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We have been made aware by a lot of customers having different results and experiences with the Dell Alienware AW3423DW and the AW3423DWF we decided to do a further investigation of multiple issues which have been raised, which include HDR-Tone-Mapping, HDR-Brightness and HDR-clipping.
The latest windows updates, monitor and GPU drivers were installed and both systems have been rebooted in order to make sure that the display properties would be applied.
After Setup of the AW3423DWF on an NVIDIA GPU we could immediately see a strange greyish colour/tone map shift. We also tested this on AMD GPUs and this behaviour was limited only to NVIDIA GPUs. Activating “Console Mode” and set the Source tone mapping to “ON” in the Monitor OSD-Menus removed the washed-out colours. (Figure 2)
Documenting the advanced properties of the Monitor showed already different max. peak brightness values delivered by the EDID. AW3423DW 1000-1060 Nits, AW3423DW 465 Nits. (Figure 1)
Windows HDR Calibration showed different clipping values close to the EDID information. In HDR1000 Mode the AW3423DWF started clipping at 450-460 while the AW3423DW reached a peak of 960-980 In HDR400 the AW3423DWF overshot at 450-510, while the AW3423DW reached a peak of 410-420 Nits. Changing the GPUs use did not much difference except for the overshoot in HDR400 with NVIDIA and the AW3423DWF. (Figure 3, Figure 4, Figure 5)
Brightness measurement with a photometer yielded an average brightness difference of 7,4% in the limited window testing. This was surprising, because after comparing the achieved values. It should be noted that our results are similar to the RTINGS1 measurement, however we did not test the “Real Scene” scenario, due to the lack of a standardized scene for the maximum luminance of the monitor when displaying a bright highlight in an HDR scene. And it should be noted that the “Real Scene” bears a quite large difference with 484 cd/m² (DW) to 345 cd/m² (DWF) or - 28,7%. (Figure 7, Figure 8, Figure 9, Figure 10, Figure 11, 3)
Performance in real gaming scenarios was also tested. Calibration also revealed similar behaviour like in the Windows calibration tool. In Modern Warfare 2 we noticed that in bright HDR areas the difference is noticeable but not always immediately. If visible, details are lost, and the area looks slightly washed out. (Figure 12, Figure 13)
Cyberpunk 2077 was completely overblown in high brightness areas by the AW3423DWF with loss of details and objects covered by overblown areas. These results were seen in HDR100 and HDR400, although the latter not as extensive. Changing the GPU did not have much impact on that effect; however, it changed the tone map slightly.
In summary, there are definitely several issues with the actual state of the AW3423DWF. The source tone map option in the menu of the monitor solves the desktop being washed out issue but limits further options in the menu. The tone mapping issues are most likely limited to NVIDIA GPUs and are not as extensive on AMD GPUs. However, the clipping behaviour seems to be tied to the Monitor and does not change much between NVIDIA or AMD graphics cards nor the choice of HDR Mode. It also should be noted that “HDR-Game” should not be used due to heavy artifacting at high brightness. The Peak brightness of the AW3423DWF is significantly lower than the AW3423DW"
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