Question Monitor Upgrade - Too Many Good Options!

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Aikouka

Lifer
Nov 27, 2001
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I've been in a bit of analysis paralysis lately. I kind of went the backwards route with a recent upgrade and purchased a video card (4090) that's arguably better than what I need for my current resolution of 2560x1440. That truly depends upon the game and aspects like ray tracing, but in general, I'd argue that's the case. Anyway, while I do tend to upgrade computer hardware fairly often, I don't upgrade my monitors much at all. So, I've been looking around to see what sort of good options there are that would likely work well for me.

I've currently got a setup with two 27" QHD (2560x1440) monitors. The first one is geared toward gaming, and it's an ASUS ROG Swift PG279QZ and the second one is an ASUS PB278Q. While the main monitor is aimed toward gaming, I also do development work on it, and I do enjoy splitting my IDE between both monitors. I usually put the main text entry on one monitor and all the secondary windows (debugging, file browser, etc.) on the other. Being so used to having two monitors has made me lean against going the route of a single large monitor such as an LG OLED or any monitors using their tech such as the ASUS ROG Swift OLED PG42UQ. I've also been wanting to integrate my Mac into my setup.

These are some monitors that I've found that look interesting, and I've added a bit of thoughts to go with each:

  • ASUS ROG Swift PG32UQR
    I've been using ASUS ROG Swift monitors for years, and they've generally been good. This is a 32" 4K, which seems like a decent size overall. (35-36" at 4K might just be slightly better size-wise.) The one downside here is that I'm usually picky about keeping multi-monitor resolution the same. As a result, I would likely need to buy another 4K monitor to replace my PB278Q. Although, like my PB278Q, it does not need to be a fancy gaming monitor. However, given that this monitor is already $1000, adding another ~$300 for a decent 32" 4K raises its cost a decent amount.
  • Samsung Odyssey Neo G9
    This is likely the priciest option here, but with some work discounts, it gets a bit more manageable when combined with other discounts (~$1550). I do like that it essentially becomes an all-in-one version of what I'm currently using. Although, I have been looking at remarks from the ultrawide community that the huge 32:9 monitors tend to benefit things like racing games or other simulations a bit more. I know that ultrawide support in games can be a bit hit or miss too. I do think the picture-in-picture features are nifty, and it might benefit Mac integration. I have also seen a good number of complaints about Samsung's quality in regard to their monitors. I don't know if they do have poor QA, or if it's just that the people with problems are far more prominent, but it sounds like folks rattle off a number of potential issues.
  • Dell Alienware AW3423DW
    This monitor is likely going to be the nicest look picture-wise of all units (most reviews that I've seen love the picture quality), but it's also the smallest resolution. It does provide one interesting benefit in that since the resolution is an off-shoot of QHD, I can continue to use my QHD monitor as a second panel. The downside is that it's significantly less real-estate compared to the Samsung for nearly as much money (~$1550 vs $1300). I have seen complaints about Dell with this monitor in how their support is supposedly abysmal.
  • Gigabyte Aorus FI32U
    This features a built-in KVM, which is a nice touch for using the Mac in addition, which saves a nice $500+ on having to buy a good KVM. According to Level1Techs, it works pretty well too! This would require another monitor, but given its price ($699), it's plausible to be able to buy two instead of just one and have it be about as much as the Odyssey Neo G9 or the Alienware. Although, in regard to the KVM, I'd prefer to switch both monitors instead of just one, which makes it a bit clunky compared to an external KVM.
The hardest part is that I think I could likely be fine with any of the above units, which is what has really made this decision a bit hard. I'm leaning toward the Alienware for the huge benefit in gaming visuals, but I also like the G9 for the huge amount of real estate. If you've tried any one of these or own one, is there anything that you like or don't like about it? Or perhaps even just how you've dealt with switching from 16:9 to 21:9 or 32:9. Also, the video card will likely get to stretch its legs the most with a 4K display given that 4K ~ 8M pixels. The G9 is ~ 7M pixels, and the Alienware is only ~5M pixels. Although, the Alienware and Samsung monitors have a higher refresh rate.
 

Aikouka

Lifer
Nov 27, 2001
30,383
912
126
Now, I've always thought that I wasn't very sensitive to things like refresh rate. I remember jumping from 60Hz to 120Hz, which I've seen others exclaim as "noticeable", and I couldn't tell the difference. Of course, I'm not suggesting that they're wrong, but rather, I don't seem to pick up on it or notice it well. I mention this, because there was one thing about the Samsung monitor that I had a hard time ignoring: cursor brightness. It's such a weird little thing to try to turn into a bugbear, but I actually had a bit of trouble following the cursor when it would go from bright and noticeable on a website with a white background to very dim on the desktop, which had a black background. My assumption is that they're trying to avoid the halo issue that usually comes up as a problem with the G9 (and other non-OLED panels with dimming zones), and being a bit more conservative about small highlights. I think part of the reason why it's problematic for me is that I'm very used to using simpler displays without local dimming or OLED panels.

I also ran into one of the other problems that I kind of expected with ultrawide monitors... game support. I had mentioned earlier that I was going to use God of War as a test game since it supports HDR, and it certainly looked good. I played a small amount on the Alienware and then switched to the Samsung, whch is where I ran into the problem. God of War supports 21:9, but it does not support 32:9. Fortunately, while it doesn't render in-game assets onto a 32:9 canvas, it does support displaying the 21:9 output on a 32:9 window. So, I didn't have to deal with stretching, but rather just black bars on the side. I don't know if using the Samsung monitor's picture-by-picture mode would be a good solution for this. Although, I'm not sure how much hassle there would be switching between the 1x 32:9 and 2x 16:9 as I haven't tried the picture-by-picture feature yet. I saw that there are preset buttons on the monitor, but I'm not sure what they do just yet.

It makes me wonder if I should take the approach that I saw someone post in the OLED TV as a Monitor thread where there's a TV mounted on the wall above the monitors. It's kind of an awkward way to do it -- as you have to hope the game also supports defining which monitor to use! -- but it's sort of like the old adage of "bring the right tool for the job".

To sum it up, there's a part of me that just hates caveats. In basic tasks, the ultrawides are certainly interesting and provide a nice benefit of a center-focused workspace rather than my old setup of staring to the left or right at one of two monitors. However, having to worry about whether a game will support an ultrawide, and worse of all, if it doesn't, does it at least support rendering to a part of the screen (like God of War), isn't great, and it seems to hurt the entire point of having such a large monitor. With dual monitors, I could leave up things on my other monitor like chat windows, web browsers, etc. If I'm stuck only using part of my screen on an ultrawide, I don't even get that benefit (unless I use picture-by-picture or picture-in-picture).

Watch Youtube HDR night time cityscape videos.

Scene from Dark Knight Rises in 4K HDR:

So, I gave that linked clip a try last night on both the Alienware and the Samsung monitors, and honestly, it looked fine on both. Sure, OLED is going to have better blacks, but I think the Samsung did pretty well overall.
 
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Leeea

Diamond Member
Apr 3, 2020
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It makes me wonder if I should take the approach that I saw someone post in the OLED TV as a Monitor thread where there's a TV mounted on the wall above the monitors. It's kind of an awkward way to do it -- as you have to hope the game also supports defining which monitor to use! -- but it's sort of like the old adage of "bring the right tool for the job".
Games that do not support defining which monitor always go to the primary display on the system, which is a flag you set in the windows display manager.
 

Aikouka

Lifer
Nov 27, 2001
30,383
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So, I ended up deciding to return the Samsung Odyssey Neo G9. Honestly, I did like the monitor for what it was. I didn't really have any defects that I saw with the monitor, and I had paired it with the Ergotron monitor arm, which worked really well. (Albeit, it's quite expensive at $380.) The only thing I ever noticed is that it had some slight blooming in the corners if I had a black background and had the backlighting turned up. Overall, my problem with the monitor was just that my use cases for the wide resolution just didn't make up for the issues or limitations that would arise from using such a large resolution. For example, if a game only supports 16:9, then at best, you'll get black bars, but at worst, you'll get a stretched image, which means you need to adjust some out-of-game settings to make it look good. If most of the games that you play support 32:9, then it isn't a big deal.

So, right now I have the Alienware monitor setup as I haven't unboxed the ASUS PG32UQR yet. However, I have noticed a rather troubling aspect with the Alienware model as I always seem to have eye strain once I use the monitor for a short period of time. I don't know if this is due to something like the higher brightness at a short distance, or my eyes subtly picking up on the triangular RGB sub-pixel layout. I'm wondering about the latter because I don't have any issues with using my C1 as a monitor, and I've even sat up close to it just to try it out.

So, there is a part of me that wonders if going with the PG32UQR is the best move. Although, an article on Ars today announced a 27" QHD OLED monitor from LG. There are already 32" high-end variants, but those are far out of my price range at $3500+. However, if the 27" monitor for $1000 is any indication, we might see cheaper 32" OLED monitors on the horizon, and as long as they're UHD, that would be exactly what I'm looking for.
 
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Tech Junky

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Jan 27, 2022
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eye strain
Had a laptop that the polarization filter was off by 90 degrees. W/O polarized glasses on it wasn't noticeable but with them on it was clearly an issue. It will make your eyelids twitch and delayed adjustment to distance viewing. It's similar to those privacy films where if you're not viewing straight on you can view what's on the screen.
 

Aikouka

Lifer
Nov 27, 2001
30,383
912
126
I’ve been trying out the ASUS PG32UQR for the past few days, and it’s very apparent how different it is than the other two. Namely that compared to one, it‘s IPS vs OLED, and with the other, it’s FALD vs Edge-Lit. Just looking at the random Lock Screen imagery, it’s almost like everything has a dull white sheen. I’m not sure how I feel about it at the moment. It almost seems like the price is too much compared to other options given it lacks any of the higher-end options.

I wish that Samsung had some higher-end flat monitors, but their fancy models are curved.
 

Carfax83

Diamond Member
Nov 1, 2010
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So, there is one thing that I forgot to look at with them, and it’s something that I might be more picky about than others… time to wake. I’ve always preferred that a monitor be fast to wake when moving the mouse… especially when I need to do something quickly!.

That's one of the things I noticed about my previous Samsung Neo G8 monitor, the one that I returned for an exchange. It took a few seconds to wake up, which could cause issues with trying to enter the UEFI BIos.

This new monitor is still relatively slow compared to my Viewsonic 1440p G-sync 165Hz monitor, but it's noticeably quicker than the original Samsung Neo G8 I exchanged it for.

Quality assurance is a big deal with monitors in particular it seems.
 

Carfax83

Diamond Member
Nov 1, 2010
6,841
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I’ve been trying out the ASUS PG32UQR for the past few days, and it’s very apparent how different it is than the other two. Namely that compared to one, it‘s IPS vs OLED, and with the other, it’s FALD vs Edge-Lit. Just looking at the random Lock Screen imagery, it’s almost like everything has a dull white sheen. I’m not sure how I feel about it at the moment. It almost seems like the price is too much compared to other options given it lacks any of the higher-end options.

I wish that Samsung had some higher-end flat monitors, but their fancy models are curved.

Monitor buying is perhaps the most anxiety inducing experience when it comes to PC hardware. When I decided on the Samsung Neo G8, I looked at several factors:

1) HDR10+ compatibility
2) Close to OLED black levels
3) High nit rating
4) Low input lag
5) High refresh rate
6) Reasonable price

The Samsung Neo G8 ticked off all of those attributes that I was looking for. Being a VA panel, it has excellent black levels, close to OLED in fact. The only thing is bloom can be noticeable due to FALD, but compared to using an edge lit monitor, it's like night and day. The biggest drawback of the Samsung Neo series of course, is that Samsung's QA leaves much to be desired. I had to replace my original purchase, and luckily the replacement is much better.

And of course if you don't like curved screens then that's another drawback. This is my first curved screen monitor and so far, I haven't really had any issues with it. I don't think it necessarily increases immersion or anything during gaming, but it does provide for a more focused viewing experience if that means anything.
 
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Aikouka

Lifer
Nov 27, 2001
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What you really want is the new neo G9 8k, which were mentioned under the AMD 7900 presentation.

I actually was thinking about that monitor when it was announced, but after my experiences with the Neo G9 and the Alienware QD-OLED, I don't think I'd like it... depending upon how I set it up. My biggest thing is that I do genuinely like my multi-monitor setup that I was using before. I won't say that the visual quality was fantastic as the IPS displays are quite long-in-the-tooth, but functionally, it works well for what I do. The Neo G9's 32:9 ratio was actually not bad for productivity or even normal, non-gaming functions as long as you learn the WIN+<arrow key> shortcuts to position windows on a portion of your screen. (It essentially does the same thing as dragging the window to a side, but much faster.)

Where I ran into an issue with 32:9 is that it has somewhat lackluster game support. If you're lucky, you just get black bars, but if you're unlucky, you get a stretched image. I first saw this with God of War, which rendered in 21:9 with black bars. The QD-OLED is a bit better since 21:9 has somewhat better support, but it can fall prey to the same problem. With the Neo G9 and the upcoming UWUHD variant (it's pretty much 2x UHD/4K like the Neo G9 is 2x QHD), I think I would be able to accept it if I used picture-by-picture mode to treat it as two bezel-less monitors instead of one large display.

That's one of the things I noticed about my previous Samsung Neo G8 monitor, the one that I returned for an exchange. It took a few seconds to wake up, which could cause issues with trying to enter the UEFI BIos.

Well, neither the Samsung nor the Alienware were too bad, but compared to my ASUS PG27, which woke up nearly instantly, the difference is quite noticeable. What was a bit weird is that I had gone through to disable any sort of efficiency mode on either monitor, and I think it was the Alienware that didn't show much change right after that. However, the Alienware did start waking up a bit faster later on. I recall seeing some talk about how the OLED monitors tend to do better after they've been plugged in for a bit, so maybe that's related. Anyway, I was seeing about 5 seconds for both from the start, and the Alienware got to about 3 seconds after the fact. I can't recall how the Samsung performed. Out of all of them, I believe the ASUS PG32UQR performs the best as it is available in about 2-3 seconds.

Monitor buying is perhaps the most anxiety inducing experience when it comes to PC hardware. When I decided on the Samsung Neo G8, I looked at several factors

I think the hardest thing for me is that I was encountering a lot of things that I had no real experience with. The biggest ones for me were dealing with less common display ratios (21:9 and 32:9) and curves. I have a tiny bit of experience with a 21:9 monitor, but that isn't at home, and while that monitor was curved, it was an extremely light curve (3800R). I probably should've expected my apprehension to the caveats that you deal with when it comes to display ratios since I've gained a lot more of an "I just want it to work" attitude about things over the past few years. 😅

One thing that I wasn't expecting to be a bit of a hang-up is one of the main reasons why I went to upgrade: UHD/4K resolution. In trying out the ASUS PG32UQR (32" 4K 16:9), I've noticed that you likely want at least a 125-150% scaling to avoid the display being too small. Now, I could live with it at 100% scaling if it wasn't for one program in particular... mIRC. Yeah, I still use mIRC after all these years, and if you have any familiarity with it, you'd know that it hasn't visually changed much since I started using it over two decades ago. 😋 At 150% scaling, everything is big enough that I can read it, but when I drop it to 100% scaling, the text is pretty hard to read. I think I can adjust the text to help, but whew... it's not pleasant!

Honestly, it has made me wonder if I should just stick with what I know, and go with LG's upcoming 27" QHD OLED. Although, that does pretty much invalidate the entire reason that I was going to update. I've also considered the one option that I brushed off before... going with the 42" OLED. That could help quell the scaling problems as I'd likely be able to use it at 100% scaling without an issue, but I'd really like to be able to try that out somehow.

And of course if you don't like curved screens then that's another drawback. This is my first curved screen monitor and so far, I haven't really had any issues with it. I don't think it necessarily increases immersion or anything during gaming, but it does provide for a more focused viewing experience if that means anything.

My hesitance with curved monitors was mostly for those below 32:9 as I'd suspect that I'd want at least two monitors for those. I wasn't really sure how well the curved monitor would work next to a flat panel given the curved monitor should be more central to your vision.
 
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aigomorla

CPU, Cases&Cooling Mod PC Gaming Mod Elite Member
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Watch Youtube HDR night time cityscape videos.

Pictures taken from a Samsung Note 20 Ultra...

LG OLED:
20221207_102506.jpg

Alienware AW38 Nano IPS:
20221207_102518.jpg

The Nano IPS is brighter... yes IPS rocks in brightness, but the OLED has deeper blacks and better over all color.

My hesitance with curved monitors was mostly for those below 32:9 as I'd suspect that I'd want at least two monitors for those. I wasn't really sure how well the curved monitor would work next to a flat panel given the curved monitor should be more central to your vision.

My Setup:
20221128_163414.jpg


Wake up speed... The LG OLED is a snail at waking up, but it wakes up.
Also tends to trip windows thinking its disconnected each time it wakes up, so i get the annoying Gsync display connected popup each time it wakes up.

The alienware wakes up pretty fast... but not as fast the monoprice.
Fun fact the Alienware 32 is a cropped 4k... it has the same horizontal resolution, but vertical is 1600p, so all my displays at at 4k standard.

The AW38 is a curved.
I Love curved... i wish the LG OLED was curved, it would probably save my neck a bit if i could see the top better, like the samsung Odyssey Ark... however that 55 inch would not fit on my desk (trust me i tried, and there is no ARM for mounting it.... also that sucker weighted in at 100lbs, and my desk has a 500lb limit.

But ultra wides... definitely curved.... wides... curved is also nice.... standard... flat all the way.
The benifit of curved tho is it limits the glare because it shrinks it like a convex lense, so you dont see a big reflection image, but more of a bright sun in the middle of your monitor...
i don't know if thats better or not.... but i think its less distracting, then seeing the reflection of your Significant other standing behind you ready to stab you in the back for not taking out the trash in time.
 
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Aikouka

Lifer
Nov 27, 2001
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Also tends to trip windows thinking its disconnected each time it wakes up, so i get the annoying Gsync display connected popup each time it wakes up.

The Alienware QD-OLED did that too... even after I disabled the eco mode. I was a bit surprised given that I suspected it would keep the connection alive when not on eco mode, but apparently that is not the case.
 

aigomorla

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The Alienware QD-OLED did that too... even after I disabled the eco mode. I was a bit surprised given that I suspected it would keep the connection alive when not on eco mode, but apparently that is not the case.

I am gonna guess its probably a feature in the screen cleaning when the monitor is sleep.
I do notice the screen goes into cleaning mode each time it sleeps.
 

aigomorla

CPU, Cases&Cooling Mod PC Gaming Mod Elite Member
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Yeah. OLED is beyond awesome. Do you have a VA panel monitor for one more comparison point?

no unfortunately i don't use VA's... i retired them out in favor of IPS.
I had a QLED MiniLED... the Odyssey Ark for about 3 days.... but it was too big for the distance i sit.
Also it had dead pixels so it got returned.
I should of taken a picture of it, but it was just so obnoxious it seemed more like i was making a fool out of myself then showing off. I didn't want to be another linus.

But i think VA's have better contrast brightness and better HDR then IPS and OLED. But VA's feel a bit more bleached out and colors arent as vibrant as IPS or fruity as a OLED.
 
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Aikouka

Lifer
Nov 27, 2001
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As a bit of an update, I've given up on all three displays that I originally selected. As a bit of a refresher:
  • Samsung Odyssey Neo G9: Honestly, it's not a bad display at all. However, I think you should be sure that your main uses will support the large resolution, or that you're fine with using picture-by-picture (and being limited to 120Hz) to go from 32:9 to 2x16:9. As long as that's the case, you're golden.
  • Alienware AW3423DW: This is also a good monitor, but it has the same problem the Neo G9 in that you have to be able to accept the 21:9 display ratio and any limitations that it comes with. This is a bit more limited as you don't get the picture-by-picture option to make up for it. There were also some annoyances in regard to constant pixel refresh notifications. As a side note, you may be better off just getting the newer -F variant and saving a few hundred dollars.
  • ASUS PG32UQR: This is probably the only one that actually disappointed me. The biggest problem is that outside of being a 4K display with decent color accuracy, it brought nothing good to the table. It's a $1000 monitor with some rather awful edge-lit backlighting. It's so bad that when I was watching a video which had text appear on a black background, I could visibly see the pillar of light appear from the bottom center of the monitor. (It was also a bit delayed.) The biggest problem here is that the monitor is just too expensive for what you get. I think if this was a $600-700 monitor, my reaction would've been different.
As a result, I decided to go in the direction that I had originally sworn off: large format displays. I'm currently looking at two different options, LG's 42 C2 OLED and ASUS's PG42UQ. The staunchest difference between the two is the price tag, which is only made worse by existing sales ($800 vs $1400). The part that gives me hesitation toward simply selecting the cheaper option is that I'm hesitant to just deal with the compromises inherent to using a TV instead of a monitor. The big takeaway that you can get from my complaints about the prior three offerings is that I wasn't willing to deal with the compromises of (ultra-)wide-format displays.

The reason why I decided to consider large-format displays is that I noticed that I have an odd habit of setting up my displays to where they're centered on me rather than facing the main display like I assume most people do. I figured that a large-format display would alleviate having to face bezels constantly. :p
 

dlerious

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Mar 4, 2004
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The AW38 is a curved.
I Love curved... i wish the LG OLED was curved, it would probably save my neck a bit if i could see the top better, like the samsung Odyssey Ark... however that 55 inch would not fit on my desk (trust me i tried, and there is no ARM for mounting it.... also that sucker weighted in at 100lbs, and my desk has a 500lb limit.
A little pricey, but multiple curves
 

Genx87

Lifer
Apr 8, 2002
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As a bit of an update, I've given up on all three displays that I originally selected. As a bit of a refresher:
  • Samsung Odyssey Neo G9: Honestly, it's not a bad display at all. However, I think you should be sure that your main uses will support the large resolution, or that you're fine with using picture-by-picture (and being limited to 120Hz) to go from 32:9 to 2x16:9. As long as that's the case, you're golden.
  • Alienware AW3423DW: This is also a good monitor, but it has the same problem the Neo G9 in that you have to be able to accept the 21:9 display ratio and any limitations that it comes with. This is a bit more limited as you don't get the picture-by-picture option to make up for it. There were also some annoyances in regard to constant pixel refresh notifications. As a side note, you may be better off just getting the newer -F variant and saving a few hundred dollars.
  • ASUS PG32UQR: This is probably the only one that actually disappointed me. The biggest problem is that outside of being a 4K display with decent color accuracy, it brought nothing good to the table. It's a $1000 monitor with some rather awful edge-lit backlighting. It's so bad that when I was watching a video which had text appear on a black background, I could visibly see the pillar of light appear from the bottom center of the monitor. (It was also a bit delayed.) The biggest problem here is that the monitor is just too expensive for what you get. I think if this was a $600-700 monitor, my reaction would've been different.
As a result, I decided to go in the direction that I had originally sworn off: large format displays. I'm currently looking at two different options, LG's 42 C2 OLED and ASUS's PG42UQ. The staunchest difference between the two is the price tag, which is only made worse by existing sales ($800 vs $1400). The part that gives me hesitation toward simply selecting the cheaper option is that I'm hesitant to just deal with the compromises inherent to using a TV instead of a monitor. The big takeaway that you can get from my complaints about the prior three offerings is that I wasn't willing to deal with the compromises of (ultra-)wide-format displays.

The reason why I decided to consider large-format displays is that I noticed that I have an odd habit of setting up my displays to where they're centered on me rather than facing the main display like I assume most people do. I figured that a large-format display would alleviate having to face bezels constantly. :p

Hey thanks for the reviews. I have a ASUS ROG PG279Q that I am giving to my dad and looking for a new monitor. So many options and the PG32UQR was what I was honing in on due how much I like my current monitor. But the reviews all mentioned issues with slowness and some other problems, especially for the cost. I am considering moving to the PG42UQ but that is big and OLED which apparently can have burn in. This box will be more than just gaming. Looking forward to your reviews of the these 42 inch monitors.
 

Aikouka

Lifer
Nov 27, 2001
30,383
912
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Hey thanks for the reviews. I have a ASUS ROG PG279Q that I am giving to my dad and looking for a new monitor. So many options and the PG32UQR was what I was honing in on due how much I like my current monitor. But the reviews all mentioned issues with slowness and some other problems, especially for the cost. I am considering moving to the PG42UQ but that is big and OLED which apparently can have burn in. This box will be more than just gaming. Looking forward to your reviews of the these 42 inch monitors.

Yeah, I would definitely recommend against the PG32UQR. It's a shame since I used ASUS monitors for so long, but it's just not worth it when you can usually find good deals on better monitors that bring them very close to ASUS's price. Although, it might not be as bad if you don't experience the better monitors first. Going from the Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 or the Alienware to the ASUS monitor made it painfully obvious how lackluster it was in comparison.

I'm still using the 42 LG C2 TV as my monitor, and it's not too bad so far. I did try putting one of my 27" monitors beside it to give me the second display that I'm used to, but that led to a lot of wonkiness when waking the displays. In the end, I removed the other monitor and kept with the single display with a focus on using snapping areas. (Using a combination of the Windows Key and an Arrow Key will become your best friend.) I had the PG42UQ on backorder with Newegg, but I decided to cancel it due to not being fond of paying $600 more for mostly DisplayPort and proper monitor sleep/wake. One problem that I did run into with the C2 that made the savings a bit less worthwhile was that the TV doesn't sit very high, and as a result, I'd recommend raising it up a bit through some means. I used an Ergotron monitor arm, but you could use just about anything.

Two of the things that I really need to try out soon are (1) adjusting the fonts, (2) setting up the LG Companion software. I have noticed what seems like a bit more eye fatigue as I use software with smaller text on the TV, and I don't think this is limited to the 42" as I see it with my 65" C1 as well.
 
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Genx87

Lifer
Apr 8, 2002
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Thanks again for the info. I will tough it out with a random 24" and see what some of these 32" OLEDs that were announced look like once reviewed.
 
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Once you use a high-refresh display for ANYTHING nevermind just gaming for awhile there's no going back to 60hz.
Depends on the person I guess. I've seen movies at the cinema with HFR and the only thing that looked cool were the explosions because you kinda see them happen in slow motion and quick motion at the same time. Like you see more of them in less time, if that makes sense. But other than that, the rest of the movie just felt weird due to the fast motion.
 
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Captante

Lifer
Oct 20, 2003
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Depends on the person I guess. I've seen movies at the cinema with HFR and the only thing that looked cool were the explosions because you kinda see them happen in slow motion and quick motion at the same time. Like you see more of them in less time, if that makes sense. But other than that, the rest of the movie just felt weird due to the fast motion.

What you're referring to is part of what's called the "soap-opera effect" and has FAR more to do with quality of image-processing/artificial digital "smoothing" then it does pixel refresh-rates.

For example my 1080p/60hz Samsung TV has one of the worst versions of this I've ever seen when "motion-smoothing" is turned on and yet my 165hz monitor shows virtually none with an identical video source.

Years ago before I had actual first-hand experience with increased refresh-rate flat panels I mistakenly thought they didn't matter myself. They 100% do.

Additionally there's absolutely NO "upside" to a low-refresh rate flat panel except maybe if your PC is too slow to handle a high one. (high refresh does cause increased "overhead" especially in newer games)
 
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Captante

Lifer
Oct 20, 2003
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If windows didn't properly identify it you may need to override the default refresh-rate in video driver properties by unchecking "hide settings not supported by display" or something along those lines.

Use caution when testing new settings .... REMOVE hands from keyboard and mouse immediately after the first time you hit "apply" just in case the screen goes black and stays that way! (a potential PITA!)

It will SHOULD undo changes automatically in 15 seconds provided you don't accidently click anything!
 
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