Asus XG27AQDMG Discussion

[RealNC]

Just got the monitor and following the settings recommendations. Quick question though, is gamma 2.2 ideal for 240hz or only 120hz?

2.0 is closer to 2.2, so more accurate. But it's preference. If you like the deeper shadows of 2.2, then use that.

[Pointsintostrength]

Found this random post that helps ease the orange/yellowish hue in HDR.

https://rog-forum.asus.com/t5/gaming-mo ... -p/1112630

[cncz]

Found this random post that helps ease the orange/yellowish hue in HDR.

Author of that post here (working on video response to the support reply, got busy), this won't fix yellow, just orange and red, I've spent an unreasonable amount of time toying with this thing and yellow still looks like crap in HDR to the point that I'm considering this might just be inherent to how WOLED handles HDR signal color luminance (after doing the six axis adjustment, other colors are still undersaturated and inaccurate according to my colorimeter, but it isn't nearly as noticeable to the naked eye as yellow is). There was some post in a discord once that seemed to indicate LGs tvs fix HDR color saturation with some 3d lut stuff, but good luck getting that on a consumer display.

[maruko]

Hi, everyone, this is my fix to banding and black crush with SDR games, hope this can help

You can jump at the end of this post to see my results.

Requirements:
•A colorimeter (I used an X-Rite i1 Display Pro Plus)
•DisplayCAL calibration software (free)
•Some familiarity with DisplayCAL (the official website has a detailed guide and forum support. In any case, here I’ll share all the settings I used, ready to go)

Banding
•This is the only issue I attribute to the panel itself and it cannot be fully eliminated. However, it managed to reduced it to the same levels as my good LG CX OLED TV.

•What puzzled me: my 2021 LG CX scored nearly the same in gradient tests, yet it looks far less problematic than the ASUS.

•What I found is the issue is worsened by oversaturation. Fixing this automatically reduces perceived banding to my eyes. Proper calibration and profiling and clamp to the sRGB color space using a 3DLUT in ReShade do the rest.

Black crush (100% fixable)
•Old firmware: fixed with update to firmware MCM104.

•sRGB preset: even with the new firmware, black crush occurs mostly in this preset. Using User mode reduces it.

•The panel can achieve an ideal gamma of 2.4, but factory settings make it too dark and black crushing. Again, a full fix is possible by properly calibrating and profiling the User preset with DisplayCAL and generating a 3DLUT to be used with ReShade.

1. OSD monitor settings
• VRR: Off
• Preset: User Mode
• Shadow Boost: Off
• Brightness: to taste (I set 32 = 110 nits on my unit, for evening gaming with dim lights)
• Uniform Brightness: On
• Contrast: 80
• Clear Pixel Edge: Off
• Vivid Pixel: 50 (default)
• Color Space: Wide Gamut
• Color Temp (User): R 99 / G 100 / B 99 (your unit may vary)
• Saturation & Six-axis Saturation: 50 (default)
• Gamma: 2.2 (based on DisplayCAL measurements this matches most closely an absolute 2.4 target)
• 2.4 OSD ≈ 2.50 measured
• 2.2 OSD ≈ 2.32 measured
• 2.6 OSD ≈ 2.71 measured
• Screen Dimming Control: Off (for calibration only; you may re-enable later)
• Outer Dimming Control: I suggest keeping it Off also during gaming
• Screen Move: Off (for calibration only; you may re-enable later)
• Auto Logo Brightness: I suggest keeping it Off also during gaming
• Remember to re-enable OLED care features when not gaming.

2. GPU control panel settings
set FULL RGB RANGE 0-255

3. Here's my DisplayCAL settings
• Preset: 3D LUT for ReShade
• Mode: Refresh
• White level drift compensation: Yes
• Black level drift compensation: Yes
• Output: Auto
• Correction: WOLED
• Observer: CIE 1931 2°
• Whitepoint: Color temperature → 6504K
• White level: Custom (personal preference; I chose 110 cd/m²)
• Black level: As measured (OLED = true black)
• Tone curve: Custom → Gamma 2.4 → Absolute
• Black output offset: 0%
• Ambient light level adjustment: 10–18 lux if gaming in dim light; increase if brighter (can measure with the meter)
• Black point correction: 0%
• Calibration speed: Medium
• Calibration quality: High
• Testchart: Auto-optimized (173 patches)
• Profile type: XYZ LUT + Matrix
• Black point compensation: No
• Create 3D LUT after profiling: Yes
• Source color space: Rec.709
• Tone curve: Custom → Gamma 2.4 → Absolute
• Black output offset: 0%
• Rendering intent: Absolute colorimetric
• Gamut mapping mode: Inverse to PCS
• Input & Output Encoding: 16–235

4. After profiling
• Save the 3D LUT in a folder of your choice.
• Install the ICC profile system-wide with DisplayCAL.

5. Before gaming
• IMPORTANT: Reset calibration curves (disable ICC profile) → Right-click DisplayCAL Profile Loader in the system tray → Reset video card gamma table (if not, you will Apply the calibration twice)
• Install ReShade in the game folder.
• Copy the exported 3D LUT “shaders” and “textures” files into the corresponding ReShade directories in the game directory
• Launch the game, launch ReShade and enable the Color Lookup Table shader.

[Smallsee]

Hi, everyone, this is my fix to banding and black crush with SDR games, hope this can help

You can jump at the end of this post to see my results.

Requirements:
•A colorimeter (I used an X-Rite i1 Display Pro Plus)
•DisplayCAL calibration software (free)
•Some familiarity with DisplayCAL (the official website has a detailed guide and forum support. In any case, here I’ll share all the settings I used, ready to go)

Banding
•This is the only issue I attribute to the panel itself and it cannot be fully eliminated. However, it managed to reduced it to the same levels as my good LG CX OLED TV.

•What puzzled me: my 2021 LG CX scored nearly the same in gradient tests, yet it looks far less problematic than the ASUS.

•What I found is the issue is worsened by oversaturation. Fixing this automatically reduces perceived banding to my eyes. Proper calibration and profiling and clamp to the sRGB color space using a 3DLUT in ReShade do the rest.

Black crush (100% fixable)
•Old firmware: fixed with update to firmware MCM104.

•sRGB preset: even with the new firmware, black crush occurs mostly in this preset. Using User mode reduces it.

•The panel can achieve an ideal gamma of 2.4, but factory settings make it too dark and black crushing. Again, a full fix is possible by properly calibrating and profiling the User preset with DisplayCAL and generating a 3DLUT to be used with ReShade.

1. OSD monitor settings
• VRR: Off
• Preset: User Mode
• Shadow Boost: Off
• Brightness: to taste (I set 32 = 110 nits on my unit, for evening gaming with dim lights)
• Uniform Brightness: On
• Contrast: 80
• Clear Pixel Edge: Off
• Vivid Pixel: 50 (default)
• Color Space: Wide Gamut
• Color Temp (User): R 99 / G 100 / B 99 (your unit may vary)
• Saturation & Six-axis Saturation: 50 (default)
• Gamma: 2.2 (based on DisplayCAL measurements this matches most closely an absolute 2.4 target)
• 2.4 OSD ≈ 2.50 measured
• 2.2 OSD ≈ 2.32 measured
• 2.6 OSD ≈ 2.71 measured
• Screen Dimming Control: Off (for calibration only; you may re-enable later)
• Outer Dimming Control: I suggest keeping it Off also during gaming
• Screen Move: Off (for calibration only; you may re-enable later)
• Auto Logo Brightness: I suggest keeping it Off also during gaming
• Remember to re-enable OLED care features when not gaming.

2. GPU control panel settings
set FULL RGB RANGE 0-255

3. Here's my DisplayCAL settings
• Preset: 3D LUT for ReShade
• Mode: Refresh
• White level drift compensation: Yes
• Black level drift compensation: Yes
• Output: Auto
• Correction: WOLED
• Observer: CIE 1931 2°
• Whitepoint: Color temperature → 6504K
• White level: Custom (personal preference; I chose 110 cd/m²)
• Black level: As measured (OLED = true black)
• Tone curve: Custom → Gamma 2.4 → Absolute
• Black output offset: 0%
• Ambient light level adjustment: 10–18 lux if gaming in dim light; increase if brighter (can measure with the meter)
• Black point correction: 0%
• Calibration speed: Medium
• Calibration quality: High
• Testchart: Auto-optimized (173 patches)
• Profile type: XYZ LUT + Matrix
• Black point compensation: No
• Create 3D LUT after profiling: Yes
• Source color space: Rec.709
• Tone curve: Custom → Gamma 2.4 → Absolute
• Black output offset: 0%
• Rendering intent: Absolute colorimetric
• Gamut mapping mode: Inverse to PCS
• Input & Output Encoding: 16–235

4. After profiling
• Save the 3D LUT in a folder of your choice.
• Install the ICC profile system-wide with DisplayCAL.

5. Before gaming
• IMPORTANT: Reset calibration curves (disable ICC profile) → Right-click DisplayCAL Profile Loader in the system tray → Reset video card gamma table (if not, you will Apply the calibration twice)
• Install ReShade in the game folder.
• Copy the exported 3D LUT “shaders” and “textures” files into the corresponding ReShade directories in the game directory
• Launch the game, launch ReShade and enable the Color Lookup Table shader.

nice work, ty for advice

[ExplodinFistz]

The novideo_srgb method to fix the horrible banding/posterization issues on this monitor works like a charm. Played around with 8 bpc and 10 bpc but neither of them were enough to solve the problem. 6 bpc fixes it pretty much completely. It's a shame ASUS never resolved this on their own with a firmware update but nonetheless I'm happy to at least have a solution. That said though, my only concern is if there are any drawbacks to using this method. I don't notice any visible degradation to the image while using it so I figured there was nothing to worry about, but apparently it introduces noise based on what others have remarked in this thread. Can anyone else confirm if this is true? If so, is there a way to test for it?

[RealNC]

That said though, my only concern is if there are any drawbacks to using this method. I don't notice any visible degradation to the image while using it so I figured there was nothing to worry about, but apparently it introduces noise based on what others have remarked in this thread. Can anyone else confirm if this is true? If so, is there a way to test for it?

It is true simply because dithering works by adding noise. Whether you can see it or not is another matter. I can't, but some people swear they can.

[_zebracrossing666]

The novideo_srgb method to fix the horrible banding/posterization issues on this monitor works like a charm. Played around with 8 bpc and 10 bpc but neither of them were enough to solve the problem. 6 bpc fixes it pretty much completely. It's a shame ASUS never resolved this on their own with a firmware update but nonetheless I'm happy to at least have a solution. That said though, my only concern is if there are any drawbacks to using this method. I don't notice any visible degradation to the image while using it so I figured there was nothing to worry about, but apparently it introduces noise based on what others have remarked in this thread. Can anyone else confirm if this is true? If so, is there a way to test for it?

The noise is noticeable at lower refresh rates like 60hz.

[ano101]

Any advice?

See first post in this thread. Use:

Gaming->GameVisual: User Mode
Gaming->GameVisual->Shadow Boost: OFF
Image->Uniform Brightness: ON
Color->Display Color Space: Wide Gamut
Color->Color Temp: User (100, 100, 100)
Color->Gamma: 2.0 (or 2.2 if you prefer the look of darker shadows)

And use novideo_srgb EDID mode with target set to "sRGB/BT.709".

180Hz and 240Hz should look great. 144Hz and lower will negatively affect the gamma curve. Also you need to get into the habit of manually disabling the novideo_srgb clamp manually before switching to HDR mode and enabling it again after switching to SDR mode.

If you're on an AMD GPU, then use the driver's sRGB clamp instead of novideo_srgb.

Hello, I’m still fairly new to OLED monitors. I purchased this one a few months ago and had a question. You mentioned in this post—and an earlier one that gamma fluctuates with the refresh rate. Would that still be an issue if I disable VRR ?

For example, if I turn off VRR in the OSD and set the refresh rate to 120 Hz, should I be able to leave the OSD gamma at 2.2 and get a near-accurate 2.2 at any given framerate? And similarly, at 240 Hz, should setting the OSD gamma to 2.0 produce an accurate result no matter the framerates?

Also what's the difference between using novideo_srgb EDID mode vs the ICC profile with gamma calibrated to srgb (like using the profile that comes with the monitor's driver) and which is better for which situation ?

thanks in advance

[RealNC]

You mentioned in this post—and an earlier one that gamma fluctuates with the refresh rate. Would that still be an issue if I disable VRR ?

Yes. The gamma shift is independent of VRR. The lower you set your refresh rate at, the brighter shadows will get.

For example, if I turn off VRR in the OSD and set the refresh rate to 120 Hz, should I be able to leave the OSD gamma at 2.2 and get a near-accurate 2.2 at any given framerate? And similarly, at 240 Hz, should setting the OSD gamma to 2.0 produce an accurate result no matter the framerates?

You're confusing refresh rate and frame rate. It's the refresh rate that matters. Without VRR, the refresh rate stays fixed, so there is no gamma shift. With VRR, the refresh rate changes with the frame rate, so there is gamma shift.

Without VRR, gamma will only change if you change to a different refresh rate yourself.

Also what's the difference between using novideo_srgb EDID mode vs the ICC profile with gamma calibrated to srgb (like using the profile that comes with the monitor's driver) and which is better for which situation ?

I don't recommend sRGB gamma anymore. Games most other content are not made with it in mind. sRGB gamma is what's used by Windows 10 in HDR mode to display SDR content, and it's not the correct thing to do.

Just use EDID mode.