The 32 inch 4k IPS 144hz's...(Update - this party is started) (wait for it...)

[kramnelis]

PG32UQX is a great monitor but it's still not perfect in the end. Something better will eventually land and I'd rather just buy a cheaper monitor for 1/3 the price but offer 90% the performance to hold me over which is what the 32M2V is. Seems like he's having a hard time understanding that. Nobody is saying InnoCN is better than the PG, it's just close enough while being much cheaper. If people would rather spend 3x the price to get slightly better performance that's on them. There are people would actually upgraded from a 3090 to a 3090 Ti after all, spent $2k just to get 10% more performance.

It's guys like you having a hard time understanding what is made to stand against time which lasts at least several years. Or you could've seen better two years ago and for some years later.

These two monitors are not even close to be comparable, yet you talk like you don't have both of them to compare but only imagination.

 

[MistaSparkul]

It's guys like you having a hard time understanding what is made to stand against time which lasts at least several years. Or you could've seen better two years ago and for some years later.

These two monitors are not even close to be comparable, yet you talk like you don't have both of them to compare but only imagination.

If you think the Asus is far above and beyond that's fine I'm not here to change your mind. But it's not like the Asus is endgame or anything. Can it do 10,000 nits? Does it have 100% Rec.2020 or whatever? So even the Asus is just another stopgap to the next best thing anyway and I'm not willing to pay that much for a stopgap.

 

[kramnelis]

If you think the Asus is far above and beyond that's fine I'm not here to change your mind. But it's not like the Asus is endgame or anything. Can it do 10,000 nits? Does it have 100% Rec.2020 or whatever? So even the Asus is just another stopgap to the next best thing anyway and I'm not willing to pay that much for a stopgap.

Everything can be a stopgap. I don't do imagination.

There is no perfect/best thing but if it is a cutdown in the first place it will be less than a stopgap especially on this cheap 3rd party PWM backlight made in some nameless factory. The value is way less than you thought it would be without DC dimming, G-sync, or even without Adobe color space. It can do some harm in return.

Upon that you can make it even cheaper on Aliexpress when you just assemble a monitor yourself with a panel, a backlight and driver boards. But you cannot do the same level dialing, tunning which is the top secret of every factory as it needs years of accumulated experience to make special hardware adjustment. Dialing is in fact the most important on every high-end product not just on monitors. I wonder how long it will take for you to realize that when you just buy a cutdown product with no feasible dialing but short lifespan.

 

[MistaSparkul]

Everything can be a stopgap. I don't do imagination.

There is no perfect/best thing but if it is a cutdown in the first place it will be less than a stopgap especially on this cheap 3rd party PWM backlight made in some nameless factory. The value is way less than you thought it would be without DC dimming, G-sync, or even without Adobe color space. It can do some harm in return.

Upon that you can make it even cheaper on Aliexpress when you just assemble a monitor yourself with a panel, a backlight and driver boards. But you cannot do the same level dialing, tunning which is the top secret of every factory as it needs years of accumulated experience to make special hardware adjustment. Dialing is in fact the most important on every high-end product not just on monitors. I wonder how long it will take for you to realize that when you just buy a cutdown product with no feasible dialing but short lifespan.

"Value" varies from person to person. You see the value in the Gsync module and DC backlight, I don't. Yes it has a short lifespan and that's kinda a moot point. I'm just gonna use it for a year or two then upgrade to something better.

 

[SoCali]

My InnoCN is frequently coming out of standby at 1024x768 and its really annoying me. I see that in the OSD there is "USB Update" so hopefully it will be fixed with a firmware update because otherwise its a pretty solid monitor. I placed an order for the X32 to satisfy my curiosity and just in case this standby wakeup bug on the InnoCN doesn't get resolved in the near future.

Really the most susprising damn thing is how well it handles VRR flicker. Where I see it on loading screens and menus with other monitors, on this its practically absent to extremely subtle and a total non issue.

 

[MistaSparkul]

My InnoCN is frequently coming out of standby at 1024x768 and its really annoying me. I see that in the OSD there is "USB Update" so hopefully it will be fixed with a firmware update because otherwise its a pretty solid monitor. I placed an order for the X32 to satisfy my curiosity and just in case this standby wakeup bug on the InnoCN doesn't get resolved in the near future.

Really the most susprising damn thing is how well it handles VRR flicker. Where I see it on loading screens and menus with other monitors, on this its practically absent to extremely subtle and a total non issue.

I looked around for this issue and it seems like it is something that progressively gets worst based on this Reddit post. People with the 27 inch are also experiencing this. Yes maybe it can be fixed with a firmware update but I'm not sure if I want to count on it happening.

 

[kramnelis]

"Value" varies from person to person. You see the value in the Gsync module and DC backlight, I don't. Yes it has a short lifespan and that's kinda a moot point. I'm just gonna use it for a year or two then upgrade to something better.

Better stay true to your words. You have seen only one monitor so far.

You talk like it's your first expectation with sub brands that only shines in price such as KTC, HKC, KOIOS, Titan Army, Redmagic, Thunderbolt, and this new InnoCN.

After a while all these brands will have similar 4K 1152-zone specs. But they cannot have the product similar to X32FP with authentic AUO backlight as certain key features/technologies are locked away from them. This is why 512-zone X32FP can outperform 1152-zone opencells.

The possible something better is going be made with AUO backlight under the brands such as Acer, ASUS, BenQ, Dell, Gigabyte, MSI.

Keep a grain of salt on these Reddit reviewers. "Local dimming algorithm is tuned to maximize contrast." There is an obvious graph like this with lower brightness at smaller window size. It means it is tunned to minimize bloom at the cost of contrast.

 

[SoCali]

I looked around for this issue and it seems like it is something that progressively gets worst based on this Reddit post. People with the 27 inch are also experiencing this. Yes maybe it can be fixed with a firmware update but I'm not sure if I want to count on it happening.

I saw people who were having the issue were using HDMI 2.1 like me. Since switching to Displayport it hasn't occurred once yet.

Also I know this sounds crazy but I seriously think the InnoCN has less bloom than my Neo G8. Movies that were bloom city on the Neo G8 glow far less on the InnoCN even though it gets significantly brighter.

 

[daveop]

I saw people who were having the issue were using HDMI 2.1 like me. Since switching to Displayport it hasn't occurred once yet.

Also I know this sounds crazy but I seriously think the InnoCN has less bloom than my Neo G8. Movies that were bloom city on the Neo G8 glow far less on the InnoCN even though it gets significantly brighter.

Seems like you're mostly happy with this monitor given the price point. If DP keeps the strange boot up resolution at bay, do you think this is worth the cost at $899 until something better comes out later? I tried all the OLED's and the brightness is really getting to me. I had a PG32UQX that I regret selling.

 

[SoCali]

Seems like you're mostly happy with this monitor given the price point. If DP keeps the strange boot up resolution at bay, do you think this is worth the cost at $899 until something better comes out later? I tried all the OLED's and the brightness is really getting to me. I had a PG32UQX that I regret selling.

Yeah I think it's crazy good given the price. If you enjoyed the PG32UQX this is basically it's slightly less capable brother. The only areas where the PG32UQX win unanimously are its peak brightness and it has slightly more sophisticated FALD control but at this point I'm thinking its just a difference in philosophy in how their FALD algorithms are tuned. I would not suggest using FALD for desktop use on this monitor because there are visual artifacts it creates that aren't present in content like games/movies. I do think though that the PG32UQX has a faster panel.

Otherwise yeah at $899 I just don't see why anyone would spend 3x as much for a PG32UQX when this is 90% the way there.

I have a X32 coming either end of this week or Monday and will borrow my friends PG32UQX who has been trying to sell it to me for months (lol) and compare them.

I'm also kind of off OLED at the moment. Really missed the brightness these LCDs produce.

 

[daveop]

Yeah I think it's crazy good given the price. If you enjoyed the PG32UQX this is basically it's slightly less capable brother. The only areas where the PG32UQX win unanimously are its peak brightness and it has slightly more sophisticated FALD control but at this point I'm thinking its just a difference in philosophy in how their FALD algorithms are tuned. I would not suggest using FALD for desktop use on this monitor because there are visual artifacts it creates that aren't present in content like games/movies. I do think though that the PG32UQX has a faster panel.

Otherwise yeah at $899 I just don't see why anyone would spend 3x as much for a PG32UQX when this is 90% the way there.

I have a X32 coming either end of this week or Monday and will borrow my friends PG32UQX who has been trying to sell it to me for months (lol) and compare them.

I'm also kind of off OLED at the moment. Really missed the brightness these LCDs produce.

Awesome, thanks for the feedback. Still doing my research, I am shocked how few good Mini-LED options we have.

 

[improwise]

Ok so after spending a few hours gaming on the X32 FP here's my initial thoughts, feel free to ask questions and I'll do my best to answer them but keep in mind I'm no professional monitor reviewer like RTings or MonitorsUnboxed:

• Motion clarity is great. They fixed the massive overshoot problem that plagued the monitor last year. OD is locked when enabling VRR but it's looks to be dialed in pretty well as far as I can tell. I am running an RTX 4090 so my frame rates at 4K are pretty high though. 160Hz on this panel is comparable to my 120Hz OLED, maybe a little bit less clear in motion but overall I would say you aren't give up much in terms of motion clarity coming from a 120Hz OLED, and 160Hz feels like a step up in responsiveness over 120Hz.
• Windows HDR Calibration Tool shows that it does 1280 nits before clipping. So peak brightness appears to be in the ballpark of the X27. Amazing HDR experience on this thing! I don't know how to measure PQ EOTF tracking or show brightness at various Window Sizes though so who knows maybe it's not as bright hence the reduced blooming. Just eyeballing it though the brightness doesn't seem too far off from the X27.
• Blooming (lack of blooming rather) is better than the X27 even when setting adaptive dimming speed to "Fast" when seems to result in the highest brightness. However I can't actually recommend using "Fast" adaptive dimming speed because the dimming zones doing their thing was super noticeable even in games, and it is EXTREMELY distracting on the desktop. Setting adaptive dimming to "Average" it isn't noticeable in games to me but still noticeable on the desktop, just less distracting. Local dimming on the desktop however has ALWAYS been something that's noticeable IMO so I don't consider this an issue.
• 4K 160Hz 10Bit RGB works just fine through DSC no issues so far, this is a huge step up from my X27 which lacks DSC and can only do 4K 10Bit RGB at a measely 98Hz, or 144Hz with 422 chroma.
• I am currently running the monitor with HDR permanently enabled and HDR also permanently enabled on Windows 11 just like I did with my X27 and haven't ran into any issues with washed out colors or oversaturated colors, Windows handles this well now IMO.
• User Color Controls are locked when running in HDR so you cannot do any white point balance unfortunately, mine has a slight blue tint that would easily be fixable if we could adjust RGB values with User Color.
• I haven't ran into any weird OSD/firmware bugs.....yet. Fingers crossed they really did iron every single issue out
• Now for the price, at $1499 can I recommend it? That depends...I'm coming from an Acer X27 which costed me $2000 so this is actually cheaper, and given that the X27 lasted me 5 years I would say it is worth it for me personally because I will probably end up using it for just as long as my X27, it's also $1000 less than the PG32UQX while having better motion clarity and less blooming. OD also seems to be dialed in really well despite the lack of a Gsync module so I really don't think the PG32UQX is even remotely worth the extra $1000 in order to get like 200-300 more nits over a X32 FP while having worst response times, and worst blooming despite having twice the dimming zones. This new AUO amled panel just seems like the superior option IMO. The other monitor to be looking at for comparison however is the InnoCN 32M2V which people managed to get for $899 but has a regular price of $999 so thats another $500 less over the X32 FP. Someone who bought the InnoCN will have to chime in with their thoughts.

View attachment 544434View attachment 544435

Excuse my crappy TestUFO attempts, but as you can see, no noticeable overshoot and barely any smearing at 160fps!


View attachment 544436

Even less blooming than my X27.

View attachment 544437

Picture doesn't do it justice but what can I say? HDR looks amazing on this thing!

Now will I keep it at $1499? Yes...but I wouldn't say everyone should run out and buy it because it's just not great value at that price. Again the InnoCN monitor exists and the only 2 drawbacks I can see going with that monitor is slower response times and 144Hz instead of 160Hz, but you would be saving yourself another $500 if we compare MSRP. And there's always the LG 42C2 that's been selling for $800 which is an absolute steal if you don't mind a larger OLED instead of Mini LED. For me though, I have been asking for a 32" 4K 144Hz+ Mini LED monitor that doesn't have crazy blooming and crazy slow response times and this is delivering exactly what I want.

Thanks for a nice review. How is the fan noise, or perhaps this does not have a fan? Can you access the secret menu like you can on the X27 and which I used to tame that loud fan?

 

[SoCali]

Thanks for a nice review. How is the fan noise, or perhaps this does not have a fan? Can you access the secret menu like you can on the X27 and which I used to tame that loud fan?

X32 FP has no gsync module so no fan necessary.

 

[JohnnyFlash]

At this point, I'd chance an x32 if I could get one in Canada.

 

[recusant]

X32 FP has no gsync module so no fan necessary.

Was there a teardown confirming this? Lots of non-Gsync monitors have fans, and MiniLED does get pretty hot.

 

[SoCali]

Was there a teardown confirming this? Lots of non-Gsync monitors have fans, and MiniLED does get pretty hot.

AFAIK no non gsync module gaming monitor in existence has a fan other than the AW3423DWF unless you want to count prosumer stuff like the PA32UCG.

 

[JohnnyFlash]

AFAIK no non gsync module gaming monitor in existence has a fan other than the AW3423DWF unless you want to count prosumer stuff like the PA32UCG.

The 32GQ950 does as well.

 

[lukaav]

ACER dropped the price of X32FP so I thought to myself - what the heck and pulled the trigger.

All of these observations coming from the owner of original X27. Firmware is the latest one (version 10 from January). GFX is NVidia (that's probably important to the closing remarks).

The package arrived properly packed (box in a box) and was easy to unpack.

The GOOD:

The panel is gorgeous, typical AUO (using their panels for decades now) and everything you would expect in 2023, bright (very close to 1300 nits) and the color gamut is very wide, certainly exceeding my needs.
100% white is still bright unlike OLED panels and in line with X27.
It heats up quite a lot during the operation but I do not think it has a fan, at least there was no mention of it in the service menu unlike in X27.
DSC works well.
Freesync/VRR both work just as well. No problems with being G-Sync compatible with neither DP nor HDMI (cables are included).
It doesn't flicker, I am very sensitive to the backlight flicker with typical teary eyes after 1hr of operation, none of this nonsense is present here.
It is dirt cheap for what it offers, especially when compared to the earlier version of this panel with twice the zones and GSync, 1300€ here with the warranty extension included, I remember X27 was 2100€ for me, and that was already after the price drop.

The BAD:

Backlight dimming can be distracting for some people, it's more or less the same as in X27, so if you were distracted back then you will be even more now. I am not.
Overdrive is pretty mediocre and cannot be turned off when using VRR (more on this later). But it doesn't bother me that much.
God, I hate this overly bright blue power on diode, nothing that gaffers tape wouldn't fix though.
The bezels are thin, but the panel doesn't extend fully, creating thick black borders around it when turned on.
The last 1-2mm on both the left and right sides of the panel are definitely darker.

The UGLY:

I don't know how to put it in a gentle way but this is a beta product and you, the consumer, are the beta tester.
While standard operation is quite problem free, the minute you want to change something even as basic as color gamut it creates immediate havoc in the settings.
For example: you want to change it to sRGB mode for a daily routine? No problem, with that change we will reset the profile to standard and lower the brightness to 30, every single time.
Did I say every time? Well no, not exactly, randomly it doesn't.
You want to play games in HDR and switch Windows to HDR mode? Ok, sometimes you will land in HDR mode, sometimes you will land in User mode with HDR set to Auto and sometimes you will land in User mode with HDR turned off (with different color spaces as well).
Ok, you can always switch the monitor to the HDR mode by yourself, right? Well, yes, except it sometimes doesn't.
I've mentioned service menu earlier, going to the service menu is certainly different than in X27, and I don't know (and bother to know) how to do that, it just randomly put me there one time when I pressed the joystick with the idea of going to the main menu.
Despite color temperature staying at the same setting (default: Warm), different modes have different color temperatures with HDR being on the cooler side for example.
The app can be used to change some things and modes but not all and it is very buggy as well.
Remember what I've said about overdrive settings being locked with VRR? Well, you can disable freesync, then disable overdrive in app then enable freesync resulting in disabled overdrive with working VRR, of course you have to do that every time you change something (or boot the display, cba to check honestly).
And you know what? I could've lived with that because the panel really is something and most of it will probably be fixed in the coming months (years even).

But the one thing is a dealbreaker for me, and it is its HDR implementation.
In G-Sync monitors the G-Sync module is responsible for the HDR EOTF tracking, it works very well in X27.
Here it's all over the place, just like in AW3423DWF.
In one game (Overwatch 2 for example) it will have the correct EOTF resulting in a very colorful, bright image that definitely has an impact on HDR presentation.
In the other (Witcher 3, CoD MW2 being examples) no matter what I've tried the presentation is dull, washed out and looks like brightness is being capped at very low values except for the extreme highlights, it just looks like typical scenario of HDR content in SDR space.
At least in AW3423DWF you can circumvent this by setting it to the console mode and source tone mapping being on. There's no such setting here.

So my closing thoughts are - if I don't find a way to circumvent this (maybe some of you have the idea what to try?) it is going back and I certainly cannot recommend this monitor to anyone at this point.

 

[MistaSparkul]

ACER dropped the price of X32FP so I thought to myself - what the heck and pulled the trigger.

All of these observations coming from the owner of original X27. Firmware is the latest one (version 10 from January). GFX is NVidia (that's probably important to the closing remarks).

The package arrived properly packed (box in a box) and was easy to unpack.

The GOOD:

The panel is gorgeous, typical AUO (using their panels for decades now) and everything you would expect in 2023, bright (very close to 1300 nits) and the color gamut is very wide, certainly exceeding my needs.
100% white is still bright unlike OLED panels and in line with X27.
It heats up quite a lot during the operation but I do not think it has a fan, at least there was no mention of it in the service menu unlike in X27.
DSC works well.
Freesync/VRR both work just as well. No problems with being G-Sync compatible with neither DP nor HDMI (cables are included).
It doesn't flicker, I am very sensitive to the backlight flicker with typical teary eyes after 1hr of operation, none of this nonsense is present here.
It is dirt cheap for what it offers, especially when compared to the earlier version of this panel with twice the zones and GSync, 1300€ here with the warranty extension included, I remember X27 was 2100€ for me, and that was already after the price drop.

The BAD:

Backlight dimming can be distracting for some people, it's more or less the same as in X27, so if you were distracted back then you will be even more now. I am not.
Overdrive is pretty mediocre and cannot be turned off when using VRR (more on this later). But it doesn't bother me that much.
God, I hate this overly bright blue power on diode, nothing that gaffers tape wouldn't fix though.
The bezels are thin, but the panel doesn't extend fully, creating thick black borders around it when turned on.
The last 1-2mm on both the left and right sides of the panel are definitely darker.

The UGLY:

I don't know how to put it in a gentle way but this is a beta product and you, the consumer, are the beta tester.
While standard operation is quite problem free, the minute you want to change something even as basic as color gamut it creates immediate havoc in the settings.
For example: you want to change it to sRGB mode for a daily routine? No problem, with that change we will reset the profile to standard and lower the brightness to 30, every single time.
Did I say every time? Well no, not exactly, randomly it doesn't.
You want to play games in HDR and switch Windows to HDR mode? Ok, sometimes you will land in HDR mode, sometimes you will land in User mode with HDR set to Auto and sometimes you will land in User mode with HDR turned off (with different color spaces as well).
Ok, you can always switch the monitor to the HDR mode by yourself, right? Well, yes, except it sometimes doesn't.
I've mentioned service menu earlier, going to the service menu is certainly different than in X27, and I don't know (and bother to know) how to do that, it just randomly put me there one time when I pressed the joystick with the idea of going to the main menu.
Despite color temperature staying at the same setting (default: Warm), different modes have different color temperatures with HDR being on the cooler side for example.
The app can be used to change some things and modes but not all and it is very buggy as well.
Remember what I've said about overdrive settings being locked with VRR? Well, you can disable freesync, then disable overdrive then enable freesync in app resulting in disabled overdrive with working VRR, of course you have to do that every time you change something (or boot the display, cba to check honestly).
And you know what? I could've lived with that because the panel really is something and most of it will probably be fixed in the coming months (years even).

But the one thing is a dealbreaker for me, and it is its HDR implementation.
In G-Sync monitors the G-Sync module is responsible for the HDR EOTF tracking, it works very well in X27.
Here it's all over the place, just like in AW3423DWF.
In one game (Overwatch 2 for example) it will have the correct EOTF resulting in a very colorful, bright image that definitely has an impact on HDR presentation.
In the other (Witcher 3, CoD MW2 being examples) no matter what I've tried the presentation is dull, washed out and looks like brightness is being capped at very low values except for the extreme highlights, it just looks like typical scenario of HDR content in SDR space.
At least in AW3423DWF you can circumvent this by setting it to the console mode and source tone mapping being on. There's no such setting here.

So my closing thoughts are - if I don't find a way to circumvent this (maybe some of you have the idea what to try?) it is going back and I certainly cannot recommend this monitor to anyone at this point.

I've just left HDR enabled on the monitor as well as Windows permanently on so there is no constantly going back and fourth with switching things on and off. Witcher 3 always looks dull and washed out until you go into the config file and change the PaperWhite value to something greater than 300 nits which is it's default value. Can't speak for COD though as I don't play it. For the rest of the games, you should probably run the Windows HDR Calibration Tool as that may help to fix the image up a bit. Otherwise your impressions pretty much line up with mine and while I did like the X32 FP overall, I decided to return it and I also canceled my InnoCN 32M2V order and am now just waiting for the Asus PG32UQXR to come out, that way I won't have any regrets if it ends up being the best option out of all 3.

 

[lukaav]

I've just left HDR enabled on the monitor as well as Windows permanently on so there is no constantly going back and fourth with switching things on and off. Witcher 3 always looks dull and washed out until you go into the config file and change the PaperWhite value to something greater than 300 nits which is it's default value. Can't speak for COD though as I don't play it. For the rest of the games, you should probably run the Windows HDR Calibration Tool as that may help to fix the image up a bit. Otherwise your impressions pretty much line up with mine and while I did like the X32 FP overall, I decided to return it and I also canceled my InnoCN 32M2V order and am now just waiting for the Asus PG32UQXR to come out, that way I won't have any regrets if it ends up being the best option out of all 3.

Thanks.
Witcher 3 certainly looked better on X27 (after the NG patch I mean) CoD MW2 doesn't look as bad but its presentation is not as impactful as on X27 by a long shot, changing its HDR settings doesn't even do that much. I can only make it look worse
Overwatch is still breathtaking though.
I've tried Windows HDR Calibration Tool already (with and without it).
Hopefully PG32UQXR would be better but I'm being cautious at this point since it also doesn't have that outdated but in some regards better G-Sync module.

 

[SoCali]

Jesus if I knew the X32 was still such a firmware disaster I wouldn't have ordered. Going to try and refuse delivery.

What has happened to Acer. X27 was awesome. I'm not going to pay the $1999 Asus DP 2.1 tax for a 576 zone LCD in 2023. Not to mention many of their recent releases have also been dumpster fires in terms of firmware.

 

[lukaav]

Jesus if I knew the X32 was still such a firmware disaster I wouldn't have ordered. Going to try and refuse delivery.

What has happened to Acer. X27 was awesome. I'm not going to pay the $1999 Asus DP 2.1 tax for a 576 zone LCD in 2023. Not to mention many of their recent releases have also been dumpster fires in terms of firmware.

I also found this link now:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Monitors/c.../?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

It completely mirrors my experience with HDR on XP32.
So 6 months have passed and nothing has changed.

 

[SoCali]

I also found this link now:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Monitors/c.../?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

It completely mirrors my experience with HDR on XP32.
So 6 months have passed and nothing has changed.

Wow yeah looks like its just fundamentally broken. 6 months have passed with no real change so its clear that it will never be fixed.

 

[MistaSparkul]

Jesus if I knew the X32 was still such a firmware disaster I wouldn't have ordered. Going to try and refuse delivery.

What has happened to Acer. X27 was awesome. I'm not going to pay the $1999 Asus DP 2.1 tax for a 576 zone LCD in 2023. Not to mention many of their recent releases have also been dumpster fires in terms of firmware.

I wouldn't jump to conclusions on the PG32UQXR pricing just yet. Remember how we all thought there would be heavy ROG tax for the PG42UQ since the Acer variant was listed for $1999? Then the PG42UQ comes out for $1400 instead so who knows maybe Acer is being overpriced again and Asus will offer a lower price, or maybe not because of DP 2.1 but let's just wait and see. As for the OSD like I said if you are a set it once and forget it guy like me then you probably won't run into any issues, I certainly didn't during my time with the X32 FP. It seems like almost any monitor where you are constantly going into the OSD to switch back and fourth between HDR and SDR and then having to deal with switching modes in Windows you are going to run into problems hands down, I believe not even the InnoCN is free from that and you have to do everything in a specific order or it doesn't work.

 

[kramnelis]

Imagination can be a real thing.

Though there is little to stretch without G-sync but a week ago X32FP was said to be amazing now it is fundamentally broken.

Guys need to put actual monitors side by side for comparison. Take pictures as well.

 

[lukaav]

It is amazing. When it works. And I have X27 and X32FP side by side. No taking pictures.

 

[kramnelis]

A good comparison picture is worth a thousand words.

I have seen too many tales which are just comparing a monitor with another imaginary monitor side by side.

It is close to the contrast of PG35VQ. It should at least has better contrast than X27.

 

[lukaav]

It's back in the box.

It has better contrast, better peak brightness and it's also brighter at 100% window than X27.
But all of that works properly only in a few applications like youtube on chromium.
It is similar (but not the same) issue to this one: https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/...he-aw3423dwf-alienware-gaming-monitor?lang=en
Given that all of this persists for months and the history of Acer acknowledging and fixing bugs I do not get my hopes high so it goes back.

 

[SoCali]

I'm still debating if I should refuse delivery or just accept it to compare to the Innocn and PG32UQX. I also don't see them ever fixing its issues but the biggest red flag for me with an HDR display is it being washed out in some games/content for no apparent reason. I was just hoping for a better X27 with at least the same refinement but looks like this misses the mark.

 

[MistaSparkul]

I'm still debating if I should refuse delivery or just accept it to compare to the Innocn and PG32UQX. I also don't see them ever fixing its issues but the biggest red flag for me with an HDR display is it being washed out in some games/content for no apparent reason. I was just hoping for a better X27 with at least the same refinement but looks like this misses the mark.

I would just give it a try, the monitor comes fully assembled just like the X27 so it's super quick to unbox and rebox. During my week of testing I didn't encounter any washed out colors in HDR games, but of course it's impossible for me to test out every single game in existence and one week isn't exactly a very long time. I did test out a good number of games that have native HDR support like Days Gone and Assassin's Creed as well as AutoHDR supported games like Judgment and like I said just leaving the monitor and Windows both permanently locked into HDR mode I did not encounter any issues. YMMV but I would say just give it a shot.

 

[lukaav]

I'm still debating if I should refuse delivery or just accept it to compare to the Innocn and PG32UQX. I also don't see them ever fixing its issues but the biggest red flag for me with an HDR display is it being washed out in some games/content for no apparent reason. I was just hoping for a better X27 with at least the same refinement but looks like this misses the mark.

Definitely accept it and compare the three And maybe you will not have such issues I've had? Or you will find a way how to manage it somehow?

 

[Astral Abyss]

Don't be imaginary SoCali. Open the box.


(lol)

 

[lukaav]

Waiting for my RMA ticket to be resolved (I need an RMA ticket for sending it back apparently) I tested it with PS5, Horizon - brilliant, Hogwart's Legacy - ok (but this is just the game being not so colorful and bright, at least not in the beginning), YT on PS5 - brilliant.
Except for the part of constantly manually switching it to HDR mode (you boot up the console - switch the mode, enter the game, switch the mode again, end the game and back to the home screen - switch the mode again, etc.).
Also it bugged out once and gave me no display when switching between performance (4k120) and fidelity (4k60) modes in Horizon, had to restart the console.
Default color temperature feels a bit off, you can of course change it to your liking in the latest firmware including red, green and blue channels as well, but of course changing any mode kills color temperature settings.

 

[kramnelis]

Waiting for my RMA ticket to be resolved (I need an RMA ticket for sending it back apparently) I tested it with PS5, Horizon - brilliant, Hogwart's Legacy - ok (but this is just the game being not so colorful and bright, at least not in the beginning), YT on PS5 - brilliant.
Except for the part of constantly manually switching it to HDR mode (you boot up the console - switch the mode, enter the game, switch the mode again, end the game and back to the home screen - switch the mode again, etc.).
Also it bugged out once and gave me no display when switching between performance (4k120) and fidelity (4k60) modes in Horizon, had to restart the console.
Default color temperature feels a bit off, you can of course change it to your liking in the latest firmware including red, green and blue channels as well, but of course changing any mode kills color temperature settings.

The curse of favoring HDMI 2.1 without G-sync.

There is a reason G-sync doesn't have HDMI 2.1 for monitors built for PC instead of console.

Acer is not a chip maker. It will have these issues if it wants to do something extra.

 

[lukaav]

It doesn't look like nvidia is trying to refresh its module though, it's been a few years already and no signs of modern gsync fpga, rather the concept is dying slowly.
Which is a pity because I'd like to have one with proper firmware rather than one with hdmi 2.1.

Anyway - in a rather surprising turn of events Acer offered me generous rebate bringing the total cost of monitor closer to 1100€ (with an extended warranty).
I decided to take the offer and live with its idiosyncracies with nothing better in sight (except for the leftovers of XG321UG costing three times than that).

 

[kasakka]

It doesn't look like nvidia is trying to refresh its module though, it's been a few years already and no signs of modern gsync fpga, rather the concept is dying slowly.
Which is a pity because I'd like to have one with proper firmware rather than one with hdmi 2.1.

Either they have abandoned it or they are waiting to release a new one with both DP 2.1 and HDMI 2.1. I'm kinda hoping that it would be the latter because G-Sync is good - all it needs is a modern feature set, being firmware updateable and so on.

 

[MistaSparkul]

Either they have abandoned it or they are waiting to release a new one with both DP 2.1 and HDMI 2.1. I'm kinda hoping that it would be the latter because G-Sync is good - all it needs is a modern feature set, being firmware updateable and so on.

A monitor with a Gsync module that has DP 2.1 and HDMI 2.1 would probably take you back to your original problem of high pricing though. Pretty sure a big reason why the X32 FP is half the price of the PG32UQX is that lack of a Gsync module. Although I suppose of the monitor ticks every single box (that's feasible at the time of course) then it would be worth the asking price.

 

[kasakka]

A monitor with a Gsync module that has DP 2.1 and HDMI 2.1 would probably take you back to your original problem of high pricing though. Pretty sure a big reason why the X32 FP is half the price of the PG32UQX is that lack of a Gsync module. Although I suppose of the monitor ticks every single box (that's feasible at the time of course) then it would be worth the asking price.

While the G-Sync module has had a premium, for e.g the AW QD-OLEDs it's about 130 euros in my country. I think that's fine.

Isn't the X32 FP a different panel from the PG32UQX? 576 zones vs 1152 zones and everything.

 

[MistaSparkul]

While the G-Sync module has had a premium, for e.g the AW QD-OLEDs it's about 130 euros in my country. I think that's fine.

Isn't the X32 FP a different panel from the PG32UQX? 576 zones vs 1152 zones and everything.

It is a different panel. AmLED according to AUO. Wouldn't be surprised if in the future newer versions of AmLED have more dimming zones and 576 is just the starting point followed by 1152, 2304, 4608 etc. Also regarding the Alienware, this is nothing but baseless speculation on my part but I think the Gsync module pretty much added nothing to that monitor (it couldn't even solve VRR flickering) while on a FALD LCD the module is now responsible for controlling the FALD algorithm, variable OD, etc all making sure it works together. So maybe that Gsync module is more expensive because it does more complex things compared to the one found in the Alienware which seems to do nothing as there is no local dimming to control and OLEDs do not need overdrive. Again I have no proof of this just baseless speculation.

 

[lukaav]

Yes, it is a cheaper, second variant of the previous panel with lesser number of zones, max brightness of "only" 1200nits but a little bit faster.