Dell Alienware AW3423DWF 34″ QD-OLED 165Hz FreeSync Premium Pro (3440 x 1440)

Well now this is interesting:
https://reddit.com/r/ultrawidemasterrace/comments/zkjt1e/alienware_aw3423dwf_lets_talk_settings_and/

Someone with the DWF is reporting clipping in hdr calibration at 1300 in both hdr 1000 and 400 true black with contrast at default 75. Unless there are units shipping with newer firmware now makes me think maybe there is some osd order of operations to run into the firmware bugs or at least some sort of condition to make things bug out?
Yah I read that. Looks like it came back to "normal" after he installed the VESA testing app ? Try removing the app and see what happens ?
 
Hey so i decided that having a working hdr 1000 was more important to me than having a possilblly fixable HDR 1000 on the dwf/ I have the DW being delviered this afternoon, and returning the DWF tomorrow. Is there anything anyone wants me to test on the DW like getting the HDR block of CRU or anything at all?

For instance i have a weird theory that if we export the hdr and gysnc block from cru and force import it into the DWF it may fix the hdr issue, which of course if it does i will be instead returning the DW lol. Just a theory!
 
Hey so i decided that having a working hdr 1000 was more important to me than having a possilblly fixable HDR 1000 on the dwf/ I have the DW being delviered this afternoon, and returning the DWF tomorrow. Is there anything anyone wants me to test on the DW like getting the HDR block of CRU or anything at all?
Well, if you want to do a side by side comparison of HDR 1000 between the two, that could be helpful ? Maybe figure out the settings on the DWF that makes it look like the DW ?
 
Well, if you want to do a side by side comparison of HDR 1000 between the two, that could be helpful ? Maybe figure out the settings on the DWF that makes it look like the DW ?
I could try, i live in a relatively small apartment with my wife, so theres not alot of room to put two massive (massive to me ) ultrawides side by side.
 
I could try, i live in a relatively small apartment with my wife, so theres not alot of room to put two massive (massive to me ) ultrawides side by side.
Hehe, indeed! No pressure :) If you can, that'll be nice but if not, no worries.
 
Hehe, indeed! No pressure :) If you can, that'll be nice but if not, no worries.
Maybe I can convince her that i need both of them for work. "No babe you dont understand, I need over 2500 dollars in monitors for productivity, trust me!"
 
Maybe I can convince her that i need both of them for work. "No babe you dont understand, I need over 2500 dollars in monitors for productivity, trust me!"
I got my old AW3418DW beside the DWF and it's quite convenient! There's a real argument to be made for it ;)
 
Last edited:
When I had both while doing side a side comparison in Movies & Games in HDR1000, I set the DW on 99-100% contrast imo I think it looks good since Gsync ultimate does a great job of controlling highlights. The DWF I had to adjust to 78-80% to match the DWs highlights. Above that highlights start to brighten above DW spec. Picture Quality is great on both minus the lifted mid tones from the DWFs HDR1000.
 
When I had both while doing side a side comparison in Movies & Games in HDR1000, I set the DW on 99-100% contrast imo I think it looks good since Gsync ultimate does a great job of controlling highlights. The DWF I had to adjust to 78-80% to match the DWs highlights. Above that highlights start to brighten above DW spec. Picture Quality is great on both minus the lifted mid tones from the DWFs HDR1000.
Honestly I think I'd prefer the accuracy of the DW. Maybe I'm just anal, but I just prefer it. That's why I stopped getting Samsung tvs. They mess with the picture even with HGIG enabled for consoles. I've been sticking to LG for TV's as of late
 
That's fine. To each their own but to those who aren't fortunate enough to compare both monitors side to side should know that they're not missing out on anything extraordinary.
 
That's fine. To each their own but to those who aren't fortunate enough to compare both monitors side to side should know that they're not missing out on anything extraordinary.
Ehh i mean, not like im spending the full amount for a new monitor, just the differnce between the two, i am ultimately sending the other one back. Cant afford that much monitor lol
 
Ehh i mean, not like im spending the full amount for a new monitor, just the differnce between the two, i am ultimately sending the other one back. Cant afford that much monitor lol
Still need the available funds to be able to buy both. Even If returning it.
 
Still need the available funds to be able to buy both. Even If returning it.
True True, but dell let me just pay the difference which was cool. I gave them like 212 and some change and they sent the monitor out, just need to return the DWF within 15 days.
 
True True, but dell let me just pay the difference which was cool. I gave them like 212 and some change and they sent the monitor out, just need to return the DWF within 15 days.
Damn you must be VIP then lol. I tried that when I had the DW because I didn't want to buy both at that time and Instead rather just pay the difference and try the other monitor. They told me my only option is to return it and buy it once I receive my refund.
 
Last edited:
Damn you must be VIP then lol. I tried that when I had the DWF because I didn't want to buy both at that time and Instead rather just pay the difference and try the other monitor. They told me my only option is to return it and buy it once I receive my refund.
Either i got lucky, or the person on the phone really liked my smooth baritone voice. I'm leaning towards the former :p. It actually already got delivered to my apartment complex, gonna set it up tonight and ship the other back tmmrw.
 
Either i got lucky, or the person on the phone really liked my smooth baritone voice. I'm leaning towards the former :p. It actually already got delivered to my apartment complex, gonna set it up tonight and ship the other back tmmrw.
Do you live in the states?
 
Yes sir I live in Connecticut.
Odd they told you 15 days. You have till the extended holiday which is till Jan 14th to return it. More than enough time to compare no ? :). Not sure if that extends to other countries.
 
Odd they told you 15 days. You have till the extended holiday which is till Jan 14th to return it. More than enough time to compare no ? :). Not sure if that extends to other countries.
I think cause they cut this deal with me thats why. Which i understand, they dont really feel like esssentially loaning me a thousand dollars for a month lol
 
Just wanted to report, the DWF is back in the box and the DW is set up and is reporting 1000 nits correctly in windows calibration tool. Also of not i did notice a difference in the midtones and near blacks. They are certainly better on the dw. Peak brightness i must admit looks roughly the same to me. But whatever, im a happy camper now. I hope everyone who has the DWF gets a nice fat firmware update for Christmas to fix the issues as well as the eotf tracking. I got lucky too on the dw, no noticeable scratches or annoying fan noise! Best of luck everyone
 
Yah I read that. Looks like it came back to "normal" after he installed the VESA testing app ? Try removing the app and see what happens ?
No luck but I did notice Game and Movie HDR modes clip at 1950 and 1670. Every other HDR option clipping in the calibration app patterns at 620/550. However they blow out something terrible and it just looks like they’ve done something with sharpness and contrast in those two modes. Really hard edges on everything.

Going back to hdr 400 or 1000 clipping at 620/550 without the blown out highlights.

Fiddling with contrast really is the only way to make it clip comparably.
 
Hey guys, I got the DWF recently, it's my first HDR monitor, maybe a newbie question but I'm wondering what's going on. I've got HDR on in windows and Peak 1000 on in the OSD, desktop looks great, after doing the tweaks, games look great too........but when playing some games fullscreen mode (most recently BotW in CEMU fullscreen), when exiting full screen or alt tabbing, the desktop gets much dimmer, as if HDR is off, but it's reporting as on? Going back to the game or launching another one, the game looks correct again, nice and bright. Anybody know what's going on?
 
Hey guys, I got the DWF recently, it's my first HDR monitor, maybe a newbie question but I'm wondering what's going on. I've got HDR on in windows and Peak 1000 on in the OSD, desktop looks great, after doing the tweaks, games look great too........but when playing some games fullscreen mode (most recently BotW in CEMU fullscreen), when exiting full screen or alt tabbing, the desktop gets much dimmer, as if HDR is off, but it's reporting as on? Going back to the game or launching another one, the game looks correct again, nice and bright. Anybody know what's going on?
When this happens, have you tried turning HDR off and back on again ?
 
Hey guys, I got the DWF recently, it's my first HDR monitor, maybe a newbie question but I'm wondering what's going on. I've got HDR on in windows and Peak 1000 on in the OSD, desktop looks great, after doing the tweaks, games look great too........but when playing some games fullscreen mode (most recently BotW in CEMU fullscreen), when exiting full screen or alt tabbing, the desktop gets much dimmer, as if HDR is off, but it's reporting as on? Going back to the game or launching another one, the game looks correct again, nice and bright. Anybody know what's going on?
Do you have a largeish white windows open when going back to desktop? Could be the ABL kicking in
 
Do you have a largeish white windows open when going back to desktop? Could be the ABL kicking in
No, this is straight to the desktop which is nice and bright before I go into the game but then dim when I alt tab or exit full-screen.
 
Listen at 15:24, Tim informed DELL about the HDR1000 issues. So it's looking good for a future firmware fix! Plus Dell are the ones who sent the monitor for them to review, so you'd think they'd be listening to his comments.
 
Last edited:
Listen at 15:24, Tim informed DELL about the HDR1000 issues. So it's looking good for a future firmware fix! Plus Dell are the ones who sent the monitor for them to review, so you'd think they'd be listening to his comments.
I hope so for you guys! Fingers crossed!

Edit: Monitoring still just out of curiosity, i know this no longer effects me, but ehh.
 
I hope so for you guys! Fingers crossed!

Edit: Monitoring still just out of curiosity, i know this no longer effects me, but ehh.
Even for you, for future purchases, it'll be good PR for Dell if they come through on this.
 
Here's a couple of interesting quotes from Tim from the comment section of that YouTube Video.

Comment: I (and a lot of other people) hit an issue in HDR where dark tones would be severely washed out unless we put the monitor in Console Mode and enabled Source Tone Mapping; did you notice this ever, and what GPU did you use while testing? (One theory going around is that only Nvidia cards experience the severe wash out issue)
Tim Answered: Yeah I was on a call with Dell and explained the issue in detail. It's over to them to fix it.

Comment: The community over on Reddit has been a bit confused about how this monitor behaves compared to the DW for AMD vs Nvidia users specifically for HDR. The source tone mapping option doesn't show up for AMD GPUs while it does for Nvidia GPUs, but that maybe seems to be because it's always on by default for AMD GPUs? I know it's unlikely, but it'd be lovely to have some sort of follow-up from an experienced reviewer on whether there are differences noticeable in the behavior of the monitor when using one GPU brand over the other. Every big review I've seen appears to use Nvidia.
Tim Answered: I believe this is because on AMD it uses FreeSync Premium which already does source side tone mapping in supported apps/games. For what it's worth I primarily test on an AMD GPU, but B roll is captured in an Nvidia GPU. It looks pretty similar but can't say I did in depth AMD vs Nvidia testing.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Xar
like this
No luck but I did notice Game and Movie HDR modes clip at 1950 and 1670. Every other HDR option clipping in the calibration app patterns at 620/550. However they blow out something terrible and it just looks like they’ve done something with sharpness and contrast in those two modes. Really hard edges on everything.

Going back to hdr 400 or 1000 clipping at 620/550 without the blown out highlights.

Fiddling with contrast really is the only way to make it clip comparably.
I finally got a chance to install Windows 11 and have been playing with the calibration app. Unlike you, when contrast is set to 75 (default), I can't really see any difference in the test patterns past ~510. I got the .inf driver installed from the Dell website. HDR 400 or 1000 doesn't make any difference. On the other hand, I can get all the way to ~1000 by setting the contrast to 68 on the monitor. Highlights are much more dimmer though; the sun in Halo Infinite is a good testing bench for this.

Either way, AutoHDR is cool and I'll be staying on Windows 11 for the time being.
 
I finally got a chance to install Windows 11 and have been playing with the calibration app. Unlike you, when contrast is set to 75 (default), I can't really see any difference in the test patterns past ~510. I got the .inf driver installed from the Dell website. HDR 400 or 1000 doesn't make any difference. On the other hand, I can get all the way to ~1000 by setting the contrast to 68 on the monitor. Highlights are much more dimmer though; the sun in Halo Infinite is a good testing bench for this.

Either way, AutoHDR is cool and I'll be staying on Windows 11 for the time being.
I was thinking maybe the osd was bugged displaying contrast setting but even after a factory reset I’m still clipping higher at 75 which doesn’t make any sense to me.

I did appear to run into another firmware bug though where the display will start switching inputs on its own until disabling auto switch. And that was with only one input connected… disconcerting 2 days after return period ends. lol

A heads up with autohdr: it’s connected to sdr brightness slider for some reason. If you open the game bar and go to settings you can adjust autohdr per game to override it.
 
Here's a couple of interesting quotes from Tim from the comment section of that YouTube Video.

Comment: I (and a lot of other people) hit an issue in HDR where dark tones would be severely washed out unless we put the monitor in Console Mode and enabled Source Tone Mapping; did you notice this ever, and what GPU did you use while testing? (One theory going around is that only Nvidia cards experience the severe wash out issue)
Tim Answered: Yeah I was on a call with Dell and explained the issue in detail. It's over to them to fix it.

Comment: The community over on Reddit has been a bit confused about how this monitor behaves compared to the DW for AMD vs Nvidia users specifically for HDR. The source tone mapping option doesn't show up for AMD GPUs while it does for Nvidia GPUs, but that maybe seems to be because it's always on by default for AMD GPUs? I know it's unlikely, but it'd be lovely to have some sort of follow-up from an experienced reviewer on whether there are differences noticeable in the behavior of the monitor when using one GPU brand over the other. Every big review I've seen appears to use Nvidia.
Tim Answered: I believe this is because on AMD it uses FreeSync Premium which already does source side tone mapping in supported apps/games. For what it's worth I primarily test on an AMD GPU, but B roll is captured in an Nvidia GPU. It looks pretty similar but can't say I did in depth AMD vs Nvidia testing.
Didn't they advertised AW3423DWF as FreeSync Premium Pro instead of FreeSync Premium?
I've read on Reddit the Washed-out issue on Nvidia GPU has to do with no Dithering for native 8bpc.
 
I was thinking maybe the osd was bugged displaying contrast setting but even after a factory reset I’m still clipping higher at 75 which doesn’t make any sense to me.

I did appear to run into another firmware bug though where the display will start switching inputs on its own until disabling auto switch. And that was with only one input connected… disconcerting 2 days after return period ends. lol

A heads up with autohdr: it’s connected to sdr brightness slider for some reason. If you open the game bar and go to settings you can adjust autohdr per game to override it.
Really strange indeed. Did you modify something with CRU that could explain the higher clipping at 75 ? Or played with contrast in nvcp ?

I haven't seen that bug. You could try to plug it into the other DP port see if that fixes it.

Yup, I saw that you could change the intensity from the gamebar, quite useful when AutoHDR make the UI of games overly bright.
 
Last edited:
Didn't they advertised AW3423DWF as FreeSync Premium Pro instead of FreeSync Premium?
I've read on Reddit the Washed-out issue on Nvidia GPU has to do with no Dithering for native 8bpc.
It is the Pro version yes. Tim probably just wrote quickly without putting every detail in his comment. His answer seems to make sense based on the user experience I've read here and there.

With Nvidia GPUs you have to enable Source tone Mapping under Console Mode and that fixes most of the washed-out issue; on AMD GPUs it mostly works on its own without having to enable it. So I don't think it has anything to do with Dithering as you will run into the same issue running the monitor in native 10-bit on Nvidia GPUs.
 
I love this monitor already! I am only interested in SDR and I don't have a colorimeter to make any measurements. For now I simply select Creator Mode, Gamma 2.2, and sRGB colorspace.

I have a calibrated VA LCD (i1D3 + i1Pro + ArgyllCMS) right next to this monitor and based on several patterns I randomly selected, colors do ineed seem accurate, but red hue seems a bit off. The factory calibration paperwork also shows red having the greatest error. Can someone please measure SDR (grayscale levels, 10pts, gamma, luminance, color temp, and 4-5 step saturation colorspace) for Creator Mode, Gamma 2.2, and sRGB colorspace?

I don't like factory Standard preset. It crushes first 4-5 black levels, but Standard preset is for HDR and I am new to it. SDR (Creator Mode, Gamma 2.2, and sRGB colorspace) doesn't crush black levels or clip white levels and passes all lagom.nl tests with flying colors, but eye-based results don't mean much...

What is FPS cut off limit for AMD FreeSync Premium Pro? AFAIK, FreeSync minimum FPS is 48fps, but FreeSync Premium Pro is 30fps, isn't it? Does that apply to both AMD and NVidia cards?
 
CRU says the range is 48-165Hz. I'm on a 3080.
I read something about frame doubling below 48 on Reddit but never seen any source to confirm how it behaves below the range. Probably not relevant outside of trying to play the Witcher 3 with the slideshow next gen patch anyway lol

Really strange indeed. Did you modify something with CRU that could explain the higher clipping at 75 ? Or played with contrast in nvcp ?

I haven't seen that bug. You could try to plug it into the other DP port see if that fixes it.

Yup, I saw that you could change the intensity from the gamebar, quite useful when AutoHDR make the UI of games overly bright.
Reference mode in nvcp so can’t change anything there. Nothing beyond the refresh rates for CRU. Resetting all the CRU changes still clips higher as well.

There is a long thread on the dell forums about the input switching issue on the DW. I tried swapping back to the original cable but I suspect I’d see black outs or signal lost if the monoprice DP80 cable I was using is the issue.
 
Reference mode in nvcp so can’t change anything there. Nothing beyond the refresh rates for CRU. Resetting all the CRU changes still clips higher as well.

There is a long thread on the dell forums about the input switching issue on the DW. I tried swapping back to the original cable but I suspect I’d see black outs or signal lost if the monoprice DP80 cable I was using is the issue.
I was in accurate mode, but just tried it now in reference and it still clips at 510. Very strange stuff. We'll see what happens when ever they release another firmware.

If the problem is also on the DW.... I really wish they had went with DP 2.1 for the DWF.
 
Back
Top