Asus XG27AQDMG Discussion

[RealNC]

new settings in oled care - screen saver - screen dimming and outer dimming, what the difference?

I noticed that too. Outer dimming is what the old "screen saver" function did (it dims pixels near the edges more, resulting in an ugly vignette effect.) What the new "screen dimming control" function does... no idea. Completely undocumented. Maybe it dims the screen if nothing is happening for like 5 or 10 minutes. Haven't tried to find out.

[Rewire]

Anyone managed to get a satisfactory result from HDR on this display? I've tried everything, RTX HDR, Auto HDR, Brightness Adjustable 100, Windows HDR Calibration Tool 0/1000/1000 0/920/920, I still can't get satisfied with what it outputs. FF16 is probably not the best game to showcase HDR on, I am open to suggestions/games for testing out HDR capabilities as well. With latest firmware MCM104 we can adjust Saturation and Warmness of the display, but still can't find an optimal setting with these as well.
The Black Crush is definitely there on SDR even with Wide Gamut, the lowest you can go is like 2 on lagon test if you do 2.0 Gamma with Shadow Boost on Dynamic Adjustment, but I feel like it just lits up literally every dark scene and loses the main purpose of it.

[Teccaneena]

They mentioned shadow detail for HDR in the notes - does anyone know if the black crush in SDR is fixed?

[Rewire]

They mentioned shadow detail for HDR in the notes - does anyone know if the black crush in SDR is fixed?

It's not fixed. You can mend it by doing what the original poster did with nosrgb, but even then I encountered some flaws in actual gameplay scenarios. For example this image from FF16 although there is less "black crushing" there is definitely something wrong with the image. You also lose the oversaturation and vivid colors from base Racing Mode and using Saturation on OSD doesn't really match up with it somehow.

[Smallsee]

Anyone managed to get a satisfactory result from HDR on this display? I've tried everything, RTX HDR, Auto HDR, Brightness Adjustable 100, Windows HDR Calibration Tool 0/1000/1000 0/920/920, I still can't get satisfied with what it outputs. FF16 is probably not the best game to showcase HDR on, I am open to suggestions/games for testing out HDR capabilities as well. With latest firmware MCM104 we can adjust Saturation and Warmness of the display, but still can't find an optimal setting with these as well.
The Black Crush is definitely there on SDR even with Wide Gamut, the lowest you can go is like 2 on lagon test if you do 2.0 Gamma with Shadow Boost on Dynamic Adjustment, but I feel like it just lits up literally every dark scene and loses the main purpose of it.

I think it depends more on the HDR implementation in every single game. In some games it works fine (Dead Space remake, TLOU remake) in others not (Stalker 2) Black crush its typical problem with OLED monitors due to infinite contrast. Use novdieo_srgb metod by RealNC its help alot, i use this in games without good hdr implementation and in lagom test i see all squares

[RealNC]

You're not really supposed to see the first square though. Maybe in a completely dark room. And in general, only square 5 should be more clearly visible. 1 should be almost invisible and 2 just barely visible if you focus on it. Only once you get to 5 it should be easily distinguishable from the black background.

And always keep in mind that if you have an ICC profile loaded, it will ruin the black test (and all other tests.) The Color Management dialog of Windows should have no profiles associated with the display when using novideo_srgb. If you let Windows install the "monitor driver" in Windows Update, then you're probably have an ICC profile active on the monitor, which will break things when using novideo_srgb.

The best result I can get is at 120Hz with novideo_srgb EDID mode, gamma 2.2, game visual set to user mode, and color temp set to user. That's basically the panels native output. Also, the black levels are affected by brightness. 50% brightness with "uniform brightness" enabled gives excellent black levels. It's a bit too bright for me though on the desktop (I use 35%). But in games, it's great.

At 240Hz, there's black crush and ICC mode in novideo_srgb with sRGB gamma becomes useful. But then blacks are raised a bit above what they should be.

VRR throws a wrench in it. The lower the FPS, the more the black levels are raised. You can test this by running a game in Steam and opening the lagom site in the Steam Overlay's browser while VRR is active.

Btw, I discovered that racing mode reduces red luminance. Easily testable when setting both racing mode and user mode to the same exact settings and then switching between them. The red logo on the top left of the forum with the UFO in it becomes dimmer in racing mode.

[Rewire]

You're not really supposed to see the first square though. Maybe in a completely dark room. And in general, only square 5 should be more clearly visible. 1 should be almost invisible and 2 just barely visible if you focus on it. Only once you get to 5 it should be easily distinguishable from the black background.

And always keep in mind that if you have an ICC profile loaded, it will ruin the black test (and all other tests.) The Color Management dialog of Windows should have no profiles associated with the display when using novideo_srgb. If you let Windows install the "monitor driver" in Windows Update, then you're probably have an ICC profile active on the monitor, which will break things when using novideo_srgb.

The best result I can get is at 120Hz with novideo_srgb EDID mode, gamma 2.2, game visual set to user mode, and color temp set to user. That's basically the panels native output. Also, the black levels are affected by brightness. 50% brightness with "uniform brightness" enabled gives excellent black levels. It's a bit too bright for me though on the desktop (I use 35%). But in games, it's great.

At 240Hz, there's black crush and ICC mode in novideo_srgb with sRGB gamma becomes useful. But then blacks are raised a bit above what they should be.

VRR throws a wrench in it. The lower the FPS, the more the black levels are raised. You can test this by running a game in Steam and opening the lagom site in the Steam Overlay's browser while VRR is active.

Btw, I discovered that racing mode reduces red luminance. Easily testable when setting both racing mode and user mode to the same exact settings and then switching between them. The red logo on the top left of the forum with the UFO in it becomes dimmer in racing mode.

The 120Hz EDID really does give better results with Brightness Uniform on compared to 240Hz from what I can observe, but you lose quite a bit of peak brightness with combination of these. I also wouldn't wanna play lower than 240Hz on any game other than single players as well. I think the red luminance thing is due to 6500K setting, I always hear that it's what should be used but User Mode kinda does look better than it? I'm not sure. 240Hz ICC clamp also has some issues like the screenshot I sent above, it has scratches/noise over places that are supposed to be darkish but not bright enough either. This monitor is really giving me a hard time lol

[RealNC]

I think the red luminance thing is due to 6500K setting, I always hear that it's what should be used but User Mode kinda does look better than it?

It's not due to the color temp setting. If you set both racing and user mode to the same color temp, switching from racing to user while you're looking at something red will make it clear that it will become a bit brighter.

Also, "user" color temp is brighter as well compared to 6500K, since the pixels aren't getting dimmed. User is so close to 6500K anyway that it's not meaningful for me to not use it.

I'm not sure. 240Hz ICC clamp also has some issues like the screenshot I sent above, it has scratches/noise over places that are supposed to be darkish but not bright enough either. This monitor is really giving me a hard time lol

I accepted the 240Hz black crush I prefer a subjectively good looking image compared to raising black levels too much. And hey, some black crush means you're making video compression artifacts in dark scenes less visible, right? And you get a bit of contrast boost as well

[Rewire]

[/quote]
I accepted the 240Hz black crush I prefer a subjectively good looking image compared to raising black levels too much. And hey, some black crush means you're making video compression artifacts in dark scenes less visible, right? And you get a bit of contrast boost as well
[/quote]

Yeah I guess you really have to pick between either 240Hz with Black Crush or 120Hz EDID for better shadow detail. 240Hz kinda has a bit of posterization too which is kinda disappointing for a monitor at this price and level, and shadow detail is what people choose OLED exactly for... We can only hope ASUS improves on this monitor even further with firmware updates.

[VincentDM]

Hey guys, just sharing a feedback regarding the Monitor, and my overall negative or "unsatisfied" experience of switching to the OLED game. Could be nice to hear your opinions as well.
After almost two weeks and close to 50 hours of use, I have mixed feelings about the monitor. It's an overall great experience, but the drawbacks are really in the way.

For the context, I'm using an 7800X3D CPU and RTX 3090 GPU, on a fairly clean and a de-bloated Windows 11 24H2 version. So not the absolute best config, but quite decent. When I'm getting close to 240Hz, and the game is optimized so there's no or very little stuttering, thus I can use GSync / VRR, this monitor is very good, and it's a pleasant experience. But for everything else, I don't really know..

I've tried not using GSync when reaching 240Hz or more, and different Sync options, but I feel that GSync / FreeSync are really what's look to be the smoothest visuals. Without it, it looks okay, but it feels choppy and off. It's subtle, but it's not a placebo. No words regarding the Tearings, because I might have seen some, but I'm not even sure.

The "Dirty Screen / Vertical Banding" can be distracting, but somehow it seems to be an unstable issue. Yesterday CyberPunk looked horrible because of this, and today, while still visible, I had to focus to see it and it was less of an issue. And no, It doesn't seem to "Fade Away" for me at least. Because I've played the 2013 Tomb Raider on this Monitor, the game can be quite dark visually, and someday I could be less bothered by these Banding issues, and the next day it could be somehow better or worse.

Heck, I even tried to calibrate the Monitor with a proper Colorimeter Device, but something was off since I didn't managed to reach some consistency in comparison to the NoVideo_sRGB Clamp method, which greatly Improve the Black Crushes problem, where you loose details in dark areas, but unfortunately, rise the Blacks slightly too much in my opinion. Making these vertical lines slightly more visible. Anyway, with that NoVideo Clamp "fix", I think that the Black Crushes is an non issue, so that's great !

The VRR Flickering is among the most annoying problems, at least in half the games I've tried. For instance, it's not a big deal in Shadow of the Tomb Raider, but in CyberPunk it's sooo annoying and kinda hurt my eyes. Or in OverWatch I can't really notice, but in Heroes of the Storm, It makes me want to punch the goddam screen.

So it appear that you need a very great PC and run a greatly optimized game to minimize and fully enjoy OLED Monitors. Which, I kinda knew a little, but never expected such inconsistent and variable results. I'm just surprised that most reviewers don't insist on theses significant issues. Probably because they mostly test things with top of the line hardware.

Other issue : Text Fringing. This one is "OKay". Sure my 140€, 5 years old IPS Monitor is much better for text clarity, but it's just below "annoying" on the 1440p OLED panel. I can imagine why people are saying that it's an non issue on 4K.

And also the Color Banding or "Posterization" topic. I think that It's more of a content or per game issue than a Monitor issue. But I don't understand where my unit lands between the "it's normal" and the "it's a defective unit". And It's extremely unpleasant to not being sure if everything's right or if something's off. But long story short, I have this issue on specific games or programs, and I apparently do not on others. Overall it's annoying (distracting) when it's there, but If that's an OLED weakness, it's one that I usually don't mind much. I did not saw a major crappy case with my use case at least.

And well, I can say that I'm not liking much the quite big screen borders, and the extruding bottom chin with the Asus logo, but this is reaching the Subjective topic. Oh and, I kinda dislike the VESA Adapter thing. I'd rather mount my Monitor arms straight to the Monitor, especially when you need these extra centimeters of depth because your desk is against a wall.

For the good part : I like the Glossy surface. Like yeah I can see my own reflection a little, but in a Dim room or late evening, that's really not distracting 90% of the time. I mean, in bright daylight it can be, but It might actually be better than the Matte coating on my previous Monitor, because the glare is much less diffused on the screen. Makes me wonder how a Glossy surface would have looked on my old MSI IPS Monitor.

And to finish, coming from 165Hz, the 240Hz on top of OLED's lack of ghosting and excellent clarity, yeah, this is noticeable and I really liked that. It's not life changing, but highly welcomed. Probably better than sticking to 165Hz and switching to 4K instead, in my opinion.

So in the end, I feel that for 600€ (instead of 700€ thanks to the Black Friday), OLED is still not worth it yet. And this Asus is often mentioned as one of the current best options... I think that the trades off are overwhelming compared to the benefits.
Yes, I'll take the OLED Infinite Contrasts over IPS Backlight any time of the day. But knowing that I don't have to mess with the settings (hello VRR) depending on the game or applications I wanna use - or babysitting the Monitor, yes even just a little, to prevent burn in, and like only using my second Monitor for working and the OLED for Content Consumption..

I've decided to return the Monitor. I'll wait 2 or 3 more years to see the improvements regarding OLED and MiniLED, and hopefully these issues will be reduced enough for me to not care anymore.