To ultra wide or not to ultra wide

[bgstcola]

Yo!

I'm considering two monitors for my new build (6700K, Fury tri-x).

1) Asus MG279Q
2) Acer XR431CK

The Asus is better looking and has 144Hz but the Acer is ultra wide.

I think for gaming think I would prefer the Acer because of the more immersive experience.

For productivity I think I maybe would prefer the Asus and that's why I leaning towards it. I figure that I will need to turn my head and maybe even my body to look at stuff at the edges of the screen which would be annoying. I guess I could move further back but my eyes suck so that wouldn't work.

It seems that most people love ultra wides for productivity which makes me question my reasoning. Any thoughts on this?

 

[brandonmatic]

I just got a LG 34UM67, which is a 2560x1080 34" monitor. I like it a lot for gaming - much more immersive. It's also fine for productivity, although I wouldn't say it's much better or worse than the 27" 1080p monitor I had before. That said, I'd think that the higher 3440x1440 resolution of the XR341CK would be much better for productivity than a 2560x1440 monitor.

Check out https://www.reddit.com/r/ultrawidemasterrace/ for more opinions.

 

[bgstcola]

Check out https://www.reddit.com/r/ultrawidemasterrace/ for more opinions.

Judging by the name ultrawidemasterrace I guess I will mostly find positive opinions there...

 

[3DVagabond]

The only issue I've seen with ultrawides is that they aren't as uniform across the screen to the edges. Not sure how noticeable it is, but they don't measure as well.

 

[Mondozei]

I just got a LG 34UM67, which is a 2560x1080 34" monitor. I like it a lot for gaming - much more immersive. It's also fine for productivity, although I wouldn't say it's much better or worse than the 27" 1080p monitor I had before. That said, I'd think that the higher 3440x1440 resolution of the XR341CK would be much better for productivity than a 2560x1440 monitor.

Check out https://www.reddit.com/r/ultrawidemasterrace/ for more opinions.

Interesting, how do you feel it impacts you resolution-wide? Do you notice any more blur in games?

From the LTT review, he said that for gaming he mostly didn't notice the resolution that much but outside of gaming, it was very blurry and pixelated. I'd be curious to see a second opinion on that.

Also, how is support for ultrawide among a bit older games? Say 3-4 years.

 

[x3sphere]

I have an Asus PG279Q and LG 34UM95

The Ultrawide is very immersive, but I'd take high refresh rates over it any day. 75Hz with the XR431CK is a nice jump, but I'd want at least 90-100 Hz. Past that, I would say there are diminishing returns, although I do still see a difference when going up to 165Hz on this PG279Q.

The Predator X34 (Gsync only) is interesting as it meets that requirement of 100 Hz, although early reports indicate it has significant QC issues right now. People are complaining of scan lines and an issue where half the screen is black upon awaking from sleep. It seems like the FreeSync model does not suffer these faults - shame it's only 75Hz though.

 

[bgstcola]

I have an Asus PG279Q and LG 34UM95

Which screen to you prefer for productivity? I don't game that much so I'm more interested in productivity.

 

[brandonmatic]

Interesting, how do you feel it impacts you resolution-wide? Do you notice any more blur in games?

From the LTT review, he said that for gaming he mostly didn't notice the resolution that much but outside of gaming, it was very blurry and pixelated. I'd be curious to see a second opinion on that.

Also, how is support for ultrawide among a bit older games? Say 3-4 years.

I came from a 1080p 27" screen - which is identical PPI to a 34" 2560x1080 screen - so I haven't noticed any difference. People coming from 1440p screens likely would notice reduced sharpness. I chose the 34UM67 because I wanted FreeSync, I liked the 75hz refresh rate, and my 290x wouldn't do as well at 3440x1440p.

I've had no problem running older games at 21:9. So far I've managed to run Napoleon Total War (2010), Assassin's Creed (2007), Assassin's Creed III (2012), and Sleeping Dogs (2012) at 21:9 without a problem. Some of these required a few tweaks to run, but there's a lot of support online.

Edit: Outside of gaming the monitor seems sharp to me. I did notice that unless you set the sharpness setting correctly in the OSD the screen is very blurry. It's kind of strange, but once you dial in the sharpness (6/10, I think), it's very sharp.

 

[brandonmatic]

I have an Asus PG279Q and LG 34UM95

The Ultrawide is very immersive, but I'd take high refresh rates over it any day. 75Hz with the XR431CK is a nice jump, but I'd want at least 90-100 Hz. Past that, I would say there are diminishing returns, although I do still see a difference when going up to 165Hz on this PG279Q.

The Predator X34 (Gsync only) is interesting as it meets that requirement of 100 Hz, although early reports indicate it has significant QC issues right now. People are complaining of scan lines and an issue where half the screen is black upon awaking from sleep. It seems like the FreeSync model does not suffer these faults - shame it's only 75Hz though.

I'd add that FreeSync and GSync make a ton of difference. On the 34UM67, I was able to comfortably play Assassin's Creed III (which is poorly optimized) even down to 40 fps without any screen tearing and near complete smoothness. Although it's noticeably better at higher FPS, I'd take 40 FPS with FreeSync/GSync over 60hz with tearing or vsync judder. I bet the 34um95 would be a nearly perfect monitor if it had 75hz and FreeSync.

 

[x3sphere]

Which screen to you prefer for productivity? I don't game that much so I'm more interested in productivity.

I prefer the ultrawide for productivity. The extra real estate makes a big difference, and it's not wide to the point where I have to move my head to see the far corners, at least at my seating distance anyway (about an arm's length).

3440x1440 is also a great res as you don't have to resort to DPI scaling to see text clearly, unlike the 32" 4K monitors.

 

[therealnickdanger]

This argument always has me torn. The ultrawides definitely have the cool factor, but then I think you get the same (or better) effect with a 4K monitor of equal width. If you have the horsepower to run 3440x1440, then you can run that resolution within the confines of the 3840x2160 display (black borders), plus you get the benefit of even greater productivity with more desktop space (especially vertical resolution). Older games are no sweat to run at 4K, so you benefit there as well. If I were buying another new monitor right now, I would definitely grab a 4K with FS or GS.