YAMT: Monitors... help me decide on an upgrade

[JaffH_iii]

So I have a current Dell U3415W 34" 21:93440x1440 monitor I got used from a fellow Arsian. Been great, but where it's at I get some afternoon sun that comes in, and find it has some issues with brightness when I have the door/window open to let in air/light. So, need something with better brightness.

While I'm at it, higher refresh would be nice, although I don't generally do crazy FPS games, it might still be nice to have >60hz and support FreeSync/G-Sync. Nice to have though. Brightness/Contrast/Color Space/Picture Quality is more important to me.

This will also be going on an Ergotron monitor arm, so stand ergonomics don't matter so much to me, so long as it has proper VESA mounting. Also on a sit-stand desk, so while viewing angles have some importance, I can generally adjust to best viewing angles easily enough. Would also be nice to get higher resolution, but that generally seems to be a big jump up in cost and/or size, and I want to keep it at 32-34" size. I'm open to potentially 16:9, but I have gotten used to the 21:9 and do find it useful with lots of information in one wide, or 2 windows side by side for work and such as well.

Poking through Rtings, which while not a definitive collection of monitors, is VERY strong for good information, I narrowed it down to a few, although I'm certainly open to other recommendations.

ASUS TUF Gaming VG34VQL1B ($530 Amazon/NewEgg) has FreeSync and tests compatible G-Sync, great brightness levels and contrast, although it's a VA type panel, not IPS. Viewing angles suffer as expected.
LG 34GP950G-B ($1200 Amazon) has native G-Sync (and tests compatible FreeSync), great brightness, but only OK contrast. To be fair mostly I'll be having some amount of light, even if just ambient room lighting at night, so "dark room gaming" isn't as much a thing for me.
Gigabyte M34WQ ($500 NewEgg) has FreeSync and tested compatible G-Sync, pretty decent brightness and contrast, and great on reflections, and is IPS.

I'm kinda leaning towards the LG or Gigabyte, although the LG is so bloody expensive.

Any thoughts or other recommendations? Even non-21:9?

[Kilrah]

-> Moved to Displays

[IPD]

I know of no monitor that is going to overcome the overpowering presence of direct sunlight. 

[Stahlmann]

19 hours ago, IPD said:

I know of no monitor that is going to overcome the overpowering presence of direct sunlight. 

Typically around 400 nits warrant good visibility, even in direct sunlight, which is why it's some sort of baseline for laptop displays.

With HDR600 and up displays you won't have any problems, no matter how bright your room is.

 

@JaffH_iii

Seeing as your monitor only gets to around 250 nits peak it's no wonder you have problems with direct sunlight. Shoot for something with peak brightness around 400 nits and you'll be fine in the future.

 

The M34WQ is a great value option. It offers 90% of what the LG does for less than half the money. The LG has better response times, a wider color gamut and an arguably useless native G-Sync module. Other than that the Gigabyte offers all the same and throws in better contrast.

 

The LG is just ridiculously expensive and imo you could go as far as saying it's obsolete for that price. You can get the AW3423DW for $100 more and it's significantly better in most aspects.

 

The Asus is also a great monitor, but on the higher price-class when it comes to VA ultrawides. It offers significantly better contrast (black levels) than the Gigabyte monitor, but suffers from dark smearing like most VA monitors. This would probably be my personal choice as i often game in a dark room where VA contrast will help a lot with picture quality. Seeing as you often use your monitor during daytime, i'd say the Gigabyte is a better choice for you.