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

[z10m]

Or just disable VRR / Freesync / Gsync and see how you get on?

Never.! You’ll either end up with judder, tearing or increased input lag.
Anyway in my case locking frame rate in Nvidia control panel to 118fps (this is what I use with my LG C1) reduced the flickering by a lot.
The funny thing is that monitors frame rate / refresh rate display still shows wild fluctuations from 80 to 150fps so it seems to be broken.

 

[t2na]

Never.! You’ll either end up with judder, tearing or increased input lag.
Anyway in my case locking frame rate in Nvidia control panel to 118fps (this is what I use with my LG C1) reduced the flickering by a lot.
The funny thing is that monitors frame rate / refresh rate display still shows wild fluctuations from 80 to 150fps so it seems to be broken.

Yeah I never usually trust the monitors frame rate display, tend to find in-game or Steam's FPS display is usually more reliable.

Input lag goes down with VRR turned off btw, VRR is most useful for tearing but honestly I switch it off for any FPS game I'm playing.

 

[z10m]

Yeah I never usually trust the monitors frame rate display, tend to find in-game or Steam's FPS display is usually more reliable.

Input lag goes down with VRR turned off btw, VRR is most useful for tearing but honestly I switch it off for any FPS game I'm playing.

If you want judder and tear free experience without vrr you have to use vsync which increases input lag more than vrr.

 

[t2na]

If you want judder and tear free experience without vrr you have to use vsync which increases input lag more than vrr.

Yeah - I get that - but if you want the least amount of input lag then you don't want to use either VRR or vsync.

 

[z10m]

So I was wrong and locking the game framerate to 118fps did not reduce the flicker.
Here is another video comparing it to my LG C1.
Same scene, same settings, same resolution and game locked to 118fps in both cases.
Alienware flickers heavily while C1 has almost 0 flicker.
Refresh rate display on C1 is very stable while on the monitor it is all over the place.

 

[opethdisciple]

This is worrying as it definitely affects the IQ. The C1 looks better due to the non existence of flickering.

However what is the flicker like in motion? As you play the game? Same or less?

What if you increase DLSS to performance for max FPS? (and put fg on)

@z10m Is it possible you could open a case with Dell and see what they say?

 

[SpudMaster]

It's funny how some people are getting flicker whilst others are not. I can only assume that those with excessive flicker have a faulty screen or something on their system is causing the flicker.
In AMD Adrenaline software when I first got the monitor I enabled a setting called 10-bit Pixel Format because I thought that was for 10 bit colour. It wasn't for 10 bit colour but I did cause lots of flicker and also stopped HDR working.
Perhaps the Nvidia users with flicker have a similar setting enabled?

 

[Sc00p007]

So I was wrong and locking the game framerate to 118fps did not reduce the flicker.
Here is another video comparing it to my LG C1.
Same scene, same settings, same resolution and game locked to 118fps in both cases.
Alienware flickers heavily while C1 has almost 0 flicker.
Refresh rate display on C1 is very stable while on the monitor it is all over the place.

Something is definitely up there.
The fps jumping around would definitely cause the flicker. On my aw3423dw I had an issue where it wouldn't play correct with vrr in games and fps wouldn't be stable (but not quite as bad as yours) . I could get rid of it by changing my resolution down and then back up again. After a few times over a few weeks, it never happened again.

If I turn on my aw fps counter on my aw it doesn't jump around like yours, so I do believe that something is causing your vrr to play up. I figure that, because if the counter wasn't truly reflecting the fps jumps and the fps is actually stable without drops I wouldn't expect any flicker.

Long shot - Do you happen to have the lg and aw plugged in at the same time? If so, could you try without the lg plugged in?

I never got to scratch the itch as mine auto resolved, but I started to suspect it was some kind of conflict as I noticed that it never happened if I had the lg unplugged.

 

[Spikey]

The flickering I had on my panel that went back had zero to do with fps fluctuations, I was running games at well over 200 fps and still getting horrendous flicker. I was even getting it with SDR not just HDR as well, it's very strange some people are saying they get none, the only way I could eliminate it was to disable the Gsync setting in nv panel (3rd setting which applied the panel settings) try turning that off (which disabled Gsync which can be confirmed using the Gsync video test) and it should eradicate it.

For me personally spending a £1000 on a screen is not something a I could live with, the flickering was just as bad as that video above and LG c2 barely exhibits any. I'll be trying the ASUS next failing that I'll be buying a second LG OLED TV and using that, I just can't put up with that flickering, my dell also had faint scuffs from the poor packaging as well, hopefully that's resolved in future.

Also from what I recall one of the 32" firmware updates did claim to fix flicker so DELL are clearly aware of an issue they just need to resolve it and hope it's not a hardware fault.

 

[JediFragger]

Is this a QD problem possibly? The LG TV's don't seem to get it nor did my PG48UQ/42UQ (or at least not even half as noticeable), it would be good to see if their are major reports online when the 32in WOLED models arrive

 

[z10m]

Is this a QD problem possibly? The LG TV's don't seem to get it nor did my PG48UQ/42UQ (or at least not even half as noticeable), it would be good to see if their are major reports online when the 32in WOLED models arrive

No my Samsung S95C doesn’t flicker like that.

 

[JediFragger]

No my Samsung S95C doesn’t flicker like that.

Well hopefully it can be ironed out with FW updates then.

 

[z10m]

This is worrying as it definitely affects the IQ. The C1 looks better due to the non existence of flickering.

However what is the flicker like in motion? As you play the game? Same or less?

What if you increase DLSS to performance for max FPS? (and put fg on)

@z10m Is it possible you could open a case with Dell and see what they say?

in motion it flickers the same
didn't try in cyberpunk yet but in Destiny 2 there was almost 0 flicker but the game runs at around 300fps
if I can't sort it out in some way I will be definitely contacting Dell

It's funny how some people are getting flicker whilst others are not. I can only assume that those with excessive flicker have a faulty screen or something on their system is causing the flicker.
In AMD Adrenaline software when I first got the monitor I enabled a setting called 10-bit Pixel Format because I thought that was for 10 bit colour. It wasn't for 10 bit colour but I did cause lots of flicker and also stopped HDR working.
Perhaps the Nvidia users with flicker have a similar setting enabled?

I don't see that option in NVCP but HDR works fine

Something is definitely up there.
The fps jumping around would definitely cause the flicker. On my aw3423dw I had an issue where it wouldn't play correct with vrr in games and fps wouldn't be stable (but not quite as bad as yours) . I could get rid of it by changing my resolution down and then back up again. After a few times over a few weeks, it never happened again.

If I turn on my aw fps counter on my aw it doesn't jump around like yours, so I do believe that something is causing your vrr to play up. I figure that, because if the counter wasn't truly reflecting the fps jumps and the fps is actually stable without drops I wouldn't expect any flicker.

Long shot - Do you happen to have the lg and aw plugged in at the same time? If so, could you try without the lg plugged in?

I never got to scratch the itch as mine auto resolved, but I started to suspect it was some kind of conflict as I noticed that it never happened if I had the lg unplugged.

it's connected but disabled, will try disconnecting it later on.

The flickering I had on my panel that went back had zero to do with fps fluctuations, I was running games at well over 200 fps and still getting horrendous flicker. I was even getting it with SDR not just HDR as well, it's very strange some people are saying they get none, the only way I could eliminate it was to disable the Gsync setting in nv panel (3rd setting which applied the panel settings) try turning that off (which disabled Gsync which can be confirmed using the Gsync video test) and it should eradicate it.

For me personally spending a £1000 on a screen is not something a I could live with, the flickering was just as bad as that video above and LG c2 barely exhibits any. I'll be trying the ASUS next failing that I'll be buying a second LG OLED TV and using that, I just can't put up with that flickering, my dell also had faint scuffs from the poor packaging as well, hopefully that's resolved in future.

Also from what I recall one of the 32" firmware updates did claim to fix flicker so DELL are clearly aware of an issue they just need to resolve it and hope it's not a hardware fault.

that's the thing my fps is very stable but for some reason Alienware thinks otherwise displaying erratic fps

 

[Spikey]

in motion it flickers the same
didn't try in cyberpunk yet but in Destiny 2 there was almost 0 flicker but the game runs at around 300fps
if I can't sort it out in some way I will be definitely contacting Dell


I don't see that option in NVCP but HDR works fine


it's connected but disabled, will try disconnecting it later on.


that's the thing my fps is very stable but for some reason Alienware thinks otherwise displaying erratic fps

Let's hope it can be fixed in a firmware update.

 

[z10m]

Well hopefully it can be ironed out with FW updates then.

Let's hope it can be fixed in a firmware update.

lets hope so as I do like it a lot.
playing Destiny 2 at 300fps with excellent HDR was awesome...

 

[opethdisciple]

@z10m Have you tried switching to either dp or hdmi?

Another thing which you may have answered already, are you on the latest firmware for the monitor?

 

[Darren1967]

Dell will only push firmware updates for VRR flickering on the AW2725DF if they are aware of it as an issue so it goes without saying that anyone experiencing this should report it as a fault.​

​

I am still testing this issue in games but the flickering is noticeably bad in Dragon’s Dogma 2 due to the high variance in the framerate because of very poor CPU optimisation.​

 

[z10m]

@z10m Have you tried switching to either dp or hdmi?

Another thing which you may have answered already, are you on the latest firmware for the monitor?

only tried dp so far for two reasons, i need hdmi for lg c1 and i want to run the monitor at 360hz.
i will try at some point tho and will also try connecting it to motherboard output so it will use amd drivers.

 

[Neil79]

First time my monitor came up with a Refresh warning last night.. Said it will take up to an hour and the red light will blink

 

[z10m]

After trying few more games yesterday I noticed that some games flicker heavily while others not at all.
Enabling frame generation usually makes flickering worse.
Also in some games the monitor's frame rate / refresh rate counter fluctuates wildly but there is no flicker.
The fact that flickering happens only in some games makes me think it is in fact firmware / driver issue rather than faulty monitor.