Sold on the PC OLED experience (ASUS ROG PG27AQDM OLED monitor)

[MjFrosty]

Although I'm a bit late to the launch party on this one, I finally took the plunge and moved to OLED after waiting for a decent 27" option, and can safely say it's one of my best upgrades in a few years. I've just come from the Samsung G7 VA panel and have been gobsmacked.

 

 

For me personally, the anticipation for OLED technology in the PC space has been nothing short of a journey. We've patiently awaited its arrival, not just for the obvious benefits in visual quality, but also for more suitable size options that cater to our competitive streak that is part and parcel of our makeup as PC enthusiasts. While OLED has long been celebrated in other realms, such as TVs and smartphones, the PC gaming community has yearned for OLED panels in the 27-32" range—ideal for gaming without compromising desk space. We can finally bid farewell to the compromises of IPS, VA, and other panel types. It's been a landmark moment for me to embrace gaming with vibrant colours, deep blacks, and lightning-fast response times all rolled into one panel with very few drawbacks and not to mention exceptional brightness. Even with general desktop use, the panel maintains around 250 nits in SDR which makes it more than suitable for day-to-day tasks outside of gaming. 

 

 

ROG's OLED Care functionality also reduces the risk of burn-in to near zero, so damaging the panel from prolonged use need not worry about long gaming sessions. Auto hiding taskbar and not having a desktop background simply aren't needed with the panel technology and preventative functionality like “pixel cleaning” and “Screen Move”. Pixel cleaning is a method which entails the swift toggling of pixels, effectively clearing any lingering charge that could lead to ghosting or image retention. Whilst  “Screen Move” is more of a pixel “shift” and is an optional function with various levels of strength which adjusts the location of stationary pixels. Some users may find this function distracting for desktop use. Experiment with the various modes to see which you find to be tolerable, however it can also be switched off.

 

 

Stepping into the world of OLED PC gaming after years of relying on VA or IPS counterparts is a huge step. The first thing you notice is the richness and depth of colours. The deep blacks are almost surreal, providing a level of contrast that was previously unheard of. It's on par with upgrading from standard definition to 1440P and beyond. Every detail is sharper, every scene is more immersive.

 

 

Brightness is very impressive on W-OLED panels as a whole, but I was impressed to hear that the precision heatsink on the PG27 somehow elevated peak brightness over the LG 27GR95QE-B by as much as 30% in both SDR and HDR over its LG counterpart. On the other end of the spectrum, the benefits of infinite contrast make OLED a must for gamers like me who enjoy their horror. There's nothing worse than seeing washed-out grey where parts of the environment are supposed to be cloaked in darkness. Having the ability to simply switch pixels "off" is simply something that really should have been in the PC space way sooner.

 

 

 

 

Equally, where there needs to be colour there's no disappointment there, either. With true 10-bit depth and 99% DCI-P3 gamut, vibrant scenes look stunning. Horizon Forbidden West landscapes really "pop" where there's lush vegetation and water, and with over 1000nits on tap the sun's glaze is set apart from the landscape. The insane contrast capabilities on these panels make the transitioning between different environments far more lifelike than what's possible on traditional LED technology.

 

 

 

 

A Brief Setup

 

SDR WCG (Wide Color Gamut) Mode

When powering up the panel, you will be asked to select which Power Mode. For the best range of brightness settings, we recommend Standard Mode

 

 

Shortcut Functions

For easier navigation, you can define our shortcuts using My Favourites. We can define two selectable presets for each arrow on the Navigation Wheel.

 

 

Brightness 

By default, the Brightness is set to 90. Once we enable Uniform Brightness we can set our preferred Brightness setting depending on our surroundings and ambient lighting. I've set the panel to 80 which is 200nits

 

Uniform Brightness

Enable Uniform Brightness to mitigate the OLED panel's ABL feature. This will stop the panel from dynamically adjusting the brightness depending on the content or desktop window application. This will also help to bring down power consumption.

 

Contrast 

This can be left at default which is 80.

 

Vivid Pixel

VividPixel is an ASUS-exclusive technology that enhances images' and videos' outlines, sharpness, and colour saturation.

50 is the default setting and the most optimal. The triangular arrangement of RGB subpixels in QD-OLED displays may lead to colour fringing along the edges of text, potentially diminishing the clarity. If we lower or turn VividPixel off completely, we'll notice a large degradation in text clarity.

 

Aspect Control

Allows you to force alternative aspect ratios for content compatibility.

 

 

Blue Light Filter

The Blue Light Filter is a personal preference. I recommend leaving this function off. 

 

Colour

 

Display Colour Space

For our SDR calibration, we'll be using DCI-P3. 

 

Colour Temperature

This is a personal preference. For the most balanced preset we can leave this at 6500K. To manually calibrate, select User Mode. 

 

Gamma

Leave this at 2.2

 

 

SDR - SRGB Mode

 

 

Display Colour Space

The easiest method to change the colour space setting is from within the Colour menu. Note that using this method will mean that our colour balance is not the same resulting in the need to change your defined colour balance settings each time this is toggled.

 

 

I recommend this method: Browse to the Gaming menu and select the sRGB Mode. This will retain our previously set colour adjustments. Using this method we can quickly switch between SRGB and our DCI-P3 modes by using the Navigation wheel and pressing up (default for My Favourites), which will take you directly to the Game Visual menu.

 

 

 

 

 

Screen Protection

 

 

Screen Saver
Screen Saver can be left on. This feature will automatically dim the display when inactivity is detected.

 

Screen Move
This feature helps mitigate image retention by shifting the pixels. Some users may find this function distracting for desktop use. Experiment with the various modes to see which you find to be tolerable, however it can also be switched off.

 

Adjust Logo Brightness
This can be turned on, but experiment with this setting yourself as some people may be susceptible to noticing dimming changes. I didn't notice any difference with it set to Off, so it may provide some additional image retention protection.

 

Pixel Cleaning

Pixel cleaning is an effective technique employed to counteract image persistence or burn-in on an LCD screen. This method entails the swift toggling of pixels, effectively clearing any lingering charge that could lead to ghosting or image retention. By doing so, pixel cleaning contributes to extending the lifespan of your display and preserving its overall quality. The automated process takes approximately 6 minutes and triggers when the monitor turns off. It is advisable to initiate pixel cleaning whenever the screen is in continuous use for 8 hours, but I've set mine to 4.

 

 

 

HDR

 

 

To switch to HDR we can enable it in the Windows Display Settings menu or use the Win+Alt+B key combo to toggle.

 

 

 Access the OSD and Under the Image menu select HDR Setting. The differences are fairly minor between these profiles, however, for the best Windows calibration with Auto HDR I tend to use ASUS Console HDR as this provides the most accurate calibration for peak brightness in most games and follows HGiG guidelines.

 

 

 

 

Download the Microsoft HDR Calibration Tool from the MS Store. With ASUS Console HDR enabled you should find that the brightness peaks on the slider around the 900nits setting. 

 

Note: I'd recommend trying out games both in Native HDR and in Windows Auto HDR mode. Certain games tend to raise the black floor levels and I've found that Auto HDR can produce more desirable results. With native HDR, this is likely an effort by developers to ensure that certain details aren't lost. However, these things are subjective. If needed check out the Shadow Boost settings within the OSD mentioned earlier.

 

Note: There have been some firmware updates since the PG27 launch that addressed some concerns about tone mapping. I'm on MCM104 and find this to be the most balanced, but might be subjective.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Stahlmann]

Glad you like your OLED monitor. I've been using the LG C2 42" for 2 years now and my experience has been pretty smooth so far. Even though it's only 120Hz, it's more than responsive enough for my more casual gaming needs. Not to mention, my 3080 is mostly just hovering around 60-90 fps anyway since it's 4K. Even though my model only has a peak brightness of around 650 nits, it still has an amazing HDR experience with true blacks. I love seeing how much attention OLED panels are getting in monitors these days, and I hope there will be more improvements before it's time to upgrade again. There is still room for improvement in terms of full-screen brightness, text clarity and VRR flicker. But even with these minor issues, OLED delivers a better gaming experience than any other display technology.

 

You might want to reformat your post in dark mode, since most of the text isn't readable until you go into bright mode on the forum. Make sure text isn't colored black, but 'Automatic'.

[Doobeedoo]

Yeah they are finally in monitor space and with mortal pricing. Waiting for 4K DFR model to come, excited to see that one.

[MjFrosty]

12 hours ago, Stahlmann said:

Glad you like your OLED monitor. I've been using the LG C2 42" for 2 years now and my experience has been pretty smooth so far. Even though it's only 120Hz, it's more than responsive enough for my more casual gaming needs. Not to mention, my 3080 is mostly just hovering around 60-90 fps anyway since it's 4K. Even though my model only has a peak brightness of around 650 nits, it still has an amazing HDR experience with true blacks. I love seeing how much attention OLED panels are getting in monitors these days, and I hope there will be more improvements before it's time to upgrade again. There is still room for improvement in terms of full-screen brightness, text clarity and VRR flicker. But even with these minor issues, OLED delivers a better gaming experience than any other display technology.

 

You might want to reformat your post in dark mode, since most of the text isn't readable until you go into bright mode on the forum. Make sure text isn't colored black, but 'Automatic'.

 

Thanks. The PG27 is amazing. Have been playing Hell Divers 2 using auto HDR and there's no clipping and peak brightness during explosions is insane.

 

 

 

[MjFrosty]

Have been playing Hell Divers 2 using auto HDR and there's no clipping and peak brightness during explosions is insane.

 

[Stahlmann]

11 hours ago, MjFrosty said:

Have been playing Hell Divers 2 using auto HDR and there's no clipping and peak brightness during explosions is insane.

I was never a fan of AutoHDR. It just boosts the brightness, not the dynamic range, and so I found it to be just too bright in most situations. For example, it can't tell the difference between an explosion, a white HUD, and a white shirt, so the HUD or shirt can be as bright as an explosion, even though it's obviously not supposed to be. This "fake glow" is too distracting imo and Nvidia's AI HDR thing has the same problem. That's why I just don't use these automatic HDR features and play SDR games in SDR and HDR games in HDR.

[MjFrosty]

 

21 hours ago, Stahlmann said:

I was never a fan of AutoHDR. It just boosts the brightness, not the dynamic range, and so I found it to be just too bright in most situations. For example, it can't tell the difference between an explosion, a white HUD, and a white shirt, so the HUD or shirt can be as bright as an explosion, even though it's obviously not supposed to be. This "fake glow" is too distracting imo and Nvidia's AI HDR thing has the same problem. That's why I just don't use these automatic HDR features and play SDR games in SDR and HDR games in HDR.

It's not always the better alternative, but native HDR in some titles can be quite underwhelming. I find Auto HDR if calibrated looks far better, and it certainly boosts brightness where you'd expect.