Nvidia confirms DLSS 5 comes with a 50-60% performance hit.

I'll keep this short because everyone has covered most of everything already.

Neither are 100% perfect, but the LG is not $500+ better than the Alienware.

If the brightest HDR is all that you care about, then go with the LG because the Alienware does have an aggressive ABL. Maybe Dell will fix that in a firmware update or maybe they won't.

For me, it was not worth the extra $500 and I like the colors on the Alienware more overall.

The LG is going back.

I have finally decided to join the UW crew.

Always wanted to - but since I use my monitors for both work and play (and code heavily) - the ultra wide 1440p controller oled monitors just didn’t have sharp enough text clarity.

But now that the 5k is finally out I can live the UW dream.

Current GPU is 4080. It works well enough with upscaling dlss for the games I play.

On a whim I tried benchmarking cyber punk with everything set to max (including ray tracing). Got about 22-25 fps.

Not horrible. Normally I just play wow, starfield, etc.

Monitor on left is my “old” 32 inch 4k AW oled in portrait mode.

I'm one of the people who first ordered the brand new Alienware 39" monitor (Australia).

Its uniformity is terrible, which I made a separate post about here.

I contacted Dell right away, who offered me a replacement. I initially was hesitant because it seems that this is a software issue rather than a panel issue.

So after waiting weeks and weeks, Dell's Engineering team got back to me after their "investigation".
Their conclusion? "Everything is perfectly fine and operating as designed and within specs."

I of course pushed back and again showed them the massive colour and luminance difference between the centre and edges of the panel. They responded again - "That's all within the specs of the monitor. It's because of the curve.". That was their answer.

Now here's the best bit -

I just recently saw another post from someone who had the exact same issue, and they received a replacement monitor from a new batch that seems to be significantly better in terms of the uniformity, so I thought perhaps it actually is a first batch issue that has been fixed.
So I told them that I'd like to take them up on their offer of a replacement monitor.

They said no.

They said that because they investigated my case and the engineering team said it's within specs, they can no longer offer me a replacement from the new batch of monitors.

So I'm now stuck with a defective monitor, and because the Dell engineering team thinks there's nothing wrong with it, they have withdrawn any offer of a replacement.

What should I do here?

I think I jumped the gun a bit on my first impressions of the AW3926QW and how it compares to the 39GX950B. Some of the criticism is fair.

Please note, NEITHER MONITOR IS PERFECT. So I’m not saying the Alienware is perfect, but I personally prefer it for gaming in a dark room which is the area I value most.

Just wanted to share a few updated thoughts:

1. SDR Brightness - 39GX950B definitely wins here. if you need a daytime monitor for office use, the LG wins here. Seems to get a lot brighter with the white sub pixel boost.

2. HDR brightness/color- I think if you value slightly higher APL brightness, and those white specular highlights in HDR, go with the LG. it is the brighter overall monitor. But I think if you value HDR color more, in terms of proper saturation and more accuracy, go with the Alienware, the color to me is just better and that was the most obvious difference to me of the AW. The AW also apparently measures higher in color luminance.

Monitors in general for me have awful HDR brightness, and if I really want brightness, I just switch to my 83” LG G5 and game on that.

You can fine tune the color on the LG also, Like I set it to Gamer 2 because of the better EOTF tracking. and set Nvidia app digital vibrance to 45. but just out of the box, HDR color is better on the Alienware.

1. Brightness uniformity - LG wins 100% here. This is the AW‘s biggest weakness and covered in many reviews I can’t notice it much while gaming in HDR, but for work/productivity you will absolutely notice the lower brightness in the outer edges of the panel.

2. HDR EOTF tracking - Neither monitor is perfect here, but I give the nod to Alienware. LG needs to do a lot better in this department and I’m not sure why people don’t pay attention to HDR EOTF in general. All the debate I see is matte vs glossy. TFT central and hardware unboxed channels go more into detail on HDR EOTF tracking.

3. Matte/glossy debate - I stand by what I said that if you have a good eye and you’re sitting close to the monitors while gaming, you will notice the LG Matte coating in certain scenes while gaming. Not All scenes, but certain scenes, especially if it’s a white cloudy scene like in 007 first light- the level in the snow. I personally found the coating distracting, but it is better than the matte coating on the 45GX950B.

And I stand by what I said about seeing more micro detail on the AW’s glossy panel.

1. Text Clarity - AW is marginally better than the 39GX950B because of the RGB Stripe pixel layout but not by much. Both are fantastic for OLEDS.

Long time lurker on a different account but I just wanted to add to the news/hype/whatever around the new monitor Alienware is shipping. As the title says, I got a dead one. The power button has a sequence of red led blinking that occurs to note this. I checked the user guide and while I didn’t really check the other statuses, it seemed to be one of the only/few that says to turn off and contact dell support… thankfully they have agreed to replace the monitor.

For context, I bought my monitor Friday morning/afternoon and it showed a shipment time of sept 3. It just came in today a couple hours ago (east coast) and after hooking it up, I am met with the red ring of doom. I tried different power cables, different outlets, and even different data cables in case that might’ve been the issue, but no dice.

It’s frustrating but I wanted to add my experience with the shipping process here with everyone else talking about it. They are shipping defective units, just like every company ever, so that’s not really a ding against them. Just sucks it happened to me since I was really looking forward to using it today!

Edit: for more transparency during the customer support process, the virtual assistant is doodoo but once you get past it, they should be able to help you given that it is an official troubleshooting scenario. And don’t be fooled, I believe there’s a timeout on the error led because eventually it turns solid white. Click it off and back on, move the joystick, etc and it’ll go back to being red again.

So, I am in the market for a new monitor right now I am using a 5-year-old 34" Dark Matter 3440 x 1440 Monitor with a VA panel which at the time was a solid choice for a budget 34" ultrawide at the time.

Normally I think the AW3926QW is the winner, but I am in a little of a different situation. Though my workplace I have access to the LG partner store so I can get the 45GX950A-B for $1,169 and I also have a slight discount at Dell so my price for the AW3926QW is $1,044 so for me the price difference is $125.

I understand the AW3926QW will look better because of the glossy panel I have a home office so it won't be in direct sunlight so that is a plus for the AW3926QW. However, I do have to say the size and curve of the 45GX950A-B sound like the emersion would be amazing after watching some side-by-side reviews. I know the PPI of the AW3926QW is also a point for that monitor.

I know I will be happy with either choice, but I am having a hard time making a final choice between these 2

If it matters my PC has a 5080 which is the reason I want to make the jump to take full advantage of one of these 5K2K monitors but been going back and forth between the 2 of them because the price is so close between them.

I'm on the east coast Philadelphia

Yooo we all hanging in there?😅 This is starting to get frustrating. Ordered on the 27th with delivery tomorrow. Stuck on processing. SoCal based.

I’ve read some people order recently the last couple days from LA with some luck on next day shipping. Can anybody chime in if it shipped from their PA hub?

Dell could’ve handled this ALOT better with more communication.

The power and menu buttons will stop working after 5 minutes of use. The monitor will continue to work but cannot sleep or wake up by signal. I can only turn it off by disconnecting the power. After power cycling, the buttons will work again for 5 minutes then dead.

Asked for a replacement.

I ordered 2 days late ( 8-29 ) after it was released. I just got my ups tracking number...

Expected today and nothing its ridiculous.

I just got this monitor a week ago and it is amazing! Games and movies look amazing on it and it makes me very happy with my purchase!

I don't know if this is because I re ordered the monitor but yesterday I talked to a DELL sales rep asking for a refund for my express shipping. I got told that i can cancel the original order that I had placed on the 27th and they would send me a quote for free express shipping. I re purchased the AW3926QW Yesterday the 31st at around 5:00 PM and just got a shipping notification today for delivery tomorrow! Hopefully I won't have any issues with my panel.

This whole shipping fiasco has been so weird with people ordering days later even with standard shipping and getting their units next day. I hope they will make it right with the people who ordered on launch day as I hear some peoples units are still on production and being delayed.

Anyways just wanted to share cause it seems like they are rolling out NA west orders now

34" is a perfect size. ultrawide, then 163ppi. Dual hi refresh mode. The only knock is it's not OLED... anybody has user experience?

Hey everyone,

Has anyone in Canada who ordered the Alienware AW3926QW on August 27th actually received their monitor yet?

I placed my order as soon as it went live on Dell Canada and paid $124 for expedited shipping. The original estimated delivery date was August 31, but mine still hasn’t shipped.

Just curious if anyone else in Canada has received theirs or even gotten a shipping notification yet.

If you ordered on August 27, please share your order date, shipping status, and whether you received it. Trying to figure out if Dell is shipping these out in batches or if there’s a delay.

Thanks.

Proud new owner of an AW3926QW, but I could use your help finding a longer cable. I want a verified DP80LL cable and need it to be >2m. The only ones I have found so far, that are DP80LL verified, are from Sumitomo, Luxshare (only usb-c though?), and Wieson.

• Are there any other cable options that anyone is aware of?
  
• Has anyone bought a 3m DP80LL cable from Sumitomo, Luxshare and/or Wieson?
  • If so, how has the cable performed and how much did the cable cost?

Hi everyone,

I’m having a strange issue with my Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 and I’d like to know if anyone has seen something similar or managed to repair it without replacing the entire panel.

The problem is a horizontal line that goes from edge to edge across the screen, exactly in the middle of the monitor. The line is not just black or white — it seems to change color depending on the content being displayed. It also appears to be affected by movement below the line, for example when I move the mouse cursor underneath it.

Things I have already tested:

* Different refresh rates: 240 Hz, 120 Hz, 60 Hz
* Different cables
* Different inputs
* Resetting the monitor settings
* Leaving the monitor unplugged for several hours
* Checking the monitor OSD/menu
* Testing without relying on the PC signal

The line still appears in all scenarios. After leaving the monitor completely powered off and unplugged, the line was already there immediately after turning it back on.

I contacted Samsung support and they told me they only replace the entire panel assembly. The repair quote was around R$ 8,000 (that’s a LOT of money in Brazil), which is extremely expensive.

Has anyone experienced this specific issue on the Odyssey Neo G9?

Any advice, repair experience, or technical insight would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

So I’ve been waiting for the AW3926QW to come out for several months now, and it got here today. I’ve seen a number of people point out panel issues like green tint, dimming, or uniformity. This is my first ultrawide, so I have nothing to judge it against, and on top of that I’m partially color blind. So honestly I’m not sure what to look for as an issue vs. not so much of an issue.

I unboxed it and did a quick test I found online. I can see that the right side looks a little warmer than the left on the gray/white screens, but beyond that I’m not really sure what I’m looking at.

Wanted to ask your thoughts: does this seem like a good panel, good enough, or would you return it and try again? Or just go back to my AW3225QF?

Hey All,

I wanted to give an initial review of my Alienware AW3926QW that I received on 8/29 and add to the dialogue of what the user experience is using this monitor. I'm a big fan of ultrawides and I've used this subreddit to help me make my purchasing decisions. I wanted to return the favor and give others input if they're on the fence so they know what to expect. I'll give my motivations and my input on the pros and cons of this monitor, what I think the tradeoffs are, and in my opinion if those trade offs are worth it. I will contrast this review with my experience using my previous monitor, the OLED G9, since I think many users here are stuck in this ultrawide 1080p/1440p limbo waiting for the right ultrawide 4k monitor to purchase. I primarily use my monitors for gaming and office work productivity, but I care more about the gaming experience when evaluating monitors.

Background

I've been an ultrawide user since the original Odyssey G9 (VA Panel) was released. I went from having four 16:9 monitor battle-station to just one ultrawide and I was hooked on the format ever since. I went from the original Odyssey G9 to briefly the 57" Odyssey Neo G9, then to the Odyssey OLED G9 which was my current monitor until I purchased the AW3926QW. My reason for this purchase is that I've been looking to eventually endgame my current high end gaming setup (PC build spec below) with an OLED 5k2k monitor.

While I loved 32:9 at 1440p, my brief experience with the 57" Odyssey Neo G9 made me realize that once a monitor is around 16" tall or more, the 32:9 format is simply too big for me. Most ultrawide 4K monitors are at least that tall, so 32:9 monitors were not a fit for me anymore. The combination of the sheer size and the unfortunate lack of native UI customization in most games ultimately pushed me toward a 5K2K monitor. Ideally, on a 32:9 display, I’d want the option to keep the game world rendered across the full screen while positioning the UI within a 21:9 or even 16:9 area so that important information stays comfortably within my field of view. If you’ve ever played Age of Empires II on a 32:9 monitor, especially a behemoth like the 57" Odyssey Neo G9, you know firsthand what a neck workout feels like. For me, 5K2K ended up being the goldilocks zone, where I have that extra immersion without being uncomfortable and having to do too much tinkering to the game's UI most of the time.

Regarding why I'm only considering OLEDs, I’ve been using OLED displays for years and have no interest in trying anything else that doesn't have self-illuminating pixels. I don’t baby them beyond basic precautions like hiding my taskbar and haven't had any burn in issues since I first purchased them. The contrast, response time, and overall depth of the image outweigh the drawbacks for me. The jump to OLED was one of those upgrades where it became very difficult to go backward afterward.

Resolution

Going from 1440p to 4k ultrawide is a significant jump in picture. My criteria for purchasing this monitor is if 1440p using NVIDIA's DSR in games is somewhat close in picture quality to native 4k I would send the monitor back just for that alone. However, the fidelity in detail is very significant. The best way I can describe the experience is by contrasting playing Spider-Man Remastered and Elden Ring on the OLED G9 vs. the AW3926QW.

While playing on the AW3926Q, the biggest difference is the sense of scale from the additional detail. Swinging through Manhattan feels much more cinematic because you’re not just seeing more of the city around Spider-Man, you get a better sense of how massive the environment actually is as he moves through it. When you’re swinging between skyscrapers, it feels more like you’re following directly behind Spider-Man as he zips through the city rather than simply watching him move across the screen. The buildings feel taller and his speed is easier to appreciate because you have more visual context around him. I especially notice it when he runs up the game’s version of One World Trade Center. Seeing more of the building at once makes its height feel much more imposing and running up past entire floors in seconds gives you a much stronger sense of both the scale of the building and how fast Spider-Man is actually moving.

Another great example of this sense of scale is Elden Ring. On the AW3926QW, the Erdtree looks absolutely MASSIVE. If you’re familiar with the game, think about standing in Limgrave near the starting area and looking out toward Stormveil Castle. Stormveil still looks like the huge structure it is, but the added resolution, especially vertical resolution, of the display give the Erdtree enough detail and visual weight that it completely dwarfs everything around it. It no longer just feels like a big tree sitting in the background. It feels like this impossibly large structure towering over the entire continent.

In comparison on the OLED G9, Spider-Man and Elden Ring make these areas feel like miniature versions of themselves. For Spider-Man, you can see the scale of the city but it feels more wide than large in every direction. Going back and forth between the monitors, looking at the OLED G9 is like looking through a wide visor. The best analogy I can think of is looking at a postcard of a big city skyline and covering the bottom half portion of it with your hand.

Color Gamut & Volume

Another important criteria of mine was evaluating the color gamut of the monitor. Especially going from a 2nd Gen QD-OLED to this RGB Stripe WOLED, its been said, in general, that colors are not as good on the WOLED. The OLED G9 colors, because of the QD-OLED technology, has depth and volume when looking at a particularly bright and colorful image. It gives it a sort of three dimensional look where objects on screen have separation and it makes images, especially in HDR, look less flat. A good way to look at this effect is in games with neon lights, flame embers, or any sort of particle effects. A display with poorer color volume would make these effects feel more as a filter vs. being an actual object on screen. QD-OLEDS have strong color saturation to the point where the image can be a little too vivid and maybe not the most accurate but its really pleasing to look at.

Regarding the AW3926QW, its color gamut and color volume are excellent. Comparing the two monitors side by side, if I use the OLED G9 as a relative benchmark of 100%, I’d put the AW3926QW at around 98%. The difference is so slight that I really have to look for it when switching back and forth between them. The AW3926QW still has that sense of color depth and richness I associate with OLED, and the image never comes across as washed out or lacking vibrancy. Bright, colorful elements still have a strong visual presence.

What I actually prefer about the AW3926QW is the way its colors are presented. Compared with the OLED G9, they feel a little more natural to my eyes. The G9 can sometimes have that extra QD-OLED punch that makes certain colors look especially vivid, while the AW3926QW feels slightly more true to life. I know that ultimately comes down to personal preference, but I find myself preferring the AW3926QW’s presentation even if the OLED G9 still has a very slight edge in outright color volume.

Refresh Rate

Another concern of mine using this panel is if I will feel the downgrade from 240hz on my OLED G9 to 165hz on the AW3926QW. This was something I really took into consideration because it wasn't just the perceived decrease in visual smoothness and increase in input latency, but also, because I have an RTX 5090, it limits the frame gen capabilities of my card. The less refresh rate you have for frame gen, the more it bottlenecks your base fps when it multiples the frame rate. I tend to use all the features on my 5090 card to its fullest capabilities and having a monitor that could limit that was something that gave me pause. For most games, I combine DLDSR, DLSS, and frame gen to get the most visual fidelity out of any game I throw at it. The experience is pretty fantastic and it would bother me personally if I felt limited by my display in using my graphic card's full capabilities.

When testing the AW3926QW on Rocket League, Battlefield 6, and Counter-Strike, the perceived input lag and smoothness was pretty faint. I did notice a difference in that the 240hz on the OLED G9 was slightly smoother and snappier, but that's only because I was testing it side by side in a competitive game. For single player games, it was imperceptible and when playing on the AW3926QW for an extended amount of time I didn't notice the change. For frame gen, because most games are demanding and not always optimized 2x frame gen was pretty good and if its particularly demanding 3x frame gen worked well without limiting base fps. I still wished it was 240hz for that extra headroom for frame gen but in this case the trade off was worth it.

HDR, Panel Quality, & Uniformity

This one took me by surprise because I’ve generally known OLEDs to have excellent viewing angles and very good uniformity. When I first received the AW3926QW, I actually thought I had won the panel lottery. My initial test screens looked pretty uniform, especially compared with some of the examples I had seen in other reviews.

There is a slight green tint when viewing the panel off-axis, which appears to be a characteristic of this new RGB Tandem OLED panel. In normal use, sitting centered in front of the monitor, I barely notice it. You really have to sit unusually close (about less than a foot) or move your viewing position off-center for it to become obvious.

The bigger issue for me became apparent after spending more time with the monitor. After gaming for a while, the display can develop noticeable edge dimming, like a subtle vignette around the screen everyone with the monitor comments about. I can also see a slight change in brightness and color when dragging a white browser window from the center of the display toward the edges. It isn’t dramatic, and during games or normal content I rarely notice it. On a static white screen, however, it becomes much easier to see. It’s one of those things I specifically went looking for after reading other reviews, and unfortunately, once I noticed it, it became difficult to completely unsee. If I’m actually focused on what I’m doing or immersed in a game, it mostly disappears from my attention, but during desktop use it tends to bother me more than I expected.

There is also the separate issue of brightness limiting in HDR. In the Peak 1300 mode, the monitor can noticeably reduce its brightness when larger portions of the image become bright. This is standard OLED tech as they all have some degree of brightness management, and my OLED G9 certainly wasn’t immune to it, but I find the behavior more noticeable on the AW3926QW. The OLED G9 could produce 1000 nit small highlights without its overall image appearing to dim as aggressively in the situations I tested.

That aspect is probably the most disappointing part of this monitor for me. Without these uniformity and brightness quirks, I would consider the AW3926QW an S-tier display. With this issue, I’d put it closer to an A-tier monitor. Its still excellent, but I think anyone spending this much on any monitor is usually looking for a largely uncompromised image in the areas that are immediately visible and the apparent CPC edge dimming feels a little too aggressive here. I’m even considering trying another unit to see how much panel variation there is. I've seen replacement units having noticeably better uniformity, so there may be some degree of panel lottery involved, even if the behavior itself appears to be characteristic of the panel.

It’s especially unfortunate coming from the OLED G9 because its QD-OLED panel gives me much more consistent perceived color and brightness across the width of the screen. With a curved ultrawide like the AW3926QW, you’re naturally viewing the outer portions of the panel at a greater angle than the center, so the viewing-angle characteristics of this new RGB Tandem OLED technology become more apparent than they might on a 16:9 display.

Productivity & Text Clarity

Coming from a 32:9 monitor, I wasn’t sure how much I would miss the extra horizontal space. But after finishing my first full day of work on the AW3926QW, I was surprised to find that, in terms of usable screen space, it actually feels like I have more room overall than I did on the OLED G9.

One of the biggest reasons is text clarity. Older gen QD-OLED panels are known for having some text fringing due to their unusual subpixel layout and I always found text on the OLED G9 to look slightly fuzzy. I was able to mitigate a lot of this with MacType, which helped a bit, but I still generally used Windows at 150% scaling, with some websites requiring me to zoom to 175% for comfortable reading. It never bothered me enough to stop using the monitor for work, and I did so for several years, but moving to the AW3926QW has been a noticeably better experience.

The combination of the higher resolution and conventional RGB layout makes text significantly sharper and easier to read. Even at 100% Windows scaling, text is much more legible to me than it was on the OLED G9.

The extra vertical resolution is also fantastic for productivity, particularly in Excel. At 1440p, I always felt like the G9 cut off more of a spreadsheet vertically than I wanted once text was scaled to a comfortable size. With the extra vertical pixels on the AW3926QW, I can see more rows at once. And because the higher pixel density allows me to comfortably use smaller text, I don’t give up nearly as much horizontal workspace as I expected either. I’d estimate that I can still see around 80% of the columns I would normally have visible on the OLED G9, while gaining a huge amount of vertical workspace.

Another example is how I actually arrange windows during the workday. On the OLED G9, because I needed large text scaling, I generally only split the display into three usable sections: one window on the left, one in the middle, and one on the right. On the AW3926QW, the increased pixel density lets me comfortably fit two windows on the left, a larger full height window in the center, and another two windows on the right. So despite moving to a narrower display, I can actually keep more applications visible and usable at the same time.

That combination has made the AW3926QW feel surprisingly spacious for work. I may have lost the width of 32:9, but the additional resolution and pixel density make the available screen real estate much more usable. For productivity that extra density feels particularly good.

Build & Inputs

The AW3926QW looks and feels perfectly fine to me. I’m not particularly concerned with monitor design since mine faces a wall and I probably won’t see the back of it again until I eventually replace it. I have it mounted on a VESA arm and from the front it looks great. I also appreciate that Alienware kept the design relatively subdued rather than leaning too heavily into the typical gamer aesthetic such as ASUS, so I prefer Alienware’s approach here.

The monitor UI is also simple and mostly intuitive. Having the display settings separated from some of the other picture controls threw me off initially, but once you know where everything is, it’s easy enough to navigate. Coming from Samsung’s Tizen OS on the OLED G9, Alienware automatically gets points here simply for not making the interface feel overly convoluted and painful to use. I also like the control joystick on the center rear of the monitor. It’s easy to reach without looking, and it makes switching between HDR modes or adjusting settings on the fly relatively painless.

Compared with the OLED G9, the Samsung feels sleeker and has a somewhat more premium build quality. But once either monitor is actually set up on your desk, I’m far more interested in what’s happening on the screen than what the chassis looks like behind it.

I’m also really glad Alienware included full bandwidth DisplayPort 2.1 with UHBR20. It allows you to run the monitor at its full resolution and refresh rate without relying on DSC. DSC related issues are very uncommon and can depend heavily on your particular hardware and setup, but they do happen, so having the option to avoid DSC entirely is a nice benefit.

You also get two HDMI 2.1 ports, which makes the monitor much easier to incorporate into a setup that includes consoles alongside a PC. For example, you could keep a PS5 connected for something like GTA VI while still having your PC connected over DisplayPort.

Dolby Vision is another feature that I think has more value here than it might initially seem. I understand why some PC users consider Dolby Vision support relatively unimportant, especially given how inconsistent its support is on Windows. But if you’re also using the monitor in a gaming hub that includes a console or a streaming hardware device like Apple TV, having Dolby Vision available adds some versatility. With the certain content, personally I find Dolby Vision can make HDR presentation more impactful through its improved dynamic tone mapping.

My own use case is primarily PC gaming and productivity, but considering the price of the AW3926QW, getting full-bandwidth DisplayPort 2.1, two HDMI 2.1 ports, and Dolby Vision support is pretty good value here.

Pricing

I’m frankly very pleasantly surprised by the pricing of this monitor. Considering the feature set, the new RGB Tandem OLED panel tech, and the fact that it can outperform the competing 5K2K LG in certain areas, it feels like Alienware is once again trying to aggressively undercut the premium monitor market on price while offering very few compromises.

Its reminiscent of what Alienware did with the AW3423DW and AW3423DWF. If you don’t remember, Alienware launched the AW3423DW in 2022 as one of the first QD-OLED gaming monitor for $1300. At the time, the AW3423DW became one of the most acclaimed and popular gaming monitor on the market as a result of its great performance to price ratio. It introduced an entirely new display tech at a price that was surprisingly competitive and I get the impression Alienware is trying to replicate that winning formula with the AW3926QW.

We know that eventually other manufacturers are going to introduce their own improved 5K2K OLED alternatives, with higher refresh rates and other advantages. But I don't think they'll launch at a price like the AW3926QW, its going to be the best valued, high end OLED monitor for quite some time. Its not a perfect monitor but for a price thats even cheaper than its predecessor, that's really good value.

Conclusion TL;DR

The AW3926QW is a significant upgrade from my Odyssey OLED G9, but I still would not consider it an endgame monitor for my use. That definition is always going to be fleeting as display technology improves and new features continue to arrive, but the panel dimming and uniformity issues here are significant enough to give me pause. It might be improved with a firmware update, it happened with their predecessor when they fixed the HDR EOTF, but there is not guarantee here as its a more fundamental issue with the panel.

For me, the ideal monitor would probably be a 5K2K QD-OLED or similarly strong OLED panel running at at least 240Hz, with over 1,000 nits of peak brightness and without aggressive dimming or noticeable uniformity issues. The AW3926QW does not quite meet that standard.

That said, nearly everything else about it makes the tradeoffs worthwhile, at least for now. The resolution, pixel density, aspect ratio, text clarity, color performance, HDR, and overall sense of scale in games make it a substantial upgrade over the OLED G9 for how I use a monitor.

The biggest takeaway for me is that I don’t think I can go back to 1440p after experiencing 5K2K. Games I’ve played for years suddenly feel larger, sharper, and more immersive in a way that goes beyond simply having more pixels. Despite its flaws, the AW3926QW has changed what I now expect from an ultrawide monitor.

PC Gaming Specs

CPU: AMD RYZEN 7 9800X3D GPU: ZOTAC SOLID OC GeForce RTX 5090 32GB Motherboard: ASRock B850I Lightning WiFi mITX RAM: G.SKILL Flare X5 Series DDR5 RAM (AMD EXPO) 64GB

Photos (Admittedly not the best): https://imgur.com/a/5ZlTaE4

I came from the U4025QW and have no regrets. I’m all Windows machines and don’t own a Mac.

- Concerns about the lower PPI turned out to be unfounded text clarity is just fine to me, and I sit right next to it.

- The sheer scale is a joy, lots of open windows or PBP as you prefer.

- Colours and black level seem fine in general. Never once thought how grey that looks.

- I switch between 3 PCs via keyboard shortcut using the inbuilt KVM and takes around 5 seconds.

The not so good

- Slight pink tint

- Downward facing ports at the back are amongst the most inconvenient I’ve ever come across.

- Dell Display and Peripheral Manager is a must. If your work laptop is locked down and you can’t use it you’ll have a frustrating time using shortcuts with the joystick at the back.

- Older laptops with Intel graphics were known for a sleep bug whereby they would not come out of standby without power cycling the monitor. That seems to be fixed under the latest firmware M2T104 but I moved to a newer laptop so don’t know if that is why I’m no longer affected. Dell support are truly shit and I spent months with them going around in circles.

- Lack of downstream USB-C ports on the back, though you can use adapters. I’ve got my webcam and sound device plugged into the USB-C pop out at the front which is a bit inelegant as they are supposed to be for ad hoc use.

- Price.

Conclusion
All in all a true keeper for the productivity focused with a little 120Hz gaming on the side. Not much out there like it.

I really recommend getting an ultra wide. They get hated on for no reason

I'm replacing my dual-monitor setup with one ultrawide on an arm and would like to hear from people running a similar setup before I buy anything.

Setup: 9800X3D, RTX 3080 10 GB, currently 2× LG 27GL850-B (27", 1440p, 144 Hz). WoW Mythic raid + M+ with a full add-on UI, 141 fps cap. The same machine is my work machine, so a lot of hours go into browser, documents and text.

Why the change: I don't use the second screen while actually playing — it's for Discord and logs between pulls, and I can alt-tab for that. Two 27" panels for that is a lot of desk. So it's going to be a single panel, no vertical side monitor.

What I'm after: honest experience reports, not spec sheets. If you play WoW on an ultrawide and also work on it:

• What size and resolution did you land on, and would you buy it again?
• How does WoW's UI behave at your aspect ratio — do you actually use the extra width, or does everything important stay in the middle anyway?
• Anything about the format that only became obvious after a few months?
• Curved or flat, and how much curvature?

Rough shortlist so far: 34" or 39" at 3440×1440, 45" at 5120×2160, 49" at 5120×1440. Open to being told any of those is the wrong idea.

Side question on pixel density: I'm at ~109 PPI today and very happy with it. A 39" at 3440×1440 lands at 96. Anyone who made that jump — does the longer viewing distance absorb it, or does small UI and body text look rough?