Alienware announces the AW2725DF and AW3225QF (worlds first 4k 240hz and worlds first 1440p 360hz QD-OLED monitors - launches January 2024)

[DanielSon]

FW update applied, did take about 9 min total.
half way though I wondered if it had turned off/ finnished only to realise it was my 5 min screen sleep timeout - have turned off the power button led so no indication it was on. lol
now on creator mode, s-rgb gama 2.2 for desktop
played a few hdr videos at 75% brightness before i turned it down and it was vivid & clear!!

 

[no_1_dave]

Could you explain where you change the SDR desktop colour settings please? Is there a way to get it to auto change from HDR to SDR reliably?

Just use the monitor menu when in SDR

If you want accuracy use creator - SRGB with gamma 2.2
If you want gaming and OLED pop (whist still accurate to DCI-P3) use creater - DCI-P3 with either 2.4 or 2.6 gamma

On desktop you should use SDR
Some games change to HDR automatically, some don't. You can download a program called AutoActions and add games to it which you find don't change automatically. AutoActions can then automatically turn on HDR when playing said games and switch back to SDR when you exit said games

 

[will13]

played a few hdr videos at 75% brightness before i turned it down and it was vivid & clear!!

You can't turn down HDR brightness though

 

[DanielSon]

You can't turn down HDR brightness though

so i have discoverd
think the shortcut of win key, alt and b will be getting used a bit but thats all good

 

[t2na]

The AW2725DF doesn't support it as you've seen, i've found the same. It will be related to the use of DSC as explained here:

NVIDIA DSR and DLDSR do Work with DSC Monitors...Sometimes - TFTCentral

Share this contentThis is a topic we’ve seen come up a fair bit recently, and something we wanted to look in to a bit more. In case you’re unfamiliar with....[click link for more]

tftcentral.co.uk

Do you think this means that DSC is permanently enabled on this monitor, even at lower refresh rates etc. ?

In theory, 240hz 8 bit 1440p shouldn’t use DSC - but do you reckon that it is on this AW monitor?

 

[Darren1967]

I have come across a potential limitation of the 1440p AW2725DF when using Windows apps such as Netflix and Disney+ which do not detect the display as 4K and so do not offer the higher quality 4K or even HDR options. I mean even when I owned a 1080p Sony LCD TV with a then-new 4K BD player prior to getting my first 55" OLED TV, LG B9, back in 2019 I was still able to watch 4K discs downsampled to 1080p on my TV.

The workaround for this limitation on the 27" Dell QD-OLED would have been to set the desktop to 3840x2160 from the NVIDIA DSR options but, of course, this monitor does not support DSR. I am not quite sure why because even if I drop the refresh rate to 120 Hz or 60 Hz, which is well within the bandwidth limits of DisplayPort 1.4, the DSR options do not appear.

Annoying, especially with how good movies look on this QD-OLED display. Sure, I still have my TV and its apps that work fine but it would have been nice to have the monitor as a second option just for convenience.

 

[t2na]

I have come across a potential limitation of the 1440p AW2725DF when using Windows apps such as Netflix and Disney+ which do not detect the display as 4K and so do not offer the higher quality 4K or even HDR options. I mean even when I owned a 1080p Sony LCD TV with a then-new 4K BD player prior to getting my first 55" OLED TV, LG B9, back in 2019 I was still able to watch 4K discs downsampled to 1080p on my TV.

The workaround for this limitation on the 27" Dell QD-OLED would have been to set the desktop to 3840x2160 from the NVIDIA DSR options but, of course, this monitor does not support DSR. I am not quite sure why because even if I drop the refresh rate to 120 Hz or 60 Hz, which is well within the bandwidth limits of DisplayPort 1.4, the DSR options do not appear.

Annoying, especially with how good movies look on this QD-OLED display. Sure, I still have my TV and its apps that work fine but it would have been nice to have the monitor as a second option just for convenience.

So - a potential work around that could work - use HDMI and enable 'console mode'.

HDMI is also the only way to get DSR to work as well. It seems like Dell/Alienware have forced 'DSC' to be in place across all refresh rates over DisplayPort even if it's not necessarily using DSC - so you can't use it that way.

I'm really hoping AW/Dell release a firmware update to allow us to disable DSC from the monitor settings. The restriction of full HDMI 2.1 bandwidth is also really annoying - and possibly tempting me to return the monitor and swap to the MSI one (provided the price comes down).

 

[Darren1967]

Could I connect my RTX 4080 to my monitor using DisplayPort and HDMI and switch between them in real-time (i.e. without having to restart my PC) from the monitor's settings menu?

I've never actually tried this with any graphics card previously as I've always used DisplayPort for PC and never HDMI (my previous monitors before those used VGA and DVI).

 

[peahead]

Mine has gone to the green bar in production does that mean i will get in this week ?

 

[JediFragger]

Mine has gone to the green bar in production does that mean i will get in this week ?

Mine was shipped that day (Fri) so a strong possibility

 

[bobert50]

Mine has gone to the green bar in production does that mean i will get in this week ?

I don't want to get your hopes up, but same happened to somebody i know and like JediFragger said below, they also shipped it the same day. This was yesterday afternoon and it's out for delivery today.

 

[peahead]

I don't want to get your hopes up, but same happened to somebody i know and like JediFragger said below, they also shipped it the same day. This was yesterday afternoon and it's out for delivery today.

Fingers crossed for delivery tomorrow then

 

[bobert50]

Fingers crossed for delivery tomorrow then

Fingers crossed indeed! In his case, it was the 27" 1440p 360hz, and he's rather excited about it!

 

[Brok]

Had to reschedule my delivery to today but 32" arrived safely this morning and now all plugged in and helping me be productive Just need some time to fiddle with it later - one thing I did notice is that switching between HDR/SDR using the windows toggle makes the screen disconnect and freezes my whole machine for about a minute, anyone else had this? Not sure if its because I have multiple monitors all running different resolutions and refresh rates, or if its 'normal'.

 

[peahead]

You guys getting the 32, are they coming with the latest firmware installed already ?

 

[AA25]

Custom Colour looks really good to my eyes using 75% Brightness and 75% Contract (TFTCentral used 46% Brightness for their calibration). I noticed that the whites in the browser actually looked bright white as opposed to slightly off yellow/warmer as with the Game1 profile I had been using.

This is what I'd like to achieve with my AW32, in SDR my whites are on the yellow/warmer side. Quite a difference especially since I have it beside a macbook pro where the whites are as you say "bright white".

 

[AA25]

You guys getting the 32, are they coming with the latest firmware installed already ?

No, I had to upgrade the firmware, it's an easy process.

 

[Monkeyspaz5000]

No, I had to upgrade the firmware, it's an easy process.

Same, but the update was easy and painless.

 

[Darren1967]

Had to reschedule my delivery to today but 32" arrived safely this morning and now all plugged in and helping me be productive Just need some time to fiddle with it later - one thing I did notice is that switching between HDR/SDR using the windows toggle makes the screen disconnect and freezes my whole machine for about a minute, anyone else had this? Not sure if its because I have multiple monitors all running different resolutions and refresh rates, or if its 'normal'.

No, that isn't normal. On my AW2725DF, the screen blinks off for around a second at most then on when the image reappears but my PC is usable immediately after. I only have one monitor though.

 

[Darren1967]

This is what I'd like to achieve with my AW32, in SDR my whites are on the yellow/warmer side. Quite a difference especially since I have it beside a macbook pro where the whites are as you say "bright white".

The best 'bright' whites in my experience with this monitor using the 75% Brightness / 75% Contrast settings are with Creator > DCI-P3 with Gamma set to 2.2 and the Custom Colour profile as previously stated. The other profiles all look warmer/yellowish to me but this is probably more realistic since my TV is set to use the Warm colour presets for movies and so on. For games and desktop use though I actually prefer more vibrant colours that make the image "pop" more.

I was playing Assassin's Creed: Mirage yesterday for the first time with HDR enabled - HDR Peak 1000 - and I was shocked at how bright the whites were on the text and how vivid the fire and light sources looked in the game. It was really impressive, especially as the rest of the colour palette was quite subdued and dull, being a desert setting. This is the kind of contrast that I just never saw on my previous IPS monitor despite years of tinkering with the settings. I am not exaggerating when I say that it feels like I am seeing all the games I've played properly for the first time and as the developers intended them to be viewed.

The only issue I have with HDR and why I haven't left it enabled all the time in Windows is that when I exit a game the desktop colours are very muted and dull. Turn off HDR and the whole image brightens and the colours become more pleasing. I get that no-one wants bright HDR highlights on their desktop but I feel this monitor takes it too far and makes the picture look horrible. As such I am stuck with manually enabling and disabling HDR for now which is disappointing coming from the PS5 and Xbox Series X were HDR is completely automatic.