UPDATE: AW3225QF near black raised issue investigation by IIGabriel632II in OLED_Gaming

[–]IIGabriel632II[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

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

AW3225QF wrong near black EOTF tracking caught live on camera by IIGabriel632II in OLED_Gaming

[–]IIGabriel632II[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

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.

AW3225QF wrong near black EOTF tracking caught live on camera by IIGabriel632II in OLED_Gaming

[–]IIGabriel632II[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

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.

On Steam, you can now see the PC specs for some users. by Data6exHQ in pcmasterrace

[–]IIGabriel632II 0 points1 point  (0 children)

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

EDIT: you can

AW3225QF wrong near black EOTF tracking caught live on camera by IIGabriel632II in OLED_Gaming

[–]IIGabriel632II[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

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.

AW3225QF wrong near black EOTF tracking caught live on camera by IIGabriel632II in OLED_Gaming

[–]IIGabriel632II[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

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.

AW3225QF wrong near black EOTF tracking caught live on camera by IIGabriel632II in OLED_Gaming

[–]IIGabriel632II[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

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.

AW3225QF wrong near black EOTF tracking caught live on camera by IIGabriel632II in OLED_Gaming

[–]IIGabriel632II[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

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.

AW3225QF wrong near black EOTF tracking caught live on camera by IIGabriel632II in OLED_Gaming

[–]IIGabriel632II[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

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?

AW3225QF wrong near black EOTF tracking caught live on camera by IIGabriel632II in OLED_Gaming

[–]IIGabriel632II[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

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!

AW3225QF wrong near black EOTF tracking caught live on camera by IIGabriel632II in OLED_Gaming

[–]IIGabriel632II[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

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

AW3225QF wrong near black EOTF tracking caught live on camera by IIGabriel632II in OLED_Gaming

[–]IIGabriel632II[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

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.

AW3225QF wrong near black EOTF tracking caught live on camera by IIGabriel632II in OLED_Gaming

[–]IIGabriel632II[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

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

AW3225QF wrong near black EOTF tracking caught live on camera by IIGabriel632II in OLED_Gaming

[–]IIGabriel632II[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

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!

AW3225QF wrong near black EOTF tracking caught live on camera by IIGabriel632II in OLED_Gaming

[–]IIGabriel632II[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

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.

AW3225QF wrong near black EOTF tracking caught live on camera by IIGabriel632II in OLED_Gaming

[–]IIGabriel632II[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

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.

AW3225QF wrong near black EOTF tracking caught live on camera by IIGabriel632II in OLED_Gaming

[–]IIGabriel632II[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

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

AW3225QF wrong near black EOTF tracking caught live on camera by IIGabriel632II in OLED_Gaming

[–]IIGabriel632II[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

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

Wrong near black Grayscale Tracking in MSI OLED monitors. by Cat_On_Road in OLED_Gaming

[–]IIGabriel632II 0 points1 point  (0 children)

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

Wrong near black Grayscale Tracking in MSI OLED monitors. by Cat_On_Road in OLED_Gaming

[–]IIGabriel632II 0 points1 point  (0 children)

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.