[Mike43]

Hi,

This is my first post here, nice to meet y’all.

I recently bought an Asus PG35VQ, as an all-round monitor for both work and gaming. I’ve used IPS monitors before, and this was my first VA and HDR monitor, which I got at a high discount.

Thing is, I’m having certain second thoughts about this purchase. First off, PG35V looks absolutely amazing in HDR, but HDR 1000 is too much for a monitor IMO. It’s one thing sitting several meters away from an HDR TV in a large living room, but it’s different having a large monitor blasting up to 1000 nits straight into your face.

The first thing I do in an HDR game, is turning down the brightness as far as possible, while retaining a good lighting balance. In games like Doom Eternal and Division 2, it’s right at the edge of comfortable, while other games like Far Cry 5 and Metro Exodus are simply too bright for longer comfortable gaming sessions IMO.

There are some fundamental issues in the HDR gaming technology so far. First off, every G-Sync Ultimate (or G-Sync v2) module is actively cooled. My PG35VQ, which I updated to the newest firmware, has an audible fan. Most people need an all-round monitor for both work and gaming, and sitting in a quiet room, the fan noise is always there. The fan also sounds unbalanced, it has a vibrating refrigerator sound character to it. I saw someone write that Nvidia uses a high RPM-fan at a low speed, which creates the louder humming with a specific frequency, which is more noticable.

Another issue is the brightness. We really need an HDR 600 FALD monitor or something, where the overall brightness is considerably lowered. FALD HDR is fantastic stuff, and the haloing on PG35VQ is a non-issue IMO, it’s pretty much unnoticeable unless you try to provoke it. But the monitor is ridiculously bright. I set the Windows HDR brightness setting at 5/100, and it’s still too bright in games lacking their own independent HDR settings. I still get plenty of contrasts with powerful sunlight and realistic lighting. Putting 1000 nits into a monitor is a waste of money IMO, and making eg. a 600 nits FALD HDR monitor would give us both a cheaper and more practical product, which would also sell much better. If we’re stuck with HDR 1000 for proper FALD monitors, then the technology needs some kind of added functionality, where the user can choose between different nits settings, or some way to compress the FALD brightness output curve IMO.

What do you guys think? Right now, I’m still within the return window, and I’m strongly considering going back to a high-quality IPS monitor again, like the new Acer X34GS, and wait for the next generation of ultrawide HDR FALD monitors, whenever that might happen. I enjoy the HDR experience, and SDR FALD is an excellent addition, but the fan humming is really grating on me, the more time I spend with the monitor for regular work.

My previous monitor was an Acer X34P, which pales in comparison. But how does the new wide gamut monitors like X34 GS or LG 34GN850 compare? Will it be a huge trade-off? I notice most games I tested so far in HDR don’t have vastly better colors, it’s really about the lighting, which I can live without. Then there are certain games like Doom Eternal, which looks absolutely stunning in HDR – metal looks like proper metal, wood looks like wood, explosions look like real-life fireworks etc., and SDR image quality can’t compare at all. I guess the higher DCI-P3 rating of the newest IPS monitors (98% vs 90%) could remedy some of that?

Thanks for taking the time to read my long-winded post. 🙂

[PCM2]

Hi there Mike43,

Monitors are very subjective and this goes for every aspect of the experience. HDR with high (or extreme) brightness levels isn’t for everyone. And I agree that the lack of flexibility to limit that can be annoying on many HDR monitors. Those which offer control of luminance usually have a much lower tier of HDR performance. And reducing the brightness on this tends to just give a lacklustre, dim and muted look. As described in our reviews of models such as the BenQ EX2710 (no VESA DisplayHDR certification) and Gigabyte M27Q (VESA DisplayHDR 400). If effective local dimming was employed and instead of things just being universally dragged down in terms of luminance the bright elements were just toned down – that would be much better. Any such setting in a game (or the Windows slider you refer to – which is actually only for SDR content hence being found under “SDR content appearance”) is a digital brightness adjustment. It isn’t the same thing as adjusting the backlight control or putting some sort of limit on luminance. I personally find VESA DisplayHDR 1000 displays quite enjoyable to use and I know many others do, but I do find they accelerate eye fatigue and it isn’t something I’d use for hours on end. I tend to enjoy it in relatively short bursts and I wouldn’t use it in a dimly lit room, either.

On the colour side of things, HDR certainly makes a difference. This is described in our reviews, including that of the Acer X35 which is similar to the PG35VQ you’ve used. The developers are targeting DCI-P3 in the near-term (with Rec. 2020 in mind for the longer term) whereas for normal SDR content they’re targeting sRGB. So if a monitor offers good DCI-P3 coverage or even better good Rec. 2020 coverage, it will certainly help this HDR content by injecting vibrancy where it’s warranted whilst keeping things looking natural and more muted where that’s appropriate. Use that same gamut under SDR and things will look highly vibrant and oversaturated – again, as described in our reviews of wide gamut monitors where this applies. If you like a strongly vibrant look, this may well appeal. The vibrancy can also be enhanced by the use of an IPS-type panel, due to the strong consistency which maintains strong colour saturation throughout the screen.

The PG35VQ and Acer X35 are VA models with ~90% DCI-P3 coverage so they really don’t compare to a well-tuned IPS model with ~98% DCI-P3 coverage. And even better for HDR would be some over-coverage of DCI-P3 colour space as offered by a Quantum Dot backlight solution that’s tuned for a very wide gamut. No HDR UltraWides currently offer this, but this is the sort of HDR colour experience delivered by the Acer XB323U GP and that really impressed me. But I do still feel you’ll get more out of the HDR experience on the colour side on something like the Acer X34 GS with ~98% DCI-P3 and a Nano IPS panel vs. the VA model you’ve used. The loss of local dimming really does redefine and limit the experience, but if you don’t get on with the high brightness pulses then this may be a worthy compromise. In the meantime it might be worth considering how you could adapt your room lighting so the brightness pulses are less jarring. And doing so would also help with the atmosphere on dark scenes, particularly if you jump onboard with an HDR model that lacks effective local dimming.

[Mike43]

Thanks for a highly informative and helpful reply! 🙂

I put my PG35VQ in SDR mode at “high gamut”, and tested various games (Division 2, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Metro Exodus, Witcher 3, Horizon Zero Dawn etc.), and the image didn’t look oversaturated to me. However, I noticed a huge difference in Doom Eternal using wide gamut colors in SDR, compared to my old X34P which doesn’t have the high gamut color mode.

Since you’ve tested both recent IPS models and X35, do you think the X34 GS will offer the same kind of vibrant and realistic colors in SDR wide gamut mode as my PG35VQ, only slightly better because of 98% DCI-P3 coverage? If so, I’ll return my PG35VQ. I’m going to miss the deep blacks and FALD backlighting, but the fan noise is simply too much of an inconvenience during regular work and internet use IMO. I guess the X34 GS will offer significantly less motion blur and black smearing too, although the lack of variable overdrive could be an issue (since it lacks a G-sync chip).

I’ve been pondering on what to do for several days here. 🙂 The PG35VQ is an amazing monitor in many ways, and if I had two different rigs – one for work and for gaming, I would definitely keep it. As an old-rounder, I’m not convinced. It’s really disappointing that Nvidia/Asus/Acer couldn’t get a fan setup that was quiet during regular work, and only became audible during gaming and HDR usage. It would have probably costed them a couple of dollars extra in manufacturing, but image all the returns they could have avoided.

Again, thanks for the help, and any advice would be much appreciated!

[PCM2]

The X34 GS has a significantly more generous colour gamut and it’s an IPS-type panel, so as I covered that’s going to give you an even greater dose of extra vibrancy and saturation than on the PG35VQ. You may or may not like this look – it’s subjective. Acer usually includes a pretty decent sRGB emulation mode should you need to use that, but given what you’ve said I suspect you might find the extra vibrancy of the native gamut quite inviting. And yes, I agree that cooling fans (active cooling solutions) can be an annoying thing to have to deal with on monitors. It seems quite variable on the X35 and PG35VQ as well, some units seem to suffer from more noticeable fan noise than others.

[Mike43]

I’ve been hesitant of returning the PG35VQ, as I got a very good price, only 1500 dollars. But I guess cutting-edge technology will be expensive and have rough edges. Also PG35VQ is two years old now, so the next generation of ultrawide HDR FALD monitors shouldn’t be that far away….1-2 years maybe?

So that’s it, I’m returning the PG35VQ, really appreciate your input! I should have the X34GS by the last week of this month, so I’ll give an update then, for those that might find it useful.

Thanks! 🙂

[Mike43]

Just a small update. I discovered that Eco Mode tames the aggressive brightness spikes, and makes the monitor much more comfortable for longer gaming sessions. It has pretty much a perfect brightness balance now. Go figure..lol. 🙂

[PCM2]

That’s interesting. So you’re saying you can enable ‘Eco Mode’ whilst in HDR on the PG35VQ and it limits the backlight? I don’t recall being able to do that on the X35.

[Mike43]

Yes, I was quite surprised. The Eco Mode reduces the power consumption considerably, so something has to give I guess.

However, I’m gonna return the monitor anyway. This is my first VA, and there is an artifact that I just can’t unsee, I guess this is a VA smearing issue. I notice that the lighter areas around or between darker objects, tend to get this stipple effect when moving around. I guess I prefer a cleaner IPS image over the HDR colors. Hopefully the next generation of FALD HDR monitors will improve. There are some mini-LED IPS FALD monitors coming this year, but no ultrawides…

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