ASUS PG27UQ HDR Help needed please.

[TheOnlyDoor]

Greetings all,
So over a year ago I purchased the PG27UQ HDR 144hz 4K monitor.
I've basically left it at stock settings, except for changing the color gamut to wide. HDR off in windows.
I gave up trying to use HDR in games that support it because either everything is washed out in the game except those parts using the HDR( like Red Dead Redmption 2. The sun's HDR utilization is obvious but everything else is bland next to SDR rgb) or the HDR functionality is blown up to ridiculous levels and can't be used either ( Doom Eternal).
The other issue is, blocky color banding in dark seen in movies and game cut scenes ( even in really dark areas of games themselves) whether in HDR or SDR).
So like I said I've been playing this way for over a year, having just settled I guess, but after getting a 3090 and over clocking and benching etc...I decided to revisit this because with the hard ware I have I want the best picture and experience I can.
I have Nvidia color settings on ( windows settings dont seem to make any difference) 10 bit, full spectrum ect.
All that as a prefrace......can any expert help me?
Why does HDR look like trash compared to wide gamut in SDR.
Whats with the blocky ( and greenish blue tint) to dark areas in games and movies? ( turning off the variable backlight reduces most most of this but washes out the blacks and defeats the main function and cost of this monitor).
Any help is appreciated, since I can't seems to find a good answer anywhere here or on the internet( though many have asked, every answer seems to be a guess and a wrong guess).
......and NO expert review for this monitor mentions any of this. Just a flawless experience and praise for this monitors color reproduction and HDR in the reviews.
What am I doing wrong?
Cheers.

[Braegnok]

A few adjustments in OSD Setup & Calibration might help colors seeming washed out,.. the PG27UQ is a 120Hz monitor, when you engage the overclock, it will run reliably at 144Hz, but it will only do this with a YCbCr signal. If you want to stay in the RGB realm, you have to run at 120Hz for 8-bit signals and 98Hz for 10-bit.

There are also small gains to be had when adjusting the RGB sliders. And in the Image menu features you have two levels of overdrive, dark boost to increase shadow detail, auto black level, which I leave OFF, and aspect control. For both SDR and HDR material turn ON Variable Backlight, when turned on, it tracks gamma correctly and improves black levels enormously. Generally Calibrating is unnecessary if you choose Racing mode for SDR content, and for maximum contrast, set the Variable Backlight to Fast.

See if adjusting any of those settings help, that's basically the only calibration options I have adjusted on my monitor, and I'm no expert.

Good luck, it takes a lot of trial and error adjusting all the options finding out exactly what the effects are, trust me I have used the All Reset, returning all settings to factory a few times. 😄