is ultrawide really worth it?

[skiersteve12345]

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 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

 

[skiersteve12345]

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 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

 

[skiersteve12345]

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.

think im going to take the leap 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]

I've owned both the PG279Q (What's the BLB on yours like?) and the Acer X34a. The only games I had issues with were some newer Telltale games, and watching films with black bars either side was annoying but Netflix has a Chrome extension to fix that. Other than that the gaming experience was amazing, and if a decent HDR ultrawide comes out i'll probably buy it.

I missed the extra Hz you get from the Asus but not sure this will be an issue with the Alienware.

blb on pg279q is pretty good bit in the top right corner but never notice it even with a black desktop background