[sblantipodi]

I know that it seems a bit exagerated but I ordered 4 X32FP monitors, I love this monitor and I would like to have 2 of them without defects one for me, one for my wife.

Is there someone who can explain me why this monitor is certified for HDR1000 while it seems to easily achieve 1200 nits from the reviews?
My colorimeter isn’t able to measure as much brightness so I can’t comment on this but using some games calibration tool or the Windows HDR Calibration / Test tools I can see that there is a difference between a full white screen at 1100 nits and a full white screen at 1200 nits, this should means that the monitor is pushing more than 1100 nits, am I wrong?

PS: Is the windows hdr calibration tool from microsoft any good? It seems that it creates a profile that caps the max brightness to the monitor max brightness, this should be useful since Windows defaults at 2000 nits.

[PCM2]

It’s understandable – it’s difficult to find a monitor that really ticks your boxes and it’s worth trying to get a ‘good unit’ if you really feel you’ve found such a model.

VESA has specific HDR levels which a monitor can be certified for. DisplayHDR 1000 as used in this case has specific requirements, which includes a minimum peak brightness of 1000 cd/m². The next step up is DisplayHDR 1400, which this model can’t achieve.

HDR calibration in Windows can help on some models to improve the general representation under HDR. But it’s very limited in terms of brightness adjustment as you’re only making very general changes with a very specific bright shade against a dark background. This is no good for fine-tuning and can’t overcome hardware limitations – which include local dimming algorithms for FALD solutions or ABL on an OLED. It’s rarely going to dramatically change the HDR experience and is certainly very limited in what it can achieve when it comes to improving HDR accuracy, but it’s worth trying and seeing if you subjectively prefer the look with some tweaks there. When it comes to setting brightness limits related to the capabilities of the screen under HDR, most in-game HDR calibration are also effective for achieving that.

[sblantipodi]

thank you for the answer PCM2, I really appreciate it and can’t wait to see your review of this monitor.
do you know when Acer will send you the unit?

I tought that there was an HDR1200 certification, this is why I asked why this monitor is “HDR1000 only”, but as you teached me,
there is only HDR1000 and HDR1400. No HDR1200, don’t know why I remember this 😀

Thanks!!!

[PCM2]

Acer seems to have ‘ordered’ a brand new unit for me to review, or that was their intention when I last contacted them – but I haven’t received it yet. I’ll also be reviewing at least one more model before that so realistically the X32 FP review will be published some time in May at the earliest (partly depending on Acer). Maybe some new firmware will be available by then as well, who knows?

[sblantipodi]

ok thanks for sharing this info, we will patiently wait 🙂

[sblantipodi]

Is there someone who knows if the panel used in X32FP is used on another monitor, I mean, asus, viewsonic, benq, or similar?
Asus PG32UQXR should use the same panel imho.

This is one of the first 4K 160Hz, I’m very interested in a comparison between this panel and the higher end ones from Asus like PG32UQX and ViewSonic Elite XG321UG .

High end 1152 zones panels used in Asus, ViewSonic and Agon are known to be very very slow and to produce a lot of ghosting,
hardware unboxed compares the PG32UQX to 2018 monitors in terms of g2g response time.

How that panels compares to the “new” panels used in X32FP…

[PCM2]

I’ve covered this earlier in the thread really, but the X32 FP is significantly more responsive. It will be clearer from the pursuit photos and subjective descriptions we’ll include in the upcoming review, or if you look at the measured response times in TFT Central’s review. The slower models are still fast enough for some, but for others their pixel responsiveness is a deal-breaker – very subjective. See this comparison thread by Degrader, for example. The X32 FP’s AmLED panel isn’t used in any other monitor currently, the PG32UQXR will be using it – if that model actually sees the light of day. The PG32UQXE was supposed to use it (with G-SYNC module added), but that disappeared into the ether (as did the X32). You may find this thread interesting to read through, too.

[sblantipodi]

I had the time to install Shadow of the Tomb Raider and test that scenes.
Flickering is there but it’s not that distracting for me.

Local dimming set to low improves the issue by a big margin.

In any case that scenes is particular difficult for a FALD monitor, I doubt that any monitor can “survive that scene” without creating flickering,
the flickering is produced by the super tiny lamps hanging in the void in the starry night, when that lamps moves into the sky, the LEDs on the monitor must turn on and then off.

I’m curious to see if 1152 zones monitor can do any better, lamps is too small even for a 1152 zones monitor, that kind of scenes are meant to show the strength of OLEDs.

I’m not an OLED boy, I’ll never buy an OLED until they solve all the problems they have, (image retention, bad pixel structure, low brightness).

[sblantipodi]

I received the fifth Acer X32.
Five monitors out of five has bad pixels, some of them has orrendous panels uniformity, it’s like if the panel is pinched between the monitor case.

I have no words to describe this.

[PCM2]

I have a word: “urgh” (meant in a sympathetic way – not good to see!)

[Degrader]

My XG321UG has also a bad pixel. But I can live with it, as I don’t see it, only if I’m looking for it. But during gaming or watching videos it is not visible. And I know a lot of users of this monitor and also of the Asus PG32UQX were complaining about bad pixels and not only about one but about multiple bad pixels (also dust particles). So having one stuck pixel is not that bad for this monitor. It seems that these AHVA panels are sensitive for pixel errors.

[sblantipodi]

I love my wife because she support me in crazy things like that…

Today arrived the sixth X32FP (I already returned two of them).

https://photos.app.goo.gl/NFpfn7Pfg11nPmzr5

After testing six monitors I finally found the perfect one with nearly no backlight bleed, perfect uniformity, no bad pixels.

After six monitors I can tell that I know what are the issues of this monitors:

– (2 of 6) Some of the monitors I tested has bad backlight bleed, it’s like if the panel is pinched inside the monitor case, this problem is present on every monitors except very high end ones like EIZOs/NECs, never had this problems with EIZOs or NECs.
– (5 of 6) Most of the monitors I tested has bad pixels, having one or two bad pixels is very good.
– (2 of 6) Some of the monitors I tested has worse flickering than the others. On this 2 monitors the flickering is more noticeable in difficult scenes, on the other 4 the flickering is visible only on very very difficult scenes.

[PCM2]

Phew, I’m glad you finally got a good unit – and have such a supportive wife, that’s even better. Also interesting that some units had more noticeable flickering, I wonder if perhaps there were some gamma tuning differences which meant they behaved slightly differently in those scenes. 🙂

[sblantipodi]

I never noticed it but is it normal that enabling GSYNC on low refresh rate (something like 60FPS) increase ghosting?

Is this something related to Freesync only monitors or this happen on GSYNC ones too?

[PCM2]

That’s discussed earlier in this thread and is one of the reasons the X32 FP is criticised for locking the overdrive control with Adaptive-Sync active. With the RTX 4090 you can use HDMI 2.1 to give you ‘G-SYNC Compatible’ via HDMI 2.1 VRR, without having Adaptive-Sync active. So you’d set the overdrive to ‘Off’ if you’re frequently at double digit frame rates to minimise overshoot.

As we cover in our reviews, it’s normal that there’s an increase in overshoot (inverse ghosting) at lower refresh rates unless variable overdrive is used or you reduce the overdrive setting as appropriate. Whether that’s with the monitor set to a static refresh rate of say 60Hz or with VRR (including ‘G-SYNC Compatible’ or FreeSync) active and the game running at reduced frame rate. Monitors with G-SYNC modules benefit from variable overdrive, so the overdrive is re-tuned over a wide range of refresh rates and you shouldn’t get increased levels of overshoot at reduced refresh rates.

[sblantipodi]

There is a reason why the XG321UG costs two times more then. 🙂

I have another question if possible.

Why most reviewers says that Freesync range is 48Hz to 144Hz or 48Hz to 160Hz?

Most freesync monitors I had starts doubling the refresh rate when framerate goes under 48Hz so what’s the point in saying that the freesync range is more limited?

At 45FPS, a freesync monitor shows 90Hz and sincerely I can’t tell the difference between 45FPS at 90Hz or 48FPS at 48Hz.

As I said GSYNC pendulum demo is very useful in this kind of tests since you can specify the framerate manually using the FPS slider.

[PCM2]

Well G-SYNC modules alone don’t add that much cost, but the G-SYNC Ultimate branding and double the dimming zones does fetch a premium. What you’re describing is what AMD calls LFC (Low Framerate Compensation) – so for Nvidia it’s technically ‘LFC-like behaviour’. This behaviour is certainly useful and it works well as you can see for yourself, but it’s still important to identify the actual VRR range because the process isn’t entirely seamless when it’s crossed in either direction. An example from one of our reviews:

“The technology worked down to the floor of operation of 48Hz (48fps), below which LFC (Low Framerate Compensation) kicked in. LFC keeps the refresh rate at a multiple of the frame rate to keep tearing and stuttering at bay. There was a subtle momentary stuttering when LFC activated or deactivated, something we always observe and not specific to this model. It was much less noticeable than traditional stuttering from frame and refresh rate mismatches, but if you’re sensitive to it and frequently passing the boundary it could be annoying.”

And on some models, usually VA, there are flickering issues to be aware of due to the sudden refresh rate change (example):

“For significant fluctuations where double digit frame rates were involved, we noticed some flickering but it was usually fairly mild unless the fluctuation was rather extreme. It was particularly strong as the LFC boundary was crossed in either direction, as this involves a significant sudden increase or drop in refresh rate with double digit frame rates involved. Loading screens in some games and some in-game maps or menus could trigger moderate flickering.”

[sblantipodi]

I had 4K monitors since the 2080Ti and I often played in the 40-60 range with that card on an Acer XV273K.

Never seen that stuttering when LFC kicked in, don’t know if my eyes aren’t able to tell the difference or if in that monitor the stuttering was not noticeable.

Nice to know, thanks for the explanation, this forum is a mine of information, I learned more in one week here, than in months reading articles 😀

[sblantipodi]

I wrote to the Acer management (CEO included), I asked them to wake up,
it’s unacceptable that all Acer monitors comes with the over drive locked when VRR is enabled.

Victor Chien, President, Digital Display Business answered that someone from its teams will contact me to better understand the problem.
I think that I’m doing a favour to Acer by asking to their managers to wake up, this is clearly an overlooked problem that managers doesn’t know and that engineers are too lazy to fix.

I doubt that they will address the problem soon but I hope that something will move.

[PCM2]

Yeah, always worth a try! It is a weird limitation and there are no shortage of users being annoyed by it.

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