Alienware AW3926QW Best Settings Guide (Patreon)

Review here: https://youtu.be/fKbs-_nR2fI

Windows settings

Only enable windows HDR as and when you’re going to view actual HDR content, otherwise leave it off (explained more here: https://youtu.be/SXcJhfM9l9Q)

make sure windows auto color management is turned OFF

SDR setup

Use these settings if you want to run with the native colour space for a more vivid and colourful image. You can combine with our calibrated ICC profile which will clamp back to sRGB for colour aware applications though.

Game menu > Preset mode = Custom Color

Brightness = 49 for ~120 nits, but set this to whatever you find appropriate

Contrast = 75

RGB gain levels = 100, 100, 99

Calibrated ICC profile is attached below

sRGB emulation approach

If you want to clamp to sRGB all the time for all applications, games etc then you can use the following settings. This is good for SDR content and offers a very good factory calibration, but it will look less vivid compared with the native mode by design. Do not use our ICC profile with these options as it's designed to be used with the wide gamut mode only.

Preset mode = Creator > sRGB

Brightness = 49 for ~120 nits, but set this to whatever you find appropriate

Contrast = 75

Gamma = 2.2

Gaming

Dark stabilizer = setting 2 is probably the best at improving near black shadow detail, the other modes brighten lighter shades more. Experiment for darker gaming and see what you prefer

Anti flicker = This does a really good job of eliminating flicker without impacting the VRR range, although may cause games to not feel as smooth. Experiment with this if you find flicker a problem during actual gaming, away from loading screens and menus.

Console mode = enable this if you're connecting a console.

You can then tweak colours and gamma if you want for SDR content, but defaults should be fine.

If you input an HDR signal from the console you can also activate another option for 'source based tone mapping' if you want, and if your console supports it

If your console supports Dolby Vision HDR, you can enable that from the 'display' section of the menu too, although see notes below about brightness

Dual-mode (via Game > Other modes menu). Use this if you want to for certain faster gaming situations. You may want to use the 'personalize' menu to create a shortcut for it somewhere to make it easier to switch back and forth. You should also recheck your refresh rate and VRR settings in your graphics card control panel, as we found each mode was recognised like two different displays, so you may need to enable G-sync for instance for both independently.

HDR

Smart HDR mode = Peak 1300 bright. We think this is the best balance for brightness, while still being able to deliver the full 1300 nits peak spec in dark scenes. The True Black mode is more accurate and often brighter in real content, but lacks the ability to reach above about 555 nits.

Dolby Vision = turn this off for PC HDR usage we would to avoid confusion and issues. You can enable it for external media devices and consoles that support it if you want, although you'd be limited to lower absolute brightness behaviour. Leaving this off and using Peak 1300 bright mode instead may be preferrable.

Other settings

Sharpness = 50

HDMI CEC = useful to turn on for when you have connected devices over HDMI and you want the screen to auto-switch when powered on