
 
Bottom level as in near black?
No, the flicker is on the level of the operating mechanism where OLED emits light when it is biased by voltage.
If normal user settings can tune it off, these manufactures would've fixed it already.
 
Saw this monitor on display at Microcenter and they had it with a light / white theme in Windows and I have to say it look really gorgeous.

But running in light theme, not dark mode. Does that destroy a monitor like this?
 
Saw this monitor on display at Microcenter and they had it with a light / white theme in Windows and I have to say it look really gorgeous.

But running in light theme, not dark mode. Does that destroy a monitor like this?
Probably not? I would think that white on black background would be more suspect to have burn in over time.
 
Which preset should I use for SDR sRGB gaming? I don't care for HDR or DCI-P3 colorspace. I have neither a coloriemter nor a spectrophotometer right now to take measurements and/or perform any calibration, but reviews say this monitor comes with presets pre-configured for accurate colors. I want to game using:
- D65 whitepoint
- sRGB/Rec.709 colorspace
- 6500K temperature
- BT.1886 gamma curve (or Power-Law 2.2 gamma curve)

Does anyone know whether i1Display Pro (now ColorChecker Display) colorimeter is able to accurately measure this monitor's color output with its standard OLED profile? Colorimeters use different profiles for different display types but a spectrophotometer like i1 Pro 3 is needed to actually measure light output and then use that output to profile a colorimeter. The issue is that new display technologies like QD-OLED use atypical narrow light spectrum and common consumer calibration equipment is not sensitive enough to capture accurate readings from displays that use such narrow spectrum. A high-end Klein or Minolta spectrophotometer may be necessary to capture accurate readings from this monitor, but I don't know for sure... Is there someone here with i1 Display Pro and i1 Pro 3 (or i1 Pro 1 or similar) who can share his/her results?
 
So after I plugged in the monitor, and F'd around too much with an ICC Profile that went nowhere, and maybe deleted the default. My NZXT Cam software that shows the temps on the CPU cooler stopped working. It's stuck at 26c CPU and 23c GPU, I uninstalled the software and reinstalled, and that did nothing.

Or is there a recommended ICC profile?

Right now I have it set;

-Creator mode
-Game Enhancer Mode - Off
-Dark Stabilizer - 0
-HDR Mode - HDR 400 True Black
- Brightness - 52
-Contrast - 66

Input Source - DP

Thoughts, opinions on this?
 
Turning HDR off in Windows, makes World of Warcraft look deeper and richer. Yeah a bit darker too, but in my basement office with no windows, that's ok. But the game looks so vibrant and rich in colors and dark shadows, etc...

What Brightness and Contrast settings do you al use?
 

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Think I messed around with too many settings and now my image looks dark and not what I want.

Basic settings you guys have set for this monitor, specifically for gaming?

What OSD menu settings?
HDR enebaled or off? If enabled what brightness in Windows?
 
Zorachus

So you're back to the aw3423 again?


Yes sir :) Yesterday was my last return day for the AW3821DW, and I've been reading up on how great OLED's are for gaming, and specifically a buddy of mine that plays WoW: Dragonflight too, he said the deep rich colors and smooth motion make WoW look like a Pixar movie come to life :)

As much as I LOVE the size of the 38" Ultrawide, the image quality just sucked, very washed out colors, and no blacks whatsoever. Plus off viewing angles would give it a hazy almost smokey look if that makes sense. The 3423 OLED is literally night and day better when it comes to punchy rich colors, and off viewing angles are superb, the image quality still looks excellent when viewed from the side. And the blacks LOL frigging awesome.

I was on the fence of going 4k again, the LG C2 42", so close to getting that one again, but 4k is a beast of a res to run with high frames in modern games and ultra settings. I like my games to be maxed out highest settings with full AA/AF enabled, and not use things like DLSS, and the 3440 X 1440 res is just much easier to play games on, with maxed out settings and get high fps. To play @ 4k you really need a 4090, but to play at 3440 Ultrawide a 4080 is more than enough, or a 3090 or even a 3080 Ti, do just fine as well.

After setting up the monitor and playing some WoW, it was pure joy, the colors are just so rich, and the sky looks so blue and cool, and the smooth motion and buttery movement were great, and spells lighting up in such deep beautiful colors were a sight to behold.

The 42" flat 16:9 size is just not my cup of tea. Too large for a desk of 28" deep, and I prefer the curved Ultrawide design. The 38" Alienware I had would be my most fav size, just darn near perfection. I do feel 34" can be a bit small or narrow, and 42" way too large, so to me the 38" is the perfect sweet spot size. But I also really like the best image quality possible too, and a resolution that can be gamed on with maxed out settings and all the bells and whistles enabled and still get high frame rates and also have OLED which is just stunning.

The perfect monitor to me, does not exist yet, that would be an OLED Ultrawide in the 38" to 40" size. I think 32" to 34" monitors are too small, and anything above 40" is just too large in my opinion for a desktop PC used display. So that sweet spot is around 36" to 40" but in the Ultrawide letterbox shape.
 
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Bro you need help. You have flip flopped like 8x between the same displays over and over.

Best thing you can do is just get off this section of the forum.
No doubt PTSD thanks to Canon’s 2006 CES demo of SED and axing it all a year later. We could have been enjoying true blacks and good motion handling for 15 years already! ;)
 
Do you recommend going from Windows 10 Pro to 11 Pro just for the better auto HDR? Or stick with 10 Pro?
 
Do you recommend going from Windows 10 Pro to 11 Pro just for the better auto HDR? Or stick with 10 Pro?
I'm contemplating the same question. I just did a backup of my Win 10 Pro system in preparation for making the move... haven't decided yet if I actually will!
 
To enable HDR in games, I have to first turn it on in Windows right?

Or can I have it off in Windows, but on in the monitor's settings, and will the Gabe auto enable HDR on its own?
 
To enable HDR in games, I have to first turn it on in Windows right?

Or can I have it off in Windows, but on in the monitor's settings, and will the Gabe auto enable HDR on its own?
Vast majority of games require it on in windows. There are a couple that don’t, but it is very rare.
 
Do you recommend going from Windows 10 Pro to 11 Pro just for the better auto HDR? Or stick with 10 Pro?
I see no reason not to go with 11. I know there's lots of nerd rage over it, but really it is just a minor update over 10. I run it on both my personal systems, and we've upgraded probably 50-60% of work systems to it and it works as well as 10 did. If you don't like the new start menu, there's lots of replacement choices (Start 11 is my personal preference). It is stable (so long as the underlying system is stable) and I don't have issues with it, including pro software. I use Nuendo and it works happily on 11.

The auto-HDR is pretty good. It is an easy starting point for trying HDR in non-HDR games. There's also the Special K injector software which can replace the SDR pipeline with an HDR one in a game and potentially give better results. Unfortunately, it is like much of the free tweaking software out there in that it is heavy on the options, light on the documentation, so there's a lot of messing around to try and get something you like.

Something else to note about auto-HDR is to turn it off when you play a real HDR game. While, in theory, it shouldn't activate sometimes it gets confused. I had this happen with Resident Evil Village and it made everything look like crap. I flip it on only when I'm playing a game that needs it, off otherwise to make sure it doesn't activate when it shouldn't.

As an aside, I'd go for 144hz 10-bit. Personally, I do notice the 8-bit dither a little bit on my S95B. Now it isn't relevant in that case since it only runs 120Hz and you can do that with 8 or 10-bit (or 12) but I played around with it to see. On my 3821 I don't really notice the difference between dithered and not, probably because it isn't near as good at HDR but on the S95B I can see it. It isn't bad in 8-bit dithered, but 10-bit just looks better to me.
 
Downloading Win 11 Pro now, and I bought that Start 11 add-on, see how this goes.

Also switched to 10bit 144hz
 
Downloading Win 11 Pro now, and I bought that Start 11 add-on, see how this goes.

Also switched to 10bit 144hz
There's other start menu replacers as well, that is just the one I like the best. Some other people have different preferences.

One other thing with the fps is you can also try it back and forth in a game that you can run fast enough to peg 175fps. Try it at 144, then try it at 175. I find that the difference gets much more subtle as FPS goes up. Like the difference between 60 and 120 is way bigger than the difference between 120 and 240, despite that being a bigger numerical difference. If you find that you do notice a huge difference, that could influence how you like to set things. Personally I didn't notice much difference between 144 and 165 (I had a monitor that could do both of those, never had one that did 175) and didn't care much. 120 to 144 I can sometimes notice, I've played with that on my 3821, but it is pretty subtle and mostly noticeable on the desktop moving around windows.

But also, also there is the issue of how fast can you even run the HDR games? If you are running a game and it is pegging out in the 120-130 range and normally running in the 80-90 range, then running at 175 doesn't get you anything as you'll be (presumably) using Gsync for those lower frame rates anyhow. The difference in max fps isn't going to matter since you are hitting it rarely, if ever. On the other hand if you play something that can do 175fps flat out like 99% of the time, maybe it is more noticeable.

I find that for a lot of the newer eye-candy games that benefit from HDR, they are too intense for even my 3090 to peg the refresh rate of the monitor. Control (which looks FANTASTIC when you add HDR to it) rarely gets over 100fps, and usually is lower, sometimes even dipping below 60. Just too much eye candy on the screen to get super high fps, even with a beast of a GPU. I'd rather have the eye candy though.
 
Downloading Win 11 Pro now, and I bought that Start 11 add-on, see how this goes.

Also switched to 10bit 144hz
You don't need the start 11 thing just to shift the start menu back the left where it should be, FYI.
 
Upgraded to Windows 11 Pro and enabled Auto HDR and went through the Microsoft Calibration abd everything looks good.

But everyone I launch a game, this thing pops up, how do I stop this?
 

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Upgraded to Windows 11 Pro and enabled Auto HDR and went through the Microsoft Calibration abd everything looks good.

But everyone I launch a game, this thing pops up, how do I stop this?
I haven't seen that one. I would think the gaming overlay would already be installed. Maybe try turning it off in settings?
 
Installed Doom Eternal last night, and holy cow with Auto HDR in Windows 11, and in-game settings at Ultra this monitor looked amazeballs.

Nice thing with this display is it's not as demanding as 4k, so you'll get much higher franes at max settings.

Plus on a short desk like mine, only 28 inches deep, this monitor fits just right.
 
I want to try this but my Desk isn't setup for it I would have nowhere to put my Speakers and I have no idea if I would like the large size.
So going to wait for the 26.5 inch or 27" version I would get the Asus cause the stand on the LG is a joke.
 
Installed Doom Eternal last night, and holy cow with Auto HDR in Windows 11, and in-game settings at Ultra this monitor looked amazeballs.

Nice thing with this display is it's not as demanding as 4k, so you'll get much higher franes at max settings.

Plus on a short desk like mine, only 28 inches deep, this monitor fits just right.
Doom has native HDR support why are you relying on auto HDR.
 
I crossed the 1500 hour mark on my monitor (I got the panel refresh pop up). I'm still happy with my purchase but now I have one gripe: I have a retro computing device (a MEGA65) that outputs a 720 x 480 signal over HDMI. The AW has no problem with this, but it stretches it to 16x9. There does not appear to be any aspect ratio / stretch control in the OSD menu. I know this is an edge case, but I'm kind of bummed that I'm going to have to get a 2nd monitor now.
 
I crossed the 1500 hour mark on my monitor (I got the panel refresh pop up). I'm still happy with my purchase but now I have one gripe: I have a retro computing device (a MEGA65) that outputs a 720 x 480 signal over HDMI. The AW has no problem with this, but it stretches it to 16x9. There does not appear to be any aspect ratio / stretch control in the OSD menu. I know this is an edge case, but I'm kind of bummed that I'm going to have to get a 2nd monitor now.
What is a retro computing device?
 
I have a retro computing device (a MEGA65) that outputs a 720 x 480 signal over HDMI. The AW has no problem with this, but it stretches it to 16x9. There does not appear to be any aspect ratio / stretch control in the OSD menu. I know this is an edge case, but I'm kind of bummed...

...that I'm going to have to get a 2nd monitor now.
Whoa, whoa.

You could instead try a video processor / scaling device instead.

Basically a middleman box that upconverts.

They can add a bit of lag, but some devices are retro-optimized. Where they scale in a raster scanout beamraced way. Possibly a recent OOSC or HDFury device or other? Some of those retro scalers even have a CRT scanlines filter toggle too!

OSSC = Open Source Scan Converter.

Stick to scaler boxes that are retro-approved, maybe check out RetroRGB for low latency retro scaler advice, etc.

Google "Low latency video scalers for retro devices"
 
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Late to the party. This seems to be the only monitor to get if picture quality is your main concern. There are no other QD OLED monitors that I am aware of. There are some with LG panels, but the colors would be lacking in comparison.
 
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