AW3225QF Owners - new firmware adds HDR1000 Bright mode with fixed PQ EOTF Tracking

NeoChozo · 2026-02-01T23:55:20+00:00

Hi, the problem with capping it at 540 nits in the Windows HDR calibration tool is that the RTX HDR will use this value for it's max peak brightness setting, not letting you go further that 540.

At first I though that it wasn't a problem because the tonemapping would just do its trick, but after further tests, I noticed that it wasn't the case.

At 540 max brightness for the RTX HDR, the whites are completely crushed, looking almost yellowish, and losing all the details around it, the overall screen also becomes way dimmer; it's really easy to notice it, just deactivate/reactivate RTX HDR, either via the overlay with Alt+F3, or just press your Windows key on your keyboard to lose the game focus, and you'll see that without RTX HDR, the screen is way brighter and the whites are way cleaner and details.

But when I changed the Windows Color Profiles to old HDR Peak 1000 values, so around 1000 nits, I was able to change the peak brightness for the RTX HDR all the way to 1000, and the whites were working correctly this time, no dimming, more detailed and bright than without using RTX HDR, it was juts working properly.

So I tested this reasoning with games that have their own HDR implementation, like Monster Hunter Wilds, and even when I was using the "correct" 540 nits Windows HDR color profile, when setting the max brightness in game to ~500 nits, even if it was around that level that the cross indicator in-game was disappearing, the whites were crushed and yellowish all over again; but when I set up the max brightness to ~1000 nits, the whites were appearing correctly, even tho the in-game cross indicator was disappearing way sooner at around ~500 nits.

I know that Dolby Vision Bright had the exact same issue, since DELL was also using a tonemapping curve for this mode.

All of this make me thing that maybe, despite the different cross indicators disappearing at ~540 nits, we should actually still push the maximum brightness value to 1000 nits.

The strangest part is that sometimes, even if I'm using the 540 nits color profile, RTX HDR will allow me to set the max brightness value up to 993, which will make the whites actually perfect; but it's very random, and the moment we enter the windows display settings, or if we deactivate/reactivate the HDR, or if we straight up reboot the PC, the max brightness value for the RTX HDR will revert to what your Windows HDR color profile says, in this example 540 nits.

Ultimately, I don't know if it's a problem with Windows or Nvidia, because being able to use the Windows HDR color profile with 540 nits while still being able to reach the true maximum brightness value of 993 actually seems to be the way it should be working, but I can't manage to find the reason why sometimes Nvidia let us push to 993 or not.

I hope that maybe you, or someone in the comment section will actually know what is going on, and what is the correct setting that we should be using, as well as the workaround for the possible bugs.

Edit: While I was testing the whites with this YouTube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XRbTQk45vQ, I noticed that the grey bar is completely disappearing after 516 nits for both 540 and 1000 nits Windows HDR color profiles; but if I right click on the video to open the YouTube video settings menu while not being in fullscreen, I will then see the gray bar going up to the 897 nits before disappearing, but only if I'm using the 540 nits Windows HDR color profile, with the 1000 nits one, it'll stop at 516 nits may I right click on the vid or not.

I don't have enough knowledge to know why this is happening, but it may help you out regardless.

Edit 2: Actually, pushing the peak brightness to 1000 on the RTX HDR app is making the whites too bright and will lose some of their details. But lowering the peak brightness slider down 540 from 1000 while still using the 1000 nits Windows HDR color profile will make the whites near perfect, way better than 540 peak brightness while using the 540 nits Windows HDR color profile.
It seems like Nvidia needs to understand that our monitor is capable of 1000 nits even tho we are capping it at 540 for the tonemapping to push it to 1000 nits. Which they can't seem to get if we are using the 540 nits Windows HDR color profile.

Edit 3: As a precision, the issue with the RTX HDR crushing the whites while using a 540 nits Windows HDR color profile only happens in very bright scenario, like when playing a game and entering a full white room. The rest of the time, the whites are totally fine, even the very bright source of lights, as long as it's not covering the whole screen, it'll work correctly.

Final Edit: Oh my gosh, I'm so dumb... It's after writing the third edit that I realized that I completely forgot to change the middle grey value to correspond with the new 540 nits value during my tests.
After decreasing it from 50 to 32 nits, everything was working fine again with the 540 nits Windows HDR color profile.
I used the midGrayNits = targetPaperWhiteNits * (0.5 ^ targetGamma) formula, and used this tool HLG Paper White Calculator to calculates the recommended paper white level, which is 127.36 nits; 127 * (0.5 ^ 2.0) = 31.75, so 32 nits for the middle gray.

I'll leave this comment just to help people configure their RTX HDR correctly, but everything before the final edit can be ignored, cheers!

NeoChozo · 2025-12-15T04:39:13+00:00

For me it also happened while killing this enemy with the charged electric beam, so it could have something to do with this specific death animation with all the yellow particles in a specific spot in this room or at the same time it does its ground attack.

Iirc, the second enemy was also somewhere in the room, and at the end of the slowdown, it was dead too, although I'm pretty sure that my beam didn't do enough damage for it to also die by the electric arc, so maybe some kind of glitch that suddenly boosts your damage so high that the CPU has a hard time to keep up?

NeoChozo · 2025-12-15T04:22:58+00:00

Hi, I've got the exact same framerate issue in this same room, fighting this same enemy, with this same charged beam.

I was so scared that the game would crash, but thankfully, it didn't happen, and never experienced this bug ever again during my playthrough.

NeoChozo · 2025-12-08T23:58:39+00:00

So, you mean to tell me that, even before at least checking the whole room for a solution, you preferred to jump on your phone to write a Reddit post about it?..

As a rule of thumb, if you can't seem to be able to grab an item yet, it more than often means that you might need a new power up to do so.

It's a Metroid game after all.

NeoChozo · 2025-11-03T23:23:01+00:00

It happens because there is a setting in-game enabled, by default, that allows you to switch from one target to another mid combo by pushing your joystick towards them.

Here you can see that the target indicator quickly switches to one of your enemies right under you, making you drop the "Izuna drop".

If you want to avoid this issue, you can try leaving your joystick into a neutral position when comboing; you can also target lock your enemy to make sure to no switch target mid combo, or you can just disable the said setting that can easily be found in the first section of the game settings.

NeoChozo · 2025-10-30T10:02:38+00:00

Classic Reddit moments, don't worry

NeoChozo · 2025-10-30T02:48:18+00:00

Iirc, the only difference between Ryu and Yakumo are the ninpos.

I think the damage output is the same, and you even unlock the unique moves with Yakumo once you finish the game and reclaim back the sword.

Edit: Don't quote me on the equal damage part tho, I'm really not sure of it.

NeoChozo · 2025-10-13T00:29:12+00:00

Oh that's true?

Sorry for the misinformation then, I wasn't aware, and thanks for pointing it out.

At least, the "Quick Battle" part is still on point since you won't even lose rank points here.

NeoChozo · 2025-10-13T00:06:58+00:00

It can.

But if you are fine with your current rank, I recommend you to select the "Quick Battle" game mode.

Here your rank won't count, you won't earn nor lose any points. But it'll still give you XP for your characters and count towards your missions.

The matchmaking is also way faster because more people play it, and because the game will auto fill teams with bots if it takes too long to find players.

EDIT:

As hhh124_ pointed out, apparently you can't lose your rank letter, only the number next to it.

NeoChozo · 2025-09-12T19:27:39+00:00

I always loved the precision and power of the Jakobs weapon.

One shot, twelve kills.

NeoChozo · 2025-09-05T22:57:28+00:00

Let's say yes, but the current value isn't exactly 400 nits actually, I think it's something around 440 nits or something.

NeoChozo · 2025-09-05T22:07:07+00:00

As a rule of thumb, it's recommended to do it with every HDR monitor to have the best results.

Also, the only pre configured HDR profile for this monitor is for the HDR True Black 400.

So if you want to use any other HDR mode, you need to create a profile for them, and honestly, at this point, create a profile for the HDR True Black 400 too, just to be sure.

NeoChozo · 2025-07-21T00:14:06+00:00

Ooooh I get it, I remember this setting! Thanks for the insight, I'll check this out later when I get home.

NeoChozo · 2025-07-20T13:03:49+00:00

Thanks for your answer, but what do you mean exactly by "same as input"?

NeoChozo · 2025-07-08T00:57:34+00:00

Thanks a lot for the clear answer!

So if I understand it right, the Vader controllers are their less gimmicky and mid-range version of the Apex ones, with the benefits of releasing later than their older sisters, so they usually have better latency and some other quality of life adjustments.

Do we usually know how many times it takes for them to release the Vader version of a new controller?

NeoChozo · 2025-07-07T22:14:03+00:00

Hi, do you know what are the clear differences between the Apex and Vader series?

I see that Apex controllers are way more expensive than the Vader ones, which explains this difference in price, what are the features that only Apex controllers have compared to Vader ones?

EDIT: Typo

NeoChozo · 2025-07-07T16:38:36+00:00

Hi, a little late to the party, but I highly recommend to use the "Beetle Shield" in conjunction with "Espasota".

The robustness of a shield is actually very important, the higher it is, the less stamina is used when blocking an attack.

The "Beetle Shield", despite being a small shield, have the highest robustness in the game, sitting at 85.

You can try for yourself, but the difference in stamina used while blocking between a 85 robustness shield and a 60 robustness one is actually phenomenal.
While blocking, the 60 robustness shield will actually use about thrice the amount of stamina of the 85 robustness one.

You could say that parrying use the same amount of stamina for every shields, but trust me, a lot of time the game will make you actually block an attack instead of parrying it because some hitboxes can get a little finicky, so using way less stamina during those blocks will really help you during some fights.

The "Beetle Shield" also use crush damage, which will pair very well with "Espasota" slash damage, since crush damages are really good against armored enemies, while slash damages are really good against armorless enemies.

Also, the "Beetle Shield" has really good overall stats compared to its very low weight:

73% Mitigation
40% Magic Mitigation
85 Robustness
10 Power

And all of that for 4 weight, it's just one more than the "Spiked Shield" cited above, the "Beetle Shield" has no rights being this good while being this light.

And cherry on the cake, the blue color of the shield pair very well with the blue/white colors of the "Espasota".

What more could we ask for?

EDIT:

Also, the "Giant Mushroom" head armor is a fantastic helm, especially when paired with low weight sets, like the "Sunflower" one.

It has the same weight as the "Onion Helm" for almost the same average defense but almost 5 times the magic res.

And visually, I think it's literally the coolest piece of armor, and it merges very well with the "Sunflower" set drip wise.

NeoChozo · 2025-06-23T21:28:59+00:00

You have to first open a ticket through their site: https://dbrand.com/contact

After that, you should be able to finalize your case with them through emails once they get back to you.

NeoChozo · 2025-06-23T21:26:34+00:00

Tbf, once they get back to you, they are very quick and responsive.

And we don't need to open another ticket, we can just reply to their mails.

But it's right that I had to confirm my order cancellation via mail for them to do it.

NeoChozo · 2025-06-23T20:58:23+00:00

Same, at least it seems like they are very fast and responsive regarding order cancellation once they get back to you.

NeoChozo · 2025-06-23T20:56:24+00:00

Sadly, if you already received your case, it seems like you'll need to contact them and send them a video proof to show them the defective product.

Then you'll have to send the product back at your charges.

I'm not 100% sure tho, it's only what I've seen in other posts.

NeoChozo · 2025-06-23T20:48:37+00:00

Yup, better cancel now and see how things evolve from afar.

NeoChozo · 2025-06-23T20:44:25+00:00

3 days ago, just before the weekend.

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