How do you guys like the ultrawides for gaming?

jordan12

[H]F Junkie
Joined
Dec 29, 2000
Messages
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Are they better than the standard wide screen monitors?

And how about for general browsing? Suck? Fantastic?
 
I love mine for gaming.
I have my browser window sized a little more than half the screen since a full screen browser window doesn't feel right.

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Ya, I have the LG 34UM95-P 3440x1440. They have the newer model for around $550 it just lacks Thunderbolt ports, I think it's called the 34UM95-C.

I'd like to have the Dell 34" Curved, but it was too expensive so I got the LG when it was $750. I have seen the Dell for $750 now which I think is a great deal as it is curved, has a better stand, and comes with a 3 year warranty.
This LG only comes with 1 year, the 34UM94, which is pretty much the same as the one I have but comes with a 3 year warranty.
 
Where is the Dell $750? Somewhere I could potentially get Best Buy to pricematch on it? EDIT: Looked around. Jet, MacMall, and NextWarehouse among others. Hmm.

EDIT2: I imagine you've done a good bit of research on 34" ultrawides, since you got one. Between the LG (flat) and the Samsung (curved) and Dell (curved), you'd probably go with the Dell?
 
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I dont think any blizzard games support 21:9, and i recall having to play with black bars on the side.

Also, watching regular tv shows at 16:9 placed black bars on the side.

I returned my 34" and got a 27".
 
Where is the Dell $750? Somewhere I could potentially get Best Buy to pricematch on it? EDIT: Looked around. Jet, MacMall, and NextWarehouse among others. Hmm.

EDIT2: I imagine you've done a good bit of research on 34" ultrawides, since you got one. Between the LG (flat) and the Samsung (curved) and Dell (curved), you'd probably go with the Dell?

I bought it for $840 and 3 weeks later it dropped to $750 on amazon. This was August. It seems to have went back up in price.

Gaming wise, I love it, but I honestly only play one game (Diablo 3). The big thing that I miss is being able to split the screen into 2 monitors. I still have this ability at work and sometimes you just want a second monitor to keep things organized.

Dell has a software package to help you split the screen up into different proportions (the 2/3, 1/3 split is nice for pretending you have a 27 inch monitor and a smaller 15 inch on its side) but it is very frustrating most of the time. It will make what you move onto it go to full when you just want to move the window. Who needs the calculator app to take up 1/3 of a 34 inch screen? I just wanted to move it.

It is nice, but there are lots of times I miss having a second monitor. I did buy a 13 inch touch monitor. I put it between the bottom of my monitor and my keyboard. But the drivers for it suck, and most of the time I just leave it unplugged. Very disappointed in that lenovo.

Overall, I like it but I think I would have been just as happy with dual 27's. It does certainly impress friends though.
 
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Got a 27" Ultrawide, or 27" 16:9? I'm assuming 16:9 since you didn't like the side-bars?

Yeah 27" 16:9. It was just hard for me to acclimate to a 34" because at once point I used my 3x24" in portrait mode. Doing so allowed me to maximize 3 windows on 3 portrait displays. When i used the 34", the width felt the same as 3x24 portrait, but the height felt really short. And then the loss of being able to full screen windows across multiple displays was a real game changer.

I'm decided to stick with 3x27" 16:9 monitors and ride out the next 5 years.
 
I dont think any blizzard games support 21:9, and i recall having to play with black bars on the side.

Also, watching regular tv shows at 16:9 placed black bars on the side.

I returned my 34" and got a 27".

I play Diablo 3 in 21:9 I run in Windowed Full Screen mode.
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Where is the Dell $750? Somewhere I could potentially get Best Buy to pricematch on it? EDIT: Looked around. Jet, MacMall, and NextWarehouse among others. Hmm.

EDIT2: I imagine you've done a good bit of research on 34" ultrawides, since you got one. Between the LG (flat) and the Samsung (curved) and Dell (curved), you'd probably go with the Dell?

I haven't looked at the other ultrawides, just the LG and the Dell. My friend bought the Dell curved when I showed him a link to it and he saw my LG in person.
He paid $1200 + $150 for a card to run it as the GTX285 I sold him a few years ago would not run that resolution.
I haven't seen it in person yet, I don't get out much due to my hips, neck, and back, but he likes the curve of the screen.
He doesn't game, doesn't graphic design with it.

A lot of good movies are in the ultrawide ratio and I like that I have no black bars,
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Zepher,

you play World of Tanks by any chance? Curious to know if it plays well on that monitor of yours..
 

Cards to run it won't be a problem here -- I just picked up a pair of 980Tis a month or so ago, planning to go 4K, but every 4K display I've tried so far (multiple TVs in the 40-43" range and a Samsung 28" TN monitor that looked good in the store but was absolutely horrible once I got it home) haven't made the cut for one reason or another, so I'm back to "real" (i.e. non-TN, not a TV) monitors.

Thanks for the info. I'll probably end up with the LG or the Dell -- the LG is like $50 cheaper, and that's assuming I can get Best Buy to price-match the Dell to Jet or MacMall. Considering I sometimes play games with my fiancee watching head-on and me to the side (she has severe motion sickness otherwise) I imagine I'd be better with the flat screen, though the curve is neat.

Do you notice backlight bleed issues, or intense IPS glow toward the sides with the LG? I've seen people complaining about this with both the LG and the AOC that I'm fairly sure uses the same panel, and worry a bit given the cost and how picky I can admittedly be.

It amazes me nothing seems to be head-and-shoulders above the Planar PX2611w I bought what..... 6 years ago? You can get higher resolution, sure, but you have to either sacrifice contrast / color quality or everything is a blurry mess... or it costs well over $1000. That's what's lead me to the 34" 21:9 options.
 
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Wonder which would be better

samsung s34e790c vs dell u3415w

Both seem to be great monitors. But the VA of the samsung seems to have better blacks. I really wish I could make a choice. Laugh


I decided to just get the Samsung.
 
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Both seem to be great monitors. But the VA of the samsung seems to have better blacks. I really wish I could make a choice. Laugh

Yes, VA unquestionably gives better blacks, it's just a result of using completely different tech for the panel. VA almost always has better blacks than IPS.

The down-side is VA also has some gamma shift meaning colors will vary across the panel a bit (nothing like TN, but still noticeable by most people) and black crush, where small transitions between very dark colors tend to be lost. VA panels also tend to be slower than IPS, particularly on dark to light transitions, which can result in ghosting. If heavily over-driven (trying to compensate for VA's slower response times) it can even produce inverse ghosting, where there's a black trail, then a white trail. Very annoying, very distracting.

SVA, Samsung's "super VA" implementation of the tech, seems to have dealt with the black crush to a large extent and the ghosting as well, though reviews I've seen suggest that dark to light transitions (heavy, like near black to near white) can still ghost a bit. If you're very sensitive to ghosting/blurring, you may want to avoid VA/SVA panels.

Over all, I'd personally prefer SVA for the deeper blacks (I'm willing to deal with the flaws for this) assuming you aren't paying a price premium, but many people are happier with the lower real-world response times of IPS and over all higher color accuracy.
 
Yes, VA unquestionably gives better blacks, it's just a result of using completely different tech for the panel. VA almost always has better blacks than IPS.

The down-side is VA also has some gamma shift (nothing like TN - TN can go to hell and die, but it's there) and black crush, where very transitions tend to be lost. It also tends to be slower than IPS, particularly on dark to light transitions, which results in ghosting. If heavily over-driven it can even produce inverse ghosting, where there's a black trail, then a white trail. Very annoying, very distracting.

SVA, Samsung's "super VA" implementation of the tech, seems to have dealt with the black crush to a large extent and the ghosting as well, though reviews I've seen suggest that dark to light transitions (heavy, like near black to near white) can still ghost a bit.

Over all, I'd personally prefer SVA for the deeper blacks assuming you aren't paying a price premium, but many people are happier with the lower real-world response times of IPS and over all higher color accuracy.


Went with the samsung. I do game. But mainly World of tanks, etc. I think this monitor will run it without issue.
 
Went with the samsung. I do game. But mainly World of tanks, etc. I think this monitor will run it without issue.

Where did you pick it up from? Also, if you haven't already purchased please look over my edits above. Tried to be more clear on some things.
 
Where did you pick it up from? Also, if you haven't already purchased please look over my edits above. Tried to be more clear on some things.

I actually looked at some youtube videos on both and changed my mind. I bought the Dell U3415W from amazon.com
 
I actually looked at some youtube videos on both and changed my mind. I bought the Dell U3415W from amazon.com

If it's not too late you can cancel with Amazon and order from Macmall.com to save some cash. Cheapest I saw it on Amazon was like $818, but it's $750 with free expedited (1-3 day) shipping from Macmall.
 
I have the LG 34UM95-P 21:9 monitor for gaming. I also play WoT as well and I can tell you its freaking awesome! Latest game I'm playing on it is Fallout 4. Had to adjust with the game's .ini file to get it to run 3440x1440 but it works. The LG is great for gaming and movies but searching the web with it is hard on the eyes. I use a 1920x1200 monitor for web searching where text is easier to read. I don't have great vision though and wear glasses. A single 290x will allow you run most games at ultra or high settings on the um95. I got two because I can afford to :-P If you get 3440x1440 res get at least a 290x (or NVidia counterpart) and you should be fine.
 
If it's not too late you can cancel with Amazon and order from Macmall.com to save some cash. Cheapest I saw it on Amazon was like $818, but it's $750 with free expedited (1-3 day) shipping from Macmall.

Yeah, it shipped last night. But that is ok. I got prime so Ill have it friday.
 
I like the idea of ultra wide, just not thrilled about the lack of compatibility. Especially for competitive games like Dota and Sc2 that would never officially support the resolution.
 
Yeah, it shipped last night. But that is ok. I got prime so Ill have it friday.

Amazon might price-match Macmall after the fact -- you should do a chat with one of their reps and see. No point throwing away $80. Unfortunately since I have a ton of Best Buy credit I had to go a different route.

I ended up getting the Dell U3415W as well; Best Buy price-matched B&H Photo/Video at $818, and I had several promo certificate things that took care of the tax and expedited shipping costs, so I ended up paying like $816 with 2 day shipping. Expecting delivery on Friday too, so we can compare first impressions.

I seriously considered the LG 34UM95 (not the C variant, but the dual Thunderbolt variant -- Best Buy does not sell the C variant) as it would've been around $600 after the promo certificates I had, price-matching and everything, but decided I really wanted a curved display. Going from 16:10 to 21:9 is going to be quite the change, but when I get a new monitor I like it to be as substantial a difference as possible; I tend to keep them for many, many years. That's a big part of why I went with the Dell, with its 3 year warranty.

Just as a sort of "public service" I just saw this looking for links as reference: If anyone is interested in getting the 34UM95C-P variant without Thunderbolt it's currently $550 shipped before a $50 rebate from Adorama ($500 final price!), which is pretty amazing. Went ahead and posted it in [H]otDeals too.

Sadly, the curved LG was outside my price range at $900 and seems to be going for that price everywhere. I imagine panel quality is similar to the Dell, but I can sometimes be a bit vain and really like the look of it better, particularly the stand. The Dell just screams "corporate," but in my experience they're well built and problem free, so I can live with that.
 
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So far i love my Dell U3415W, i used to have 3x 24inch 1080P in nvidia surround, but 43:18 with a slight curve feels more natural.
There are some games that sadly wont run at the full screen like Starcraft 2 and HOTS ( yes you can stretch the 16:9 image to full-screen but that looks weird ).

Im happy however with fallout 4 ( sad i had to install mods and edit the ini file to get the game to function for 100% ) Battlefield, cs:go, gta V, the witcher 3 etc.



Sorry for the pic quality, gotta take some with my dslr soon.
 
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