The urge to go ultrawide

[Tacitus]

Hi all

 

When 34" 1440p ultrawide first arrived I was immediately drawn to it in every way, except for the prohibitively high price.

 

 I could now justify buying one with a Samsung VA panel at 100hz.

 

Could anyone give me their experience of going from 2 monitors to one ultrawide one?

 

My primary uses are:-

 

 - Day to day tasks like browsing, Word, Excel.

 - Gaming.  I play exclusively single player games. (Will I benefit from faster refresh?)

 - Photo editing as a hobbyist.  Holiday and day to day snaps.  Can I calibrate any panel properly?

 

I currently have a 290x which cannot run games in 4k and I think running them at 1440p on that screen makes them look a bit off.  I will buy a new GPU next year but think even then 1440p 21:9 with a higher refresh rate might be a happier middle ground between Res/refresh.

 

Is it a doomed resolution?  4K is coming thick and fast and will I end up with a low-res monitor? 

 

Thanks in advance

 

Chris

[Cieronph]

I just picked up a 34inch ultrawide off ebay for like £200 quid and honestly would really struggle to go back, my only gripes are some arcade type games dont scale well, some movies dont scale well etc. But Most stuff is fine and eh you get used to black borders real quick on no ultrawide content. Would recommend even at a low res, but defo try find a deal on it if at all possible

[PETRGangKing]

The difference between 4K and 3440x1440 is very hard to tell, especially with the higher refresh rate. for gaming, it is a much more satisfying experience, however I find that I hate it for all other applications. Therefore I personally prefer a 4k mutli-monitor set up.

 

if you do go 3440x1440p though, I would get an IPS panel.

[Technomancer__]

i would stil use at least one of those monitors for secondary

i think it will last you a long time

[Tacitus]

2 minutes ago, Cieronph said:

I just picked up a 34inch ultrawide off ebay for like £200 quid and honestly would really struggle to go back, my only gripes are some arcade type games dont scale well, some movies dont scale well etc. But Most stuff is fine and eh you get used to black borders real quick on no ultrawide content. Would recommend even at a low res, but defo try find a deal on it if at all possible

 

Is that a 1440p one?  If so, link please I'll buy now!

 

1 minute ago, PETRGangKing said:

The difference between 4K and 3440x1440 is very hard to tell, especially with the higher refresh rate. for gaming, it is a much more satisfying experience, however I find that I hate it for all other applications. Therefore I personally prefer a 4k mutli-monitor set up.

 

if you do go 3440x1440p though, I would get an IPS panel.

What other things do you use it for and what makes you dislike it so much? 

[PETRGangKing]

Just now, Tacitus said:

 

Is that a 1440p one?  If so, link please I'll buy now!

 

What other things do you use it for and what makes you dislike it so much? 

I own an IT Constulting Firm, so I use my computer for a very wide range of things. Virtualization, word processing, video editing, terminal configs,  I even run little robots searching for copyright violations on occasion. It isnt so much any one thing in particular, just the 21:9 aspect ratio in general that I am not a fan of. Just my personal preference. Most people I know that use Ultrawide monitors are completely in love with them. 

[Cieronph]

5 minutes ago, Tacitus said:

 

Is that a 1440p one?  If so, link please I'll buy now!

 

What other things do you use it for and what makes you dislike it so much? 

It is, but it was a one off, I actually got it from a Tesco outlet seller on ebay, they were selling it as damaged in the title, but when you actually looked, there was 1 hdmi cable included which had a squished connector. Might be worth looking about tho

[SlipperyPete]

i had no intention of going ultrawide. two years ago one of the early LG 29in 1080p ultrawides went on sale for 200$ on black friday. i impulse bought.

 

as far as monitors i still use two at college and four at home. ultrawide is always my main but depending on where i am the amount changes.

[Tacitus]

6 minutes ago, PETRGangKing said:

I own an IT Constulting Firm, so I use my computer for a very wide range of things. Virtualization, word processing, video editing, terminal configs,  I even run little robots searching for copyright violations on occasion. It isnt so much any one thing in particular, just the 21:9 aspect ratio in general that I am not a fan of. Just my personal preference. Most people I know that use Ultrawide monitors are completely in love with them. 

 

Interesting.  Is it possible to split the screen virtually so your PC thinks you have 2 1720*1440 screens to better segregate browsers, apps etc? 

 

5 minutes ago, Cieronph said:

It is, but it was a one off, I actually got it from a Tesco outlet seller on ebay, they were selling it as damaged in the title, but when you actually looked, there was 1 hdmi cable included which had a squished connector. Might be worth looking about tho

 Very nice!  I'll need to keep an eye open.

[PETRGangKing]

5 minutes ago, Tacitus said:

 

Interesting.  Is it possible to split the screen virtually so your PC thinks you have 2 1720*1440 screens to better segregate browsers, apps etc? 

 

 Very nice!  I'll need to keep an eye open.

You could use a program such as Display Fusion Pro to do this. 

[Tacitus]

3 minutes ago, PETRGangKing said:

You could use a program such as Display Fusion Pro to do this. 

Thanks for your help.

[Jrasero]

Productivity wise a 1440P Ultra wide especially at 34" is amazing.  If you do a lot of Excel work or have a ton of tabs open like I do then an Ultra Wide simply is better than a 16:9.  Gaming wise if the monitor is the same Samsung VA panel Curved, it's pretty immersive and experience hard to leave     

 

I wouldn't say it's doomed at all, more and more games are supporting ultra wide and there are work plugins for streaming to work even at the weird aspect ratio

 

BTW the Samsung VA panel that is in Viotek, Microboard, and Pixio are awesome and are great bang for you buck options if you don't need GSync or over 100Hz.  The 3440x1440 resolution future proofs it since a lot of people are still on 1920x1080 or running 2560x1080 or 2560x1440.  Also while many hardcore gamers will beg to differ there are huge diminishing values for refresh rates above 100Hz since scientifically our eyes can't reliably distinguish anything above this refresh rate.  Broadly speaking, to hit the frame rates to justify a 144Hz+ monitor you would have to be rocking a 1080 Ti or it's equivalent.  For some people that is the case but for most people they will be under utilizing their monitor.  Remember even modern consoles are locked to 60Hz even with 4K/HDR support and look perfectly fine for most people.

 

But really use whatever you like and can afford best.  If you can afford a 1440P 144Hz IPS GSync Panel all the more power to you.    

 

  

[SlipperyPete]

20 hours ago, Tacitus said:

Thanks for your help.

some companies ship software like this with the monitor. My LG came with it (i never used it because i just snap windows)