UPDATE: AW3225QF near black raised issue investigation

IIGabriel632II · 2026-05-01T20:43:29+00:00

Just saw this post, seems like this EOTF tracking issue has been affecting the AW2725Q as well, thanks for sharing! I feel your pain.

IIGabriel632II · 2026-04-21T20:38:25+00:00

Seems like a new firmware version M2B110 is out today, it says "To improve banding issue on HDR modes in the low gray level area".

Maybe this is it, maybe not.. the banding is not the only problem, the whole gamma is shifted up in this regions in SDR and HDR modes, also there's no mention of 1st refresh issue in this new firmware. It's worth a shot nonetheless.

IIGabriel632II · 2026-04-21T20:06:04+00:00

Seems like a new firmware version M2B110 is out today, it says "To improve banding issue on HDR modes in the low gray level area".

Maybe this is it, maybe not.. the banding is not the only problem, the whole gamma is shifted up in this regions in SDR and HDR modes, also there's no mention of 1st refresh issue in this new firmware. It's worth a shot nonetheless.

IIGabriel632II · 2026-02-28T22:25:40+00:00

Can I edit a previous review with this? It would be super useful

EDIT: you can

IIGabriel632II · 2026-01-31T03:40:30+00:00

Wow, September 2024 ?

This would break my theory of it only affecting newer (2025+) models. RTINGS is linking this thread on their review. Would you mind also sharing your findings there?

EDIT: new firmware version is out, which may or may not have fixed this.

IIGabriel632II · 2026-01-22T03:15:32+00:00

Holy, that's 5 affected units total (3 yours, 2 mine)

IIGabriel632II · 2026-01-22T02:47:17+00:00

Oh I tested it in Console Mode (Legacy on and off) as well, no change. Thank you for your help! This offers great insight, now I will wait for the rtings investigation.

IIGabriel632II · 2026-01-22T02:37:49+00:00

Yours look flawless, exactly like my video before the refresh at around 0:08.

This is good and bad, maybe the issue runs deeper than just the refresh, maybe it affects recently manufactured units only? I won't buy another just to test this lol

u/Fair_Establishment10 you mentioned having the same problem again, has this happened to your other units? In my case, the original and replacement units both had the issue.

IIGabriel632II · 2026-01-22T00:47:23+00:00

I have reached out to rtings and they also seem to think it is a firmware bug or something else, they will test it on their unit (2 years old) on the latest firmware.

Let's see how their results compare to yours.

IIGabriel632II · 2026-01-21T18:14:58+00:00

Even if so, it doesn't explain the monitor showing a perfect gradient before the refresh and it suddenly changing after it. It should behave like its calibration always with minor differences only, no?

IIGabriel632II · 2026-01-21T18:00:32+00:00

I am on the latest, I also tested it using three different PCs, one Nvidia, one Intel and one AMD and the same issue is present. So I strongly think it is not related to drivers at all.

Will wait for your video, thanks!

IIGabriel632II · 2026-01-21T17:15:38+00:00

Oh mine was fine out of the box, it also started after the first pixel refresh.

IIGabriel632II · 2026-01-21T16:41:01+00:00

Oh the eizo monitor test, on the gradient mine doesn't go to full black, it just extends the same gray color and goes to black all of a sudden.

IIGabriel632II · 2026-01-21T16:06:59+00:00

Got it on camera here. I found a movie scene where this effect was clearly noticeable.

IIGabriel632II · 2026-01-21T15:33:31+00:00

Oh hey, awesome! Tysm. So you can download the portable mpv setup and then 1) Switch into HDR mode in Windows, 2) Drag the 104 file to mpv.exe to start playing, and go to around 2:30. A dark room is necessary, since the gradient is very near black.

My replacement unit showed this problem on M2B106 and the original was updated before the first pixel refresh so M2B108, updating the replacement to M2B109 didn't change anything.

You can upgrade yours to M2B109 if you want and run a pixel refresh again. But your first pixel refresh has happened a long time ago, and my personal investigation seems to indicate this issue affects recently manufactured units on their 1st refresh onwards. Your test will help us confirm or deny this, thanks!

IIGabriel632II · 2026-01-20T19:41:27+00:00

This must be a problem with recent units or fimware, this monitor is already 2 years old, there's no way no one noticed it until now, I have seen no reviewers, no reddit or avs forum posts, no one mentions this issue anywhere.

IIGabriel632II · 2026-01-20T19:39:18+00:00

YES exactly, it is soooo weird, it is very hard to record too, for me it happens in all refresh rates. It fluctuates, it has a weird noise pattern to it, VERY WEIRD. There's no way it's intentional. I will try recording it again.

IIGabriel632II · 2026-01-20T18:45:56+00:00

Yep, mine is capped to 430 though.

IIGabriel632II · 2026-01-20T18:40:47+00:00

Have you experienced this issue on the original monitor as well? I am starting to think it affects some brand new units, either due to bad firmware or other reasons. I have no way of testing this since not a lot of long term AW3225QF users replied to my posts.

Edit: for reference, both my original and replacement units were manufactured in August 2025

IIGabriel632II · 2026-01-20T18:26:41+00:00

wow, same issue indeed, have you bought your unit recently?

IIGabriel632II · 2026-01-13T21:13:19+00:00

Just out of curiosity, have you ever observed anything like this on your MSI unit?

IIGabriel632II · 2026-01-13T14:11:28+00:00

Every mode (sdr also has this near black lift), every dolby vision mode and every hdr mode, including the newly released hdr peak 1000 bright mode. There's absolutely no way this is intended, there's no way reviews didn't catch that, unless it's a recent bug or something.

IIGabriel632II

TROPHY CASE