We tested the Predator X32 FP for a few weeks and found it to be one of the best gaming monitors available, thanks to its surprisingly fast performance, smooth refresh rate, and vivid visuals. While it takes up space on my desk, the monitor's large display helps draw me into the game I'm playing.
The Predator X32 is impressive, but is it worth $1,500? Read our review for more details.
The Acer Predator X32 FP is currently available on Amazon for $1,499. At the time of this writing, the price has been discounted to $1,199. Other Predator monitors are available in a variety of sizes and prices.
The Predator X32 FP lives up to its "Predator" name with an aggressive all-black design; its thick 32" screen and wide stand are eye-catching, while the Predator X32 FP's large, rectangular frame is a bit more compact. Even without RGB lighting around the frame, the X32 FP could never be mistaken for anything other than a gaming monitor. [At 28.6 x 22.5 x 10.3 inches and weighing 22.6 pounds, the X32 FP is a monster; its thick 32-inch screen and wide stand take up a lot of desk space. Also, the screen is so huge that the monitor would need to be pulled back for comfortable viewing. This is not uncommon with 32" monitors, but if you are interested in this device, make sure you have a large enough desk. It is easy to tilt, rotate, and raise the screen to your preferred height and viewing angle.
The X32 FP has an extensive number of ports. The monitor has four HDMI 2.1 ports, one DisplayPort, one USB-C, four USB-A, one USB-B, and one audio jack. Most ports are located along the bottom of the monitor, with the exception of two USB-A ports on the left side. The location of the ports makes them easily accessible; in particular, one can reach them by lifting or tilting the monitor screen.
On the right side of the rear panel are a series of buttons that call up monitor settings. The buttons can be used to adjust the brightness, select inputs, and choose the display mode. An on-screen display (OSD) joystick allows you to dive into the complete system menu. Despite their placement behind the monitor, we had no problems using these buttons.
The 32-inch 4K mini LED display is crisp and vivid in person. It is perfect for watching videos and, of course, playing games.
There are eight display modes: one is a custom user mode to save your favorite presets. There are also standard, sports, racing, action, eco, graphics, and HDR modes.
Each display mode is slightly different, and those associated with game genres (such as racing and action) are tuned specifically for that type of game. This means that your viewing experience may vary depending on which mode you choose. For this review, I stuck mostly to the standard mode because the image quality for games, websites, and video was more balanced than the other modes.
To my eyes, the X32 FP's display mode was generally too saturated compared to other gaming monitors. Still, I did not find the saturation too high to be distracting. In fact, games like "Doom Eternal" and "Cyberpunk 2077" look phenomenal with such vibrant colors, especially in HDR mode, the brightest display setting this monitor offers. Whether it is a video game or a video, HDR content looks great because of the deep contrast between dark and bright areas of the screen.
When the monitors were brought into the test lab and pointed at the Klein-10A colorimeter, the X32 FP display achieved an average brightness of 404 nits in user mode. This is brighter than both the Dell 32 4K UHD Gaming Monitor G3223Q (378 nits) and the Acer Predator XB323QK (287 nits) in their respective standard modes.
HDR mode is a stand-alone mode in its own right, and is where this monitor literally shines: when displaying HDR content, the display brightness, measured at 10% of the display with a light meter, was 1,129 nits, and at 100% of the screen it was 1,205 nits increased to 1,205 nits when 100% of the screen was measured with a light meter. The monitor is advertised to achieve HDR brightness of 1,000 nits, and our tests confirmed this.
In user mode, the display achieved 226% of the sRGB gamut and 160% of the DCI-P3 gamut (closer to 100% is best). Delta-E values reached 0.26 (closer to 0 is better). 188%/133% and 166%/117% (respectively). With the exception of Racing and Action, the other modes achieved values similar to those in Standard mode.
Values above 100% for sRGB and DCI-P3 generally mean less accurate and more saturated colors. Therefore, the Predator X32 FP may appear more colorful than the aforementioned competitors. In standard mode, the Dell 32 4K UHD achieved 146.3% of the sRGB gamut and 103.6% of the DCI-P3 gamut, while the XB323QK achieved 137.4%/97.4% respectively. These monitors do not have high color saturation, but they have high color accuracy.
The Predator X32 FP has a setting called "Maximum Brightness" that can be toggled on and off. Enabling this option makes a big difference. For example, in user mode, the average brightness of the monitor was 404 nits with maximum brightness enabled, compared to 124 nits with it disabled. Since maximum brightness is off by default, we initially thought the display was unusually dark. If you get this device and find the display too dark, you may need to enable maximum brightness in the main menu.
The X32 FP's two 7W rear speakers are surprisingly solid for a monitor. Even with the volume turned up to maximum, the sound remains crisp and clear. There is good separation between mids and highs, but the bass is not as punchy as one might expect.
If you don't like the sound quality of the X32 FP, you can always opt for the best gaming headset, but I think it provided clear, loud audio.
The X32 FP supports a 160Hz refresh rate, 1ms response time, and AMD's FreeSync adaptive sync technology. The monitor does not support Nvidia G-Sync, but the Nvidia GPUs on the PCs I tested games on played fine with AMD's sync technology. [When testing the game on the Predator X32 FP, I used a Dell XPS 8950 desktop. This desktop has a 12th generation Intel Core i5-12600k processor, Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GPU, 16GB of RAM, 512GB SSD, and 2TB of HDD storage. While this is not the most powerful gaming PC, its ability to run games at high frame rates makes it a great match for the X32 FP.
I managed to run Doom Eternal at around 100 frames per second on medium settings and the game ran smooth as butter on the X32 FP. Blasting demons into bloody chunks across the hellish landscape felt smooth and precise thanks to the 160 Hz refresh rate. While "Cyberpunk 2077" failed to exceed 60 fps, it ran smoothly even while driving through the densely populated areas of Night City and fighting cyborgs.
The Predator X32 FP has a clean interface that is easy to navigate. The interface is black with white text and highlights in red. The three aforementioned buttons quickly call up display modes, brightness adjustment, and input selection; pressing the OSD joystick brings up the full menu.
Within the full menu, you can adjust brightness and contrast, enable/disable HDR, adjust colors, and many other options. For those who like to fine-tune their image settings, many options are available.
The Predator X32 FP delivers the goods with crisp visual fidelity, fast performance, and bold design. It may be too big for some people, but if you want a huge display for playing games, the X32 FP will not disappoint in that regard. The X32 FP also has more ports than you can possibly use.
As great as the X32 FP is, it seems hard to justify its high price. Again, it offers phenomenal visuals and solid performance, but competing 32-inch 4K monitors such as the Dell 32 4K UHD G3223Q and Acer Predator XB323QK cost $799 each, which is almost half the price of the X32 FP.
Although more affordable alternatives exist, the Predator X32 FP remains a great gaming monitor in all the respects discussed in this review. However, waiting for a price drop before purchasing this premium device might be a good idea.
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