16:9 vs 21:9

Doug_Dangger · May 18, 2021

I currently have a 24" 16:9 144hz gsync display.

I'm looking at a 32" 21:9 75hz display.

I'm intrigued by ultrawide. Worth the switch or not? I'm guessing 75hz to 144hz is quite a huge gap.

NTDaws · May 18, 2021

It genuinely depends on the games you play. I have a 21:9 but I am going back to use 16:9. Only cause I enjoy it more. But 21:9 is great if you play shooters such as Call of Duty, CS:GO, Rainbow Six Siege, etc. 16:9 is perfect for the average gamer. I go for refresh rate personally.

Quackers101 · May 18, 2021

can be more downsides depending your use case.

some say that having two monitors for cheaper with higher refresh is better.

Also not all ultrawide is good with weight and trhe curve, which might make more screen area like the edges not as great. Mini LED or OLED might make some of this better, and other types than IPS? not too sure. Although mini LED ultrawide can have an heat problem, with active cooling noise, or so I think they will become.

For certain games, it can become too wide compared to fullscreen on 1 out of 2 or 3 monitors.

There are certain software one can use to make the ultrawide experience a bit better with more screen control or just use linux.

Depending on resolution, I like to stay around 24-27, beyond that, I think a gaming TV might start to become an option with high res.

Mihle · May 18, 2021

It's really up to personal taste.

If you know someone that have one you can try for an hour or two, or go looking at it in stores, I would recommend that. (If the situation where you live allows that)

Stahlmann · May 18, 2021

Ultrawide is very subjective and for me who has had both for several years, i'll stay with 16:9 for the forseeable future. 21:9 support is just not as good in many games and you'll need to tweak some games to make it work properly. I personally went back to 16:9 because it just works. You don't have to think about anything and can just play your games.

21:9 can be more immersive, but the immersion can quickly break apart if a game annoys you because 21:9 isn't implemented properly and you run into issues.

But like the others also said, it heavily depends on the games you play and if you're willing to tinker around to make it work. Also if your GPU can handle the resolution. Most 34" ultrawides are 3440x1440, which is not easy to run.

For me, 16:9 is the way to go. Especially if i would get 144Hz then compared to 75Hz. The jump in refresh rate is much bigger than the jump in immersion from 16:9 to 21:9.

Analog · May 18, 2021

1 hour ago, Doug_Dangger said:

I currently have a 24" 16:9 144hz gsync display.

I'm looking at a 32" 21:9 75hz display.

I'm intrigued by ultrawide. Worth the switch or not? I'm guessing 75hz to 144hz is quite a huge gap.

I have both a DELL 38'' 21:9 (3818DW) and a DELL 43" 16:9 (4320Q) which are both excellent monitors, not really made for gaming, but still, very decent at that as well. My personal preference is that nothing really substitutes a big 16:9 screen if you do anything else besides gaming. You know how people say that ultrawide is great for productivity, this is not really true as you loose a lot of vertical space. For example, the only difference between both of the screens I have is exactly the vertical space. Width-wise they are pretty much identical. To tell you truth, gaming on an ultrawide isn't always great either. If you like playing older titles, not all of them are optimized for ultrawide resolutions and you will be left with either black bars on both sides of the screen or you will need to play around with third-party custom resolution mods. Newer ones are sometimes not optimized for ultrawide as well (referencing Fallout 76 in particular).

So my recommendation would be to get a monitor that firstly good quality and has an IPS display and ticks all of the other boxes that you need it to. Considering that you are coming from a 24'' monitor pretty much anything will seem like it's a huge upgrade. Just fyi, I am not aware of 32'' ultrawide screens. Usually they are 29'' for the 1080p, 34'' for 1440p and 38'' for 1600p. The 32'' diagonal is predominantly featured in 16:9 1440p and 2160p monitors.

BuzzingBee · May 19, 2021

Like others said it's down to personal preference, and I'll like to share mine. I got 1440p UW monitor VA 144hz after weeks of research and consideration, as I prefer one main screen to be placed at the centre of room along with my surround speakers. TV wasn't an option as my room is too small. I use it for basically everything from browsing, gaming, movies and TV shows.

There are some benefit for gaming which I liked for first/third person and platforming games, and if you're limited to budget it's better to stick to well-performing 1440p than average ultrawide monitor.

Another to consider, which lead me to choose UW is it can be beneficial for movies if you're viewing at 4k content. Since most movies are pictured at 2.4:1 ratio, that's nearly identical to UW ratio, and with some tweaking in media player it can fully stretch the picture for near 4k movie experience (approx 400 width difference). With 1440p monitors however, it would be downsized further.

Overall, if you also use your monitor for movies, then I think UW would benefit otherwise for gaming I would stick to 1440p. If you really want to try ultrawide you should go with at least 120hz so you won't be downgraded from lower refresh rate and regretting it.