X35 flickering(Acer X35 monitor)

EEH89

Seyumi said:

Everyone, please keep the community informed (via this forum thread or other avenues) about the flickering issues and how/if they're resolved via firmware update, software update, etc. This is a $2,500 purchase so it's no joke. Myself and many others are holding off on purchasing the Acer X35 or the Asus PG35VQ until we can confirm the flickering issue has been resolved. We know from various professional reviews that the issue can be fixed via turning off the Overdrive setting in the OSD or running below 80hz but then it kind of defeats the purpose of this monitor. Thanks again~

First, it is a crazy decision from you and the others to throw 2500$ on a monitor without waiting for enough review. for me X35/PG35VQ not worth 1000$.

In addition, don't let anyone told you lies, the flickering issue CANNOT be fixed, it is VA weakness de to its bad response time, nothing can be done. You need to deal with flickering or turn off OD and deal with ghosting/smearing like never before.

Send back the x35 or PG35VQ (same VA panel\), get a refund, and you can thanks me later.

Dear ACER, when you want to ask 2500$ for a monitor, we are not stupid, you need to offer what deserves it.

I was saving for it, but when I saw the reviews of x35/PG35VQ, never ever.

EEH89

First, it is a crazy decision from you and the others to throw 2500$ on a monitor without waiting for enough reviews. for me X35/PG35VQ not worth 1000$.

I remember when J.J. from ASUS Said: PG35VQ will be the benchmark monitor of the year and he was so existed, and not it is a disaster monitor. Don't listen to companies, they need money even with bunches of lies.

In addition, the flickering issue CANNOT be fixed, this is the truth, it is VA panel weakness due to its bad response time, nothing can be done. You need to deal with flickering or turn off OD and deal with ghosting/smearing like never before, both are very bad.

Send back the x35 or PG35VQ (same VA panel), get a refund, and you can thanks me later.

Dear ACER, when you want to ask 2500$ for a monitor, we are not stupid, you need to offer what deserves it.

Boatkettlecheese

If I read right Manny is saying they have managed to repreduce the issue but can not "consistantly" reproduce the issue. This is admitting that there is an issue.

Aldur67

EEH89 said:
In addition, the flickering issue CANNOT be fixed, this is the truth, it is VA panel weakness due to its bad response time, nothing can be done. You need to deal with flickering or turn off OD and deal with ghosting/smearing like never before, both are very bad.

Where are you getting this information?

It's not a VA panel weakness due to bad response time. That doesn't even make sense. I've had VA panels before that didn't have this problem. Stop spreading misinformation.

Also, for the fact that I can change an in-game setting, leave OD on, and the flickering goes away, such as turning off Sharpening in The Witcher 3, that tells me that it's a software problem. If it was a VA panel weakness like you said, then no amount of changing in-game settings would help. You're just flat out wrong in your assumption.

Aldur67

Mnot75 said:

I just unplugged mine and will be sending it back. While testing I thought maybe the display port  cable might have something to do with HDR not “kicking in” even when the display thinks it’s active. I grabbed the display port cable from my Asus PG27UQ (which thankfully I haven’t sold yet). This shut down all display port functionality. After multiple restarts of the display and PC, the only port I could get to come up was my Nintendo Switch over HDMI. Display port was just showing a black screen. Reverting back to the Acer DP cable did nothing to improve the situation. This was a very frustrating and disappointing experience. The image was amazing when working correctly but this is just too much... 

on the bright side, I get all that money back. 

Sounds like you ran into the "black screen" bug I found and posted about in Reddit.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ultrawidemasterrace/comments/cpeb8p/x35_black_screen_fix/

Give that fix a shot and see if it brings back the monitor when using DP.

Aldur67

Boatkettlecheese said:

If I read right Manny is saying they have managed to repreduce the issue but can not "consistantly" reproduce the issue. This is admitting that there is an issue.

I agree, it sounds like Acer is admitting that this is an issue and needs to nail it down better by consistently reproducing the issue more. That's good news I suppose.

Feklar

EEH89 said:

Seyumi said:

Everyone, please keep the community informed (via this forum thread or other avenues) about the flickering issues and how/if they're resolved via firmware update, software update, etc. This is a $2,500 purchase so it's no joke. Myself and many others are holding off on purchasing the Acer X35 or the Asus PG35VQ until we can confirm the flickering issue has been resolved. We know from various professional reviews that the issue can be fixed via turning off the Overdrive setting in the OSD or running below 80hz but then it kind of defeats the purpose of this monitor. Thanks again~

First, it is a crazy decision from you and the others to throw 2500$ on a monitor without waiting for enough review. for me X35/PG35VQ not worth 1000$.

In addition, don't let anyone told you lies, the flickering issue CANNOT be fixed, it is VA weakness de to its bad response time, nothing can be done. You need to deal with flickering or turn off OD and deal with ghosting/smearing like never before.

Send back the x35 or PG35VQ (same VA panel\), get a refund, and you can thanks me later.

Dear ACER, when you want to ask 2500$ for a monitor, we are not stupid, you need to offer what deserves it.

I was saving for it, but when I saw the reviews of x35/PG35VQ, never ever.

This is just misinformation. I have had other VA panels and random flickering is not a normal fault of all va panels. Stop spreading false information. My unit flickers randomly as well in certain scenes. I saw random flickering last night playing Half Life 2 Update and that's not even a  demanding game at all. Turning overdrive off eliminated the issue. I'm using :
9900k
2080ti FTW3 Ultra Hydro
16gb Ram 4266
Maximus XI Apex
I only have 9 days left in my return window so I need an answer from Acer when  this will be resolved so either I wait or give up and get a refund. I can't understand why Acer did not see this wide spread issue in testing. This is very concerning. Either Acer is/was incompetent or knew it and shipped them anyway and hoped to fix it later. I'm not sure which. Need some  answers quick here Manny.

OGgamer77

Hey Acer-Manny i have had zero issues with my unit , is there a rev# or batch number you would like me to provide . I got mine from newegg when they got them in stock 2 weeks ago . I tried to replicate the issues as well but have not been able to 
current system specs 
9900k at 5.0
32 gig 3600speed ram
zotac 2080 ti 
latest nvidia driver 
samsung ssd 2 tb
games 
Shadow tomb raider 
BF5 
Divsion 2

I will load Witcher 3 tonight and see if i can get the problem to occur .
Guys i did a fresh windows install last night not because i was having issue with the x35 , but because i couldnt update to 1903 may windows update .
After i did the fresh install i swear the performance is better. With constant windows and driver updates a fresh start might help . Anything you guys want me to try let me know . I have it currently set to 180hz no oc , and i only turn hdr on in windows when i play shadow of tomb raider , or any game that requires you have it on in windows .

Acer-Manny_Retired

Thank you all for your cooperation and assistance in helping us with the information requested. 

Mnot75 said:

NEX MACHINA with HDR and Battlefield 5 with HDR

Display Port 

Nvidia 2080Ti Founders Edition

RGB Full Range 10Bit Color at 144Hz

Multiple attempts required to get HDR to kick in.

Monitor is in HDR mode (OSD Blocked out) but colors are dull and display is dimly lit.

 

OSD (On Screen Display) flickers on HDMI. 

Image is good but OSD flickering is concerning.

Thank you.

Aldur67 said:

Hi @Acer-Manny

Here's the information below.

1. Display port
2. EVGA 2080 ti FTW3
3. Witcher 3 - Under "Options > Video > Post Processing" set the Sharpening setting to High causes the flickering to occur during the day time. It is best shown if the time in the game is around noon and the sun is shining, no rain or clouds.
4. Also, the FPS needs to be above 80 for the flickering to show up in witcher 3. Note that with witcher 3 changing any other setting than sharpening does not have an effect on the flickering issue.
Turning the Overdrive to "Off" causes the flickering to go away with sharpening set to "High" in the witcher 3, but lots of ghosting/black smearing is present with the OD off. 

OGgamer77 said:

Hey Acer-Manny i have had zero issues with my unit , is there a rev# or batch number you would like me to provide . I got mine from newegg when they got them in stock 2 weeks ago . I tried to replicate the issues as well but have not been able to 
current system specs 
9900k at 5.0
32 gig 3600speed ram
zotac 2080 ti 
latest nvidia driver 
samsung ssd 2 tb
games 
Shadow tomb raider 
BF5 
Divsion 2

I will load Witcher 3 tonight and see if i can get the problem to occur .
Guys i did a fresh windows install last night not because i was having issue with the x35 , but because i couldnt update to 1903 may windows update .
After i did the fresh install i swear the performance is better. With constant windows and driver updates a fresh start might help . Anything you guys want me to try let me know . I have it currently set to 180hz no oc , and i only turn hdr on in windows when i play shadow of tomb raider , or any game that requires you have it on in windows .

Feklar said:

EEH89 said:

Seyumi said:

Everyone, please keep the community informed (via this forum thread or other avenues) about the flickering issues and how/if they're resolved via firmware update, software update, etc. This is a $2,500 purchase so it's no joke. Myself and many others are holding off on purchasing the Acer X35 or the Asus PG35VQ until we can confirm the flickering issue has been resolved. We know from various professional reviews that the issue can be fixed via turning off the Overdrive setting in the OSD or running below 80hz but then it kind of defeats the purpose of this monitor. Thanks again~

First, it is a crazy decision from you and the others to throw 2500$ on a monitor without waiting for enough review. for me X35/PG35VQ not worth 1000$.

In addition, don't let anyone told you lies, the flickering issue CANNOT be fixed, it is VA weakness de to its bad response time, nothing can be done. You need to deal with flickering or turn off OD and deal with ghosting/smearing like never before.

Send back the x35 or PG35VQ (same VA panel\), get a refund, and you can thanks me later.

Dear ACER, when you want to ask 2500$ for a monitor, we are not stupid, you need to offer what deserves it.

I was saving for it, but when I saw the reviews of x35/PG35VQ, never ever.

This is just misinformation. I have had other VA panels and random flickering is not a normal fault of all va panels. Stop spreading false information. My unit flickers randomly as well in certain scenes. I saw random flickering last night playing Half Life 2 Update and that's not even a  demanding game at all. Turning overdrive off eliminated the issue. I'm using :
9900k
2080ti FTW3 Ultra Hydro
16gb Ram 4266
Maximus XI Apex
I only have 9 days left in my return window so I need an answer from Acer when  this will be resolved so either I wait or give up and get a refund. I can't understand why Acer did not see this wide spread issue in testing. This is very concerning. Either Acer is/was incompetent or knew it and shipped them anyway and hoped to fix it later. I'm not sure which. Need some  answers quick here Manny.

Can we please have a short video that shows the issue but also the OSD menu configuration?

Example of video screenshots: 


Thank you,
Acer-Manny

Delta_Payne

Hy, Asus PG35VQ ownder here. I have the same flickering issues in Battlefield V especialy and in some other games also. I sent the device back and got a new one today, same issues. I tested today every setting in Battlefield V one by one... aaaaaaaaand got it working.
I found out that the one thing that is responsible for the flickering is the Chromatic Aberation. Aslong this is turned off i get the flickering issues. If i turn it on the Game just runs fine! But this doesnt help me for other Games. But I think i got someting here.

Delta_Payne

also i found out that if i open this picture in fullscreen i get the scanlines, and when i move it the flickering appears https://i.imgur.com/JiTDI0G.jpg

I'll think the Monitor has some problems with the color green

Delta_Payne

Fun Fact: When you have the image open and the scanlines appear, open the OSD form the Monitor and the scanlines dissapear...

T00FLESS

Packing this display up and sending it back ASAP!!! Had an X34 for 2+ years and I've never had any issues remotely like this flickering/interlacing BS!

I've had this thing for a week...works for maybe an hour, then the flicker and interlacing goes off the charts - absolutely Unusable.

I have 8700K with an RTX 2080 Ti so I got the HP's. No amount of tinkering or driver updates do anything that lasts more than an hour or so!

This display is simply not ready for prime time and I'll be going back to a display running at 120hz with none of this BS. 

Oh, and the HDR on the desktop looks like royal *****$!

Boatkettlecheese

[Issue] - Overdrive related flickering and line artifacts -

Steps to reproduce.

1. Put monitor on extreme overdrive 144hz, 10 bit, and switch on HDR in windows
2. Run battlefront 2 from origin.
3. From the home title please select "Play"
4. Select campaign, main story, select mission, The battle of endor, and then select Start Mission.
5. Select 2.Soldier and hit Ok.
6. Hit start mission.
7. After the loading screen has finished press space bar twice to skip the cutseen.
8. Slowly move the mouse from left to right  through the gap looking at the spaceship and you will observe the flickering and the lines.

SopaConleche

I just got this monitor and I'm having slight flickering issues in FFXIV, it seems to only happen in night time in the game. It affects even menus when it happens but when it doesn't I can't reproduce at all. 

Max refresh rate: 144hz
Mode: G-sync on
Format 10bpc RGB444-sRGB
Range: full
EOTF: SDR-sRGB

4790k i7
GTX 1080
GTX 970 (only used to attached more monitors, on that note I have 3 60hz monitors attached along with the X35, all on the 970 except the x35 itself, I tried detaching to see if this was a cause but it didn't change flicker effect).

Updated to latest nvidia drivers.

By the end of next week I'll have upgraded to a 2080ti/9900k and will report if anything changes.

The HDR is really amazing and I can't wait until the rest of the PC comes in to try new games with it. I really want to like it, no dead pixels, no flickering on that forest image posted above, and am overall happy with this monitor. However the main game I play is FFXIV and have played it for 5 years now so I'm unlikely to switch off of it. It won't be easy to get over flickering on the game I play the most. I'm also keeping my eye on the 30 day return window because of this issue it seems.

Boatkettlecheese

Boatkettlecheese said:

[Issue] - Overdrive related flickering and line artifacts -

Steps to reproduce.

1. Put monitor on extreme overdrive 144hz, 10 bit, and switch on HDR in windows
2. Run battlefront 2 from origin.
3. From the home title please select "Play"
4. Select campaign, main story, select mission, The battle of endor, and then select Start Mission.
5. Select 2.Soldier and hit Ok.
6. Hit start mission.
7. After the loading screen has finished press space bar twice to skip the cutseen.
8. Slowly move the mouse from left to right  through the gap looking at the spaceship and you will observe the flickering and the lines.

Please also set motion blur to 0% film grain lens dist to off with all other settings maxed out. A brightness of 32%

Delta_Payne

Here are some things i found out. The Flickering issues are getting weirder https://youtu.be/pxGqx4YeNss

Mnot75

Aldur67 said:

Mnot75 said:

I just unplugged mine and will be sending it back. While testing I thought maybe the display port  cable might have something to do with HDR not “kicking in” even when the display thinks it’s active. I grabbed the display port cable from my Asus PG27UQ (which thankfully I haven’t sold yet). This shut down all display port functionality. After multiple restarts of the display and PC, the only port I could get to come up was my Nintendo Switch over HDMI. Display port was just showing a black screen. Reverting back to the Acer DP cable did nothing to improve the situation. This was a very frustrating and disappointing experience. The image was amazing when working correctly but this is just too much... 

on the bright side, I get all that money back. 

Sounds like you ran into the "black screen" bug I found and posted about in Reddit.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ultrawidemasterrace/comments/cpeb8p/x35_black_screen_fix/

Give that fix a shot and see if it brings back the monitor when using DP.

Thanks so much Aldur67! I really did not want to return this amazing display. Figuring out how to do a factory reset brought it back and I haven’t had an issue since.  My HDR issues with Nex Machina ended up being software related. Optimizing settings in GeForce Experience forced HDR in game. This was never required on my PG27UQ but worked so I’m happy. My OSD still flickers but I realized this was only when source was active. Still makes me a a bit uneasy so I spent an extra $50 with Amazon to get a three year extended warranty. 

Thanks again! 

SopaConleche

I was able to easily reproduce the vertical (not horizontal like old TVs) scanline issue Delta_Payne reported with that image. I loaded the image and zoomed in, at 100% the entire page got scanlines including the the taskbar. If I kept zooming in they vanished, zoomed out it vanished. Only at exact 100%.

I tried loading the image on its own with no UI elements and the same issue occurred at exactly 100%. When UI elements are present scrolling up/down does not remove the scanlines.

While at 100% width and 100% image size, resizing the height of the browser window caused scan lines to appear/vanish at varying heights however if less than half height no scanlines. My guess is in games with flickering this condition is being hit moment to moment causing a flicker effect but I can't be sure of it. I also tried turning off G-sync but that did not affect it.

Max refresh rate: 144hz
Mode: G-sync on
Format 10bpc RGB444-sRGB
Range: full
EOTF: SDR-sRGB

Image in question: https://i.imgur.com/JiTDI0G.jpg

Acer Support: can you confirm that you've tested this image under the conditions and were able or unable to reproduce the issue. Seeing how it's occurring in a static jpg with G-sync turned off, I'm not hopeful that this is an Nvidia driver issue, or something that will only happen on "some games". I'm thinking I will need a definitive firmware fix before my return window.

This is a really expensive monitor and I want to like it but ultimately I may just wait another year and hope someone makes a good high refresh HDR ultrawide without flickering/vertical scanline issues.

SopaConleche

I have taken two photos of close up to the screen that shows in more detail what's going on, hopefully this is useful to the support team.

Good image with no issue: https://imgur.com/a/A9Mae6M
Image with scanline issue: https://imgur.com/a/mvbmZ6u