[PCM2]

Normal ICC profiles will include corrections to areas including gamma and colour temperature that would ‘apply’ even on applications that aren’t colour-managed / ICC aware. It’s just the gamut mapping that doesn’t apply. You aren’t calibrating the EOTF or PQ curve correctly nor are you altering how the local dimming algorithm works with its dark bias preference under HDR. So they may have ‘fixed’ the issue if the corrections lifted up the gamma sufficiently to cause the monitor to dark bias less for the shades they found too dark before. But they they may have introduced other issues in doing so, such as some shades appearing too uplifted. If those same shades that were brightened up enough to reduce dark biasing are displayed with brighter shades in the background, then the monitor naturally doesn’t dark bias and the shades will be too bright. That can crush things together and make some elements appear overly blended or bleached. I strongly suspect it will make some scenes look ‘better’, subjectively, but have a negative effect elsewhere in other words. Perhaps you could ask them to share their ICC profile if they haven’t already and see for yourself if it helps without obvious drawbacks?

[Degrader]

Just to let you know: Acer asked me to send my unit back to them so that Acer Taiwan can investigate the flickering problem. They say they were able to reproduce the problem on Fast, but not on Average, also not in Tomb Raider. So that probably means that a release of a firmware update might take even longer.

[PCM2]

Thanks for your persistence with this. When they say not in Tomb Raider… The in-game HDR calibration could affect when it is triggered, so I wonder if they had this set differently to you. Perhaps in-game settings could affect it as well. It would be odd if it is a unit-specific issue you had with the ‘Average’ setting, but technically not impossible. I suspect it could be triggered with fairly specific shade combinations and their X32 FP might be producing slightly different shades there, meaning they weren’t able to reproduce it using the same examples you did.

[Degrader]

Indeed, I said to them that I don’t think it is only related to my unit as other users also noticed flickering on Average (4KGalaxy for example). And I noticed the flickering also in Forza 4 and 5, so it doesn’t seem to be related to in-game settings.

[4KGalaxy]

As I’m thinking back to the games I’ve played with the X32FP, it feels a bit like the issue is both over darkening a certain range of brightness levels but also that grey colors in that range tend blend together. Almost like there isn’t enough dynamic range between them. In the game Sea of Thieves, when you look out at a foggy horizon I could clearly see mountains and islands in the distance on the Neo G7. But on the X32FP they were much harder to distinguish as if they all blended together. I don’t know if this points to the same issue (the monitor just preferring dark local dimming) or if maybe a different issue.

This was similar in the YouTube brightness test video I used. Not only was the X32FP darker from 1-200 nits, but the steps between some of the levels was very minor compared to the Neo G7.

And yes – I can still see flickering in some situations on the ‘average’ setting. Definitely on darker desktops as you move the cursor and in certain darker game situations with bright highlights.

[PCM2]

Yes, that’s symptomatic of heavy dark biasing and I’d argue excessively heavy dark biasing. With ideal tuning you wouldn’t see dark biasing affecting mixtures of medium-dark shades so heavily, which it sounds like you’re describing. If the dimming zones are dark biasing too strongly there, it will indeed mask detail by dragging down some shades and make things appear overly blended as you describe. I saw a similar masking of detail for large areas of dark and medium-dark shade (basically where brighter shades were absent for a large section of the screen) on the Philips Evnia 34M2C7600MV I just reviewed but not on the ViewSonic XG341C-2K which shares the panel – so a tuning issue rather than hardware limitation:

[4KGalaxy]

Thank you, that really helps. I find it fascinating to dig into these issues. I watched the video about the Philips monitor and that’s very interesting.

The X32FP doesn’t crush the darkest levels like what you observed with the Philips. It is more subtle. What’s interesting about the X32FP is it only seems to display shades in the 1-200 nit brightness too dark (all brightness levels are a subjective guess since I don’t have a proper measurement tool). The X32FP doesn’t crush the very lowest shades like the Neo G7 or the Philips in your video. In fact, the X32FP actually maintained detail in the darkest areas quite well. But things in between the very darkest (I’d guess <1 nit) and brightest (I’d guess >200 nits) seem too dark and to blend together more than they should, which I think you also observed with the Philips.

It isn’t devastatingly bad though. You can still make out details, but I find it consistently much harder to see details when there are a lot of grey shades at mid-to-lower brightness levels on the X32FP. It is hard to describe but you can tell certain things are just too dark, making sunny games feel overcast (Forza 5) and details on the in the distance harder to discern (Sea of Thieves).

Honestly it is one of those things that probably won’t bother a lot of people. The panel in the X32FP is, in my opinion, superb and has a lot of potential. But once I notice an issue like this it is hard for me to un-notice it (unfortunately). I think it will just bother me too much in HDR games. And if I am not enjoying the HDR, it kind of defeats a big purpose I have for this monitor.

Random note: I did notice if I turn the Acer ‘black boost’ setting in the OSD from 5 to 6 it does fix the areas I notice are overly dark, but it washes out the rest of the picture too much, which makes sense since it is boosting it across the full range.

[PCM2]

Thanks for the extended description, that’s useful to help set the scene. It still sounds like dark biasing but displaced more to mixtures of medium shade with some of the medium-bright shades being ‘dragged down’ too much. I wouldn’t expect any clear issues with a bit more bright biasing there and it would help lift things up a bit, so it’s unfortunate that isn’t an option here or the algorithm wasn’t tuned to be less heavy-handed with its dimming for such shade combinations. I’m glad that the X32 FP isn’t completely crushing dark detail at least.

[4KGalaxy]

I used the X32FP a bit more today. After spending some more time with the monitor I actually got it set where I was decently impressed with the HDR. I was able to adjust the color in the OSD to offset the color temperature change when local dimming is enabled (the latest firmware allows color control in HDR mode). The medium-bright shades are still too dark, but honestly it wasn’t awful. I didn’t test it more with games, which is where the darker shades bother me more, but with HDR YouTube videos I was finding it enjoyable.

Unfortunately I also confirmed another issue. Every now and then I’d notice some vertical bands when moving certain windows around or when certain objects were moving in games. I thought it was just my imagination, as it was very subtle, but then today I was moving a window around that had some blue elements and I could clearly see vertical bars in what should have been a solid blue color. I am guessing this is some kind of pixel inversion or interlacing artifact? Considering how long it took me to identify this issue, I’d say it is not very noticeable. It is more evident at 60 Hz than higher refresh rates. I couldn’t really notice it at 144 Hz. It was primarily evident to me in certain green and blue colors. I do not see it in static content, only moving content. Again, it is very very subtle and most people won’t notice it.

I also used the monitor for mixed use today and I do find I am constantly fighting with the settings when switching between HDR and SDR, which gets somewhat tiresome.

I am likely going to be returning the monitor this week. I’m just finding it too buggy and hard to get it set in a way that is easy to use across different computers and between HDR/SDR. I can tell it is quite a capable panel, just let down by buggy firmware and tuning. Subjectively the color accuracy is good, local dimming is effective, and peak brightness is great. However, medium-brightness shades and color temperature look worse when local dimming is enabled, overdrive settings show overshoot issues, I find it very hard to swap between modes, and I’m seeing interlacing artifacts in some content. Some of these issues could likely be addressed via calibration. If I weren’t switching between computers and HDR/SDR a lot, I might be okay with the bugs and just use it as a dedicated HDR screen. But for my mixed use case I think it is just too much of a hassle.

[PCM2]

Yes, they sound like ‘dynamic’ interlace pattern artifacts and I’ve observed them on a few monitors, particularly at lower refresh rates. They’re rare on models like this with a high pixel density, but not unheard of. I appreciate you continuing to share your thoughts on the X32 FP along your journey but I’m sorry it didn’t work out for you.

[4KGalaxy]

Thank you for all your help and insights! This has been an amazing place to discuss and learn. I really enjoy digging into the details of technology so it has been great to have a place to share what I’m finding and learn from experts.

I really was on the fence this week on the X32FP. I honestly keep going back and forth but I think there are just too many quirks/bugs for me to make it my daily monitor. It’s too bad as when you get it set just right it looks really good. And I wouldn’t be surprised if it measures objectively well in most modes, and even in HDR after calibration.

The interlacing artifacts are what made the final decision for me. The fact that I was noticing them before I went looking for them or even knew what they were indicates it will probably bother me going forward. But for most people I suspect it will be a non-issue.

Overall I think it is a great panel, and the X32FP is a decent monitor if you can get past some of the bugs. I think it could be great with slightly better tuning and firmware fixes.

[Degrader]

I just saw DisplayNinja’s review of the X32 FP.
While I don’t find it a very good review site they mention some interest things about the monitor:

We recommend using the Fast mode while gaming, but since it can make some fast-moving objects appear as if they’re flickering, you might want to dial it back to ‘Average’.

But on the other hand it does not describe the dark-biased, but even says:

The local dimming algorithm on the 32M2V prioritizes to minimize blooming, so the Acer X32FP will appear a bit brighter, but with more blooming.

The following may also be interesting to try out:

When VRR (variable refresh rate) is enabled, the overdrive is locked to the Normal overdrive mode.
However, there’s a workaround for this, which involves first changing the overdrive to ‘Off’ and then enabling FreeSync using Acer’s Display Widget desktop application.

Another interesting thing:

There appears to be some differences between the X32FP models sold in different regions. On some models, you might not need to change the overdrive option to Off as the Normal mode won’t have any overshoot. We recommend going over to Blur Buster’s ghosting test to check which overdrive mode works best on your unit.

[PCM2]

They haven’t actually tested the monitor, which is why they provide no original photos, video or test data. It’s extremely misleading and frankly insulting they call such pieces “reviews”. They’ve just collated bits and pieces together from elsewhere – including from this thread, no doubt. So take what they say with a huge grain of salt, even if some of it could still be useful. I don’t believe there is any regional variation with overdrive performance, either. Not for current retail samples. It’s simply that some units given to reviewers and purchased in Asia had very early firmware, some were pre-production samples in fact.

Would be interesting if that overdrive trick worked, but frankly I doubt it. It’s something that has worked on some Acer models in the past and maybe did with early firmware on this model. If somebody on this thread (who has actually used the monitor) could verify, that would be great. 🙂

[4KGalaxy]

I hate it when data are not included in a review. I don’t have any experience with the site mentioned above, but I always like to see data. Finding good review is already hard!

Unfortunately I won’t be able to provide anymore insights on the X32FP as it is packed up for return. I still think it is a decent monitor and can be very good in certain conditions, but it has a lot of bugs. I tried some HDR games and video in a very dark room and it was impressive. Local dimming with 500+ zones is very cool. With some in game calibration it looks decent even in a decently lit room, but it definitely biases to the darker shades dragging down medium brightness levels.

If I was primarily gaming I might have kept it, but switching between modes was quite annoying and the interlacing artifacts were very evident to me at 60Hz and even sometimes at higher refresh rates. And honestly I use the monitor for regular computing more than gaming. I really wanted to like it as I think it is a great panel!

[Degrader]

Another interesting user experience of the X32 FP on Reddit

[sblantipodi]

Hi all,

I join the thread as a super happy owner of the Acer X32 FP.

I always had high end monitors ranging from EIZOs to Acer X27.

I had low expectations on this X32 FP and I was ready to return it if I had find something that I don’t liked.

I don’t returned the monitor and I’m enjoying it so much. This monitor is crazy good.

It’s the fastest IPS monitor I had, forget about ghosting this monitor is blazingly fast.

I agree that it tends to darken low brightness scenes when adaptive dimming is enabled, this is why I use it with adaptive dimming disabled while working and in SDR mode in general.

But when you enable HDR, with games or films this monitor is super.
It’s extremely bright and I feel that the dark/bright areas is managed with perfection.
It feels like it has more zones than only 576 zones.
I sincerely prefer the darker algorithm since the contrast is so high that you don’t loose any detail over my previous X27, but the contrast is clearly better on X32.

I sincerely can’t see any flicker after the firmware update, firmware solved most of the flickering problem.

[sblantipodi]

I use a colorimeter i1 Display Pro for color accurate work,
I love the monitor, the panel is extremely color accurate, it’s incredibly fast, no ghosting/blur during games,
HDR is super bright with no major blooming or haloing when adaptive dimming is enabled, games looks WOW!
it’s not a 1000+ zones monitor but FALD works flawlessly with its 512 zone, much better than what I excepted.

For this reasons I choosed to not return the monitor even if it has some flaws that I hope that Acer will address with a firmware update (using latest 010 firmware here).

HDR does not kick in automatically when enabling HDR in Windows, you need to enable HDR on OSD too.
Adaptive dimming darken greyscales a bit too much on SDR contents, it’s not something that bad but it is a bit too aggressive.

Overdrive can’t be disabled when Variable Refresh Rate is Active (Freesync Premium PRO), this is a non sense. Overdrive even in normal mode creates a bit of overshoot on white background with black text, this is annoying so I prefer to disable it when working. To disable overdrive I need to disable Freesync too.
If I enable “Refresh Rate Num” while playing a game in HDR, the monitor reset to user mode.
Acer Display Widget software lacks the ability to enable/disable adaptive dimming.
Acer Display Widget is broken when working on RGB Gain, For example, if I set R=50,G=49,B=49 in Acer Display Widget, monitor uses R=49,G=48,B=46.
Acer Display Widget lacks the ability to set the RGB Bias.
For all this reasons, to fully enjoy the monitor

I prefer to work with this settings:
– “User mode” with a calibrated profile
– “Overdrive” disabled, I don’t want overshoot on whitebackground with black text while working.
– “Adaptive dimming” disabled, I prefer better uniformity while doing color accurate work and local dimming darken SDR contents too much.

and I prefer to consume video contents and videogames with this settings:
– “HDR mode”
– “Overdrive” enabled, in games there is no visible overshoot so overdrive is welcome here.
– “Adaptive dimming” enabled, in games and videos Adaptive dimming is simply super uber awesome.

With all this issues switching from my “work settings” to my “game settings” requires a very boring process.
To switch from “work settings” to “game settings” I need to do the following.

– Enable HDR in Windows
– Enable HDR in monitor’s OSD
– Enable Adaptive Dimming in OSD
– Enable Freesync (that automatically enables overdrive) in OSD

to switch to work settings I need to do the inverse process.

All this things should be controllable with Acer Display Widget with one click but it’s not possible at the moment.

I hope that Acer will fix all this issues. Monitor is awesome and all this issue are not a real deal breaker for me but I would prefer if such an expensive monitor would be more “refined”.

@ degrader I’m the user who posted the firmware issue recap on Reddit.
I have seen now that you linked that post xD

[PCM2]

Hi sblantipodi and welcome to the forum!

Thanks for sharing your extensive impressions on the Acer X32 FP. I have definitely found Acer’s continuing insistence on blocking off the overdrive control with Adaptive-Sync enabled puzzling. It’s alright for users of Nvidia GPUs with HDMI 2.1 as they can simply use HDMI 2.1 VRR for ‘G-SYNC Compatible’ without needing to enable Adaptive-Sync. But AMD GPUs don’t give you this option, you need to use Adaptive-Sync for any form of VRR (FreeSync). The lack of automatic HDR activation/deactivation is also a nuisance – again not unique to this model but common on Acer monitors.

Even with these nuisances and the other ‘niggles’ you’ve highlighted, I’m glad to see it’s still really hitting the spot for you for both gaming and colour-accurate work. 🙂 I’m still awaiting my own review sample of the monitor from Acer, which I’m expecting in April. Looking forward to taking it for a spin and will certainly be feeding back my own findings and those shared in this thread (both positive and negative) to Acer.

[sblantipodi]

Thanks for accepting my posts and for the welcome.

Can’t wait to see your review.

[PCM2]

I call upon the collective wisdom of the forum and any owners or ex-owners of the X32 FP, as I attempt to aid a fellow reviewer. A simple question – did your unit(s) come with a printed factory calibration report?

[Author]

Posts