3440x1440 for homeworking and gaming

Mickcas

Mickcas

Mickcas

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21 Jan 2017
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715
Location
County Durham
As per title really. I work from home permanently so I'd say 80% of usage would be this, mainly text based, nothing fancy colour or graphic wise. Rest of the time would be gaming.
I currently have a 3080 paired with a 5800x.
Current monitor is a Dell 165hz 1440p isp display.

I'd like to keep it below £700 and most options seem to be VA displayed which I know little about but I hear things about ghosting.
I'd like high refresh rate too, although I understand with AAA games I might struggle with my 3080 .

The Alienware OLED seems to be the most popular option although slightly over budget, also not sure if it would be the best choice for my usage?

Any recommendations?
 
Have you tried ultrawide before? I moved from Dell S2721DGF (27" 165hz IPS) to a Huawei Mateview GT VA UW 34" and regretted it. The form factor just didn't work for me like I was expecting, they look so good but just feel so wrong to me. As well as this, after so long with TN and IPS the ghosting was just intolerable to me and made the high refresh rate on the UW redundant as it was blurry anyway. Perhaps the manufacturers and models have something to do with it, but if your plan is to replace multiple monitors with this, or you have been used to low response time TN or IPS displays, make sure there's an easy return path and/or you try one out, or get the least ghosty panel possible.
 
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thanks for the reply @Zefan
I currently have that exact Dell screen, I couldn't remember the model at the time as I posted from my mobile.
No I haven't tried it but I'm only not replacing multiple screens, just that current Dell screen.
The ghosting comments are what put me off VA but there seems to be so many VA screens in the market at the moment I wasn't sure if it was as bad as its sometimes made out. Surely if it was that bad they wouldn't sell many?
 
Mickcas said:
thanks for the reply @Zefan
I currently have that exact Dell screen, I couldn't remember the model at the time as I posted from my mobile.
No I haven't tried it but I'm only not replacing multiple screens, just that current Dell screen.
The ghosting comments are what put me off VA but there seems to be so many VA screens in the market at the moment I wasn't sure if it was as bad as its sometimes made out. Surely if it was that bad they wouldn't sell many?
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It depends on the user, some people notice it more (the smearing) then others and also depends on the games as well, I just picked up a curved VA panel Iiyama 34" 3440x1440@165Hz and really like it. I normally play slower paced games like RPGs, ie Skyrim, BG series, fallout 4 , Starfield , x4 etc so for me it's more then fine, the plus points ie superior blacks and contrast far outweigh the cons like glow issue IPS has in that area, especially at night since I do a lot of dark/night gaming and also been a fan of VA panels over IPS and TN for many years. In the real world we all would have OLED panels, but until the price comes down I'm happy to live with VA panel for my gaming needs. Another thing some VA panels are better then other VA panels at faster paced games.

So to recap it really is preference thing , both VA and IPS have their Pros and Cons. Btw I even changed my IPS tv to VA tv(Sony 55") just for the better blacks in films etc, guess I'm more sensitive to the poorer image quality of blacks and contrast ratio that IPS has, especially at night.
 
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Mickcas said:
As per title really. I work from home permanently so I'd say 80% of usage would be this, mainly text based, nothing fancy colour or graphic wise. Rest of the time would be gaming.
I currently have a 3080 paired with a 5800x.
Current monitor is a Dell 165hz 1440p isp display.

I'd like to keep it below £700 and most options seem to be VA displayed which I know little about but I hear things about ghosting.
I'd like high refresh rate too, although I understand with AAA games I might struggle with my 3080 .

The Alienware OLED seems to be the most popular option although slightly over budget, also not sure if it would be the best choice for my usage?

Any recommendations?
Click to expand...

VA smearing might or might not bother you but I'd still shoot for a solid IPS, something like a Gigabyte M34WQ should fit the bill if it doesn't have to be curved. Great bang for buck option.

AW3423DW(F) is fantastic for gaming, you simply won't get better and I'm saying this with 100% confidence as someone who uses an OLED almost everyday but for mixed usage... on top of that 80% working with windows/text.... I wouldn't. Not only is it not ideal due to the subpixel layout resulting in some text fringing (which again, might or might not be a problem for you but it's definitely a concern considering your user case), you also run a much higher risk of getting burn-in from static stuff.

These are gaming monitors through and through.
For proper HDR they, and OLEDs in general, are just unrivalled because each pixel is a damn dimming zone. You simply get per-pixel brightness control and thus infinite contrast as each pixel can just turn off completely. The result? Inky blacks and no haloing around bright highlights. HDR is way more about contrast than pure brightness.

They also have great response time and virtually no smearing.

For productivity though, I'd say there are better options. It's also a bit of a waste to not use it mainly for gaming as you won't even use the display to its fullest and the text fringing might be problem for office use.
 
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You can use one 34" ultrawide the same way you would 2x 27" displays (apart from aving one in portrait orientation if you have an arm etc) - But being on one display improves desk space, the need to calibrate both displays to the same output which can be tedious, even when both displays are the same model etc.

As you work full time from home an OLED in their current gen won't be the best option for this sort of use. You 100% will get burn in on all current gen OLED monitors in one form or other, just the nature of the tech at the moment. It may only be visible in some shades of grey for example, but it will still be there after a year+ and will only get worse as time goes on. I rate the colour and overall feel for office use on QD-OLED above that of a tightly calibrated IPS monitor (I had one of the best 34" UWA with a hardware LUT in this regard since they came out) and find the QD-OLED even better on the eyes especially when working on editing applications. I'd say 70% of my monitor usage is productivity and WFH, the rest is entertainment/gaming.

Dell offer screen burn warranty, so that automatically puts an OLED panel to the top of the list from Dell if that's where you want to go. For gaming there is no equal, OLED is the only way to experience games now, whether you play in HDR or not doesn't matter, OLED just wipes the floor with anything else for media and gaming.

For both productivity and gaming, I have never looked back at my past IPS panels since going QD-OLED. I also have the Huawei Mateview GT 34" and yes it's not great for image quality or image motion in general, and it has a curve that's too curved. The QD-OLEDs are much better for the curve, more subtle that fits your line of sight from edge to edge.
 
It's not a huge issue really, and on TVs, LG has made huge strides. Panel and pixel refresh on those completely removes image retention before burn in sets in if ran on normal schedule.
 
If you don't mind used, the LG UltraGear panels are great, new they're a bit over budget. I got one from a neighbour for £450 and it's incredible. 3440x1440 IPS, 160hz. It's like butter compared to my old 60hz and 75hz screens.

Neighbour had it since 2019, I've had it since about may this year and it's still like-new.
 
MatteRB26 said:
If you don't mind used, the LG UltraGear panels are great, new they're a bit over budget. I got one from a neighbour for £450 and it's incredible. 3440x1440 IPS, 160hz. It's like butter compared to my old 60hz and 75hz screens.

Neighbour had it since 2019, I've had it since about may this year and it's still like-new.
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LG 34" 34GN850P-B - this one?
 
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