Out there for a brand new gaming monitor? You first must get your priorities straight. Do you worth visible constancy and excessive resolutions, or do you need to strike extra of a stability between efficiency and determination? Or maybe you simply need your new monitor to succeed in the very best body charges potential. That is the place the $829 Alienware 500Hz Gaming Monitor (AW2524H) is available in. It cuts decision down to simply full HD (1,920 by 1,080 pixels), however presents an astounding 500Hz refresh price, permitting for super-high body charges that may make or break aggressive matches in video games like Valorant and Rainbow Six: Siege.
On the floor, it’s a delight for professional avid gamers. With a compact construct, a headset hanger, and assist for Nvidia Reflex Latency Analyzer along with its headlining refresh price, the Alienware looks like it will possibly do no mistaken. Dig deeper, although, and you will find it has few main marks in opposition to it, particularly excessive enter lag and a good increased value. Plus, the distinction in efficiency between 500Hz and the 360Hz screens extensively obtainable are minor, and may not matter to most exterior the hardest-core of hard-core avid gamers.
Sorry, How Excessive Is That Refresh Price Once more?
The AW2524H sticks to the identical slick futuristic design as different Alienware screens just like the Alienware 34 Curved QD-OLED—a black end someplace between shiny and matte wraps the monitor physique and stand, whereas the skinny black bezel frames the tight 24.5-inch display screen. To the south facet of the show, you’ll discover a headphone jack, an OSD dongle, and two USB-A ports—most likely an important two ports on the monitor. One consists of charging functionality to your cellular units and peripherals, whereas the opposite is required to faucet into one of many monitor’s greatest options, the Nvidia Reflex Latency Analyzer.
Finish-to-end system latency (generally generally known as enter lag) determines how lengthy it takes for the press of your mouse to develop into an motion on the display screen. The Reflex Latency Analyzer is strictly what it feels like: It means that you can analyze your latency information on the fly, with out using a high-speed digicam or different costly instruments. In actual fact, Nvidia claims that the moment evaluation is as correct as a ten,000fps digicam. The draw back? Customers who need to make use of this helpful evaluation should have a gaming mouse that’s Nvidia Reflex-compatible. In any other case, you received’t be capable of entry the device in any respect.
However there’s loads to admire even when you don’t have the right gear to entry Nvidia Reflex. Turning the monitor round will showcase the Alienware emblem, together with massive numerals that learn 25 emblazoned in opposition to the right-hand facet (in case you ever overlook the monitor’s dimension). AlienFX lighting is included, however audio system should not. Having a look on the port hub, you’ll discover two HDMI 2.1 ports, a DisplayPort, and three extra USB ports (two USB-A and one USB-B), in addition to a safety lock slot based mostly on the Kensington normal.
Slight thrives have been added to the stand and base of the monitor to enchantment to the extra esports-focused amongst us. The smaller dimension permits for extra desk house, whereas the hexagonal form of the bottom permits for ease of use relying in your most popular enjoying model. For instance, a 60% keyboard would match completely alongside one of many hexagon sides. The stand options peak adjustment markers, and there’s a tiny hanger that retracts into the facet of the monitor. The use? You guessed it, to hold your favourite gaming headset as soon as you’ve got wrapped up your successful (or shedding) streak.
The monitor measures in at 12.9 by 21.6 by 3.3 inches (HWD), a a lot smaller footprint than different 25-inch screens just like the MSI Oculux NXG253R. Weight-wise, it’s barely hefty at 21.7 kilos, particularly contemplating that 25-inch inch screens which can be round 10 kilos exist, just like the BenQ Mobiuz EX2510S.
Turning again to the display screen for a second, the 500Hz full HD monitor employs Quick IPS, which permits for low response occasions and better colour gamuts than regular IPS screens. The monitor additionally has a VESA DisplayHDR 400 certification and Nvidia G-Sync to eradicate display screen tearing. However does all this result in an improved image and efficiency? We quantify these factors and extra within the subsequent part.
Testing the Alienware 500Hz: A Refreshing Sacrifice?
Sizing up the efficiency of a 1080p gaming monitor will be deceptively nuanced, as they’re typically extra keen to sacrifice decision (and generally colour accuracy) for quicker refresh charges. If that is the case for the 500Hz Alienware, does it make the suitable cuts? To reply that, we benchmarked the monitor in opposition to a number of of its contemporaries of comparable construct with the Datacolor SpyderX Elite, the HDFury’s 4K Diva HDMI enter lag tester, and a few precise real-world gaming.
For our first check, we used the SpyderX Elite to measure brightness, distinction ratio, and colour gamut protection on the default image mode with an SDR sign. Right here, the AW2524H reached a peak brightness of 381 nits. It registered a black degree of 0.45, and a distinction ratio of 840:1, barely under the promised 1,000:1 distinction ratio of most IPS screens.
HDR testing pulled increased outcomes, registering a brightness of 425 nits, nicely throughout the promised HDR400 ranking.
Having a look on the colour gamut, the AW2524H reached 100% of sRGB protection, 81% of Adobe RGB, and 85% of DCI-P3. The gamut protection outcomes are roughly the identical as one other Dell 1080p monitor we lately examined, the 27-inch G2723H. It is a robust displaying, particularly with manufacturing facility settings.
Lastly, we examined colour accuracy. The AW2524H registered a Delta E of 1.5, precisely as its spec sheet says. The increased the Delta E quantity, the additional a typical colour strays from its purest type. A results of 2 and underneath is right, although it’s normal for gaming screens to hover between 1 and a pair of. In the event you’re coping with color-sensitive functions, you’re higher off utilizing a content material creation or photograph enhancing monitor.
Sport Efficiency
Whereas colour accuracy and distinction ratio are essential to get proper, this monitor’s calling card is its 500Hz refresh price. Why does that matter? Briefly, the upper the refresh price, the upper the body price ceiling, and extra frames equal a smoother image displayed in your display screen. The distinction is palpable, particularly with fast-paced shooters the place pace and accuracy are most essential. In concept, the upper the refresh price, the higher, so 500Hz ensures the quickest image potential, eliminating ghosting and different distracting components which will hinder your efficiency.
You may want the suitable enter to succeed in these blazing-high refresh charges, in fact, so you may need to seek the advice of your GPU, CPU, and RAM specs to see in case your PC may be due for an improve. For our real-world recreation testing, we ran Valorant, Rainbow Six: Siege, and Counter-Strike: International Offensive on an Origin Millennium 5000D desktop PC, which was stacked with an Intel Core i9-13900KS, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090, and 32GB of RAM.
For every recreation, we have been simply capable of ship high-enough body charges to max out the Alienware’s 500Hz ceiling. Valorant managed about 1,000fps, Counter-Strike hovered over 500fps, and Rainbow Six: Siege averaged about 600fps. Gameplay went off with none main display screen tearing and was noticeably easy, although there was some intense wavering seen in a display screen tearing check.
Total, we discovered that gaming on the Alienware ends in almost non-existent ghosting and simply usually provides confidence that your reflexes are your restrict fairly than your tools. Nonetheless, we discovered the identical confidence from 360Hz screens just like the Asus ROG Swift 360Hz PG259QN once they first hit the market a number of years in the past, and plenty of of them now price far lower than the Alienware. When enjoying a recreation like Valorant, you may really feel the profit from the next refresh price, nevertheless it’s not a lot of a leap from what you expertise at 360Hz. It is subjective and everybody will definitely have their preferences, however when you begin coping with the higher echelon of refresh charges, the variations can actually solely be appreciated in side-by-side comparisons.
Whereas aggressive avid gamers will respect the pace and readability of the upper refresh price, the actual fact stays that leaping from 360Hz to 500Hz presents diminishing returns in contrast with leaping from 60Hz to the 120Hz and above that usually marks the entry level of the high-refresh-rate monitor market. And certain, informal avid gamers can lastly degree the enjoying discipline with their extra aggressive brethren whereas utilizing Nvidia Reflex if they have the supporting {hardware}, however based mostly on our gameplay time, the additional frags aren’t price the additional {dollars} spent.
One other factor to notice relating to the Alienware’s excessive refresh price: It’s really solely 480Hz natively. To achieve a full 500Hz, you must overclock the monitor, which is pretty easy to do. The method, enabled in both the Nvidia or AMD management panel, basically creates a customized decision that the monitor will run at, permitting you to squeeze an extra 20Hz from it.
Refresh charges apart, the metric most essential for fast-twitch esports aficionados is the monitor’s enter lag. Utilizing the HDFury 4K Diva HDMI matrix, we recorded 7.7 milliseconds (ms) of enter lag for the AW2524H at default settings. That is completely playable, however surprisingly excessive given the monitor’s performance-at-all-costs method. Now, that is with out Nvidia Reflex employed. With it, Dell claims which you could see a drop in enter latency of as much as 80%. Word that Nvidia Reflex has no influence on the refresh price.
Verdict: For Attempt-Exhausting Players Solely
The Alienware 500Hz Gaming Monitor is a formidable beast, however it will possibly’t be actually appreciated with out the right PC and peripherals, which implies utilizing a Nvidia Reflex-supported mouse and a battle station with quite a lot of cutting-edge elements. Now, you probably have all that and you continue to have money to spend on absolutely the quickest efficiency a monitor can provide, the AW2524H may be best for you. Finally, this can be a monitor for the toughest of the hard-core, which is already a distinct segment amongst aggressive gamers. For most individuals, we nonetheless advocate the older MSI Oculux NXG253R, the ViewSonic Elite XG270, and even the Gigabyte M27Q X when you’re in search of excessive refresh charges with out sacrificing image high quality.
