Blur Busters Forums

joris-truly wrote: ↑

24 Jan 2025, 13:43

However, does having to lower the bit depth to fix this issue suggest that the monitor is more limited than it seems?

It's not reducing the bit depth. Dither bit-depth is about how much noise the dithering can introduce. Lower bit-depth, more noise. However, I personally can't see any noise with it. If you do see noise, switch to 8-bit dither. It won't reduce banding as well as 6-bit, but will have no noise. But again, I don't see any noise with 6-bit.

Should I consider getting a better model instead? I was torn between the MSI MAG 271QPX QD-OLED E2 and this one, and eventually went with this one, but after struggling with color banding, HDR not being as impressive as expected, and some slight VRR flicker, I’m starting to have second thoughts.

I’m actually considering switching back to an IPS monitor.

From what I know, the only OLED desktop monitor with minimal flicker is the AW3423DW. Which is ultrawide (3440x1440). It happens to be the only OLED monitor with a hardware g-sync module. Other than that, the only OLEDs that have minimal flicker are some laptop OLED screens.

I don't think there's any OLED monitor out there without any VRR flicker. If that's important, I would look into IPS (and double-check RTINGS on that, because many modern IPS monitors now also have VRR flicker.)

RealNC wrote: ↑

24 Jan 2025, 16:19

It's not reducing the bit depth. Dither bit-depth is about how much noise the dithering can introduce. Lower bit-depth, more noise. However, I personally can't see any noise with it. If you do see noise, switch to 8-bit dither. It won't reduce banding as well as 6-bit, but will have no noise. But again, I don't see any noise with 6-bit.

From what I know, the only OLED desktop monitor with minimal flicker is the AW3423DW. Which is ultrawide (3440x1440). It happens to be the only OLED monitor with a hardware g-sync module. Other than that, the only OLEDs that have minimal flicker are some laptop OLED screens.

I don't think there's any OLED monitor out there without any VRR flicker. If that's important, I would look into IPS (and double-check RTINGS on that, because many modern IPS monitors now also have VRR flicker.)

Appreciate the input! I tried 8-bit with dithering, but the banding is still pretty bad in darker areas (STALKER 2 really highlights this issue). Dropping to 144Hz slightly raises the black levels, which improves the gradient a bit, and combined with 6-bit dithering, it’s the best I can manage. The VRR flickering seems minimal (knock on wood), mostly occurring during loading screens, so I’m okay with that.

Since this is my first OLED, it’s hard to determine whether this monitor excels in other ways, as I don’t have a reference point. I was a bit surprised by the color banding issue, especially since RTINGS rated the gradient performance an 8.3, but the quality seems much lower in my experience. For a model that supposedly supports 10-bit color depth, not being able to fully display it and finding that 6-bit is actually the better option is disappointing to say the least.

The pixel response and the incredibly deep blacks are probably the main selling points, if I had to guess. I’ll look into the Alienware model, even though it's priced at 899,- where I’m located. I got this Asus for 570,- which felt like a steal, but the MSI is also priced at 599,-. I can’t really find much on its color uniformity, and I’m betting it’s a downgrade in other unexpected areas (probably flicker-related, hehe).

I’ve been tinkering with this monitor and decided to return it. The banding is too much of a pain.
However, while tinkering, I found this comment to be incorrect:

Darker color shades can exhibit banding/posterization. The lower the refresh rate (including low FPS VRR at 240Hz), the more visible the issue becomes.

It's actually the opposite. The higher the refresh rate, the worse the fall-off. I used Mehanik's patterns as a colour test and found that lowering the Hz of the monitor actually brought back slightly more blacks, with 120Hz being the best middle ground for grayscale banding fixes using the clamp/dither solution. Not ideal, of course, but there you go.

12-bit color support can be added with CRU, and the firmware recognizes it just fine. Updated first post.

Got this monitor recently, this thread has been a life saver. Wanted to just provide my feedback regarding dithering, 6 bit works great till I go to really white and bright colors, then noise is annoyingly visible for me. 8 bit as it was suggested works good. Thanks for that!

Any tips for peak brightness under windows HDR calibration? Under console im going up to 720-730 and gaming hdr settings going up to around ~900, mostly default settings. Trying to get a good HDR image without it looking washed out or weird darker areas, struggling a bit.

Is the gamma setting 2.2 correct for 144hz as well? Or just 120hz.

Pointsintostrength wrote: ↑

03 Feb 2025, 08:57

Is the gamma setting 2.2 correct for 144hz as well? Or just 120hz.

Yes.

Unfortunately, at 240Hz, 2.0 is a bit too low, and 2.2 is a bit too high. There's no in-between 2.1 option

dan_alexandre wrote: ↑

03 Feb 2025, 06:03

Got this monitor recently, this thread has been a life saver. Wanted to just provide my feedback regarding dithering, 6 bit works great till I go to really white and bright colors, then noise is annoyingly visible for me. 8 bit as it was suggested works good. Thanks for that!

You can also try the Dynamic2x2 and Static2x2 options. But I guess those have more noise, not less

Any tips for peak brightness under windows HDR calibration? Under console im going up to 720-730 and gaming hdr settings going up to around ~900, mostly default settings. Trying to get a good HDR image without it looking washed out or weird darker areas, struggling a bit.

You should set peak brightness to whatever the white clipping point is (it's the usual test of raising a slider until you can no longer see the pattern/logo of the calibration tool.) I used SpecialK's HDR calibration tool to find the clipping point, as I'm on W10 and there's no calibration app for it.

Always keep in mind that the nits reported by software do not actually match physical light output. For example if you find out your peak brightness is 900 in the app, actual physical brightness when measured with a colorimeter might be 1100. It's like gamma or color temperature Just because the OSD option for example says color temp is 6500K and gamma is 2.2 doesn't mean that's what you're actually getting. Peak brightness nits isn't any different. The only important part is that you figure out what the clipping point is and use that so that you actually get the full dynamic range of the display and don't lose image detail in bright highlights.

dan_alexandre wrote: ↑

03 Feb 2025, 06:03

6 bit works great till I go to really white and bright colors, then noise is annoyingly visible for me.

Btw, can you take a screenshot of something that shows noise on your end so I can also test this for myself?

RealNC wrote: ↑

03 Feb 2025, 18:55

dan_alexandre wrote: ↑

03 Feb 2025, 06:03

6 bit works great till I go to really white and bright colors, then noise is annoyingly visible for me.

Btw, can you take a screenshot of something that shows noise on your end so I can also test this for myself?

Had issues with uploading the JXR file, common upload sites do not work and it is too big to attach on forum post, I can email or DM somewhere if you'd like.

With that said, 2 games I've noticed while adjusting HDR settings:
Tekken 8 Calibration menu, the right most squares (whites to grey) depending on my brightness some will have obvious noise
FFXVI Calibration menu, left most image, more subtle than T8 but shows some as well.

Seems its just some very bright images that do it, it's not something I see everywhere even if it's bright or perhaps some colors mask it better than others. Hope that helps