New Alienware Q3 2020

cypekhi · 16 Feb 2021 at 21:00

Hello everyone,

I've recently bought AW3821DW and have been quite happy so far, however I could use your advice on something.
This is first IPS screen I've ever had and I knew that it is normal for those screens to get some IPS glow. I think my screen is not too bad when it comes to glowing, however it would be great if you could look at attached pictures and let me know if anything looks unusual.

I've used monitor for around 3 weeks so far and didn't have any issues, however when I tried to play a bit darker game in a completely dark room, the lower left and right corners did bother me a bit, hence the question. In addition, as you can see on the pictures, upper corners seem to have brownish glow and the bottom ones have blueish one.

First screenshot was taken close to the screen and the glow seems to be much worse than in reality, however it shows nicely the color difference between corners.

https://ibb.co/JvxWBcq

Second screen was taken as advised on TFTCentral, from around 1.5m from the screen using quick shutter and brightness set to around 18%, and reflects the actual glow much better.

https://ibb.co/T4H9qDd

I don't think the glowing is bad enough to warrant RMA, however again, the bottom corners are significantly brighter than the rest of the screen. Is that something normal with IPS screens that I will stop noticing after using screen for a while?

Bill_adama · 17 Feb 2021 at 08:34

I have had a 3821 since just before Christmas.. looks pretty much exactly like yours. Glow on bottom left is slightly brighter than bottom right.. bottom slightly more than the top corners.

However the white is uniform and no stuck pixels so absolutely happy to have kept it, no regrets.

Yours looks fine to me - no screen tech is perfect but the 3821 is near enough to keep for the next 5 years until new display types comes along and are not priced at >£5k.

cypekhi · 17 Feb 2021 at 08:55

Thanks for reply and reassurance!

Besides glowing corners everything else seems to be perfect - colors are uniform and there are no dead pixels. At the moment I am also sitting very close to monitor as I have a tiny desk (been waiting 3 months for a new one now...), so it might help once I start sitting further back.

Greebo · 17 Feb 2021 at 09:04

pp111 said:
I am pleased with that review. I mean I have been perfectly happy with the monitor, so it was just reassuring that the experts seem to agree. I had noticed the relatively weak contrast ratio, but I was expecting that. It's a complaint with the LG monitor that shares the same panel and I have noticed over the last few years it has been a common complaint with LG panels that as the speed of them increased so the contrast decreased. To me that is an acceptable tradeoff. Luckily I am not interested in HDR at the moment. I am sure this will be a thing one day but right now in my humble opinion only OLED does HDR well, so I for me it will always be off. The monitor offers enough benefits without me crying because it doesn't do HDR well. I have no regrets buying the monitor at all. It's fantastic. Also, once and for all -

FreeSync Compatible (Tested)

To be fair i think they got a poor monitor, calibrated my contrast is 940ish on my screen. Not the best contrast IPS screen but not the worst and slightly better than the IPS i came from.

Like people say, its probably the best monitor until OLED and mini led become affordable for proper HDR enjoyment.

I certainly have no regrets for the £1040 it cost me.

Windrider · 17 Feb 2021 at 17:10

Hey there. I just got delivered aw3821dw and I`m struggling setting it up for 2-3 hours now. I`ve never had high res/hz monitor before and ill be really greatful if someone is willing to help me out please.Currently I cant make it work at 144hz though ive put in all the cables the hdmi one the port display one and the usb one..and after ive put the usb one it got even worse ..from 60hz droped to 30 hz right this moment ...only with the hdmi as i started with was 85hz max.

Greebo · 17 Feb 2021 at 17:15

hdmi is 85hz max at native res unless you decrease the res (dont do this)

You need to use the displayport to get higher res and then its limited to 120hz @ 10 bit unless you dial it back to 8 bit in your gfx control panel.

Which gfx card are you using?>

pp111 · 17 Feb 2021 at 17:16

Windrider said:
Hey there. I just got delivered aw3821dw and I`m struggling setting it up for 2-3 hours now. I`ve never had high res/hz monitor before and ill be really greatful if someone is willing to help me out please.Currently I cant make it work at 144hz though ive put in all the cables the hdmi one the port display one and the usb one..and after ive put the usb one it got even worse ..from 60hz droped to 30 hz right this moment ...only with the hdmi as i started with was 85hz max.

Oh you can't use HDMI with these sorts of resolutions and frame rates, you have to use the Display Port. As you have already found out the maximum refresh rate with HDMI is 85Hz. Mind, that is still a lot better than 60HZ. You need a Display Port 1.4 cable, which was supplied by Dell with the monitor. If you don't have a DP port on your graphics card then you will probably find you are underpowered anyway, since all recent GPU's have a DP on them.

Once you resolve the cable problem there are a few settings inside the NVIDIA app that you need to set to enable G-Sync, and it's also wise to set the frame rate limit to two less than the refresh rate of the monitor. ( That's what NVIDIA recommend ).

Windrider · 17 Feb 2021 at 17:38

Thank you guys for the quick response. I`m using gtx 1070 and I tried 3 display ports alone without hdmi pluged in and the monitor doesnt want to start up, is it because of the old gpu? I build this pc myself 5 years ago and I`m not really sure what I did back then.

pp111 · 17 Feb 2021 at 17:45

Windrider said:
Thank you guys for the quick response. I`m using gtx 1070 and I tried 3 display ports alone without hdmi pluged in and the monitor doesnt want to start up, is it because of the old gpu? I build this pc myself 5 years ago and I`m not really sure what I did back then. And another thing ...im having 85hz on top left corner why is that there and can I somehow remove it? Thats wierd i screen shoted and the 85hz does not show up in the picture.

Erm, no, the 1070 should be fine so I am not sure why you are having an issue. When was the last time you updated the NVIDIA drivers? Also have you tried selecting the DP port directly from the Dell menu?

I am wondering if the 85Hz in the corner of the screen is MSI Afterburner?

Windrider · 17 Feb 2021 at 18:00

The 85hz was from the monitor settings, unintentionally done this now it`s gone. The driver is 456.38 from 19/09/20. Where is that Dell menu coming from ?

Windrider · 17 Feb 2021 at 18:28

pp111 said:
Erm, no, the 1070 should be fine so I am not sure why you are having an issue. When was the last time you updated the NVIDIA drivers? Also have you tried selecting the DP port directly from the Dell menu?

I am wondering if the 85Hz in the corner of the screen is MSI Afterburner?

Found it. I`m with 144hz now and gsync enabled thank you guys.

pp111 · 17 Feb 2021 at 18:51

Windrider said:
Found it. I`m with 144hz now and gsync enabled thank you guys.

yay!

Devrij · 25 Feb 2021 at 13:08

I'm considering the AW3821DW, but am concerned about the resolution (originally I just wanted 3440x1440, but this monitor seems like the only ultrawide that really ticks my boxes). Does anyone have an idea of what kind of performance impact there is coming from a 16:9 1440p display? For demanding games, can you run a standard 16:9 aspect ratio on this or does the resolution make it sit weirdly?

Bill Turnip · 25 Feb 2021 at 15:58

Most modern games will work absolutely fine with a 21:9 aspect ratio, and ones that don't will have a black bar down either side, essentially running in 2560 x 1440. Of the few that I have found, I don't find it a problem at all, and definitely recommend it as a monitor. You can elect to run a standard 16:9 resolution if you wish, and as the curve is shallow it looks fine...But that's not what you want an ultrawide for!

Devrij · 25 Feb 2021 at 22:23

Bill Turnip said:
Most modern games will work absolutely fine with a 21:9 aspect ratio, and ones that don't will have a black bar down either side, essentially running in 2560 x 1440. Of the few that I have found, I don't find it a problem at all, and definitely recommend it as a monitor. You can elect to run a standard 16:9 resolution if you wish, and as the curve is shallow it looks fine...But that's not what you want an ultrawide for!

No of course, I'm just thinking that at some point I might want to drop to 16:9 when my 3080 starts feeling the pressure a bit in a couple years. Could you run 3440x1440 on it with black bars? Pixel pitch is pretty much the same right?

Bill Turnip · 26 Feb 2021 at 17:39

I've just tried on a few games, and 3440x1440 does not seem to be an option, the next step down is either 2560x1600 or 2560x1440. It will try to fill the full screen at those resolutions, so you will need to run in either borderless window or window mode, but it will work. When my 3080 starts to slow up in a few years, my preference will be to turn settings down rather than the resolution, however.

Jon_Snow · 28 Feb 2021 at 11:44

Does anyone of you have the same issue?

I have the same issue and can reproduce this problem easily, just follow the instruction in the youtube link.
want to know if this is hardware issue or common issue.

Alienware AW3821DW left side flicker on HDR

fishtank · 28 Feb 2021 at 19:36

Jon_Snow said:
Does anyone of you have the same issue?

I have the same issue and can reproduce this problem easily, just follow the instruction in the youtube link.
want to know if this is hardware issue or common issue.

Alienware AW3821DW left side flicker on HDR

Yes, this monitor only has a small number of vertical variable backlight zones which is why black areas will appear to 'flicker' on when something appears in that zone. The reason they are only seeing flickering on the left and side is the right hand side is already illuminated due to the white window being displayed. If you try a video like this one full screen with nothing else displayed you will see the zones flickering on/off across the whole screen, this is not a fault:
https://youtu.be/qmL2H2WPQL8

The variable backlight is best left off on this monitor because it hasn't got enough zones to make it work well. Unfortunately you can't turn it off in HDR mode, but it's best to only use HDR mode for games/videos and leave it off all the other time as per the Dell guidance here:
https://www.dell.com/community/Monitors/FAQ-Dell-HDR/td-p/6067687

Jon_Snow · 5 Mar 2021 at 13:14

fishtank said:
Yes, this monitor only has a small number of vertical variable backlight zones which is why black areas will appear to 'flicker' on when something appears in that zone. The reason they are only seeing flickering on the left and side is the right hand side is already illuminated due to the white window being displayed. If you try a video like this one full screen with nothing else displayed you will see the zones flickering on/off across the whole screen, this is not a fault:
https://youtu.be/qmL2H2WPQL8

The variable backlight is best left off on this monitor because it hasn't got enough zones to make it work well. Unfortunately you can't turn it off in HDR mode, but it's best to only use HDR mode for games/videos and leave it off all the other time as per the Dell guidance here:
https://www.dell.com/community/Monitors/FAQ-Dell-HDR/td-p/6067687

Thank you very much...
Hope Dell will release a new firmware to improve this issue.

Devrij · 8 Mar 2021 at 15:06

I ended up biting the bullet and getting the 3821. Now the agonising wait until it turns up.