Been considering a 34 inch Ultrawide curved, coming from a 27 inch flat panel. Is it as immersive as they say in games and media consumption?
Ultrawide monitor immersive?
NotAnAudiophile on 05/07/2020 - 18:23
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bigger is better
Yes, these days I only play single player games and in my opinion there is a big difference. I am huge fan of it. I also love having the desktop real estate of having side by side windows for stuff. Much better if you watch a lot of movies on it compared to 27".
For me no. At first you might experience it, but after a few weeks it just seems like a normal flat monitor. I think 49" is the sweet spot for curved.
The OP asked for other people's experiences, and No Username gave his. WTF is wrong with you people and your stupid baseless negs?
Here's a couple of upvotes to balance it out
Thank you.
Think it's because he gave his opinion purely about curved monitors, and didn't mention anything about ultraide
Didn't think I would have to mention it as the topic is based on ultra-wide. Why would anyone use a 16:9 49" monitor?
I was considering UW but i play alot of CS/FPS games so sticking with 27"
I don't like the reduced height on ultrawide monitors that make it look squashed so would prefer to stick to a 32" flat panel instead.
49" super-ultrawide curved displays as mentioned above will start to make sense for the immersive experience. Anything smaller just isn't worthwhile.
https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2020/1/3/21047322/sa…
Few things:
More immersive for gaming? Debatable. Definitely good to have wider horizontal FOV, and definitely FEELS good in most games, but not sure if I'd call it more immersive.
More immersive for movies? Definitely! Cinemas are 21:9 aspect ratio, so watching a movie on it actually fills the screen (provided you have a video player that can pan/scan properly). That being said, watching a movie on a 34" widescreen in my office is definitely still not as enjoyable as on my 65" OLED on my comfy couch.
More immersive for TV? Definitely not. TV is all filmed in 16:9 aspect ratio, so you have forced black bars on the side with all TV.
More immersive for productivity? Definitely! I was concerned that going from 2x27" 1440p monitors side by side would mean I'd feel like I've lost real estate. Turns out I definitely didn't need that real estate, and having a single, large monitor works better for me. Of course window management is key here, so I'm using MS PowerToys for their Fancy Zones functionality.
I picked up an Acer Predator X34P while working from home. Great purchase, but wish I'd waited for the LG GN850 as it does everything the Predator does, plus HDR.
Caveats to keep in mind:
- You're pushing around 40% more pixels to you single monitor, so you'll need a beefy PC to keep the frame rate up on that in games.
- Definitely want FreeSync Premium or Gsync for an ultrawide. Screen tearing is about eleventy million times more noticable when your screen is that much wider.
- The stands the come with them are massive, because the screens are so heavy. So invest in a good monitor arm (and don't have a cheap chipboard desk, or it will tear your desk apart).
I wouldn't regret getting the predator, it's $400 cheaper, and the only difference (120hz vs 160hz) isn't worth that much in my opinion.
Also it only supports HDR400 which isn't really 'HDR'Fake HDR is better than no HDR. The LG range also have the 1ms G2G response time.
But yes, depends on budget and desired features.
I moved up from an old Dell 2711 that I had used for 8 years to this:
https://www.asus.com/us/ROG-Republic-Of-Gamers/ROG-SWIFT-PG3…
and I wished I had upgraded sooner. It made a massive difference for gaming and work. My old monitor seemed tiny compared to this one.
The res is 3440 x 1440 and this is important.
The reason I choose this wide screen res over a 4k monitor is there is a lot less pixels to push so games are faster given what graphics cards are capable of.
The 3440 x 1440 resolution contains 4,953,600 pixels whereas a 4K resolution has 8,294,400 pixels.
That is nearly double the pixels your graphics card has to push for 4k, so your games will be slow on a 4K monitor compared to running on a 3440 res monitor.
Getting a 3440 resolution monitor means you are getting the maximum sized monitor most suited to gaming at this point in time.
Also immersive is a subjective term, some people might feel immersed in a 22 inch monitor. A 34 inch monitor is just way bigger but will still get good frame rates in games using today's graphics cards (1070+).
As for super ultra wide 48/49 inch monitors (5120 x 1440p), we are testing them at work at the moment. They are really meant to replace side by side work monitors and aren't really suited to gaming, think real narrow and as wide as your desk!
Good stuff guys. I'm on a budget so decided to pull the trigger on the aoc cu34g2x , I believe it uses the Samsung VA panel.
Did the same as you. Went from a flat 27 inch to a 34 inch curved UWQHD.
Bigger is nicer. Don't think the curve adds much for media consumption tho (Netflix, youtube, etc).
But for some games (racing and FPS) yes, you do feel it is a bit more immersive.
Not all games benefit. For some games(like Civ 6 - strategy) , having a bigger view of the map is nice but the UI elements are on the edges of the screen. This makes me turn my head quite a bit for some titles.
And some games, namely console ports (like Ace Combat 7) simply do not support UWQHD format at all. You get horrible giant black bars on the side. But such titles are few and far in between.
Overall, I am very happy to have done the upgrade. I think you will too.
TBH i started with a 27 inch flat as I had limited desk space at the time, now after revamping my study I now have a bigger desk, and the 27 inch seems small in that space.
Off topic, but are there any ultrawide that are more for gaming that has an in-built KVM switch?
Not that I could see from my research.
I just got my AOC AG493UCX. 120hz Freesync, so it's a gaming monitor. 49" super ultrawide.
The 3 USB ports on the monitor are able to switch between a USB type-B upstream port (the chunky USB connection) and a USB-C connection (e.g. laptop). You can set it to auto which switches the USB devices to whatever is the main video input.
Or it has the PBP mode, both screens split evenly. At that point auto will pick the 'main input', or you can manually select which one to feed the devices to. It comes with a remote which makes the OSD very responsive and quick.
So, during the day I have the monitor on PBP, work laptop on the left, home computer on the right. I switch inputs using the OSD remote as required - two clicks to change it and they swap in about 1 second.
Then at night, full screen home computer for gaming etc as normal.
https://www.skycomp.com.au/aoc-agon-ag493ucx-49-120hz-uwqhd-…
Do you find there's a lot of ghosting?
Nah. I've noticed it a bit as my previous monitor was an IPS (AOC 34" ultrawide - one of the early ones. Prior to that mostly Dell Ultrasharps etc) but VA is not as bad as I was led to believe.
Outside of gaming I mostly use my PC for photo and video editing and it's been great for that too.
I thought 49" would be overkill; but honestly doesn't run too bad, looks nice, very immersive. But the thing is over a metre long so you need a big desk.
For RyanMK, there are some other panels out there with built in KVM but a lot aren't gaming focused. Dell for example have some. There's a cheap Phillips VA that has a great looking KVM feature and decent specs otherwise (100hz refresh). Looked at them all searching for this one but settled on the AOC.
@OpenHand: Thanks OpenHand, appreciate the detailed response!
To provide a bit more background, I have traditionally always had two separate monitor setups, 1 for gaming and 1 for work. I am now looking to combine both into 1 setup (i.e have both my PC and work laptop use the same monitor, keyboard and mouse).
I am not tech savvy but from my understanding one of the most straightfoward method to do this is to get a monitor with an inbuilt KVM, such as the Dell U3818DW. Unfortunately the monitor is not tailored for gaming. I am currently looking at the LG 38WN95C-W, but I can't really tell if it'll do what I want to.
With your AOC, if I am understanding this correctly, if I have both the PC and laptop plugged ito the monitor, I should still be able to select from my monitor which to display?
Thank you in advance!
@RyanMK: Hey bud, no worries. I recently switched after looking for something very similar. Not so much your original use case, but had the desired end result as I am now WFH full time.
I had a couple of must haves, and a few nice-to-haves. Must haves: high frame rate for gaming, PBP 'Picture by Picture' mode so I could use my home and work computers on the same monitor at the same time, and ultrawide. Nice to haves: USB-C connection to keep my laptop life simple, some form of adaptive sync (e.g. freesync or G-sync), and enough connections on the monitor to not require a dock for my laptop.
It was actually very hard to find something, as things like PBP and USB-C are seen as productivity features, and all the other things are seen as gaming features, and it's very rare for them to show up on a single monitor together.
Almost any monitor will allow you to switch video inputs, e.g. change whether your laptop or desktop is displayed. However how they handle USB connections via the monitor is different.
First thing, it depends a bit how you connect your laptop to the monitor. It must be via a method that transfers USB signal to the laptop.
For me, I connect with a USB-C / TB3 'one cable life' setup. E.g. the USB-C connection charges my laptop, transfers video and data signal to the monitor etc, and picks up any docked peripherals, e.g. USB devices connected to the monitor. My desktop I connect with Displayport for video signal, and a USB-B in this case to transfer the USB signals.
The Dells are great monitors but as you say, pretty average for gaming. Their Alienware gaming focused monitors don't have any of the nice productivity features.
The LG is a great monitor, but expensive, and had one downside for me. Because the USB-C connection transfers video as 'DP-alt', that means display port alternate mode, I couldn't display both my laptop and desktop signal on the computer side by side at the same time. This is only shown in the manual which I stumbled on by accident, but it pretty much wiped it out as an option for me.
With the AOC, it looks like this:
Laptop plugged in via USB-C. This charges the laptop, sends video signal, and connects the USB devices on the monitor to the laptop. E.g. my mouse, keyboard, webcam.
Desktop connected via DP cable and USB-B cable. This sends video signal, and connects USB devices via the USB-B 'upstream port'.
During work hours, I have both turned on, with the laptop outputting on the left of the screen, and desktop on the right. This is basically like having two 27" 1440p monitors next to each other with no bezel. Cool! I can quickly change what computer my USB devices are attached to with the provided remote (two buttons). I have a wireless mouse for my laptop as well, so even if I am mostly working on my desktop, I can still flick that around which sometimes saves me switching for a quick email.
After work hours, I close my laptop and make my desktop fullscreen, no problems.
Note, there are some caveats to these setups, which I'll try and outline… they are all acceptable for me but maybe not for you. These are pretty common among PBP and ultrawides, but some handle things differently:
You can display the laptop full screen over the USB-C connection, however it only supports a lower resolution and 60hz framerate for the USB-C video signal. In PBP mode, it supports the full 2560x1440 res however, e.g. a normal 27" 1440p resolution. There is a way around this, connect your laptop with another Displayport or HDMI cable (the AOC has 2 inputs for each type, pretty unusual), but then you have another cable to deal with. And you need to leave USB-C connected for power and USB device connections.
The computers don't adjust their resolution automatically when you switch between PBP and fullscreen mode. Not a big deal but I have to manually change my resolution on my desktop at the end and start of the day.
Freesync doesn't work when doing PBP mode. This is common to all PBP monitors, as they can't sync two different video streams at once. Not a big deal as I don't game while in PBP mode at all.
5120 x 1440 is a lot of pixels to push, you will need a decent computer to play modern games at a high framerate. Note that it's still less than 4k however.
There are some other monitors I looked at:
Samsung Cj791 and Phillips 346B1C - same panel as far as I can tell, Phillips is cheaper and with a better built in switch. Decided against it as they are older panels, only 100hz, and older displayport connection types (e.g. not very future proof). Phillips was the front runner for a while for me though.
MSI MPG341CQR ticked all my boxes but it was ugly AF. Also, almost as expensive as the AOC, and I am glad I went 49" as PBP works great with the extra real estate.
There's also the Samsung CRG9 which I am pretty sure is the same panel as the AOC, but it lacks a USB-C connection and is more expensive. I would need to buy an expensive dock to keep my laptop 'one cable' life.
Another option is to buy any monitor and use a simple USB switch like this.
https://www.amazon.com.au/UGREEN-Computers-Peripheral-Switch…It's a simple set up. You switch video output on your monitor, and pretty the button to change the USB connection between devices. But I preferred doing it all via the monitor if possible, keeps life a bit more simple and less cluttered. I would also need a dock for my laptop as it only has USB-C outputs.
Edit: by the way, I am happy to take a video to show how the connections and PBP works for you if that helps illustrate it.
@OpenHand: Thanks OpenHand, genuinely appreciate your time!
To summarise your points above, if I get the LG:
I would not be able to use PBP. For my purposes, I only want the monitor to display from my laptop or my PC. There will rarely be any cases where I would want to display both simultaneously. As such, this should not be an issue for me
However, not being able to use PBP would mean my laptop cannot utilise the full resolution via USB-C. I would need to get use a separate HDMI cable.
With most ultrawides, I should be able to switch between either displays easily.
I would need to get a USB switch like the one you linked above.
Your workaround the point above is to have the peripherals connected to your laptop, which is then docked via USB-C.
Does that sound about right?
@RyanMK: Almost but some points to make according to the user manual of the LG specifically:
No PBP if the laptop is connected via USB-C - correct. However, you can PBP HDMI and DP or HDMI and USB-C fine. Note HDMI only supports up to 75hz on full resolution with that monitor.
Actually, the USB-C connection on the LG can support full resolution at high framerate. Up to 3840 x 1600 at 144hz, although the manual says 120hz is preferred. Note, your laptop needs to support Thunderbolt 3 via its USB-C connections to do this however. Pretty easy to find out if it does.
Yes - no problem on switching displays. Different monitors change input at different speeds. My old one took a few seconds, new one is close to instant. I suspect the LG would be fast.
Yes, you would need a USB switch. There are two USB inputs on the LG monitor, however there is only one USB output from the monitor, which is the USB-C connection.
The easiest way to do this is to ignore the ports on the Monitor for now (just think of those two USBs as a little hub for your laptop but not your desktop), and set up one of those switches.
The switch would connect one output to your laptop and one output to your desktop (I believe it comes with USB-A connections). There are then 4 USB-A inputs on the switch which you could connect mouse + keyboard and any other devices to. When you press the button, it swaps them all over from the laptop to the desktop and vice versa.
So basically, it's an additional box you connect both computers to. E.g. your laptop would connect to the monitor via USB-C, and to the switch via USB-A. Your desktop would connect to the monitor via DP (ideally) and then to the switch via USB-A.
When you switch video inputs on the monitor, you would then press the USB switch as well and you're all done.
- I didn't have to do any workaround with the AOC due to the way the ports work. But there are different ways of doing it using docks and hubs these days, just depends on the monitor and what it supports. It is a bit of a pain to sort through all the info but when you know what set up you want, you can pick based on what makes your life easier.
@OpenHand: My laptop is a Lenovo X1 Carbon 6th Gen, which I think has Thunderbolt. I am not sure if it is Thunderbolt 3 though, is there a difference?
The graphic cards on my desktop is a Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070, which I believe should support DP. Good spot on HDMI only supporting up to 75Hz though, I did not noticed that!
By the looks of it, the LG would fit what I want to achieve, with the caveat I have to purchase an additional USB switch? Hopefully I've got all bases covered!
Thank you again, you've been more help in a short few posts compared to my entire weekend of researching!
@RyanMK: Hey bud, from what I can tell the X1 Carbon will be more than capable. I think the Thunderbolt port should be the latest standard from what I can tell. The monitor will also provide power delivery, so your video cable is also acting as your charging cable - neat!
Most GTX 1070s have a DP output, it is easy to check - it looks a bit like a HDMI port but slightly bigger, with one flat edge and one cornered edge. The monitor should come with a cable that fits the right spec, if not you can get a good one for fairly cheap online.
So yes, all you should need is that USB switch.
I just had a thought as well, which should make connecting and disconnecting your laptop easier too - if it works. Technically, the USB Hub on the monitor provides a connection via the USB-C cable to whatever it connected that way.
So, you should be able to connect the USB Switch to the Monitor on one side (which connects it to the laptop via that USB-C plug) and then to the desktop on the other side. If it works okay, that will mean your laptop only needs to connect via that USB-C and nothing else; very handy. But as it's passing through a couple of connections, you will need to test it and confirm.
No worries… researching this stuff is a pain and kept me awake a few nights trying to make my decision. Took a fair few spreadsheets. The standards are all very confusing. Thunderbolt standards, DP and HDMI standards (1.2, 1.4, 2.0 etc).
Once you get into PBP, KVM, USB hubs and all that, these all act slightly different depending on the product. And certain things just aren't well documented, like that DP + USB-C PBP incompatability on the LG which would have ruined my day if I had bought it and found out it didn't work!
Noticeable upgrade in terms of productivity. Easier to brows 2 windows at once.
But in terms of competitive gaming I dont rate it.Sometimes its annoying to look far left to check the map, and then far right to check your ammo then far left again to check your health and then far right to check your ammo.
And not all games support UI adjustment.For more chill games like RDR2 its alright but idk
If you want immersion, a VR headset is significantly more immersive. Incomparable.
No, but it’s better than a 24. Triples are more immersive.