Alienware AW2521HF looks too sharp.

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buttfarder72
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Joined: 31 Dec 2020, 16:13

Alienware AW2521HF looks too sharp.

Post by buttfarder72 » 31 Dec 2020, 16:32

Hi, so for starters I don't know if this is the right place to put this, but over the past month or so I've upgraded my PC and peripherals substantially. I bought a new SSD, CPU, and monitor (Alienware AW2521HF). Everything was fine until I bought and installed the last part I needed, which was an RTX 3060 Ti. I upgraded from a GTX 970 and immediately after I hopped into a game of CS:GO and noticed something was... not right. The text and most importantly my crosshair had the faintest hint of a purplish outline. It's most obvious in dark areas, but it's been bugging me for weeks now. The problem goes away within CS:GO if I turn my monitor's sharpness down from 50 to 0, but then my desktop and everything else is too blurry.

Some things that I've already done:
  • Uninstalled old GPU drivers using DDU and installed new ones
  • Done a factory reset on my monitor
  • Used a new DisplayPort cable to connect my monitor to my GPU
  • Messed with antialiasing/scaling/color settings in NVIDIA control pane
  • Probably a few other things that I'm forgetting
I have no idea what's causing this issue but it drives me nuts whenever I try and play. I'm running the latest version of Windows 10. Any help is appreciated.

74tm
Posts: 43
Joined: 07 Jun 2020, 14:37

Re: Alienware AW2521HF looks too sharp.

Post by 74tm » 31 Dec 2020, 23:09

The reviewer talks about something related to this here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5vO-3guob4 , It has something to do with the monitor settings.

buttfarder72
Posts: 2
Joined: 31 Dec 2020, 16:13

Re: Alienware AW2521HF looks too sharp.

Post by buttfarder72 » 01 Jan 2021, 02:11

74tm wrote:
31 Dec 2020, 23:09
The reviewer talks about something related to this here , It has something to do with the monitor settings.
Thanks for the video. While I couldn't really find the part of the video where they talked about something similar to my issue, I ended up using the Dell Display Manager as a decent enough workaround (unless that's what you were referring to). Before games looked bad if my desktop looked good, and vice versa. All I did was set the sharpness to change whenever I open a game, which doesn't totally solve my problem, but it does a good enough job until I figure out how to fix it completely. Kind of feel silly for not knowing this program existed, but thanks again for your help.

74tm
Posts: 43
Joined: 07 Jun 2020, 14:37

Re: Alienware AW2521HF looks too sharp.

Post by 74tm » 01 Jan 2021, 19:04

I used to have the monitor. I don't remember exactly what the settings was, but I think it was related to sharpness.

Geekdll
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Joined: 01 Jan 2021, 21:14

Re: Alienware AW2521HF looks too sharp.

Post by Geekdll » 01 Jan 2021, 21:28

The aw2512hf is on screen - Sharpness, same place where the brightness and contrast is
Monitors: Asus ROG Swift 360Hz PG259QNR - BenQ Zowie XL2546K

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Re: Alienware AW2521HF looks too sharp.

Post by Chief Blur Buster » 01 Jan 2021, 21:32

Geekdll wrote:
01 Jan 2021, 21:28
The aw2512hf is on screen - Sharpness, same place where the brightness and contrast is
The sharpness setting on some monitors is memorized differently for different modes, so try adjusting Sharpness in the application you run -- e.g launch CS:GO first, *then* adjust Sharpness if CS:GO is too sharp. If Windows is too sharp, adjust Sharpness while in Windows.

The sharpness range varies from monitor to monitor. Sometimes the neutral setting is the center setting, and on other models sometimes it's offset. Other models, the neutral setting is Sharpness 0. It's not exactly industry standardized, alas.

Now, the problem I'm seeing is that there's a disconnect in the Sharpness between CS:GO and Windows. That part is a bit strange -- if you find the cause, please post here!
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Foulacy
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Joined: 12 May 2021, 13:43

Re: Alienware AW2521HF looks too sharp.

Post by Foulacy » 12 May 2021, 14:06

I think one cause of this issue is the "Dark Stabilizer" setting. As soon as you turn it on (levels are 0-3) it adds a weird sharpness that adds an increasingly thicker black line around text and objects. Sort of like if you turned Sharpness to 100+.

Then there are the "Preset modes" under the Game menu in the OSD. The "FPS", "MOBA/RTS", "RPG", and "Sports" settings all introduce some of this same weird artificial sharpness. So choose "Standard", "Game 1/2/3", or any of the other modes.

Anyways hope this helps someone in the future!

smajli7
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Joined: 16 Jul 2021, 05:02

Re: Alienware AW2521HF looks too sharp.

Post by smajli7 » 19 Oct 2021, 12:51

It's not your monitor - it's the GPU scaling from windows. I've had this problem for a while now and it basically happens on some new GPUs (rtx 3000 and rx6000). I searched up the whole internet for a fix and didn't find anything and it's driving me insane. It's like some weird sharpening filter is stuck on enabled which you can't turn off. It happens on all monitors and is especially present when you turn up ingame saturation. A workaround for this issue is to use display scaling with CRU, but then alt-tab takes like 10 seconds.
If someone finds a fix for it, please let me know!

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