32 inch 4K or 34 inch Ultra Wide 1440p (both gsync)

[StinkyPinky]

Just wondering if anyone has used both resolutions/aspect ratios and which one you preferred?

As far as I can tell;

4K

Pros:
More common aspect ratio
Sharper image
More real estate
Better support for older games due to standard aspect ratio and being able to drop to 1080p
Works better with dual screen setups (?)

Cons:

Only 60hz
More pixels to push for newer games
Less immersive for movies than ultra wide (?)

UW 1440p:

Pros:
Better for movies and tv shows (?)
Good resolution for games that support it
Less pixels to push
100+ hz

Cons:
Rare aspect ratio, no good for old games
Less pixel density

 

[rchunter]

I haven't used a UW screen yet but I bought a Acer Predator XB321HK the other day and it seems like a really nice 4k IPS monitor. afaik it's the only 32" 4k monitor on the market with gsync.

I'll tell you I never really liked the idea of having a curved monitor, I see most of the UW panels are curved screens and that's why I went with a normal 4k IPS panel. None of my 4k televisions are curved either.

 

[Tweak155]

I have gone through most of the options at this point... 4K @ 32" & 40", UW @ 34" (120hz), 1440p @ 27" ... 144hz & 165hz Freesync & Gsync....

I stuck with the 27" 1440p 165hz GSync. This was ultimately due to the fact that it had the best picture, though. Once you get over 120hz I don't think *sync is important. I liked the Ultrawide experience the best, but the AW3418DW I had did not have a very good picture when compared to my then current 27" 1440p 144hz FreeSync.

As far as 4K, it was the best combination of gaming & productivity, but UltraWide was close enough on the productivity side.

Unfortunately I don't think they make a good enough Ultrawide right now... need 120hz+ with a solid picture. I hear the 100hz that have been out a while have a much better picture, but 100hz is not fast enough for me anymore.

As long as you're OK with black bars on the sides, the non-support for the resolution in older games is not a problem. Your 34" Ultrawide (3440x1440) will effectively become a 27" 2560x1440 which is plenty fine.

 

[Headfoot]

100% high refresh rate ultrawide. I just got a 2560x1440p 144hz monitor to add to my eyefinity triple monitor set up. I've also played on my samsung KS8000 HDR 4k unit, high end VA @ 60hz. High refresh rate feels great, and ultrawide is really immersive when it works. Ultrawide works more than my old 5760x1080 setup does, but still sometimes it wouldn't. In that case 4k might even struggle too.

I found 4k to be really not that impressive for gaming, to be honest. The detail is obviously great, and turning off AA in favor of having enough resolution is great too. But I get at least 50 maybe even 75% of that perceived effect from my 24" 1440p panel plus all the goodness of high refresh rate on Gsync. Plus to get a fluid 60 fps in newer games on 4k you have to turn down settings so you lose the image quality angle pretty fast. I'd rather have ultra at 1440 than medium at 4k in most games. Especially games with SSAO

 

[nOOky]

I prefer 4k60hz. I just like the 16:9 ratio for movies, game support, even general Windows use and viewing pictures. I do not like black bars on the side of my display when playing games or looking at photos etc. I also don't like a lot of open windows side by side, that's just preference though. The downfall is the 60hz limitation, but don't believe that you can't max out current games with only low quality settings, if you have a high end GPU you'll be just fine and your games will be great looking and playable.

The comment about 16:9 versus 21:9 as being not as immersive is funny, I remember years back the same arguments were made concerning 16:9 versus 4:3 aspect ratios. I have used an LG 38" 3840 x 1600 and I found it too wide, although it was probably too close to me on the desk.

Honestly if I were buying now I'd probably wait, some fantastic options for monitors will be coming out next year, and you'll likely need good money to buy them. 4k120hz, HDR, and higher refresh on some current ultra wide resolutions will be out there.

It's personal preference. You really have to pick a display size relative to your viewing distance first imho, choose Gsync or Freesync, then desired refresh rate if available, and go from there.

 

[postmortemIA]

how good are your eyes? You'll have to use scaling greater than 100% for most 4K displays, which partially negates resolution gain: you do get sharper images/fonts, but at a cost of reduced real estate. Ultra-wide @ 34" is ok and pretty sharp without scaling.

I have 34" ultra-wide and it is PITA for movies & videos since even 21:9 content is actually wrapped in 16:9 1080P container.

 

[mnewsham]

how good are your eyes? You'll have to use scaling greater than 100% for most 4K displays

36-43" is the size needed to avoid GUI scaling at common desktop viewing distances when using a 4k monitor.

I'm using a 42.5" at 2.5-3 feet with 100% scaling and no issues reading text.

 

[Headfoot]

Ultrawide is awesome. I find 4k overrated for gaming. The immersion factor of wider for gaming is very apparent. It's useful for productivity too. Buyer beware on that though - ultrawide support is better than it used to be but no sure thing still. Some competitive games even go out of their way to not support it or support it only in name but it ends up being a irritatingly low FoV. (Overwatch "added" support for 21:9 but it just zooms everything in with a narrower FoV so you actually have a smaller viewport than on 16:9, same in PUBG). Many games do support it, the widescreen gaming forum auto-fix utility is a life saver for it. The new Prey game for example works perfect with the fixes applied from the utility, and looks fantastic on ultrawide.

 

[repoman0]

36-43" is the size needed to avoid GUI scaling at common desktop viewing distances when using a 4k monitor.

I'm using a 42.5" at 2.5-3 feet with 100% scaling and no issues reading text.

YMMV, I find 32" 4k at 100% scaling to be perfect at roughly arms length viewing distance.

 

[mnewsham]

YMMV, I find 32" 4k at 100% scaling to be perfect at roughly arms length viewing distance.

The mathematical "optimal" viewing distance for 32" 4k is right around 1.5 feet. If your eyes are good though you can probably get another half foot or so on that without much issue.

 

[repoman0]

The mathematical "optimal" viewing distance for 32" 4k is right around 1.5 feet. If your eyes are good though you can probably get another half foot or so on that without much issue.

I definitely got lucky with some good eyes. I've had it even further back than I have it now, probably 3-4 feet, with no issues but liked it nice and close for video games. Most people who see my setup think text is too small and my girlfriend hates using it (actually a bonus kidding)

 

[biostud]

I have 34" ultra-wide and it is PITA for movies & videos since even 21:9 content is actually wrapped in 16:9 1080P container.

Does this apply to streaming like Netflix, HBO and Amazon?

 

[mnewsham]

Does this apply to streaming like Netflix, HBO and Amazon?

Yep, there is a chrome extension that can be used to toggle to the appropriate aspect ratio, but then you're forced to use chrome which only allows a max of 720p res, at least for netflix.

watching 720p content on a 3440x1440 display is simply not going to look as good as 1080p, even if the 720p has been altered to cut off the black bars.

The current recommendation is to use the netflix app for 1080p (or 4k if your system supports all the DRM).

Most movies simply aren't released with their original aspect ratio, whether it's bluray, or streaming. There are some out there though, especially films that had larger budgets and were shot in IMAX.

You can always zoom in your movies to cut off the blackbars, but then you get a softer image since you no longer retain 1:1 pixel mapping.

 

[postmortemIA]

Yep, all streaming sites that I use do 16:9.
Best I've found is Ultra Wide Video Edge extension that does 21:9 crop, without messing up aspect ratio. Edge plays Netflix in 1080p. There are some Netflix movies that are 21:9 wrapped into 16:9 and they look amazing with the extension.
Make no mistake, 21:9 content looks amazing on 21:9 screen, just I wish you good luck finding it.

 

[richaron]

Yep, all streaming sites that I use do 16:9.
Best I've found is Ultra Wide Video Edge extension that does 21:9 crop, without messing up aspect ratio. Edge plays Netflix in 1080p. There are some Netflix movies that are 21:9 wrapped into 16:9 and they look amazing with the extension.
Make no mistake, 21:9 content looks amazing on 21:9 screen, just I wish you good luck finding it.

Maybe it's just because I use VLC in Linux but most movies I watch default to ultrawide and fill up my screen nicely. Surely it must be the same for others? In fact I get grumpy on the odd occasion I get a movie I'm looking forwards to and it's been neutered into 16:9. TV shows are obviously 16:9 and have the dreaded black bars though.

I honestly don't think ultrawide gaming support will be a problem going forwards, and it can be fine on well made old games, but I do admit support can be a problem at the moment (especially with indies).

I don't think I'll be going back from ultrawide QHD any time soon, it feels like the best mix of productivity and gaming at the moment. Plus I think at 100Hz my monitor will be good for the next couple of generations of GPUs. My only real gripe (apart from HDR options), is that my 3440x1440 doesn't do 1:1 pixel for "4k" cinematic content but it's soo close. For that I'd need a something x ~1600 21:9 ultrawide.

 

[mnewsham]

Maybe it's just because I use VLC in Linux but most movies I watch default to ultrawide and fill up my screen nicely

Depends what movie you watch and how you decide to "fit" it to 21:9

There are two options, cropping the top and bottom and zooming in to the proper size.
Or
Stretch the image to fit 21:9 without cropping anything.

Movies that have black bars can be cropped fairly easily for 21:9.
Movies that don't have black bars can be cropped, but you'll lose out on a decent bit of top/bottom resolution, so generally you'll want to stretch/zoom to 21:9 with these, and depending on the native resolution of your source this could leave you with a stretched/softer image than the original, not bad for animated content, but can be jarring for live action stuff.

 

[richaron]

Depends what movie you watch and how you decide to "fit" it to 21:9

There are two options, cropping the top and bottom and zooming in to the proper size.
Or
Stretch the image to fit 21:9 without cropping anything.

Movies that have black bars can be cropped fairly easily for 21:9.
Movies that don't have black bars can be cropped, but you'll lose out on a decent bit of top/bottom resolution, so generally you'll want to stretch/zoom to 21:9 with these, and depending on the native resolution of your source this could leave you with a stretched/softer image than the original, not bad for animated content, but can be jarring for live action stuff.

True, good info.

I was just saying my default experience wan't anything like the "21:9 wrapped in 16:9" idea talked about above. Implying top and bottom black bars plus also side black bars. Which I have seen a couple of times and made me reconsider reality.

Personally I wouldn't crop to fill an ultrawide aspect ratio, I'd prefer to see the full image. On a few occasions I've stretched something like anime as a test and it worked pretty well, but anything other than anime would look too whack. As a rule I'd only run true 21:9 content ultrawide.

 

[etrin]

32 2560:1440 16:9 there are a lot of people bragging on this one.
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824025836&ignorebbr=1
Lg 31.5" QHD panel with 5ms & 144Hz with g-sync


I want to get a 3440 x 1440 UW and first thought about the acer.... new one is 120 Hz but tooo many bad comments on it.

Aoc just released its new 35 with 120hz but no reviews or anything yet.

LG has stated in May they have one with 144hz UW. I am assuming this is something they are going to unveil at the computer show next week.

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I am also a little worried about driving a FULL 4K monitor. The ones I have seen talked about are dual dp cables and say that a 1080ti struggles to run games at max settings. These are the ones with over 100hz refresh.