@@Im_Behind_You To be fair he retests most monitors that have firmware problems. If a a monitor doesn't have any glaring issues, there is no real reason to retest it later.
Thanks Monitors Unboxed! I recently pulled the trigger on this monitor after scouring content from the web. Your reviews, deep dives, and explanations were the best I found and a huge reason why I felt comfortable buying this monitor. The fact that you continue to update your findings with videos like this one highlighting firmware differences is amazing. You're in the highest level of useful RU-vid content!
One unevident benefit of these firmware update updates could be manufacturers seeing the positive feedback from reviewers and users, and actually bothering to fix released products more often. Some caring engineer can now shove these videos in front of bean counter's face and say - here, they notice, it's important; let us finish our job.
@@cl4ster17 day one reviews sometimes make or break products tho because those day one reviews tend to show up at the top of the search. the gaming industry hasnt realized this yet but it would seem that hardware kinda has.
@@kelownatechkid There were way fewer titles in the first place. But games always got patched... even cartridge games would just be shipped with a patched copy of the game on the cartridge without ever mentioning it, thus having different revisions of the game depending on when you bought it. You are more likely to get updates to help fix a game today than ever. And more likely to get more content for free than ever before.
Picked up the AW3423DWF today for ~$450 with a bunch of promo code stacking. I picked up an acer 34 inch IPS ultrawide a few days ago but am likely going to return it.
A bonus fix of the M3B104 is that is fixes a RGB bug on the powerbutton. Now it correctly stops pulsating once Pixel Refresh is done when set to RGB off.
Being an AMD user, I updated the firmware 2 days ago and I more than happy with the results, Just the fact of being able to update the firmware was a great advantage and Im glad Dell was on the ball. As for the fan noise, Ive had the DWF over 6 weeks now and I have yet to even hear this fan. Im glad I made the purchase and yes the monitor is expensive, I think its a purchase that is well worth it. Great video as always guys. Well done in keeping up with the updates on the DWF.
I was worried about burn-in, seeing its the same panel type as the horrible burnin prone samsung TVs. I've decided wait and see if the 2nd gen QDOLED gets better
@@MyrKnof Sure wait for the 2nd gen but then the 2nd gen comes and you will find an excuse to wait again. Time is short my friend, dont spend it just waiting.
@@MyrKnof if you dont plan on using the monitor with static images oled generally has no issues. for content consumption (games, vidoes etc) - you can run refresh cycles to reduce the chance or possible restore some of the burnt in pixels
Thank you for this kind of testing Tim, it's really invaluable to see what kind of long term support these products get and to accurately reflect how they perform after launch.
Your review of the DWF is one of the factors I used in getting one. Dell doing this update is another reason why I chose this brand. So glad they listened and improved the monitor! I have no doubt your input did help get them pushing out the update.
Thanks so much for this. Having owned this monitor for a few months, it's been so helpful seeing updates covered in such detail so I can understand the product better.
Managed to pickup this monitor for £789.00 in the UK. Really excited to try it out. Thank you for the consistent and structured videos you upload, they really help me inform my buying when it comes to price:performance. This channel, along with hardware unboxed really has been a lifesaver for me over the years.
The in-depth reviews of the DWF on here was key in me buying one. That an the fact Dell currently have it on offer in the UK for £789, a good £300 cheaper than the Samsung with the maximum discounts. Not disappointed with it so far and such an upgrade on my Samsung G7 Odyssey.
Just picked up a DWF for $900 on the dell website which was $100 cheaper than anywhere else I could find it in stock. Glad to see they're still pushing improvements.
It's weird owning a monitor that I have to pay attention to firmware updates, but I'm looking forward to testing out the improvements for myself! Thanks for taking a closer look at this!
Just bought myself one of these. It's mid December 2023 and it came with Firmware M3B104 out of the box. This is also as of writing still the latest version.
I just got mine last week, and I didn't expect it to be as blindingly bright as it is, as everyone says it's not that bright. I have a 6900XT, and I've been using it in trueblack mode, but I'll have to give HDR1000 a go.
Hey, yes. I set a custom resolution in the Nvidia control panel. Idk if you still have to do it this way but first set it to 100 hz in the native resolution settings. 10 bit will be available. Apply it. Then, set a custom resolution to 157 hz without changing anything else. Apply it and then it should be 10 bit. Check Windows display settings after to make sure. You should see 3440x1440 HDR 157hz 10bit
Honestly source tone map on lessens the abl so highlights are brighter, litterally no one saya that source tone map off looks better than on, including me, just try it..
@@Superdazzu2 I’ll try it. Right now I’m running it on Default instead of Nvidia in the control panel with 10bit on and 157hz. And darks look better to me in my experience. I tried on Metro Exodus and Doom Eternal
This is important for a channel to do. Hold brands to account where needed and celebrate improvements when made. Especially monitors with much longer life cycle for the consumer.
Thank you for the quick turnaround on testing the new firmware considering it has only just been released. It's awesome to see Dell are continuously working and delivering on the promised improvements, and I will be updating as soon as possible! May I ask if you could please confirm if the monitor can be unhooked from USB after the update has completed, or does the monitor benefit from being plugged into the PC via USB? (Trying to avoid one extra cable making a mess of my setup).
Absolute kudos for coming back and checking out firmware updates and covering them in such detail. I was planning tomorrow to check for firmware updates myself and see it it changes anything, but now I have one of the best monitor channels covering the new update :) Also very nice to see Dell updating the firmware on the monitor to fix issues. Sure, they weren't supposed to be there in the first place but at least my 1k+ monitor is getting fixed after all!
thanx for the awesome video , but could you retest the asus ROG Swift OLED PG27AQDM ? they released MCM104 firmware and would love to hear from you if they completely fixed the HDR issue .
I just received mine yesterday. Haven't dabble in the menu settings and check for firmware updates yet. My first glossy monitor, first OLED and first non-GSync monitor because I've never once enabled GSync on my 4090 and X34 Predator (I prefer limitless framerate caps). Saved me $250 and I appreciate the firmware updates, PinP and the fact that I prefer a black rather than white monitor. The fact that it has a 3 year warranty against burn-in sealed the deal!
Glad to see Dell is actively working on this. Thank you for the continued coverage! I bought this monitor a few months ago under your recommendation and I couldn't be happier. It'll be nice to see the full HDR capabilities of this monitor now.
I am so thankful for every video you post about the Alienware monitor. I'm planning on buying one myself in August this year and your updates help me a lot!
Thanks for the great content, and huge thanks to Dell for their commitment to improving the product. I bought this a few months back, and these firmware improvements make me a happy customer!
Just picked up a DWF this past weekend and loving it ( really deep blacks on the Helldivers loading screen 😅). One weird thing I noticed is that Nvidia control panel warns me it's not g-sync compatible but it seems to work fine forcing g-sync anyway. I wish it had an easy way to tell in the OSD if g-sync is on though (like older Dell and AW monitors do) but I can see the real time refresh rate adjust in the OSD while gaming so it seems to be working fine. Overall, I am very happy with it especially at $800
To verify whether G-SYNC is enabled for your game, click Display from the NVIDIA Control Panel menu bar, then select Show indicator for G-SYNC. The indicator will appear on your screen to let you know whether G-SYNC is turned on.
Would be interested in learning more about the HDR options on the monitor and if any have a best fit for certain use cases. I've been on the HDR True Black mode since getting it, but will give the HDR1000 mode a go off the back of this latest firmware update and see how that is.
Love that you've gone back and keep us up to date with things like firmware updates. This helped me choose to purchase this monitor just today. I also see a April 2024 firmware update for it and will check to make sure my monitor is currently up to date. I don't believe I've ever been how'd by a monitor before until now, this is a thing of beauty and can not wait to replay through some games like Shadows of the Tomb Raider etc.
Going to watch this.. purchased the DWF yesterday and have yet to try out these settings. After using a 32 inch flat monitor for the past 6 months, realised I still loved the ultrawide format for work and play. Pulled the trigger last week and hope it is going to be the great monitor. Thanks for the reviews!
Thank you for this update! I also appreciate how you test with both Nvidia and AMD cards. AMD is often overlooked in favour of the more popular Nvidia. Looking forward to the next update!
Just picked up 1 of these after having a basic monitor for quite some time. I picked it up for $800 via bestbuy. My deciding factors were your videos and the fact that Dell has a 3 year Oled burn in warranty. Thanks for your reviews.
Thank for doing the review and I have now downloaded and installed the latest firmware update. I very much like the AW3423DWF monitor and I am struck at how well Dell are looking after their customers. You run an extremely good channel here !!
I bought the AW3423DWF based on this video. I mostly care about gaming, but I also work from the same PC. I was concerned about the QD-OLED text rendering clarity that has been mentioned in various reviews, but I'm not noticing any issues with the text rendering. I'm on Windows 11 with an RTX 3090, I updated the monitor firmware and installed the monitor driver and color profile, and text scaling is at 100%. I've only ever had decent 'gaming' monitors (TN or VA), nothing IPS if that matters, and I sit 2-3 feet from the monitor; its HDR gaming output is excellent and I'm glad that I'm not noticing whatever text rendering issues other people have noticed.
I bought this monitor over the weekend with a usd 100 equivalent discount. Seems a no brainer now given the 3 year OLED warranty. I couldn't justify the extra cost for the G8 which wasn't on sale.
@@SugizoYoshikiX It's 3 years in the USA. I sold my DWF for the G8 and like it a lot more, I just got the G8 for $694 brand new. No scratches due to having a screen protector, no coil whine, no fan noise, HDMI 2.1, VRR control, logo dimming option for more burn in protection, better design, and USB-Type-C.
@@dinospumoni8255 , i see samsung quote both 36 months & 1 yr now on their warranty terms. I guess they changed it? If so, they need to clean up their own warranty terms. U traded in for that price?
Hello, is there is always issue with HDR 1000 with AMD GPU ? For my new pc, should I absolutely choose an Nvidia GPU with this screen or will the difference with an AMD not be obvious to the naked eye?
Thank you for this test Tim. One question though. You've mentioned you tested the modes with console mode on. Is there a significant difference to console mode being off? I'm asking cause if you switch off HDR and want to use creator mode in sRGB preset for normal content you have to disable console mode every time. Is console mode worth it in HDR on?
Thanks for covering this! Not many channels dive so deep into monitor business, even though sometimes monitors with great specs are more important than couple FPS.
I've been thinking about a new OLED-type monitor. I'm mainly thinking of an LG C2 for mixed use with my PS5 and as a nice content screen. If this is performing well and going on sale in the UK it might be a good contender.
go for lg c2 if you thinking of using it with ps5. ps5 doesnt have ultrawide aspect so it will look horrible. lg c2 is better choice for mixed usage, incase u want ultrade wide aspect u can always make custom resolution on lg c2 anyway. lg c2 is also cheaper.
I have the 38" Nano-IPS version of this monitor and love it so much. As much as would love an OLED, it is clear that Dell is still early in early stages of learning how to set up the monitor correctly. My current monitor may last quite some time but now I am looking forward to when I have a need to buy another. The first monitor Dell shipped to me the fan inside was BAD, it could be heard down the hallway, with a door shut. It's pretty much silent now. Love the content!
It is absolutely wild that there are still no 32-38" 16:9 4k high refresh OLEDS. It is honestly what 65%+ of the market actually wants. I know LG has one on the way...
@@mattbettinson3935 Steam survey is garbage. Also, the parts of the population that have systems but spend no money are irrelevant to manufacturers who want to get money
I sort of agree, even a 38" ultrawide 1440p OLED would be nice - but no one has anything remotely in this size range. There is a massive gap between 34" and 42" OLEDs
After having watched the original comparison between the 4 OLEDs as well as this update to the Alienware DWF I'm convinced that you got this job partly because you're able to spell abstract product names fast and without stuttering! :D No really, this is amazing. ^^ But on a more serious note: Thank you very much for this update. Before I was torn between the Samsung G9 and the Alienware DWF, now I think it'll be the Alienware. My only concern left if the fan...fans get old, they dust up...gotta think about the decision a little bit longer I guess.
Great news, though as a current Radeon user, it's a bit disappointing to hear about the discrepancy between the two brands. I'm going to install it asap. That said, the other main system I use on this monitor is the PS5. I wonder if it exhibits the same behaviour relative to Nvidia cards as well.
as someone pointed out. u need to search in dell's support page for the firmware. ppl getting monitor not detected need to connect datalink usb cable from monitor to pc (it's in box). I think this will help lots of ppl
Thank you for making a video about this firmware update! One important question though: is Console Mode and/or Source Tonemapping still recommended to get the best HDR1000 experience out of this monitor? I understand that the contrast no longer needs to be changed (the default value of 75 is perfect), but a lot of people still seem to be confused on the matter of using one of the default color presets (Standard, FPS, Creator in sRGB mode, etc.) and whether or not Console Mode or STM should be enabled. Think you could make a follow-up video to better explain these other features and which ones are recommended alongside HDR1000 mode for the best overall experience with this latest update?
What have you concluded after 2 months of inquiry? Just got this monitor, and will set up soon. So I am curious what you think is best/functionally the same.
@@Aeonesius Not much, I'm afraid. I've asked the same question on Reddit with very few helpful answers. Since this update launched, I've been using Creator mode + Source Tonemapping on at all times. For desktop applications, RU-vid videos, etc. I've been keeping Windows 11 in SDR mode. If I'm about to play a game, regardless of whether or not it natively supports HDR, I turn AutoHDR on by pressing Win + Alt + B. As long as you use the Windows 11 HDR calibration tool, your games will look fantastic even if they don't have HDR support.
I got the DWF a week ago and updated to the latest firmware, (M3B104) and the screen randomly turns black. This happens independent of which cables, ports, or computers I tested. I called Dell, and they offered to RMA the monitor. It seems to be fairly widespread and I'm surprised more reviewers haven't mentioned it. Maybe it's a QA issue, but it's really disappointing since the other aspects of the monitor are so good. But thought I'd call it out for other perspective buyers.
@@FrowningTaco Cut the panel and the price in half and it's a deal, i don't have the horsepower or real estate for the 49" model. I'm gonna wait till christmas to either get a second gen panel or this AW3423DWF.
I love my DWF now, but when watching movies like 1917 or really dark games, I feel like there's black crush happening since the image looks awful compared to my phone. Any chance you could do a video explaining black crush, how it happens and if it's expected on certain OLED monitors?
Make sure if you're watching sdr movies that HDR is not turned on in windows. Use creator-----> srgb----->gamma 2.2 for the most accurate picture. Gamma 2.4 is also good but there is some black crush in that mode. For hdr use either hdr true black or hdr 1000 depending on the content.
@@RyhtymFiend The movies I am watching are 4k bluray rips I've made myself. I've done a lot of testing and nothing seems to really "fix" it. I sent a scene to someone on discord with a DW and it looked like it didn't have black crush, so that's why I think it's a DWF issue, but without testing hardware and both monitors I can't confirm.
@Navic the dwf is literally one of the most colurr accurate monitors on the market. Could be yours is defective if following my instructions didn't help.
@@RyhtymFiend color accuracy isn't my problem, it's just that super dark scenes get crushed to being completely black when they shouldn't be. I've talked with other DWF users and their experience is the same, so I doubt it's defective. Rtings EOTF testing also showed a dip in brightness at the lower end of the range before being corrected, so that's why I think it's a DWF problem.
@Navic all oleds have some level of black crush. I don't have any that's noticeable on my dwf, though. Are you an amd user? I have an nvidia gpu. Maybe that has something to do with it. Are you experiencing it only when watching hdr content?
Thanks for the hard work on this one! Thanks to your last video, I knew within seconds of installing the new firmware and seeing that swapping between True Black and HDR1000 was causing momentary blackout, that this new version was likely to finally address the issue. This firmware really has been a godsend though. Not needing console mode means I can totally simplify my user workflow to swap between bright content consumption and color accurate work. Before, I was in HDR all the time, and would use Dell's App to swap between True Black and HDR1000 depending on what .exe was run. (BTW Dells app enables some terrible hot edge window manager functionality that you can't disable....). Now I can just keep HDR on with HDR1000 for content consumption, then use Win+Alt+B to turn it off and use sRGB Creator for when I'm doing color accurate tasks (or just general desktop use).
@@Aeonesius Console mode off. It just works now. Using HDR1000, you get peak brightness of 1000 nits in games with correct tone mapping. It looks fantastic.
@@Aeonesius I think Source Tone Map is a sub-option of Console Mode... so that was the only reason to enable Console Mode in the first place. But whatever they fixed with firmware M3B104 removed the need for this. It's tone mapping correctly without the need for this to be enabled.
Honestly I am thinking of selling my AW3423DW. I use my PC all day for everything and I do not AAA game much at all. I love OLED but the games I play now are HUD heavy or have no option to get rid of it. Like Satisfactory, CIV, PoE etc. Also games that you put a ton of hours into. Seriously I love the thing and its blacks but I feel I will just burn it in on the games I now play. Devs need to start making games with OLEDs in mind and put dynamic HUDs in. Health only appears when you are in combat or not at full ( SoT has this ), and everything else can either be customised or you can press a button and turn it on/off when you need it. Like the Skyrim mod Immersive HUD. Its really not hard to implement at all and I don't need screen clutter 24/7 anyway.
Yes, you're rught. On RTings they tested a lot of tv sets and began testing this monitor. For all tv sets after around 2000 hours there are more or less signs of burn-in.
"Developers should compromise UX because some part of users chose to use a still flawed technology." This is a slippery slope on top of the already slippery slope of dumbing down and hiding - pardon me, streamlining - everything. We live in the age of the largest personal screens, and yet it's getting harder and harder to get robust UI because it's not "pretty"... and now because it will spend the precious lifetime of an expensive device you can't afford to replace. Awesome.
@@overdark33 I dont know if you can read but I literally put games I play now... I still game... Just not a ton of AAA anymore and games that are more or less games where the HUDs are everywhere. I still game. And I got the monitor well before moving on to any of these games.
@@Lishtenbird Eh? Its not hard to give people an option for a dynamic HUD or a button to turn it off. Most games really do not need a HUD at all times... Also I can replace it... You really think I would of got the thing if I couldn't afford it? You people are fucking stupid. Also there are actually a nice amount of games that allow you turn the HUD off like DOOM 2016, Eternal, Hogwarts ( Although Dynamic would be better here ) Lies of P demo and more. I just think that some devs go way to overboard on HUD elements and offer no customisation of it at all. its not hard to allow the user to hide or make it appear with a button.
Got the AW3423DWF since launch an loved it ever since - good to see that a company like Dell cares for early adopters! Can only recomend this monitor for mediaconsumption. I play God of War at the moment - stunning!
I'm finding this with Windows 11, Nvidia RTX 3080, this firmware, Console mode on, source tone mapping off: if I use the peak 1000 HDR mode, the brightness of the screen seems to change depending on what's on screen. I have a dark bg IDE, and if it is covering a small part of the screen, it looks very dark, but if I make it full screen, it becomes a lighter gray. This does not happen with the true black HDR mode - it looks the same luminance whatever the window size is.
Been enjoying proper HDR1000 for over a year now on my Aw3423dw that I bought on sale for the same cost as Aw3423dwF... Better late than never I guess for 'F' owners buy I'm already looking forward to 240hz QD-Oled Ultrawides coming soon
Lots of people say HDR 1000 is better than True Black 400 because oh 1000 is bigger and you get bright highlights, but what about the image fidelity though? Nobody talks about that and it is much needed to test the color in both HDR modes because I'm still not convinced OLED panels of this size can do balanced and accurate HDR above 400 peak. And what about ABL, it's way more agressive in 1000. Overall, I'll settle for 400 True black mode.
Just picked up the DWF for $799... even though better screens are coming out this year, can't beat that price. This video definitely tipped the scales because I was a bit disappointed with the results with the old firmware and might not have pulled the trigger.
NICE! Just got an awesome deal on the DWF for 840 bucks! So excited to see how this upgrade will fare against my LG 34GN850! So excited that the price came down and that the firmware updates pushed this monitor into the top of the field. And I saw that people have managed to get 10bit 165hz working using some changed settings in the nvidia control panel with custom resolutions. Would wonder how those changes affect the performance of the screen.
Hi Stefan. Any update? I'm planning to change from LG 34GN850 to this DWF as well and curious about your findings so far. Is the DWF also G-Sync compatible (as it has Freesync Premium Pro)?
The only thing that's keeping me from using the HDR Peak 1000 mode is the ABL which makes the entire image really dim if you have more than a couple % of the monitor in normal brightness. So the only time you'll ever see anything above maybe 200 nits is when you're playing a really dark game. Anything that takes place outside during the daytime is gonna be stuck with really low brightness.
agree, facing the same issue, peak 1000 should be only used for low brigthness games, and even if i'd want to use that instead of true black, the true black mode is just more consistent
