World first QD-OLED monitor from Dell and Samsung (34 inch Ultrawide 175hz)

[1Deep]

Been a while since I posted, bit of a rollercoaster with these DW models after sending the first replacement (refurb) back.

The second refurb went missing, I asked Dell to send out a brand new replacement, they agreed but I was sent another refurb. Disapointed but tried it anyway, mostly fine but the fan was too noisy when the screen was off, so annoying I had to switch it off from the mains as this is in my bedroom, couldn't sleep!

Anyway, few days later I get another delivery, yet another refurb but I didn't request another one......turns out it was the one that had gone missing! I would've tried this one out but I was strapped for time and Dell emailed me that they would be collecting the replacement, I decided to stick with what I had, could always go through this fun swapping charade again in future.

Speed forward another couple of days, the refurb was collected, I thought that was the end of it, but I get yet another delivery but this time a brand new replacement! January 2023 it's dated, all the refurbs were August 2022 so I was certainly keen to try this one out and it's almost perfect for me, no dead/stuck pixels, quite when off. Only thing I can knock it for is the occasionally fan going whooosh but it's nowhere near as often as the previous ones I've had.

Overall, try and get a new replacement, well worth it over these refurbs. Packaging was better over the screen too, no marks etc.

 

[Thomasck]

Ok you say 'most', what issues hasn't it sorted out ? I'm genuinely enquiring with a view of purchasing it.

The other issues I am just not up to try again, as in:

• connecting the g8 with micro hdmi along with another screen connected with dp to the gpu. Once I have this combination the g8 would go black. If I unplug the dp cable from the gpu, the g8 would come back to live. If I plug the dp back, the g8 would go black. It happens when using nvidia, or amd card. Mini dp + dp works do does micro hdmi + hdmi combination. So right now I am using micro hdmi + hdmi in the other screen no issues.
• The entering standby mode, and turning the pc on issue stills around, sometimes it happens, some others it does not. So what I have to do all the time is turning the g8 off with the remote once I switch the pc off, otherwise it would not boot next time I switch the pc on and letting the screen wake up from standby mode. This might be related to having two screens. But once you get in the habit of doing that, no probs. I will leave the screen to enter standby mode tonight after leaving the pc to see if tomorrow morning it would boot up correctly without needing to power cycle the g8.
• Another thing fixed, if I go away from the pc long enough to have the screens switched off by windows and after waking them up (that is, just screens go off, the pc does not go into sleep mode), it would come back as what I would say, 20fps. Very laggy, so a reboot was almost always necessary.

Overall, I am having a great experience. During business time I have the screen in the graphic mode (entertainment also available), sdr, running at 100hz via micro hdmi, great picture, good to work. When the night falls I switch to game mode, which loads up automatically different settings as in hdr on, different brightness, contrast, color, sharpness settings. As in windows sees a different screen when I switch in between modes, which is pretty dope from my point of view. I believe the DWF also does the same, but the switch would be the windows HDR, it stores different settings based on that being off, or on - but I am not sure, I did not test it extensively.

All in all, both are great screens, as I mentioned earlier, if I did not have both here with me, I would be more than happy having the DWF around, specially with Dell's three years burn-in warranty (samsung burn-in warranty is unknown, I won't ask support because they are useless, and I see people around saying samsung does offer, and some other people saying samsung does not offer it), great support, and better replacement policy (as far as I read online).

However, what set me down in staying with the g8 was better hdr picture (even after today's update), better saturation control without using the gpu driver, so all adjustments are made in the screen, which stays stored in between those "two profiles" I've mentioned above, the fact it has some wicked options as in "contrast enhancer" also "peak brightness" which helps in the in game picture, graphic mode which helps when I am at the "working" profile, plus the fact it has speakers (not that good, but good enough to ditch the speakers I had before on the desk), and the remote (usb-c rechargeable) so I don't need to reach the screen all the time to change settings. It's menu sucks initially, but after couple of days I got used to it enough to the point I was disliking the simplicity of the dwf menu. I also thought about the coil whine, which technically can develop overtime due to the nature of the way inductors work, same can happen to the g8. Also the fan. Fans fail. Fans can make noise. It's up to you to decide what is what.

I'd say this is a battle of opinion and the best consensus is your eyes and pocket. Around reddit you might even see some guys putting their trouser down (here too) for the dwf and give a lub before the act. Same goes by the g8. Both are great screens, but the g8 has more features that are in line with what I need, having a better experience in-game/working, and make my life easier.

I was dead set sending the g8, I even scheduled a collection for Monday (yesterday the 6th, and I received the dwf friday the 3rd), but after spending the weekend on top of the dwf, I picked the g8 even being 350gpb more than what I paid for the dwf.

RTINGS is releasing their opinion soon about the g8, so you might wait a bit to read the through before making a move.

 

[cuke2u]

You have me at an disadvantage as I can only compare my g8 with the iiyama curved ultrawide I had before the Samsung. The g8 is streets ahead of that monitor which did a very odd thing with any scrolling text, far worse than anything with the Samsung..

 

[Thomasck]

Curious. Updated to Windows 11 and there's no grey square here. As it used to come and go when using Windows 10, I will wait a bit more to say anything else.

On the other hand, my 3dmark scores dropped by a lot.

Driver	FireStrike	FireStrike Extreme	FireStrike Ultra	TimeSpy	TimeSpy Extreme	Speed Way	Port Royal
4080 / 528.29 W10	68609​	34777​	17694​	28372​	14147​	7237​	17804​
Red Devil / 23.2.2. W10	80771​	39176​	19973​	29118​	14677​	6063​	15850​
Nitro+ / 23.2.2 W10	80956​	40863​	20865​	30339​	15073​	6153​	16379​
Nitro+ / 23.3.1 W11	76071​			27696​	13714​	5982​

 

[Meddling-Monk]

Your 3DMark score is lower apparently because of how the CPU score is calculated in Windows 11 vs Windows 10 in 3DMark. Nothing to be concerned about.

But good to know the grey Icon is gone by moving to Windows 11.

 

[cuke2u]

I've been using win11 all of time, I did have access to early releases as my job. Never had a grey square but I'm using AMD GFX. Apparently there was an issue with GeForce drivers for some whereby the CPU usage was high after exiting games which has now been resolved https://www.techpowerup.com/305584/nvidia-releases-531-26-hotfix-for-cpu-usage-bug

 

[DrCrabHands]

Hi all, I'm a total noob when it comes to monitors. I've had a Dell S2716DG for 7 years (used with a RTX3090) and looking for a nice upgrade. What are the main advantages/disadvantages of the DW over the DWF and vice versa? Is it simply the g-sync ultimate and does that really make that much of a difference? Any info would be much appreciated.

 

[Thomasck]

Your 3DMark score is lower apparently because of how the CPU score is calculated in Windows 11 vs Windows 10 in 3DMark. Nothing to be concerned about.

But good to know the grey Icon is gone by moving to Windows 11.

Those are only graphics scores, not the overall scores. They should be close to what I get on W10. I downgraded from 23.3.1 to 23.2.2 and the scores were way more close to what they should be, difference of 200-300 points only. So, I blame the driver.

 

[Thomasck]

Well, fresh install of W10 and the grey square is gone so far. As I previously upgraded from W10 to W11 and the grey square was gone, I thought it might be a Windows thing, or perhaps driver as on W10 I was using 23.2.2 and on W11 I used 23.3.1. As I was getting lower than expected performance on W11 with 23.3.1, I downgraded to 23.2.2 which took the scores way close to what I was getting in W10. So I did a fresh W10 install, installed 23.3.1, which performed as expected, and the grey square while with HDR on, and alt tabbing, is gone.

So I must reiterate, the G8 now is flawless, no issues whatsoever, and I would pick it no doubt over the DWF if I'm not considering the difference in cash. For what it is, similar features, as 1st oled screen the dwf is a must have for 880GBP.

Edit

This ain't a benchmark etc thread but I will leave this there as a overall answer to what was discussed before.

Driver	FireStrike	FireStrike Extreme	FireStrike Ultra	TimeSpy	TimeSpy Extreme	Speed Way	Port Royal
4080 / 528.29 W10	68609​	34777​	17694​	28372​	14147​	7237​	17804​
Red Devil + 23.2.2 W10	80771​	39176​	19973​	29118​	14677​	6063​	15850​
Nitro+ 23.2.2 W10	80956​	40863​	20865​	30339​	15073​	6153​	16379​
Nitro+ 23.2.2 W11	79991​			29686​		6057​
Nitro+ 23.3.1 W11				27696​	13714​	5982​
Nitro+ 23.3.1 W10	80713​			30467​	15067​	6268​
Nitro+ 23.3.1 Fresh W11	Can't run	Can't run	Can't run	30723​	15193​	6299​	16604​

TL;DR: Fresh install of W11 with 23.3.1 outperforms them all. No FF runs, I will try later.

 

[VortexA1]

Hi all, I'm a total noob when it comes to monitors. I've had a Dell S2716DG for 7 years (used with a RTX3090) and looking for a nice upgrade. What are the main advantages/disadvantages of the DW over the DWF and vice versa? Is it simply the g-sync ultimate and does that really make that much of a difference? Any info would be much appreciated.

Basically g-sync positives (non f version): Frame smoothing to 1fps and much better hdr.
negatives : Can be noisier as it uses two fans, also no at home firmware updates.

non g-sync version positives(f version):at home firmware updates and in theory quieter as it uses one fan not two, and cheaper by about 280, also as dell have recognised there is an issue with the hdr they are going to try and remedy it by a firmware update, so there is hope there..I personally don't think they'll do it properly but there''s me being cynical.

Negatives: atm hdr is inferior and no g-sync smoothing below 60 fps.

Then there's the Samsung g8 which uses the same panel with it's own strengths and weaknesses. Me personally it's a hard decision to make on either of these three monitors.

 

[VortexA1]

The other issues I am just not up to try again, as in:

• connecting the g8 with micro hdmi along with another screen connected with dp to the gpu. Once I have this combination the g8 would go black. If I unplug the dp cable from the gpu, the g8 would come back to live. If I plug the dp back, the g8 would go black. It happens when using nvidia, or amd card. Mini dp + dp works do does micro hdmi + hdmi combination. So right now I am using micro hdmi + hdmi in the other screen no issues.
• The entering standby mode, and turning the pc on issue stills around, sometimes it happens, some others it does not. So what I have to do all the time is turning the g8 off with the remote once I switch the pc off, otherwise it would not boot next time I switch the pc on and letting the screen wake up from standby mode. This might be related to having two screens. But once you get in the habit of doing that, no probs. I will leave the screen to enter standby mode tonight after leaving the pc to see if tomorrow morning it would boot up correctly without needing to power cycle the g8.
• Another thing fixed, if I go away from the pc long enough to have the screens switched off by windows and after waking them up (that is, just screens go off, the pc does not go into sleep mode), it would come back as what I would say, 20fps. Very laggy, so a reboot was almost always necessary.

Overall, I am having a great experience. During business time I have the screen in the graphic mode (entertainment also available), sdr, running at 100hz via micro hdmi, great picture, good to work. When the night falls I switch to game mode, which loads up automatically different settings as in hdr on, different brightness, contrast, color, sharpness settings. As in windows sees a different screen when I switch in between modes, which is pretty dope from my point of view. I believe the DWF also does the same, but the switch would be the windows HDR, it stores different settings based on that being off, or on - but I am not sure, I did not test it extensively.

All in all, both are great screens, as I mentioned earlier, if I did not have both here with me, I would be more than happy having the DWF around, specially with Dell's three years burn-in warranty (samsung burn-in warranty is unknown, I won't ask support because they are useless, and I see people around saying samsung does offer, and some other people saying samsung does not offer it), great support, and better replacement policy (as far as I read online).

However, what set me down in staying with the g8 was better hdr picture (even after today's update), better saturation control without using the gpu driver, so all adjustments are made in the screen, which stays stored in between those "two profiles" I've mentioned above, the fact it has some wicked options as in "contrast enhancer" also "peak brightness" which helps in the in game picture, graphic mode which helps when I am at the "working" profile, plus the fact it has speakers (not that good, but good enough to ditch the speakers I had before on the desk), and the remote (usb-c rechargeable) so I don't need to reach the screen all the time to change settings. It's menu sucks initially, but after couple of days I got used to it enough to the point I was disliking the simplicity of the dwf menu. I also thought about the coil whine, which technically can develop overtime due to the nature of the way inductors work, same can happen to the g8. Also the fan. Fans fail. Fans can make noise. It's up to you to decide what is what.

I'd say this is a battle of opinion and the best consensus is your eyes and pocket. Around reddit you might even see some guys putting their trouser down (here too) for the dwf and give a lub before the act. Same goes by the g8. Both are great screens, but the g8 has more features that are in line with what I need, having a better experience in-game/working, and make my life easier.

I was dead set sending the g8, I even scheduled a collection for Monday (yesterday the 6th, and I received the dwf friday the 3rd), but after spending the weekend on top of the dwf, I picked the g8 even being 350gpb more than what I paid for the dwf.

RTINGS is releasing their opinion soon about the g8, so you might wait a bit to read the through before making a move.

Appreciate your detailed reply .

 

[mrk]

I am back to 400 True Black for HDR, the experience is still bright but I think dynamic range balance is overall more accurate in this - Still seeing the Windows HDR calibration tool claibrating to 980 nits though and thus being displayed as such in Display Properties, Peak 1000 is calibrated at 2070 nits as well so those numbers are still funky.

 

[Haggisman]

Here's an interesting one for you guys...

I'm clearing some space in my c:\ drive, and Spacesniffer has highlighted 11.6gb of files in: C:\Users\Public\Documents\Downloaded Installations

There are a load of folders with random hex based names, all of which contain a ~1.2gb "Alienware Command Center Suite" MSI installer along with a config and MST file.

I've never downloaded the software, but I do remember getting some random installer/popup when I first connected it, so I'm wondering if it's doing some secret installation in the background?

The dates on these folders are every couple of months from 22/10/2021 (when I first got my AW3821DW), all the way through to 27/02/2023 (so less than 2 weeks ago).

Anyone else got the same thing?

 

[mrk]

You probably installed a Dell or Alienware driver way back and this triggered the CC installer which I experienced too. Having long since completely uninstalled anything Dell and Alienware, nothing like this exists for me any more.

You should do the same by checking add/remove programs to see if it's in there and/or listed as a service in Task manager under startup and services tabs.

 

[Haggisman]

Interesting - I apparently installed it on 20/02/2023... although I'm 99% certain I didn't!

 

[Trox]

Here's an interesting one for you guys...

I'm clearing some space in my c:\ drive, and Spacesniffer has highlighted 11.6gb of files in: C:\Users\Public\Documents\Downloaded Installations

There are a load of folders with random hex based names, all of which contain a ~1.2gb "Alienware Command Center Suite" MSI installer along with a config and MST file.

I've never downloaded the software, but I do remember getting some random installer/popup when I first connected it, so I'm wondering if it's doing some secret installation in the background?

The dates on these folders are every couple of months from 22/10/2021 (when I first got my AW3821DW), all the way through to 27/02/2023 (so less than 2 weeks ago).

Anyone else got the same thing?

I noticed windows attempting to install something when I plugged mine in. It reminded me of my gigabyte motherboard trying to force install their launcher if you didn’t disable it in the bios

 

[Noxia]

I am back to 400 True Black for HDR, the experience is still bright but I think dynamic range balance is overall more accurate in this - Still seeing the Windows HDR calibration tool claibrating to 980 nits though and thus being displayed as such in Display Properties, Peak 1000 is calibrated at 2070 nits as well so those numbers are still funky.

Where do these numbers come from (NITS)? Mine is showing 1060 HDR1000 and 440 on the 400.

IS that pulling from the calibration on windows HDR tool?

 

[mrk]

The HDr calibration profile contains the numbers yeah

 

[DrCrabHands]

Seems the DW has been removed from sale on the Dell website. I was about to pull the trigger on one too! Chat agent seems to think they may be back in stock in the future.

 

[jwilliamson47]

Seems the DW has been removed from sale on the Dell website. I was about to pull the trigger on one too! Chat agent seems to think they may be back in stock in the future.

That's a shame. Wonder why they decided to remove it from the store.