Superwide Monitor Pros/ Cons

[Maltego]

Evening All,

 

Thinking of buying a superwide monitor such as the Samsung Odyssey Neo G9, does any one have a monitor like this? 

 

Can you give me a little breakdown of the pros/ cons of using a superwide, compared to using 2 or 3 monitors. 

 

Thanks in advance.

[MonkeyBomb]

I've had my Neo for a couple months now and love it (after installing the latest firmware that is). I came from a 49" Samsung crg9 and would do the upgrade again without hesitation.

 

Remember, these are my experiences.  Other peoples experiences will likely be different.

PRO: It does HDR really well, very immersive for gaming, lots of real-estate for productivity work and no bezels breaking up the image compared to multi monitor. I have noticed no blooming (2048 zones) or any other anomalies.

 

CON: It takes up a lot of room, if you are gaming you can miss chats or have to turn your head to view maps and what not. Some people don't like the 1000r curve. It's not 4k (I've seen/heard/read quite a few complain about that, but if I wanted to have a 4k display I would have bought one). The aspect ratio can take a bit to get used to for some people, it took a couple days after I got the crg 9 and thought I made a mistake, now I couldn't see myself  going to a non 32:9 display.  Not all games support 32:9. You will need a fairly beefy GPU to run it at good frame rates.

 

I always feel that people that are using their computers for gaming and media consumption and not just a casual user that the monitor should be one where most of the pc build funds should go.  It's usually the part that people keep the longest and it gives the final impression of the build you made.

 

If you can't see one in person, then try buy from some place with a generous return policy.

[AnonymousGuy]

I tried the X38 and sent it back in favor of 3x4K monitors.  I like the concept but 1440 vertical resolution is too limited (for productivity work).  Plus a lot of games don't seem to support ultrawide and then it's like having a really expensive 27" screen.

[Maltego]

2 minutes ago, Cypher64 said:

I've had my Neo for a couple months now and love it (after installing the latest firmware that is). I came from a 49" Samsung crg9 and would do the upgrade again without hesitation.

 

Remember, these are my experiences.  Other peoples experiences will likely be different.

PRO: It does HDR really well, very immersive for gaming, lots of real-estate for productivity work and no bezels breaking up the image compared to multi monitor. I have noticed no blooming (2048 zones) or any other anomalies.

 

CON: It takes up a lot of room, if you are gaming you can miss chats or have to turn your head to view maps and what not. Some people don't like the 1000r curve. It's not 4k (I've seen/heard/read quite a few complain about that, but if I wanted to have a 4k display I would have bought one). The aspect ratio can take a bit to get used to for some people, it took a couple days after I got the crg 9 and thought I made a mistake, now I couldn't see myself  going to a non 32:9 display.  Not all games support 32:9

 

I always feel that people that are using their computers for gaming and media consumption and not just a casual user that the monitor should be one where most of the pc build funds should go.  It's usually the part that people keep the longest and it gives the final impression of the build you made.

 

If you can't see one in person, then try buy from some place with a generous return policy.

Thank you for the detailed reply.

 

Is it possible to install software that allows you to spilt up the desktop into 3 separate screens for productivity? Or do you just drag the windows around until you find a layout you like? I won't be doing too much gaming to be honest. I like to have my multiple chat programs, work programs and  a couple of chrome windows up at a time. 

[MonkeyBomb]

haha I'm a little chaotic with my windows being all over the place, I also have 2 x 24" mounted above the Neo. 

 

I have a friend with the original G9 and I believe he uses Powertoys to arrange everything. He likes it a lot. 

[Donut417]

13 minutes ago, Maltego said:

Or do you just drag the windows around until you find a layout you like?

Power Toys in Windows has a Window manager. You can customize layouts and such. On MacOS I use Magnet. 

[Andrewtst]

I also have Samsung Odyssey Neo G9.

 

Pros

• Superb immersive in gaming. This is first time I feel immersive is real there. 
• Awesome HDR. HDR issue is totally fixed in latest firmware. 
• Black like OLED when turn on local dimming for movies and gaming.
• Great productivty to splitting screen for apps using Microsoft PowerToys - FancyZone.
• PBP/PIP is great if you need connect two device to one and this very long aspect ratio is enough space to handle it. The cons is only support up to 120hz and no HDR support, no local dimming support and also basically cannot adjust any settings. 
• 240hz with Adaptive-Sync and G-Sync is not gimmick, it helping a lot where V-sync can be totally off as basically no games can over 240fps, so no worried of tearing issue by turning off V-sync. It is even smoother animation in Windows compare with my previous monitor which is 144hz. To me I can tell the differences between 60hz vs 120hz vs 240hz. The cons here is the bundle DP cable is very bad quality, mine immediately show distortion when change to 240hz and faulty later. You need to have a very good quality DP 1.4 for handling 240hz in this very high resolution monitor.

Cons

• Local dimming is not good in Windows environment when productivity as you will see halo effect surrounding your mouse cursor, it is not obvious but it is there, I actually turn off local dimming by default because of this, only turning on when watching movies or gaming. The local dimming can set auto turn on only when HDR is use but I am using HDR in Windows, so this feature is no useful for me. 
• Not all games support 32:9 aspect ratio, so for not support will have black bar on left and right, but this never an issue thanks to it very black like OLED when local dimming is on. This is also apply to movies as they is no 32:9 aspect ratio movies.
• You need to have very powerful GPU due to this highest resolution of 5120x1440, I am using RTX 3080, so far so good. 

Overall I am very satisfied and no regret change to this from previous 2 monitors of one Ultrawide 21:9 aspect ratio monitor + one Wide 16:9 aspect ratio monitor. 

 

Full view of the monitor. 

 

PBP

[MonkeyBomb]

10 minutes ago, Andrewtst said:

I also have Samsung Odyssey Neo G9. 

 

Pros

• Superb immersive in gaming. This is first time I feel immersive is there. 
• Awesome HDR.
• Black like OLED when turn on local dimming for movies and gaming.
• Great productivty to splitting screen for apps using Microsoft PowerToys - FancyZone.

Cons

• Local dimming is not god in Windows environment when productivity as you will seem halo effect surrounding your mouse cursor, it is not obvious but it is there, I actually turn off local dimming by default because of this, only turning on when watching movies or gaming. 
• Not all games support 32:9 aspect ratio, so for not support well have black bar on left and right, but this never an issue thanks to it very black like OLED when local dimming is on. This is also apply to movies as they is no 32:9 aspect ratio movies. 

Overall I am very satisfied and no regret change to this from previous Ultrawide 21:9 aspect ratio monitor + Wide 16:9 aspect ratio monitor. 

I'm curious, what games have you run into that have the black bars?  Granted, I don't play a lot of different games but I've never run into it.

 

[Andrewtst]

34 minutes ago, Cypher64 said:

I'm curious, what games have you run into that have the black bars?  Granted, I don't play a lot of different games but I've never run into it.

 

God of War, Diablo II remastered,  Elden Ring and etc is not support Super Ultrawide, the later two not even support Ultrawide. 

 

Basically most games port from PS is not support longer resolution than Wide.

[Andrewtst]

4 hours ago, Cypher64 said:

haha I'm a little chaotic with my windows being all over the place, I also have 2 x 24" mounted above the Neo. 

 

I have a friend with the original G9 and I believe he uses Powertoys to arrange everything. He likes it a lot. 

 

4 hours ago, Donut417 said:

Power Toys in Windows has a Window manager. You can customize layouts and such. On MacOS I use Magnet. 

Yup. It is call FancyZone. This is one of the features of PowerToys. 

[MonkeyBomb]

16 hours ago, Andrewtst said:

God of War, Diablo II remastered,  Elden Ring and etc is not support Super Ultrawide, the later two not even support Ultrawide. 

 

Basically most games port from PS is not support longer resolution than Wide.

Good to know, thank you.

[Stahlmann]

I never had a super-ultrawide but after having multiple 21:9 and 16:9 monitors over the years now i ended up at a 42" 16:9 monitor. This is the best of all worlds imo. You have more than enough space for multitasking, a huge fullscreen image for immersion and you can use a custom resolution to emulate 3840x1600 ultrawide if you like black bars at the top and bottom for cinematic effect.

[IPD]

A quick google search will reveal that the human eye has an aspect ratio of vision of about 1.8:1.

 

16:10 = 1.6:1 (essentially 16:9 with room for a menu bar)

16:9 = 1.78:1

21:9 (UW) = 2.33:1

32:9 (SUW) = 3.56:1

 

Despite what all the pundits scream, I will never be convinced that a 32:9 is the most immersive, due to the display area being far better matched to the human eye's capabilities on a 16:9--than on a 21:9, let alone a 32:9.

 

If one is truly in need of ancillary display/s or programs outside of a primary game or something--then it is probably best to have a single, large-size 16:9 panel front and center, and ancillary ones to the left/right or top.  Even IF you can manage to get a game to properly run in 32:9, I would argue that the immersion factor on a 49" SUW (neo G9) still isn't as good as the same game running on a 55" in 16:9 (Odyssey Ark).

 

For productivity, sure--if money is no object--then bezel-less 27" displays side-by-side is fine.  But the cost is astronomically more.  So gaming or something that requires a bezel-less display is the only justification.  And media in 32:9 is stupidly rare.  Even 21:9 media is far, far outnumbered by 16:9 offerings.

 

p.s.

And I say this as someone who has no problem with the width of a 49" SUW.  I just feel like it's missing half the damn display.

[xg32]

i think it's a tradeoff between immersion and image quality atm

big 16:9 fald/oled= best image quality and peripheral coverage

21:9, only good color/hdr option is still only the AW3423DW, pretty much the go to choice for games that support 21:9 (lost ark), it doesn't really cover the entire peripheral unless you sit really close

32:9, dual 16:9 mode bazeless is awesome, so wide you might even miss some detail unless it's at the exact distance you need it to be (i legit don't have enough space for it), very limited option, some people get sick from the aggressive curve, no wide gamut option atm (could be wrong on this one)

[Maltego]

Thank you all so much for the information given.

 

I have decided to buy this monitor and have added it to my build list.