While the consensus seems to be that QHD is the sweet spot for gaming these days, there are plenty of video cards that can take advantage of 4K resolutions. If you value graphics over FPS speed, these monitors provide just that and most offer decent framerates as well assuming you have a beefy enough system.
Estimated reading time: 12 minutes
Our Acer Predator X32 FP review looks at a 32″ 4K HDR Mini-LED monitor with DCI-P3 colour gamut coverage, HDMI 2.1 support, and a 165Hz overclocked refresh rate. Read on to find out why it’s suitable for both gaming and content creators — and easily wins a Top Pick of 2023 Award here at Techaeris.
Table of contents
The Quick Take
Gaming monitors have evolved over the years and the latest batch comes with IPS Mini-LED panels. Not only does this make blacks appear deeper and darker on the screen, but with the right colour gamut support and high refresh rates, they can deliver stunningly clear and fluid visuals.
The Acer Predator X32 FP is one of the latest (and fastest) 4K gaming monitors with an IPS Mini-LED panel with 576-zone local dimming. It also boasts quantum dot technology, is VESA Certified Display HDR 1000, 99% Adobe RGB wide colour gamut, and up to an overclocked 165Hz refresh rate with 1ms GtG response time. A lot of buzzwords and technology to take in but in layman’s terms, the Predator X32 FP offers smooth, crisp, gameplay with fantastic vibrant colours and deep blacks with the right video card.
It is pricey though, but not as pricey as some other similar Mini-LED gaming monitors on the market. In addition, this gaming monitor is also great for creators and has a built-in KVM switch, a USB Type-C port with 90W power delivery, 4 HDMI 2.1 ports and 1 DisplayPort connection, and built-in dual 7W speakers.
As Acer puts it, “Mini-LED will ruin all other monitors for you,” and I can vouch for that with this and previous Mini-LED monitors I’ve reviewed in the past.
Specifications
The Acer Predator X32 FP 4K gaming monitor we reviewed has the following features and specifications:
| Product Name | Predator X32 FP |
| Display Size | 32″ |
| Panel Type | IPS Mini-LED with 576-zone local dimming |
| Max Resolution and Refresh Rate | • Normal mode: 3840×2160@160Hz • Overclocking mode: 3840×2160@165Hz |
| Glare | No |
| Response Time | 1ms (GtG), 0.7ms (GtG via LCD overdrive function) |
| Contrast Ratio | 1000:1 (Native), 100,000,000:1 Max (ACM) |
| Brightness | • Native: 400nits • HDR1000 mode: 1200nits (peak) |
| Viewing Angle | 178° (H/V) |
| Colours | Adobe RGB 99%, Delta E<1 |
| Three-year parts and labour | 1.07 Billion |
| Bits | 8bit |
| Ports | • 4x HDMI 2.1 • 1x DisplayPort v1.4 • 1x Type-C (PD 90W) • 4x USB 3.0 (Down) — 2 on the back, 2 on the left side • 1x USB-B (Up) • 1x 3.5mm audio jack |
| Tilt | -5° to 35° |
| Swivel | ±30° |
| Height adjustment | 5.12″ ±0.19″ (130mm ±5mm) |
| Speaker | 2x 7W |
| Power Supply | 280W external |
| Power Consumption | 39W (Typical), <0.5W (Typical sleep mode), 0.3W (Typical off) |
| VESA Wall Mounting | 100 x 100mm |
| Dimensions (with stand) | 28.63 x 19.98 to 25.49 x 12.17″ (72.1 x 50.76 to 64.76 x 30.9cm) |
| Weight | 22.93 lbs (10.4kg) |
| Warranty | Three-year parts and labor |
What’s in the box
- Acer Predator X32 FP IPS Mini-LED Gaming Monitor
- HDMI Cable
- DisplayPort Cable
- USB-C Cable
- USB-B to USB-A Cable
- 280W Power Adapter
- Quick Guide
- Limited Warranty Agreement
- Color Calibration Sheet
Design
Most gaming monitors have a bit of an aggressive or recognizable design from the back, depending on the company. The same holds true with the Acer Predator X32 FP IPS Mini-LED Gaming Monitor. From the front, it looks pretty non-descript, but from the back, it is pretty aggressive looking. The monitor itself is 28.63″ wide, just over 12″ deep (including the stand), and between 20 and 25 1/2″ depending on what height you have it set at.
Black in colour, three are a total of six angled vents on the back — two larger ones on each side and two smaller ones in the middle. When looking at the back, the menu joystick is on the left with three hotkey buttons above it and the power button above those. On the right side is where you’ll find two of the four USB-A 3.0 ports. While you can’t see them, tucked away on the underside of the panel a couple of inches up are the various ports. Again, from left to right when looking at the back you’ll find the barrel plug power port, 3.5mm audio jack, four HDMI 2.1 (yay!) ports, a single DisplayPort 1.4 port, a USB-C port with 90W Power Delivery, a USB-B upstream port, and the remaining two USB-A 3.0 ports.
Where things get a bit aggressive is with the solid pre-attached stand. The outer frame of the stand is manufactured from metal and is gunmetal in colour. Just under the halfway point are three metallic discs which swivel when you rotate the monitor to the left and right. Above this is a black plastic piece filling the inside of the stand frame. This piece has a scale-like motif to it with the Acer Predator logo in silver near the top. Underneath the adjustment disks, the frame angles back slightly and is hollow and the two stand feet extend outwards towards the front of the monitor. The stand offers up and down tilt between 5° down to 35° upwards, ±30° left/right swivel, and height adjustment of roughly five inches. As mentioned above, when lowered all the way, the top of the monitor sits about 20″ from your desk. When fully raised, this extends to just under 25 1/2″ which gives you plenty of leeway in getting your desired viewing height.
The panel itself is 28 5/8″ wide and 17″ in height. The physical bezels are super small, barely over 1/16″ but once on, the actual display bezel on the sides and the top is closer to 3/8″, which still isn’t much but would be noticeable if you had two of these side by side. as for the bottom, it only has a physical bezel which is just love 3/4″ in height and has the Predator logo imprinted in the middle in silver.
From the back of the stand to the front of the monitor is about a foot, which means that the Acer Predator X32 FP 4K gaming monitor can take up quite a bit of your desktop. Personally, I prefer something with less of a footprint which allows you to slide it forward or back as needed. However, it is sturdy, especially when adjusting the height, tilt, and swivel of the monitor.
Display
Again, as Acer puts it, “Mini-LED will ruin all other monitors for you,” and it really does. The 32-inch display on the Acer Predator X32 FP is an IPS Mini-LED panel with 576-zone local dimming zones. With a 4K UHD (3840×2160) resolution, you’re also getting a nice crisp picture on top of the outstanding colours (Adobe RGB 99% coverage with Delta E<1 variance). In addition, the monitor comes with a colour calibration sheet so you know exactly how it’s been calibrated at the factory.
When HDR mode is enabled, the native 400 nits of brightness (which is plenty in a darker setup) is jacked up to 1200 nits peak brightness. Regardless of the game I was playing, the Predator X32 FP was bright enough with this setting enabled, even if I didn’t have Windows set to HDR mode. When I did enable HDR mode for games that support it colours looked even richer and made for a more enjoyable and immersive experience.
While there are other Mini-LED monitors on the market with more than 576 dimming zones, I was hard-pressed to notice any blooming (a.k.a. halo effect). Even when playing the latest Forza Horizon 5 “Midnights at Horizon” update which features very extensive (and bright) neon/glow effects. In fact, this update cemented the allure of using Mini-LED for gaming with its bright, rich colour representation and super dark blacks.
On that note, there are plenty of options you can adjust to further tweak the monitor. Default graphics modes include HDR, Graphics, ECO, Standard, Action, Racing, Sports, and User (customizable). Users can also adjust the usual culprits including brightness, contrast, black boost, low blue light, ACM, HDR, super sharpness, max brightness, and colour space. For gaming-centric options, users have access to the over drive feature (which bumps the refresh rate up to 165Hz from 160Hz), FreeSync Premium Pro, displaying the current refresh rate, toggling ultra-low latency, setting up adaptive dimming, and choosing an aim point icon for first-person shooters.
While the gallery below gives you some idea, it doesn’t really do this monitor justice. If you haven’t had the opportunity to test out a Mini-LED gaming monitor, you really should head to your local game hardware store (if you can) and see if they have one set up.
Assembly
Unlike most monitors, there is no assembly required for the Acer Predator X32 FP gaming monitor. While the box is wider than most monitors, this monitor comes with a stand already attached. According to Acer PR, this monitor is VESA mountable. However, in the manual, it states that the foot stand is not detachable and I couldn’t easily figure out how to remove the stand if you wanted to mount it. So on that note, I’m going to say this monitor is not VESA mountable, unfortunately.
Ease of Use
Like most monitors, the Acer Predator X32 FP Mini-LED gaming monitor is simple to use. Once you’ve connected your computer, console, or other devices and plugged it into a power outlet, pressing the top button will turn it on. By default, the first hotkey button allows you to quickly toggle between the different display modes. The second adjusts the brightness, while the third makes it easy to switch between various inputs. Finally, the bottom joystick button is where you can access the menu for even more settings (some of which we covered in the Display section above).
Performance
I had no issues with the monitor’s performance when using the Acer Predator X32 FP Mini-LED gaming monitor. It turned on pretty quickly, and navigating the menu and adjusting settings was pretty straightforward. Gaming was also a treat with its 160Hz refresh rate, 4K resolution, and 1ms GtG response time. When combined, these features make gameplay smooth and I encountered no stuttering or screen tearing.
As far as actual gaming performance is concerned, a decent mid-range rig will be fine, but a high-end rig is required to take full advantage of high refresh rates at QHD graphics settings. When tested on a gaming PC with a 12th Generation Intel® Core™ i9-12900K processor with liquid cooling, 2 TB PCIe® NVMe™ M.2 Solid State Drive, NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 3090 graphics card with 24 GB GDDR6X dedicated memory, and HyperX® 64 GB DDR4-3733 MHz XMP Heatsink RAM, here are the average framerates for the games I tested on their highest graphics quality settings at 4K resolution:
| Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0 | 110 fps |
| Dirt 5 | 94 fps |
| Forza Horizon 4 | 160 fps |
| Forza Horizon 5 | 81 fps |
| Gears Tactics | 76 fps |
| Heroes of the Storm | 200 fps |
| Middle-Earth: Shadow of War | 136 fps |
| Tomb Raider | 156 fps |
| Wolfenstein: Youngblood (Riverside) | 172 fps |
| Wolfenstein: Youngblood (Lab X) | 175 fps |
| World War Z (with Vulkan enabled) | 133 fps |
As you can see, even with a pretty beefy rig, you’re hard-pressed to get 120 fps to match the refresh rate on most games at their highest settings when gaming at a 4K resolution. However, the framerates using our test machine are still fantastic for smooth gameplay.
In addition, with HDMI 2.1 and AMD FreeSync Premium Pro support, this gaming monitor works perfectly with the Xbox Series X for 4K@120Hz gaming (with VRR). Games like Forza Horizon 5, Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, and Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0 looked gorgeous and ran smoothly when I had the console hooked up to it. It also supports the PlayStation 5 running at 4K@120Hz gaming settings and games like God of War Ragnarök looked and ran equally smooth.
One other feature that the Acer Predator X32 FP Mini-LED Gaming Monitor ships with is a built-in KVM. What this does is allow you to plug your mouse and keyboard into the USB-A ports on the monitor and toggle between a connected desktop, laptop, and/or console without having to set up multiple keyboards and mice (or unplugging and re-plugging them into whatever device you are using). I did test this quickly with a desktop computer and Xbox Series X and it was seamless and worked well.
Sound Quality
While TVs have long had speakers in them, until recently the monitors that do have been pretty weak and tinny. Over the past couple of years, manufacturers have been getting more serious about sound in monitors, including Acer.
Unfortunately, the dual 7W speakers, while decent in a pinch, are still no replacement for a decent speaker setup or a gaming headset. The audio controls are independent of Windows audio controls. As such, make sure to set your monitor volume to 100% before using the monitor for audio, then use your Windows settings to further adjust the volume.
Price/Value
With an MSRP of $1,499.99, the Acer Predator X32 FP isn’t cheap. That being said, it is on par or substantially more affordable than comparable 4K UHD HRD Mini LED gaming monitors with some nearing $2500. Mini LED technology in 4K HDR gaming monitors looks fantastic, and with 98% DCI-P3 colour gamut coverage, a built-in KVM switch, and overclockable refresh rates, all things considered, you won’t be disappointed if you can afford one.
Photo Gallery
Wrap-up
Mini-LED technology is still pricey, but the Acer Predator X32 FP offers a decent balance between price and features. With a bright HDR1000 IPS Mini-LED panel sporting rich colours and deep blacks, this gaming monitor offers plenty of ports to connect all your systems, a built-in KVM for easy peripheral switching, USB-C power delivery, and overclockable refresh rates for smooth gameplay.
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Last Updated on March 13, 2024.
