Considering 21:9 screen for gaming..better than Nvidia surround?

gazjam · 19 May 2015 at 08:47

Another case of the "magpie syndrome", I've seen something shiny and wonder if I should get one!

Getting back into gaming after a while away, current rig as per signature below.
Have a 3 identical Dell 24" 16:10 setup which running NV Surround is fantastic for driving games but not so much for FP shooters like Farcry4 or Alien Isolation.

The stretching at the edges of the outer monitors bothers me, so wondering about losing one of the 24" Dells and putting a 34 ultra wide in there, which height wise is about the same as the 24?

So still have the 3 monitor setup for work stuff, but rather than use 3 x 24" surround for gaming (with nasty stretching)have a nice big 21:9 in the middle for that.

Or would I miss the triple screen surround for driving games like Project Cars too much.

* Are 21:9 panels ready for prime time yet or is it still a bit of a lottery with backlight bleed etc?
Can't be faffed with all that again, had bad experiences with Dells and had to return a few until I got good ones...and the Dell 3014 quality was terrible imo, especially for the money.
Is there a good 21:9 yet, or is it best to wait?

Thanks.

perosus · 19 May 2015 at 09:50

I returned 3 x Dell U3415W's due to backlight bleed (2 x Rev A00, 1 x Rev A01), before finally biting the bullet and getting a Samsung S34E790C (there was a 20% off sale at the time which made it the same price as the Dell).

I'm very happy with the Samsung, no backlight issues, does everything it says it would.

My only gripe is I wish it was 144hz / G-Sync, but there dont appear to be any on the horizon that would match all the criteria.

1Deep · 19 May 2015 at 11:11

The Samsung is the best ultrawide at the moment. If your happy with 60hz then I would get one of those. I think height wise it's about the same as a 27" 1440p panel.

gazjam · 19 May 2015 at 13:44

Thanks guys.

I see Dell have a 21:9 but my experience of their quality control is that its a bit suspect. Samsung looks good.
Not fussed about 60Hz, good enough for me.

Just the question of 21:9 gaming vs 3x24" Nvidia surround (great for driving games, not so much for first person shooters)
Probably play 50/50 mix of these two.

Any thoughts?
Thanks.

Raumarik · 19 May 2015 at 16:00

gazjam I'm in the same boat mate, sold one of my three monitors a couple of weeks ago and been looking at a 21:9 since, just not sure if the monitor I want is out there yet:

21:9
120Hz+
IPS panel

May need to wait for it.

One of the reasons I ditched my eyefinity/surround setup is I was fed up with AMD/Nvidia never getting it right, flipping between surround on/off was just as fiddly as eyefinity from my experience. I'd rather just ditch it and move to a single, wide monitor that's decent for productivity as well as gaming.

old gamer · 19 May 2015 at 16:36

i had an eyefinity setup and now the 21.9 which i prefer

Rroff · 19 May 2015 at 16:40

Mixed story for me with 21:9, a lot of positives but some games (without black borders) felt like you were viewing them through a letter box and doesn't really compare with 3 monitors for driving games and none of the 21:9s I've used have the clarity in motion I'd like for FPS gaming.

Raumarik · 19 May 2015 at 16:49

Rroff isn't that down to the current batch being fairly small in comparison to say 3x24" 16:9 monitors and not having access to over 60Hz or decent response times ?

34"+ with those things would be fine IMHO, just need to wait.

Tephnos · 19 May 2015 at 16:51

1Deep said:
The Samsung is the best ultrawide at the moment. If your happy with 60hz then I would get one of those. I think height wise it's about the same as a 27" 1440p panel.

Subjective.

If you like VA, by all means it is the best. If you prefer IPS it is certainly not the best and you'll hate it. The Samsung is also really bad at text rendering if you are sensitive to that.

If you're the latter, then I'd advise plumping for the Dell and just keep bugging them to get you new ones until you get a good one.

Nexus18 · 19 May 2015 at 17:12

Yup, motion clarity nothing to do with 21.9, it is largely down to the refresh rate/response time.

I couldn't recommend any of the 21.9 IPS monitors tbh, awful bleed and IPS glow issues + even if they don't have any bleed/glow issues when you get a good one, it could develop severe bleed/glow a few months later like my 29um65 + I have extremely noticeable banding as well now....

Samsung 34" is the best 21.9 monitor atm imo.

We won't be seeing any 34" 1440 120+HZ monitors this year.

Tephnos · 19 May 2015 at 17:30

Can't say I've heard of bleed/banding developing over time - sounds like a very rare issue.

Nexus18 · 19 May 2015 at 18:07

I have seen a few reports from LG 21.9 owners for bleed developing after a certain amount of time, mostly for the 34um95, mrk being one of them.

Don't think I have seen any reports of banding though, it surprised me too. When I first got the monitor, I had to look so closely to notice the banding on lagom test but now, I don't even have to look for it, it is immediately noticeable on 3/4 of the gradient image, even in games etc. you can notice it

I cba with LG's awful customer service so I will be jumping to something else ASAP in the next month or 2.

ggp759 · 19 May 2015 at 18:17

Tephnos said:
Subjective.

If you like VA, by all means it is the best. If you prefer IPS it is certainly not the best and you'll hate it. The Samsung is also really bad at text rendering if you are sensitive to that.

If you're the latter, then I'd advise plumping for the Dell and just keep bugging them to get you new ones until you get a good one.

Totally agree with this. I had it for a while. I was used to ips. Its a great screen but i hated the gamma shift. While on desktop browsing etc i could not stand it. Black crush was also a problem for me no matter what settings i used( pcm2's or my colorimeter). Text rendering can get better with True Type settings in windows but not as good as ips. VA panels do not suffer from backlight bleed but the have clouding. Mine did. All of the above warranted a return.

Nexus18 · 19 May 2015 at 20:36

Well this is interesting, decided to try a different cable (replaced my display port cable with the HDMI cable) and:

- the banding seems to be a lot better, definitely not as noticeable
- on the white saturation test, 253 used to be a lot more visible when using the display port cable and I can't even see 254 now where as with the display port cable, I could just about make it out....

What gives?! :confused:

1Deep · 19 May 2015 at 21:37

Tephnos said:
Subjective.

If you like VA, by all means it is the best. If you prefer IPS it is certainly not the best and you'll hate it. The Samsung is also really bad at text rendering if you are sensitive to that.

If you're the latter, then I'd advise plumping for the Dell and just keep bugging them to get you new ones until you get a good one.

Horses for courses, all completely depends on what the user intends to do with their monitor.

The Samsung is better for video, yes there is gamma shift and yes there is black crush (which can be alleviated somewhat using gamma option 2). But I'm not using this screen for photo editing. Purely as an entertainment screen this panel wins IMO.

I've nothing against IPS panels, I've used them many times and my previous monitor was a Dell 29" ultrawide so I know about their positives and negatives. They offer more accurate colours, motion is a bit better but only because it would accept 75hz refresh rate. I was fortunate enough to have one that didn't have much, if any, backlight bleed. It was a great screen. If the current crop of 34" IPS panels didn't have so many problems with backlight bleed then I may have considered one.

I agree, it is completely subjective. A persons needs will differ from one to the other. Just buy whichever technology suits your needs and requirements best.

IPS:

+Colour accuracy
-IPS glow
-Backlight bleed (common amongst 34" ultrawide IPS screens)
-Blacks aren't as deep

VA:

+Deeper blacks (higher contrast ratio)
-Text isn't as sharp
-Gamma shift
-VA glow (not as prominent as IPS glow but it exists nonetheless)
-Colour accuracy not up to IPS standards

For gaming and watching films/tv programmes I would get the Samsung. Anything which requires colour accuracy or maybe you're working with a lot of text, buy the Dell.

Raumarik · 19 May 2015 at 22:14

I can see me having to go into the "purple place" to get a look at monitors at some point, christ I hate that place.

Haven't even seen an IPS screen personally, always been TNs.

Tephnos · 20 May 2015 at 04:08

1Deep said:
Horses for courses, all completely depends on what the user intends to do with their monitor.

The Samsung is better for video, yes there is gamma shift and yes there is black crush (which can be alleviated somewhat using gamma option 2). But I'm not using this screen for photo editing. Purely as an entertainment screen this panel wins IMO.

I've nothing against IPS panels, I've used them many times and my previous monitor was a Dell 29" ultrawide so I know about their positives and negatives. They offer more accurate colours, motion is a bit better but only because it would accept 75hz refresh rate. I was fortunate enough to have one that didn't have much, if any, backlight bleed. It was a great screen. If the current crop of 34" IPS panels didn't have so many problems with backlight bleed then I may have considered one.

I agree, it is completely subjective. A persons needs will differ from one to the other. Just buy whichever technology suits your needs and requirements best.

IPS:

+Colour accuracy
-IPS glow
-Backlight bleed (common amongst 34" ultrawide IPS screens)
-Blacks aren't as deep

VA:

+Deeper blacks (higher contrast ratio)
-Text isn't as sharp
-Gamma shift
-VA glow (not as prominent as IPS glow but it exists nonetheless)
-Colour accuracy not up to IPS standards

For gaming and watching films/tv programmes I would get the Samsung. Anything which requires colour accuracy or maybe you're working with a lot of text, buy the Dell.

Bear in mind working with a lot of text means using it for general browsing too - if it isn't a purely entertainment monitor I'd be saving your eyes and get the IPS screens instead, imo. Just based off reports I've heard though of it causing headaches and eye strain.

Nexus18 said:
I have seen a few reports from LG 21.9 owners for bleed developing after a certain amount of time, mostly for the 34um95, mrk being one of them.

Don't think I have seen any reports of banding though, it surprised me too. When I first got the monitor, I had to look so closely to notice the banding on lagom test but now, I don't even have to look for it, it is immediately noticeable on 3/4 of the gradient image, even in games etc. you can notice it

I cba with LG's awful customer service so I will be jumping to something else ASAP in the next month or 2.

Where did mrk comment on developing bleed? Interesting as his monitor was a completely perfect one.

Tephnos · 20 May 2015 at 04:10

Nexus18 said:
Well this is interesting, decided to try a different cable (replaced my display port cable with the HDMI cable) and:

- the banding seems to be a lot better, definitely not as noticeable
- on the white saturation test, 253 used to be a lot more visible when using the display port cable and I can't even see 254 now where as with the display port cable, I could just about make it out....

What gives?!

That's... interesting.

Honestly this is why I'd just go with the DELL, if these problems do appear they're going to sort it out real quick. When these panels first came out and LG had the first one I was put off just because of the customer service.

Don't know why I'm still not pulling the trigger on the Dell though - maybe I can't be bothered trying to sell my 2713HM.

Nexus18 · 20 May 2015 at 10:44

True, Dell's CS is second to none and I really want to go back to them for my next monitor, so tempted to just put back up my dell u2311h atm.

TBH, I wouldn't budge from that dell monitor, still very good and I feel that we will see a lot of new/better monitors coming out before the end of the year.

Tephnos said:
Where did mrk comment on developing bleed? Interesting as his monitor was a completely perfect one.

He did post in the lg 34" thread on here but I cba looking through his posts

so here is his neowin review thread:

http://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1213797-lg-34um95-p-ultra-wide-monitor-review/

At the bottom of his first post.

gazjam · 20 May 2015 at 14:28

OP here again.

How do the VA panels, like the 34" Sammy, LG, Dell etc do for text and sharpness?
Main use for the big 34" (between two 16:10 24"s) would be for 3D work and CAD and some Adobe Suite, the panel split vertically effectively giving two monitors.
The gaming side is secondary..60/40 work/gaming.

Would I be able to run the 34" at its native resolution, given the two outer panels woudl be 1920x1200?
GPU is a NV GTX970

Cheers!