Swapping to an Ultrawide worth it?

[Slickrr13]

Hi All,

 

I currently have a Dell 2716dgr monitor. Its 1440p, Gysnc, 144hz etc.

 

I am not unhappy with it at all, but have been looking at getting an ultrawide or at least giving one a try.

 

I am wondering if its worth switching to the Viotek GNV34DBE - which is 3440x1440p, 144hz and "Gsync compatible".

 

Wondering if this would be a swap, I work from home as a programmer due to covid so the extra space will be nice for productivity. How would this be for gaming? That is the deciding factor on if I grab this monitor.

 

Anyone here have one or can offer advice on how ultrawide gaming on a VA panel is?

 

[8-Bit Ninja]

12 minutes ago, Slickrr13 said:

Hi All,

 

I currently have a Dell 2716dgr monitor. Its 1440p, Gysnc, 144hz etc.

 

I am not unhappy with it at all, but have been looking at getting an ultrawide or at least giving one a try.

 

I am wondering if its worth switching to the Viotek GNV34DBE - which is 3440x1440p, 144hz and "Gsync compatible".

 

Wondering if this would be a swap, I work from home as a programmer due to covid so the extra space will be nice for productivity. How would this be for gaming? That is the deciding factor on if I grab this monitor.

 

Anyone here have one or can offer advice on how ultrawide gaming on a VA panel is?

 

Honestly I switched back from 21:9 to 16:9. The number of games the half support or in some cases don't support it at all put me off massively. In my opinion if you need more space to open stuff up on why not just buy a second monitor? 

[Slickrr13]

1 minute ago, 8-Bit Ninja said:

Honestly I switched back from 21:9 to 16:9. The number of games the half support or in some cases don't support it at all put me off massively. In my opinion if you need more space to open stuff up on why not just buy a second monitor? 

I have a second monitor. Like I said I have no issues with my current setup. Just curious how a 21:9 setup is.

 

What type of games did you play? I typically stick to the mainstream games, I would hope these have support for 21:9, but definitely something to research before I buy.

[8-Bit Ninja]

1 minute ago, Slickrr13 said:

I have a second monitor. Like I said I have no issues with my current setup. Just curious how a 21:9 setup is.

 

What type of games did you play? I typically stick to the mainstream games, I would hope these have support for 21:9, but definitely something to research before I buy.

The big issues of 21:9 not running were with older (2010-2015ish) Titles, however there were some modern triple A games that would be unplayable without mods or major editing of the ini files, and even then it was a less than flawless experience in game. I imagine if you stick to modern day triple A's you'll have a fairly issue free experience. But for me personally I wouldn't spend the money on effectivity an identical monitor, but wider.  

[Techicolors]

tons of modern games support 21:9. if a game doesn't it's usually a simple ini fix or something. pcgamingwiki or wsgf are great resources. and seeing that you have 3080 it's a great pair. but bear in mind that still won't reach high fps in intensive games like cyberpunk or with raytracing enabled even with DLSS. least that monitor is g-sync compatible so it'll smooth things out when fps fluctuates. another thing too is fov, some games don't let you change it very much or causes fish-eye effect, and on ultrawide adjusting fov is a must 

[Slickrr13]

5 minutes ago, 8-Bit Ninja said:

The big issues of 21:9 not running were with older (2010-2015ish) Titles, however there were some modern triple A games that would be unplayable without mods or major editing of the ini files, and even then it was a less than flawless experience in game. I imagine if you stick to modern day triple A's you'll have a fairly issue free experience. But for me personally I wouldn't spend the money on effectivity an identical monitor, but wider.  

Fair enough, it really is just a wider version of what I already have and will just take an FPS hit.

 

I will probably try one out and just return it if I do not like it. So many differing opinions online, seems like one of those things I just need to try.

4 minutes ago, Techicolors said:

tons of modern games support 21:9. if a game doesn't it's usually a simple ini fix or something. pcgamingwiki or wsgf are great resources. and seeing that you have 3080 it's a great pair. but bear in mind that still won't reach high fps in intensive games like cyberpunk or with raytracing enabled even with DLSS. least that monitor is g-sync compatible so it'll smooth things out when fps fluctuates. another thing too is fov, some games don't let you change it very much or causes fish-eye effect, and on ultrawide adjusting fov is a must 

The FPS hit is some of my concern. Interesting point on the FOV statement, I have not seen anyone else mention that online. Altering ini files or other config files is fine, usually a one time thing anyway. My iRacing config files are crazy modded, so not a big deal.

 

Like I mentioned above, I think I will just order the Viotek ( 400 USD ). I will see how it is and return it if I want. Ill come back to this topic afterwards and give an update on my thoughts.

[garrettsstudio]

they may cause cause problems like when putting on a vr headset too. I've heard of that as well.

[Stahlmann]

For me it's the same like it is for @8-Bit Ninja.

I had an AOC Agon 352UCG6, which is a 3440x1440 120Hz ultrawide. There were just too many games that don't properly support 21:9 and i found myself researching 21:9 compatibility for games before buying them. Even new(er) games like Assasins Creed Odyssey, RDR2 and Witcher 3 had poor support and needed the .exe to be changed with a "Hex-Editor" to properly support it. Other games like Skyrim and Fallout 4 could be modded to properly know how to adress a 21:9 monitor. All in all i found the struggle to not be worth it. If you really care about immersion, i found that a big 4K TV with proper HDR support will give you much more than an ultrawide.

 

In the end i switched back to 2 LG 27GN850's as my monitors and a LG C9 OLED for those singleplayer games. The 3080 has no problem playing most games at 4K and the 4K HDR experience from this OLED is better and more immersive than any ultrawide could ever be. The best thing about the switch is, with 16:9 you don't have to worry about game support because it "just works".

 

For me, 21:9 is completely and utterly not worth it. Especially if you're a gamer like me who plays many different games and not only a few or 1 at a time. Making all the games work in 21:9 is just too much hassle. And seeing how niche ultrawide is even today, it will never become a standard like 16:9 has.

 

Also for productivity, 2 16:9 monitors give you much more screen space than 1 21:9 monitor. And if you just want a big and awesome "monitor", go for a 48" LG CX OLED.

[Doobeedoo]

For work and productivity it can be good, as for games for me I don't like it at all, some even use 32:9 for gaming, it's just ridiculous.

[GoodBytes]

Based on the latest Steam Survey, less then 2% of uses an ultra wide monitor.

So game support will not be the best. POV seems to be an issue still today (where the left and right side of the screen is stretched).

Of course, many games have the ability to correct this with a out of game option, but for an out of box experience it may be annoying, depending on the games you play.

Let's not even talk about Super Ultra Wide's... now you are in for an experience (negative one).

 

Of course, nothing stops you playing games in 16:9 instead, which will be like any 16:9 video you'll play on such screen, where you'll get black bars on the left and right side of the screen. If you are ok, then either Ultra Wide and Super Ultra Wide monitors will be fine.

 

Have you considered a 4K monitor for added work space?

[Ravendarat]

I dunno, I use an Ultrawide and wont go back to dual monitors. For games the ones that have support is nice and when they dont I just have the black bars on the side and it doesn't bother me at all. I multitask a lot when Im not gaming and I hated having the separated monitors with the plastic borders in the center. I dont care how thin the bezels are, it still drives me nuts. With that said I might actually switch to stacked ultrawides when I do my update to my rig as I find I still want more space

[CommanderAlex]

On 12/29/2020 at 1:39 PM, 8-Bit Ninja said:

Honestly I switched back from 21:9 to 16:9. The number of games the half support or in some cases don't support it at all put me off massively. In my opinion if you need more space to open stuff up on why not just buy a second monitor? 

This right here. 

 

I had one about 2 years ago, an LG 29" ultrawide and it was ok, but literally half of the games that I played didn't support 21:9 and if you adjusted it in game settings, it still was odd especially due to the UI interface not going with it (Fallout 4 at the time). They are nice to have for multitasking purposes or an alternative to multiple monitor displays.