is ultrawide really worth it?

skiersteve12345

skiersteve12345

skiersteve12345

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Been looking at ultrawide monitors from youtube and Im really tempted, so far am looking at the 1440P alienware however I already have a great monitor the pg279q anyone who went from a decent 16:9 monitor too ultrawide and thought wow I can never go back :D The main games I play are heros of the storm and wow ( if anyone could clarify ultrawide works fine for hots id appreciate it ) Id just like to here the real pros of ultrawide for gaming and if its worth upgrading over a already great monitor :)

thanks s
 
keeping it simple...



cons
-incompataible games
-need to patch games which can sometimes be annoying a lot like modding tho..
-more graphics card power needed than 1440p

pros
-its better
-less graphics card needed than 4k


I would definitely go uw over 4k and i'd also much rather invest in an ultrawide than a good 16:9 1080p/1440p.
 
I went from 16:9 144hz 1440p to an x34 100hz UW 144p. Was really nice for a while but for someone who mostly plays FPS games all the extra FOV was a distraction. I'm back on a 16:9 165hz 1440p g sync IPS panel now and couldn't be happier.

Desktop usage on the 21:9 was great though.
 
Just gone from a 16:9 144hz 27" 1440p, to a 35" curved 3440x1440 UW (on Tuesday), **** ME! ITS INCREDIBLE! :D, so yes, its worth it, if you have the horsepower. :p
 
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I've had the Alienware for a few days now.

For competitive FPS, I agree the added FoV is a distraction. There's just too much eye scanning happening. However, you can run your games in 2560x1440 and your ultrawide becomes a 27" 1440p display (or 28" on 35" ultrawide). That's how I've been playing Fortnite. The downside is you're limited to 100-120Hz vs 144-165Hz on a 16:9 display.

For non-compatible games, again you can run 16:9 2560x1440 with black bars. I've also been playing Dead by Daylight, and while ultrawide is "supported", the game zooms in the image to fill the horizontal, rather than the horizontal FoV being expanded. Consequently, I also run this game at 2560x1440.

For the type of games you listed, though, and most singleplayer games, ultrawide is awesome.

Point being, it's possible to have the best of both worlds. However, I think I'll be returning the Alienware and waiting for one of the native 144Hz ultrawides. I'm primarily a FPS player and the slower 120Hz refresh is noticeable to me.
 
I mostly play WoW, Civ or Total War. Those games are all amazing on my X34P I'd never go back. I can understand for FPS gamers though that there's a bit too much to look at
 
Went from original 27" ROG Swift to X34a. I actually have a 4k screen too, but can't use it for gaming. I'd never go back to 16:9 for gaming.

Most games support it, and those that don't are usually workable one way or the other.

Another aspect that doesn't get mentioned much is how great Ultrawide is for desktop use... I regularly have things like iPlayer and a web window side by side and it's like having 2 monitors.
 
newtoo7 said:
I've had the Alienware for a few days now.

For competitive FPS, I agree the added FoV is a distraction. There's just too much eye scanning happening. However, you can run your games in 2560x1440 and your ultrawide becomes a 27" 1440p display (or 28" on 35" ultrawide). That's how I've been playing Fortnite. The downside is you're limited to 100-120Hz vs 144-165Hz on a 16:9 display.

For non-compatible games, again you can run 16:9 2560x1440 with black bars. I've also been playing Dead by Daylight, and while ultrawide is "supported", the game zooms in the image to fill the horizontal, rather than the horizontal FoV being expanded. Consequently, I also run this game at 2560x1440.

For the type of games you listed, though, and most singleplayer games, ultrawide is awesome.

Point being, it's possible to have the best of both worlds. However, I think I'll be returning the Alienware and waiting for one of the native 144Hz ultrawides. I'm primarily a FPS player and the slower 120Hz refresh is noticeable to me.
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I was looking at the alienware aw3418hw is this what you have? says 165hz on the specs, might just buy it 650 seems good and can always return it lol
 
I went from my 27" 1440p 60hz to the Alienware and ended up selling it. I just didn't like the aspect ratio, can see above and below the screen easily because it is long and narrow, I just didn't find it immersive. I'm waiting for a good 32"+ high Hz monitor.
 
Got the X34P a few weeks back and loving it. My old 27" 1440p 60hz ran everything with my 1080 with no hiccups on high settings. X34P is a different beast a lot more toned down with the graphic settings. Also set up a fan curve something i had never done before due to GPU fans getting noticeable louder than my 27" days. Don't really play FPS games just RPGs/RTS bit of WoW and such which i think this screen size excels at.
 
Once you have one it will be harder to go back but as already mentioned there are some monitors better suited to specific use cases.

I went really big i.e. 40" 4K UHD for a while and it was useful with all that desktop but I realised when gaming it was hard to use/monitor that much screen space (yeah I know 40" is not the norm) and even at 60 Hz it was a struggle for fps in some games.

However the monitor had a really good scaler built in so I was switching between game modes so 1080p HD (40") for FPS games and 3440x1440 (32") or open world games.

So for me a large UW monitor has the most useful part of a 16:9 UHD monitor with the superfluous top and bottom cut off and the option of running a decent sized 16:9 screen up to 100Hz (X34) for fast paced games.
 
Bit late to the discussion but I've had an ultrawide since late 2012 and also play mostly WoW and HotS (plus a little WoT every now and then). The difference is probably the biggest improvement since the transition from 4:3 to 16:10, no other advancement comes close in noticeable improvement of QoL.

There were issues with game support when it first came out but these days a title that doesn't support 21:9 is very rare and if one launches without it the backlash causes it to be added very quickly (I.E Battletech). The only notable game with no 21:9 support is probably Starcraft 2 where it's disabled as it's seen as an unfair advantage.

The biggest drawback to ultrawide is that if you also use a laptop to game then 16:9 will feel a lot like a handicap lol.
 
ubersonic said:
Bit late to the discussion but I've had an ultrawide since late 2012 and also play mostly WoW and HotS (plus a little WoT every now and then). The difference is probably the biggest improvement since the transition from 4:3 to 16:10, no other advancement comes close in noticeable improvement of QoL.

There were issues with game support when it first came out but these days a title that doesn't support 21:9 is very rare and if one launches without it the backlash causes it to be added very quickly (I.E Battletech). The only notable game with no 21:9 support is probably Starcraft 2 where it's disabled as it's seen as an unfair advantage.

The biggest drawback to ultrawide is that if you also use a laptop to game then 16:9 will feel a lot like a handicap lol.
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think im going to take the leap :D no real downside as returns are so easy these days, how does hots play and look like in 21:9 this is the game i play far more than any other (neli 7k games played) and in hots no ui scaling problems or anything like that?
 
skiersteve12345 said:
how does hots play and look like in 21:9 this is the game i play far more than any other (neli 7k games played) and in hots no ui scaling problems or anything like that?
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Everything plays fine, they fixed ultrawide support not that long after beta IIRC. Basically because of the "fog of war" it means there's more shadowy map to the left/right than there would be with 16:9 (unless you have vision there ofc), essentially you need to pan the camera less when looking left/right (which is useful for bombardment heros like Chromie and Azmo).

Here's some screenshots of the gameplay/UI (I only just noticed the black bars on loading screen, it's not something you notice in game).

5eOGV81.jpg


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5E8KRWt.jpg


tgSw2DB.jpg
 
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