Gaming on 21:9 widescreen monitor

LordBritish

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I'm thinking about getting one those ultra wide screen monitors with a 21:9 aspect ratio.
Some of these monitors have a resolution of 3440x1440.

I'll be using this for both gaming and work.

My only concern is that I don't think my video card is powerful enough to play games at 3440x1440.
I'm sure it can do normal 2D tasks for productivity related tasks at that resolution just fine.

I have a single GTX 970 video card and I don't really want to do SLI at this time or upgrade to something more powerful.

Can I play games at a lower resolution and show black borders on the left/right side of the monitor?

What I don't want is to play a game at 16:9 aspect ratio and have it stretched to 21:9.

TIA.
 
pretty sure you can lower your game's fullscreen resolution to 2560x1080 (21:9) and that'll work fine. A single 970 will drive that resolution with no problems.

And yes, you can run 1080p with the "pillarboxes" on the sides.
 
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I think all 21:9 displays will scale 16:9 or 4:3 resolutions properly with pillarboxing. If not, GPU scaling is always available to you. If you want to play at a native 3440x1440 resolution, though, it wouldn't be a bad idea to upgrade your video card. I would stay away from SLI. It would be better to put the money you would spend on a second 970 toward a Fury X or 980 Ti, which are both going for less than $400 these days and would be a good upgrade for that resolution if you don't want to spend the money on or wait for a GTX 1070. A GTX 970 is enough if you don't mind turning the settings down, though.
 
If you get the ones that have 100hz Gsync you'll def need an upgrade - I'm running a Titan-X and I could use a 2nd one, waiting on the new Titan instead
 
I love my 21:9 34" monitor (I have the Dell model). It runs well with my 980Ti and I love the extra width for exploration games like Fallout 4. Doing work or productivity stuff is great as I can have multiple windows across the desktop and if you are an Excel person you can have enough columns to keep almost anyone happy.
 
I love my 21:9 34" monitor (I have the Dell model). It runs well with my 980Ti and I love the extra width for exploration games like Fallout 4. Doing work or productivity stuff is great as I can have multiple windows across the desktop and if you are an Excel person you can have enough columns to keep almost anyone happy.

how did you get it to work properly with fallout 4? i've tried everything
 
how did you get it to work properly with fallout 4? i've tried everything

I used the settings here for the ini file,
Fallout 4 No Support for 21:9 • /r/ultrawidemasterrace

fallout4-desk-setup.jpg
 
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there are some issues with the ini fix, scoped in with a rifle gives you a vertically oval sight in a compressed 16:9 shape overlaid on the 21:9 image. And the HUD when in the Mech suite is also 16:9.
I'll try and grab screen shots of those issues if I remember next time I fire up the game.
 
I hadn't played in depth since making the adjustment since I was playing some other games in parallel. The items that Zepher mentioned definitely apply. However, I still like the 21:9 for exploring so I can live with the others until a modder or Bethesda gets around to fixing it.
 
Any way we could make this a hub for ultra wide gaming on here? I'm planning on joining the ranks in the next ffew months, wouldn't mind having everything i need to know aggregated here.
 
I went ultra wide but am back to 16:9 because

- game support issues
- low refresh rate : only 100 vs 165 that I like
- some IPS glow
- nausea while playing shooters

Glad I got back to normal. Much less eye strain and can't beat 120+ fps Gsync.
 
I like my X34....I won't go back to smaller monitors. The only upgrade I'll make is when 4k is above 60hz and playable that way, probably another gen or two of GPUs and monitors.
 
I went ultra wide but am back to 16:9 because

- game support issues
- low refresh rate : only 100 vs 165 that I like
- some IPS glow
- nausea while playing shooters

Glad I got back to normal. Much less eye strain and can't beat 120+ fps Gsync.
Yeah, I honestly think I'm going to take the money I was going to use for the PG348Q and save up some more for a large OLED TV. Maybe the LG OLED55C6P, but I'm waiting to see if anything new and better comes out this year. I know Samsung has teased a new line of OLED. Hopefully we can move past $5k PC OLED at some point.
 
I went ultra wide but am back to 16:9 because

- game support issues
- low refresh rate : only 100 vs 165 that I like
- some IPS glow
- nausea while playing shooters

Glad I got back to normal. Much less eye strain and can't beat 120+ fps Gsync.

Ultra-wide gaming is cool as fuck but the developer support is usually lacking. When I had surround/eyefinity I found that I'd spend more time trying to get the games to work properly with my setup than I would playing them, and it wasn't uncommon for me to write off a game because it wasn't working properly.

That said, if there's even one game you play a lot that works with ultra-wide it can be so worth it for the experience.
 
I like my X34....I won't go back to smaller monitors. The only upgrade I'll make is when 4k is above 60hz and playable that way, probably another gen or two of GPUs and monitors.

Yeah, I went 21:9 for two reasons. 4K was just not ready and you don't need the GPU horse power that you currently need for 4K. I would consider going to a larger 21:9 screen if they made them. Something 40" or larger would be nice but I expect good 4K to fill in this size before it happens so just waiting for 4K to fully and properly mature for PC gaming. Maybe 2017?
 

I did that with my 21:9 screen. Seems to work fine. Other games I use Flawless Widescreen - Gaming the way it should be! . I have a 29" Samsung curved monitor. Only 2560x1080, but my 970 still runs games just fine on it. On the Witcher 3 I think I dropped about 3-5 FPS on a mix of ultra and high. I think I should have bought a 3440x1440 monitor, but I found a great deal on the one I got. I like it a lot better than my 24" 1920x1080 screen.
 
I did that with my 21:9 screen. Seems to work fine. Other games I use Flawless Widescreen - Gaming the way it should be! . I have a 29" Samsung curved monitor. Only 2560x1080, but my 970 still runs games just fine on it. On the Witcher 3 I think I dropped about 3-5 FPS on a mix of ultra and high. I think I should have bought a 3440x1440 monitor, but I found a great deal on the one I got. I like it a lot better than my 24" 1920x1080 screen.

I just tried that flawless widescreen app the other day, I played a few rounds of COD Black Ops and it worked for that game just fine. When I first got the monitor last year I was trying a bunch of games to see what worked and Blacks Ops didn't work, it stretched to fill and I can't play a game that is stretched.
 
I reall want one but I have 2 monitors, one of which I don't use already.... So I just can't...

That said though, curved or regular?
 
for games which don't support it, you can always run a 16:9 resolution and maintain the aspect ratio.
 
I got my LG 34UM68-P 21:9 monitor today.

I only paid $360 for it on Amazon !!!!

Unfortunately it's $440 now but it fluctuates daily so be patient if you want one.

I tried Fallout 4 and used a mod I got on Nexus to enable 21:9 mode. It worked but the power suit hud graphics don't look correct.
BF4 works just fine without any modding.

Resolution is 2560x1080 which is kind of low for a 34" monitor but that easily fixed by moving the monitor further away which is just as well since it's so wide.

Awesome deal for $360. Some of the curved 34" ones cost $900 which is too much for my budget.

It's also the first time I'm using DisplayPort. I was previously using DVI.
 
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I can't go back to any 16:9 or 16:10 gaming after I started using a 21:9 monitor. Games feel much more cinematic when they support the 21:9 resolutions. If they don't, I really hate the black bars & it kills the immersion for me.
 
Most games I play have ultra widescreen support (or do so through modding). I won't ever go back just because of a game's lack.

Edit: fixed
 
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Majority of games I have played recently natively support 21:9, only a handful so far don't and are not so important to make me even consider going back to 16:9.
 
I have the LG34UM67-P coming tomorrow. Its the earlier model to the LG 34UM68-P. The difference? The LG 34UM67-P comes factory 60Hz but can be overclocked to 75Hz while the LG 34UM68-P comes factory clocked to 75Hz. The LG 34UM68-P has the better stand as well. The LG 34UM67-P has the same weak looking stand as the LG 34UM95-P monitor (3440x1440) although I have never had wobbly problems with mine. My 34UM95-P bit the dust (past warranty) and I need a temp 21:9 monitor until the better 21:9 units hit Q4 2016(100Hz) and Q1 2017(120Hz).
 
Thanks. Now at $389, still holding out. (already have a 34UM65 that I got two years ago)
 
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