Alienware’s cheaper QD-OLED monitor has GPU-independent AdaptiveSync.

Alienware today announced a new QD-OLED monitor that is very similar to the $1,300 Alienware AW3423DW launched this spring. The AW3423DWF has many of the same specs, but skips Nvidia’s G-Sync certification and hardware in favor of AMD and VESA’s open standards for screen tearing, while costing $200 less than its predecessor.

Like the AW3423DW, the AW3423DWF uses Samsung’s QD-OLED technology. It is a form of OLED that uses a blue self-emitting layer as a light source that passes through a layer of quantum dots. The main goal is better color gamut, including more stable colors at different brightness levels, combined with the deep blacks and incredible contrast that OLED displays are known for.

The specifications of the 34.18-inch AW3423DWF and AW3423DW are very similar, including 3440×440 resolution, 1800R curve, 99.3% DCI-P3 and 149% sRGB color gamut, refresh rates up to 165Hz via DisplayPort and 100Hz via HDMI 2.0, and gray to gray (GtG) response time 0.1 ms.

But while the AW3423DW uses G-Sync Ultimate, which confirms 1000 nits of brightness with HDR in addition to fighting screen tearing when paired with an Nvidia GPU, the new AW3423DWF uses AMD’s FreeSync Premium Pro and VESA AdaptiveSync standards.

FreeSync Premium Pro by AMD works with AMD GPUs, including the latest Xbox and PlayStation consoles. The Premium Pro qualifier confirms that this feature works with HDR (the monitor is VESA DisplayHDR TrueBlack400 certified) and adds low frame rate compensation, which renders frames multiple times to compensate when the frame rate drops below the monitor’s lowest supported refresh rate.

In May, VESA announced its AdaptiveSync certification program. It includes testing for jitter, dropped frames, and more intensive GtG response time testing that considers 20 GtG combinations.

AdaptiveSync VESA requires functionality with a refresh rate of at least 60-144Hz and a GtG response time of 5ms as tested by VESA. Meanwhile, support for Nvidia, AMD, and Intel video cards simplifies the issue of compatibility.

Even before VESA announced their AdaptiveSync program, the boundaries between G-Sync and FreeSync had already narrowed somewhat, and many FreeSync monitors could also run G-Sync without Nvidia hardware and thus keep prices lower.

By skipping the Nvidia certification or using the G-Sync module, Alienware got a cheaper $200 QD-OLED monitor with pretty much the same performance expectations. When VESA announced the AdaptiveSync performance level (there’s also a MediaSync performance level), the industry group acknowledged to Ars Technica that while not their goal, those levels could lead to the end of GPU-specific Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) flavors.

Alienware has also added a few extra features with the new AW3423DWF, including supposedly improved cable management and a five-way joystick that can call up various picture modes, including a new Creator Mode that switches the color gamut to sRGB and lets you adjust the gamma. However, at 149- sRGB percentage gamut, you’ll need to do a lot of calibration for mission-critical color work in that space.

Alienware also claims that the new monitor will be easier to install than the previous one due to its thinner profile. Depth of AW3423DWF without stand is 5 inches, while AW3423DW is 5.4 inches.

With a 21:9 aspect ratio that results in black bars when playing games on a 16:9 aspect ratio console, and HDMI 2.0 connectivity at a maximum of 100Hz at maximum monitor resolutions, no QD-OLED display is ideal for modern console games. However, the display must support VRR up to 120Hz on Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5 at 2560×1440.

Alienware will begin accepting orders for the AW3423DWF on November 8th.