The Alienware QD-OLED display opts for open standards rather than G-Sync and is $200 less expensive.

This morning, Alienware made an announcement about a new QD-OLED monitor SKU. It has a startling resemblance to the Alienware AW3423DW, which was sold for $1,300 earlier this spring. The AW3423DWF features many of the exact specifications as its predecessor, but it omits the Nvidia G-Sync certification and hardware in favor of open standards for preventing screen tearing developed by AMD and VESA. Additionally, it is priced at $200 cheaper than its predecessor.

The AW3423DWF employs Samsung’s QD-OLED technology just like its predecessor, the AW3423DW. One type of organic light-emitting diode (OLED) has a blue self-emitting layer as its light source. This layer is sandwiched between two layers of quantum dots.

The major objective is to achieve improved color coverage, including hues that are more constant across a range of brightness levels. This is to be accomplished while maintaining the deep blacks and excellent contrast that are hallmarks of OLED displays.

Both the AW3423DWF and AW3423DW have a resolution of 3440 by 1440, an 1800R curve, a color coverage of 99.3 percent DCI-P3 and 149 percent sRGB, a refresh rate of up to 165 hertz via DisplayPort and 100 hertz via HDMI 2.0, and a grey-to-grey (GtG) response time of 0.1 milliseconds. The 34.18-inch AW3423DWF

However, the new AW3423DWF employs AMD’s FreeSync Premium Pro and VESA’s AdaptiveSync standards, whereas the older AW3423DW used Nvidia’s G-Sync Ultimate. G-Sync Ultimate is capable of confirming 1,000 nits of brightness with HDR in addition to preventing screen tears when connected with an Nvidia GPU.

FreeSync Premium Pro from AMD is compatible with all AMD GPUs, including the most recent iterations of both the Xbox and PlayStation game consoles. The Premium Pro qualification verifies that the feature is compatible with HDR (the monitor is VESA DisplayHDR TrueBlack400-certified), and it also includes low frame rate compensation, which displays frames multiple times to compensate for situations in which frame rates are lower than the lowest refresh rate supported by the monitor.

In May, VESA made the announcement that it will be launching its AdaptiveSync certification programme. This includes testing for judder and lost frames, as well as more rigorous GtG reaction time testing that examines 20 different GtG combo permutations.

According to VESA’s tests, capability with refresh rates from at least 60–144 Hz is required for the AdaptiveSync feature (in the case of the AW3423DW, AdaptiveSync works up to 165 Hz), and a GtG reaction time of 5 milliseconds or less is required as well. In the meanwhile, support for graphics cards manufactured by Nvidia, AMD, and Intel helps to simplify the compatibility situation.

Even before VESA launched its AdaptiveSync programme, the borders between G-Sync and FreeSync were already beginning to blur slightly. Many FreeSync displays were already able to run G-Sync without the need for additional hardware from Nvidia, which allowed them to keep their pricing cheaper.

Alienware was able to produce a QD-OLED display that is $200 cheaper while maintaining the same level of performance expectations by avoiding Nvidia certification and instead employing the G-Sync module.

When VESA announced the AdaptiveSync performance tier (there is also a MediaSync one), the industry group acknowledged to Ars Technica that while this isn’t its goal, the tiers could lead to the end of GPU-specific flavours of variable refresh rates. AdaptiveSync is one of the two performance tiers that VESA has introduced (VRR).

With the release of the new AW3423DWF, Alienware also included a couple of additional features. These include a purportedly improved cable management system as well as a five-way joystick that can bring up various image modes. One of these modes is a new Creator Mode that changes the colour gamut to sRGB and allows you to adjust gamma.

In this mode, the sRGB colour coverage will be reduced to 100 per cent, rather than the maximum of 149 per cent, according to a representative of Alienware who spoke with Ars Technica.

Additionally, Alienware asserts that the new monitor, which has a lower profile than its predecessor, would be simpler to attach than the older one. In comparison, the AW3423DWF has a depth of only 5 inches without the stand, while the AW3423DW measures 5.4 inches.

Because of their 21:9 aspect ratios, which result in black bars while playing 16:9 games on consoles, and their HDMI 2.0 connection, which is limited to a maximum of 100 hertz at the maximum resolutions of their displays, neither QD-OLED display is an ideal choice for today’s console gaming. On the other hand, the display must be capable of supporting VRR at resolutions of up to 2560 by 1440 and up to 120 hertz on Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5.

Beginning in the autumn of this year, Alienware will begin taking pre-orders for the AW3423DWF.

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Note from the editor: The original version of this article stated that the company would begin accepting orders for the monitor on a particular date. However, an Alienware representative contacted Ars and stated that the company is no longer providing a specific date for when orders will begin to be accepted. In addition, the document has been revised to provide details on the AdaptiveSync range and the colour coverage of the Creator Mode.