Filthy upgrades & OLED screens: 21:9 vs 32:9 vs a shiny 4k 16:9

[Caber10]

So I'm doing my once-every 10 yrs give me the shiny things upgrade. 4090 (and PSU), plus a tasty screen.

Currently on a simple LG IPS 4k 60Hz, with 2nd screen an IPS 1440p also 60Hz. My LG replaced a ROG 144Hz 1440p (I still have that around). I thought screen space would be great, and it is for productivity, but the screen is kinda meh for gaming.

I want quality and a stonking visual experience more than anything else, so I'm keen on OLED/QD-OLED. I've been looking at Samsung G8 21:9, Samsung G9 32:9 and also asking myself if a really nice 4k would be better. I just don't know if I'd feel vertically challenged

I play no competitive fps. My games are a mix of things like Starfield/RDR/Horizon ZD/Cyberpunk, etc and plain strategy (which I guess is irrelevant other than knowing how hard it is to support ultrawide).

32:9 would let me get rid of both current monitors, this sounds great. 21:9 I'd probably keep my 1440p in portrait for Discord, etc.

What would you do?

Thanks!

 

[fish]

I would keep one and get a 21:9 purely because not all games play nice windowed and a second screen is handy for you to watch something else on

 

[Apex]

Two monitors good one monitor bad.

 

[wunkley]

Have 2 deffo. Aside from that - Firstly, I wouldn't look at anything unless it was OLED HDR for gaming now. Absolute given.

Personally I love 21:9 gaming and I think 32:9 is a bit silly. But I also like the best of both worlds in having a large 16:9 screen for non gaming stuff. So I went for a 48" 16:9 4k OLED monitor, not TV (Gigabyte FO48U) and then run custom 21:9 resolutions on it for gaming and use full 16:9 screen for everything else.

Because it's OLED, any black 'borders' you have when using custom 21:9 resolutions are truly black, so they don't bother me one bit. On my screen I run most games at 3840x1620 (so full native 'width') although with more demanding recent stuff and ray tracing I've started to use a 3440x1440 in a 1:1 image, which is great! Still a 41" corner to corner image.

You might thing 48" is too big, it's really not, but a 42" OLED is probably the sweetspot for many. It would also have a better PPI than 48".

 

[smogsy]

ive done
4K at 48" 120hz
27 4K at 144hz
27" 1440p at 240hz
34@ 1440p UW 100hz
34" 1440p UW 240hx

currently using 27" 240hz 1440p OLED but if i had to choose again id choose 34" UW OLED/QLED

 

[Caber10]

Personally I love 21:9 gaming and I think 32:9 is a bit silly. But I also like the best of both worlds in having a large 16:9 screen for non gaming stuff. So I went for a 48" 16:9 4k OLED monitor, not TV (Gigabyte FO48U) and then run custom 21:9 resolutions on it for gaming and use full 16:9 screen for everything else.

I'd not thought of that at all - thanks. Do you game at a desk or further away from the screen? 48" sounds gigantic if it's at a desk! I measured out a 42" LG C2 yesterday, and it almost fills my desk width (not considering buying one; I just wanted to know how big it was). 42" is workable though for me; I'll have a look at monitors for some ideas. This would make the 21:9 image quite a bit smaller than your 48", though.

[maths break]

Oh, still looks like even at 3440x1440 it'd be 35.5" diag, which sounds pretty good.

So it'd come down to a dedicated curved screen vs the flexibility of switching to 16:9 whenever.

Yeah, I'm definitely going OLED HDR; I'll have a think about your idea today - I really appreciate it.

 

[wunkley]

I'd not thought of that at all - thanks. Do you game at a desk or further away from the screen? 48" sounds gigantic if it's at a desk! I measured out a 42" LG C2 yesterday, and it almost fills my desk width (not considering buying one; I just wanted to know how big it was). 42" is workable though for me; I'll have a look at monitors for some ideas. This would make the 21:9 image quite a bit smaller than your 48", though.

[maths break]

Oh, still looks like even at 3440x1440 it'd be 35.5" diag, which sounds pretty good.

So it'd come down to a dedicated curved screen vs the flexibility of switching to 16:9 whenever.

Yeah, I'm definitely going OLED HDR; I'll have a think about your idea today - I really appreciate it.

No worries bud. I knew I wanted to go big and I built a new desk setup designed around my screens basically (I have a 24" screen in vertical portrait mode on an arm to the side as well).

At the time I got my 48" OLED monitor there were very few 42" OLED options available, and I needed a screen with display port for various reasons, so my choice was restricted to the FO48U due to this. It's a fantastic screen though, have been very pleased with it and the fact it functions like a true monitor is also just better for PC use.
I sit at a deep desk about 2.5-3 feet away from the screen. Sat at a desk, 48" at full screen 4k 16:9 ratio I do find too overwhelming for gaming due the vertical height. But, like I say I prefer gaming at a 21:9 ratio anyway and I find 3840x1620 absolutely perfect and not overwhelming at all at this distance. It just feels awesome and very immersive, not to sound ****.

If I had the choice to get a 42" version instead, the only reason I would consider that is for the better PPI. The fact I'm now running some games for better fps at 3440x1440 in a 1:1 display area, would also feel a bit small now on a 42" display - around 35" diagonal sounds about right. I had a 34" curved 21:9 ultrawide before this screen, and I really did want to go bigger.

Go big or go home

If you do decide to go this route, getting HDR to work for everything you want is not a simple as it should be, but it is easy once you know how. I wrote a v brief howto guide on here a while ago...

RDNA 3 rumours Q3/4 2022

Lol, whut? :cry: I said HDR in windows is a joke. You can only enable it when at 4k res, so if you want ultrawide you just have to hope the game supports a resolution not set in windows. Luckily horizon zero dawn does, which looks fantastic. What I mean is that the HDR toggle in windows...

forums.overclockers.co.uk

 

[Caber10]

That's literally perfect timing - I just put my 4k into 21:9 to experiment and was about to go play with HDR

 

[wunkley]

That's literally perfect timing - I just put my 4k into 21:9 to experiment and was about to go play with HDR

Just another tip for HDR and custom 21:9 resolutions. If you want to specifically run 3440x1440 on a 3840x2160 screen in a 1:1 native image.....

In the adjust desktop size and position section of the NVCP, in the Scaling tab select "noscaling" and then "performscaling" on "GPU". The latter part is VITAL for getting 3440x1440 to work well – i.e. scaling on the GPU stops the 3440x1440 picture scaling up to fill the whole 3840 screen width, and ergo being blurry/ soft as it's not 'native'.

 

[will13]

I use a 4090 + DWF, and I also own a 55" LG CX, for price I paid for my DWF it's great, better colour depth, peak brightness in HDR and compared to 42" and 27" LG's better SDR too, however if dell bring a 32" 4K QD OLED next year or a bigger UW using QD OLED I would change for sure

 

[Devil_Spawn]

I went for the dwf - for a while I didn't really see the point in ultra wide, it just felt like you were losing the vertical space. In really it actually does feel like getting more space on the sides, and it's great for productivity

 

[DanF]

I'm finding 3880x1600 is really good ration for a mixture of gaming and productivity. It's wide enough to have 2 windows side by side without feeling restricted. 1600 is just a great depth for productivity work, 1440 always feels a bit limited.

Annoyingly none of the new OLED panel monitors are using this resolution. I'm not interest in the crazy 32:9 monitors and 1440p would feel like going backwards now mainly from productivity not really gaming

 

[Caber10]

I went for the dwf - for a while I didn't really see the point in ultra wide, it just felt like you were losing the vertical space. In really it actually does feel like getting more space on the sides, and it's great for productivity

I liked @wunkley's suggestion earlier about trying a widescreen resolution on a large 16:9 screen, been thinking about that today. I played a bit of BG3 last night in 3840x1620, and it worked immediately: same vertical detail and a lot of extra horizontal detail, so as long as the screen's a decent size, it sounds pretty nice and leaves you options.

This was a useful read, and I'm looking at what might be coming, but I haven't seen any 2nd-gen QD-OLED 42" screens yet - I think this is the best size for me.

If I was to buy now, I'm leaning towards the ROG PG42UQ.