[Abalward]

I am Currently using a Philips 32″ Monitor Momentum 326M6VJRMB with a MVA Display supporting 1.07 billion colors and HDR 600. Caused by a lack of dimming zones I am underwhelmed by its HDR performance and wanted to take a look at the Acer X32 FP with IPS Mini-LED Display, HDR 1000 and more dimming Zones, but the shop I want to buy from does list the X 32 FP with only 16.7 million colors. Would an upgrade to the Acer X32 FP actually be a downgrade regarding color quality?

[PCM2]

Hi Abalward,

No, it won’t matter at all to your experience. I’ll provide an edited version of a post I provided elsewhere on the forum which addresses this. Unfortunately it’s buried deep in another thread, but this will be a good place to resurface it with some reworked examples…

It means absolutely nothing unless the content is specifically 10-bit, as I cover in this reply. For games under SDR, they’re 8-bit and 10-bit isn’t used or useful. Most content you consume on the desktop, including on the internet, is also 8-bit. For HDR content 10-bit is always used – how that is achieved varies between monitors but the end result is much the same. There are 3 ways that ’10-bit’ can be achieved on a monitor:

– Via the panel. This is often the specified bit-depth, so on the Acer X32 FP that appears to be 8-bit without dithering. On the Philips 326M6VJRMB that’s 10-bit (possibly 8-bit + FRC). This has to be specifically selected in the graphics driver for SDR and is automatically used for HDR if bandwidth allows it to be. If you select 10-bit in the graphics driver and the content is 8-bit, it confers no advantage.

– Via dithering on the scaler. This is very similar to panel dithering and allows models with 8-bit panels to run 10-bit with the same conditions attached as with panel dithering. I believe the Acer actually supports this given that I’ve seen some listings specify it as 10-bit (1.07 billion colours) and Acer usually supports this for models with 8-bit panels – the XB323U GP being a good example.

– Via dithering on the GPU or ‘graphics chip’. This is used where there isn’t enough bandwidth to support panel or scaler dithering. Usually reserved for HDR and not selectable for SDR. It works very well and is visually very similar to monitor-side dithering. We explore this fact in our reviews where this is used.

So the bit depth the Acer’s panel can provide is not something to worry about and does not determine how it would perform compared to the Philips. The vastly superior number of dimming zones, higher peak brightness, wider colour gamut, significantly improved colour consistency and what I suspect will be a significantly lighter and less grainy screen surface will improve the experience. When was the X32 FP due on the listing you saw and what was the price? Your feedback if you do go for it would be greatly appreciated.

[Abalward]

Hello,
sorry for my late reply I did not receive a notification about an answer here.

So 10bit, 8bit + FRC and any kind of dithering does not have significant influence on colors while watching HDR content, is a interesting fact. I always assumed 10bit panels have to be much better because it is “native” support, while everything else seemed to be a workaround to tick “10bit support” on their datasheet.

At the time I was looking for it ProShop.de had the only listing (German Webshop).

They expect the monitor to arrive at their warehouse around the third of june, price is 1600€. I expect to get it on the 7th.

[PCM2]

Great to see – thanks for confirming. I hope you enjoy the X32 FP and any feedback you can share (doesn’t have to be super detailed) would be much appreciated.

[EsaT]

Hope you get it ASAP.
And any feedback/experiencies etc from X32 FP is welcome.
That’s the monitor I’m now looking for to finally replace my 8 years 5 months and counting old Dell U3014.

Just bummer that power supply is apparently external, insides/capacitors running hot as hell, disposable brick without real cooling.

[EsaT]

Availability of Acer has been now “fixed” to September…

[PCM2]

Uhuh, that makes more sense. Especially as the X32 FP has barely materialised in Asia even. The shop (link now removed) was probably just fishing for (pre)orders. I’m assuming you’ve been refunded or placed in an order queue, Abalward, and nothing has shipped?

[PCM2]

The monitor is now listed by VESA as officially DisplayHDR 1000 certified, so that’s something at least. 😉

[PCM2]

Some thoughts have been shared on a Chinese-language forum from a user of the X32 FP. It is mainly ‘bug-hunting’ style feedback from the early sample they received, but they also do a bit of testing of the ‘haloing’. They confirm that the local dimming can be used in SDR as well as HDR and also that the AmLED solution is responsive, with ‘haloing’ that’s about as you’d expect from this number of dimming zones. Contrast that with the AOC PD32M that uses an Innolux panel with twice as many dimming zones (1152 vs. 576), which based on feedback (including by Reddit users and some foreign-language YouTube videos) has some significant issues with ‘haloing’ far beyond what you’d see from the likes of the PG32UQX with the same number of dimming zones.

[EsaT]

Maybe AUO or whosever backlight controller is used, had engineers tuning it instead of insane brightness pushing marketing scums.
Though best would be having setting or two for user to control.

Though that non-maintainable brick PSU is bummer.
But at least Delta is one of the more quality capable power supply OEMs.

[Author]

Posts