Asus XG27AQDMG Discussion

[gunner7]

Now I’m really torn between the XG27AQDMG and the Alienware AW2725DF- with it being on sale for $690 atm. I was hoping I could get some opinion if there’s any cons to playing 240fps with a NVCP cap for competitive games with VRR off at 360hz. I know there would be less visible screen tearing and input lag so that’s great, but would there be more stutters or something negative? Most high level players (in Apex) aren’t jumping to 360hz and sticking to 240hz.

[RealNC]

Now I’m really torn between the XG27AQDMG and the Alienware AW2725DF- with it being on sale for $690 atm. I was hoping I could get some opinion if there’s any cons to playing 240fps with a NVCP cap for competitive games with VRR off at 360hz. I know there would be less visible screen tearing and input lag so that’s great, but would there be more stutters or something negative? Most high level players (in Apex) aren’t jumping to 360hz and sticking to 240hz.

If competitive esports games is your priority, higher Hz is better.

For other games, I would say the Asus has a slight edge in HDR brightness (if you actually like HDR, it's a mixed bag for me because I don't like getting flashbanged in the face,) and it doesn't have raised black levels in brighter rooms. On the other side, the Alienware has a slight edge in HDR colors due the somewhat wider color gamut. However, since you're upgrading from an LCD screen, both of these displays are a huge upgrade when it comes to image quality and the differences are rather minor. If you were to put all three monitors in front of you, the OLEDs would look pretty much the same amount of "better" compared to your LCD.

The only reason why I chose the Asus is the black levels in bright rooms. I use the display in a bright room during the day a lot (and it's mostly sunny here), and I was afraid of this with QD-OLED vs W-OLED:

woled-vs-qdoled.jpg (285.14 KiB) Viewed 10331 times

(Credit: HDTVTest)

mpv-shot0001.jpg (93 KiB) Viewed 10360 times

(Credit: Monitors Unboxed)

Although this test is very over the top. It's not THAT bright in my room. But still, QD-OLED isn't gonna provide the same level of deep black as a W-OLED in a fully lit room. Also, the W-OLED display in the photo has a matte coating. The XG27AQDMG is mostly glossy, which further improves black levels in bright rooms. It kind of looks like black hole to me. If you ignore the reflections, that is

[b0uncyfr0]

So regarding the black crush : how bad is it really?

Im currently on my G7 and in non-hdr mode (SDR mode i suppose), looking at the lagon black level test : I only see a difference starting from 6. Does that mean i wouldnt notice much of a difference if i switched?

I also have an AMD card and as i understand - there is no way to fix the crush permanently? Fiddling with icc's is fine as long as its one time thing. If i have to go into settings and disable something just to use HDR - thats not very good.

The VRR problem is also troubling - reddit users say playing a movie at 24 fps is just a VRR flicker fest.

Is there any news from Asus to fix the black crush at all??

[RealNC]

So regarding the black crush : how bad is it really?

Im currently on my G7 and in non-hdr mode (SDR mode i suppose), looking at the lagon black level test : I only see a difference starting from 6. Does that mean i wouldnt notice much of a difference if i switched?

Which Lagom square starts looking different at 50% brightness (higher brightness makes squares more visible, so I think it's fair to use 50% as a baseline for the test.) Gamma is set to 2.2, but 2.0 doesn't change much. It only changes visibility in squares 10 and up.

120Hz with novideo_srgb EDID mode: Square 2 (perfect)
120Hz with novideo_srgb ICC mode + gamma: Square 1 (too bright)
120Hz with built-in sRGB clamp: Square 5 (black crush)

240Hz with novideo_srgb EDID mode: Square 5 (black crush)
240Hz with novideo_srgb ICC mode + gamma: Square 2 (perfect)
240Hz with built-in sRGB clamp: Square 9 (extreme black crush)

This is what makes me think that the firmware is only really calibrated for 120Hz.

I also have an AMD card and as i understand - there is no way to fix the crush permanently?

On AMD you don't need novideo_srgb since you can use your driver control panel. The option is very weirdly named though. Google it.

The VRR problem is also troubling - reddit users say playing a movie at 24 fps is just a VRR flicker fest.

Well, you can use 120Hz, 144Hz or 240Hz to watch 24FPS movies. There's no judder since they're integer multiples of 24.

Is there any news from Asus to fix the black crush at all??

Probably not. I don't even know how to talk to Asus. I've sent email to Asus support to report Firmware bugs, but the reply I got was some generic "please try turning it off and on again and do a Windows update and try HDMI instead of DP, thanks, bye," even though my email specifically mentioned this is a bug report for their firmware so they can improve it in an update.

I don't think they care.

[b0uncyfr0]

This is what makes me think that the firmware is only really calibrated for 120Hz.

Well thats quite bad - i have a hard time supporting a company when a problem is easily fixed on their end but the communication is shite. Especially for something so expensive too.

On AMD you don't need novideo_srgb since you can use your driver control panel. The option is very weirdly named though. Google it.

Indeed, i never used it because i never had to, i.e Cutom Color section. It should work but there''s a problem - once HDR is toggled, the same brightness changes will apply to that mode as well right? As i understand, only SDR mode has the black crush.

Probably not. I don't even know how to talk to Asus. I've sent email to Asus support to report Firmware bugs, but the reply I got was some generic "please try turning it off and on again and do a Windows update and try HDMI instead of DP, thanks, bye," even though my email specifically mentioned this is a bug report for their firmware so they can improve it in an update.

I don't think they care.

Also quite sad!

[RealNC]

On AMD you don't need novideo_srgb since you can use your driver control panel. The option is very weirdly named though. Google it.

Indeed, i never used it because i never had to, i.e Cutom Color section. It should work but there''s a problem - once HDR is toggled, the same brightness changes will apply to that mode as well right? As i understand, only SDR mode has the black crush.

You should disable the clamp in HDR mode to begin with, since HDR does not use sRGB. It uses wide gamut. SDR content in HDR mode is automatically clamped by Windows, but it does a poor job at it (which is why I turn off HDR in Windows altogether and enable the novideo_srgb clamp instead.)

Another thing to keep in mind is that when using an sRGB clamp, you need to make sure you don't have an ICC profile loaded for the display. In the "Color Management" dialog in Windows, the "Profiles associated with this device" list for the monitor needs to be empty. Otherwise, ICC-aware applications (like web browsers) are going to result in double-clamping, ruining the colors.

Windows has the nasty habit of downloading display "drivers" on its own, which results in an ICC profile being installed. Double-check to make sure that's not the case, and if it is, delete it from that list.

[b0uncyfr0]

Ok thanks, ive got some reading to do.

Afew things im wondering :

- If i wanted to add a custom 2560x1080 (or 2560x1170) res in CRU - would i need to disable DSC?

- Whats the maximum refresh rate you can push at 1440p with DSC disabled on DP? Im hoping its around 180.

[RealNC]

- If i wanted to add a custom 2560x1080 (or 2560x1170) res in CRU - would i need to disable DSC?

I'll have to try first. But I don't think DSC plays any role when it comes to being able to define custom resolutions.

- Whats the maximum refresh rate you can push at 1440p with DSC disabled on DP? Im hoping its around 180.

You can still do 240Hz without any issues. But you won't be able to select 10-bit colors at 240Hz, only at 180Hz and lower.

Note that the nvidia driver does not select 10-bit to begin with, even with DSC enabled (unless you manually force 10-bit in the nvidia panel.) It only enables 10-bit when you enable HDR. So DSC is only actually used for 2560x1440@240Hz HDR. Everything else won't use DSC.

[msoller]

Hi, I'm new here, i signed up as i just got this monitor last week.

At first, out of the box, my unit had a vertical thin line super visible on the left side (not banding, rather like a marked line) and banding and dirty effect among the screen on windows gray menus, youtube, notes app etc... but after switching from dp to hdmi and playing like 15 min a ps4 game, the line completely disappeared and gray uniformity improved a lot, basically 50% of the dirty screen vanished.

Is that normal? I mean i barely used the monitor 2 hours yesterday and its a bit rare to me that uniformity can change in such short time. I wonder if that means that uniformity can change in a bad way that fast as well.


Also, on my cx I assumed gamma 2.2 is always the way to go, no matter what the input is. But on the first post, i read on this monitor gamma is off and 2.0 is almost 2.2 (2.15).

If i set to 2.0, will affect black levels or anything? I plan to use this monitor only with windows and ps4/ps5.

Lastly, would you recommend doing pixel cleanigs after 4 hours our 8 hours? (is set at 8 on factory settings) On my lg cx it does it after 4 hours of use when turning off the tv.

Thanks in advance,

[RealNC]

At first, out of the box, my unit had a vertical thin line super visible on the left side (not banding, rather like a marked line) and banding and dirty effect among the screen on windows gray menus, youtube, notes app etc... but after switching from dp to hdmi and playing like 15 min a ps4 game, the line completely disappeared and gray uniformity improved a lot, basically 50% of the dirty screen vanished.

Lines on the screen are not normal, unless it's this:

https://www.rtings.com/monitor/reviews/ ... #test_1406

"However, like any OLED, there are thin gray vertical lines in dark scenes"

Personally, I can't see them, but I can see something that looks like vertical bar gradients in dark gray in fullscreen or near-fullscreen gray.

Is that normal? I mean i barely used the monitor 2 hours yesterday and its a bit rare to me that uniformity can change in such short time. I wonder if that means that uniformity can change in a bad way that fast as well.

jorimt here mentioned that he saw OLEDs that would look dirty out of the box and required a couple pixel cleaning cycles to clear up the panel and make it uniform. I didn't observe anything like that here though.

Also, on my cx I assumed gamma 2.2 is always the way to go, no matter what the input is. But on the first post, i read on this monitor gamma is off and 2.0 is almost 2.2 (2.15).

If i set to 2.0, will affect black levels or anything? I plan to use this monitor only with windows and ps4/ps5.

Gamma does affect black levels. You can test it here:

http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/black.php

Lastly, would you recommend doing pixel cleanigs after 4 hours our 8 hours? (is set at 8 on factory settings) On my lg cx it does it after 4 hours of use when turning off the tv.

I usually do it every 4 hours. I might skip it sometimes though if I forget. Usually when the notification pops up, I just ignore it or cancel it, but then run a pixel cleaning cycle manually when I leave for a chore or need to go to the bathroom. It only takes 4 minutes, so it's usually finished already when I come back.

To have quick access to the pixel cleaning function, I mapped it to the control stick in the "My Favorite/Shortcut" section of the OSD.

Whether it's better to run it every 4 hours or not, I don't know. I don't see why it would be worse.