Best cheap, curved 1440p ultrawide monitor?

[AusWolf]

I dunno man, PIP on a 34 inch at this res? What would you use it for? Can you really multitask like that... I've had it on multiple screens and never stuck with it for anything Genuinely curious

It's for fixing friends' or colleagues' computers without having to turn mine off. Currently, I'm using a HDMI splitter, but it disconnects my monitor from my PC when I switch channels on it, which messes up the window positions on my dual screen setup.

By the way, I've ordered the Dell, it's coming on Thursday (I couldn't wait until Christmas). It's from Amazon as well, which means I can send it back for basically any reason. Hopefully it comes in one piece with no dead pixels. Fingers crossed!

 

[oxrufiioxo]

By the way, I've ordered the Dell, it's coming on Thursday (I couldn't wait until Christmas). It's from Amazon as well, which means I can send it back for basically any reason. Hopefully it comes in one piece with no dead pixels. Fingers crossed!

This is honestly the best feature a monitor can have....... IMHO.

 

[AusWolf]

This is honestly the best feature a monitor can have....... IMHO.

It's Amazon. Their returns policy is... interesting. But let's hope it won't come to that.

Edit: I'm honestly satisfied with my current monitor, so if the new one can improve on my experience by only a little, and has no dead pixels, I'll be happy.

 

[oxrufiioxo]

It's Amazon. Their returns policy is... interesting. But let's hope it won't come to that.

Edit: I'm honestly satisfied with my current monitor, so if the new one can improve on my experience by only a little, and has no dead pixels, I'll be happy.

Even all things being equal just the size and better ppi should help with the immersion. I'm sure you'll really enjoy it. I have a 1080p monitor for testing/comparison reasons and while I would recommend to very budget minded gamers anyone spending 400+ on a gpu should be on the QHD resolution imho unless they are into really high refresh 300+ like my crazy brother.

 

[FoulOnWhite]

It's for fixing friends' or colleagues' computers without having to turn mine off. Currently, I'm using a HDMI splitter, but it disconnects my monitor from my PC when I switch channels on it, which messes up the window positions on my dual screen setup.

By the way, I've ordered the Dell, it's coming on Thursday (I couldn't wait until Christmas). It's from Amazon as well, which means I can send it back for basically any reason. Hopefully it comes in one piece with no dead pixels. Fingers crossed!

Hope you like it, it is a good monitor imo. Make sure you grab the driver from the dell website. The box is comically large imo though.

 

[AusWolf]

Hope you like it, it is a good monitor imo. Make sure you grab the driver from the dell website. The box is comically large imo though.

Driver? Does it really need it? I don't think I've installed a monitor driver since the '90s.

As long as it comes with no fault, I'm sure I'll have fun with it. My expectations aren't sky high coming from 1080p60.

 

[oxrufiioxo]

As long as it comes with no fault, I'm sure I'll have fun with it. My expectations aren't sky high coming from 1080p60.

I am a little surprised you didn't at least upgrade to 144/165hz 1080p varients have been uber cheap for a long time.


Best thing to do is game 1-2 weeks on your new monitor and then try your old one lol.

 

[AusWolf]

I am a little surprised you didn't at least upgrade to 144/165hz 1080p varients have been uber cheap for a long time.

I didn't feel the need. I don't play CS:GO, or any other uber fast, reflex-based shooter.

The only reason I'm upgrading now is because the 21:9 aspect ratio made me curious. Otherwise, I'd just keep my current screen.

Best thing to do is game 1-2 weeks on your new monitor and then try your old one lol.

I might do that.

 

[oxrufiioxo]

I didn't feel the need. I don't play CS:GO, or any other uber fast, reflex-based shooter.

Honestly just moving the mouse on the desktop feels a lot better I would do it for that alone. I'm not snobby enough to say 120hz is required for games but even 85fps feels quite a bit better for single player stuff.

 

[Super Firm Tofu]

I didn't feel the need. I don't play CS:GO, or any other uber fast, reflex-based shooter.

The only reason I'm upgrading now is because the 21:9 aspect ratio made me curious. Otherwise, I'd just keep my current screen.


I might do that.

I think you'll be pleasantly surprised and happy with what 120fps+ looks like, even in games that aren't twitchy shooters.

I don't see any improvement with anything faster than that, but that could just be because I'm old or that maybe the response time of my screen isn't that great.

It's still secondary to image quality for me, so I'd rather have better visuals at 60fps than having to turn details down to get to 120fps (looking at you Starfield).

Very interested to read your impressions of the change to UW and faster refresh rate after you've used them for a bit (going from 16:9 to 21:9 and from flat to curved will probably mess with your mind for the first few days).

 

[oxrufiioxo]

Very interested to read your impressions of the change to UW and faster refresh rate after you've used them for a bit (going from 16:9 to 21:9 and from flat to curved will probably mess with your mind for the first few days).

Depending on the sitting distance it will at least take 3-4 hours of use for sure to get use to it. High refresh on IPS monitors for me takes a doubling of framerate for me to notice so 120hz to 240hz.... I will say on oled it is more noticeable likely due to the massively better response times.

 

[FoulOnWhite]

Driver? Does it really need it? I don't think I've installed a monitor driver since the '90s.

As long as it comes with no fault, I'm sure I'll have fun with it. My expectations aren't sky high coming from 1080p60.

The driver tells windows all the display resolutions, refresh rates, or color quality. of the display, i think it's a good idea to install it if you can. I have always done it if there is one, instead of windows saying generic monitor.

https://dl.dell.com/FOLDER08883424M/1/DELL_S3422DWG-MONITOR_A00-00_DRVR_66NYH.exe

 

[AusWolf]

I think you'll be pleasantly surprised and happy with what 120fps+ looks like, even in games that aren't twitchy shooters.

I don't see any improvement with anything faster than that, but that could just be because I'm old or that maybe the response time of my screen isn't that great.

It's still secondary to image quality for me, so I'd rather have better visuals at 60fps than having to turn details down to get to 120fps (looking at you Starfield).

Very interested to read your impressions of the change to UW and faster refresh rate after you've used them for a bit (going from 16:9 to 21:9 and from flat to curved will probably mess with your mind for the first few days).

My current monitor is curved, too. I would never go back to a flat screen, to be honest. There's a chance I'll say the same about UW. We'll see soon.

 

[INSTG8R]

My current monitor is curved, too. I would never go back to a flat screen, to be honest. There's a chance I'll say the same about UW. We'll see soon.

It will be the ultimate combo and you’ll wonder why you didn’t do it sooner

 

[las]

Dont buy less than 144 Hz for sure. It is bare minimum today. The Dell 3422DWG is great for the price.

It will be the ultimate combo and you’ll wonder why you didn’t do it sooner

Tons of people hate curved monitors fyi. Especially people that needs to design stuff and draw straight lines. Curved is mostly good for gaming really. Yet most serious gamers don't use it because it fcks with the X/Y sens and don't provide any advantage from where the important stuff i happening on screen. Good for immersion, sure. Good for some multiplayer games like MMO/ARPG but in shooters you don't really get anything. This is why people that mainly play fast paced shooters don't really use ultrawide. HUD gets out of sight as well in many games.

Some like ultrawide, others don't.
Some like curved, others don't.

I know plenty of people that use ultrawide and likes it, but wants a flat panel.

 

[Outback Bronze]

I would never go back to a flat screen,

Yeah, good call. Me to! I went from a 40" 4K flat screen 60hz to UW 34" curved 144hz and will never go back to flat even at 4K.

Been really enjoying the UW the way it wraps around your head.

 

[Fry178]

@AusWolf
having ordered almost a dozen "screens" thru A, its usually more the shippers messing up,
dropping it, or pushing box across rough surface (road), messing up frame/corners.

 

[las]

An aggressive curve is BS really. 800R is horrible for example, I tried the LG 45 inch OLED. I kinda like 1800R tho. 1500R is still "fine" but would not personally go lower than this.

I know several people who went curved but went straight back to flat. Some like it, others don't.

This is 800R.........

 

[FoulOnWhite]

An aggressive curve is BS really. 800R is horrible for example, I tried the LG 45 inch OLED. I kinda like 1800R tho. 1500R is still "fine" but would not personally go lower than this.

I know several people who went curved but went straight back to flat. Some like it, others don't.

This is 800R.........

That 800R is yuk

I don't really notice the curve on my dell 1800R

 

[INSTG8R]

That 800R is yuk

I don't really notice the curve on my dell 1800R

Same. At 34” I don’t even notice it anymore and i had a curved 27” which thought was pointless.

 

[AusWolf]

Alright, I've got the monitor fired up and spent some time playing with it. Here are my first impressions (+=positive, -=negative, *=neutral):

* It's HUGE! It basically fills my whole desk, so I conclude that 34" UW is the absolute maximum I can have at any point - all the more reason to hope that it'll last a lifetime (or close).

+ 1800R seemed a bit too flat with my 1080p screen, but it's fine with this one. Maybe 1500R would be nice, but I'm glad I didn't choose the 1000R Samsung. That would have been a bit too much curve.

* The grey TPU background got a slightly pink hue for some reason. Nothing else seems to be affected, so I don't know what's going on here. Maybe the flat grey with my last monitor was a false image and TPU is actually pink? I take this back. Setting custom colours instead of the default profile solved it (100% brightness, 75% contrast and 50-75% colour saturation seems to be the sweet spot).

+ The resolution is nice, the added FOV is a bit weird because of the distortion along the edges, but once I get used to it, I'm sure I won't go back to 16:9. 144 Hz feels butter smooth when browsing, but I don't really notice it while gaming. I've never been an extremely fast gamer (on the contrary), I guess that's probably why.

- The response time settings are useless. Everything except for the default "fast" makes bright parts of the screen flicker like crazy. Even "fast" flickers for a couple of seconds after firing up the game (so far, I only tested with Kingdom Come: Deliverance), but it settles down quickly.

* Even the HDR400 setting doesn't make Windows recognise the screen as HDR capable. I guess it's only a kind of emulation within the firmware and not actual HDR? No big deal.

- Navigating the menu is nice, but changing some settings makes others reset. For example, playing with HDR or the response time sometimes automatically disables FreeSync for some reason. Sometimes it doesn't. Again, no big deal, just a bit annoying.

* What's with the blue underglow LED illuminating your desk? I know it can be disabled, I just don't understand why it's there in the first place. Seems utterly pointless. Looks cool, though (but why?).

- My idle GPU power consumption jumped from 18 W to 35-40 W. It's not the monitor's fault, but not cool.

 

[las]

The worst curves are the aggressive ones and when they force a curve on to their 16:9 monitors. Literally makes no point without the width of an Ultrawide.

They mostly do it because they use VA panels.

 

[Chomiq]

- The response time settings are useless. Everything except for the default "fast" makes bright parts of the screen flicker like crazy. Even "fast" flickers for a couple of seconds after firing up the game (so far, I only tested with Kingdom Come: Deliverance), but it settles down quickly.

Gsync on? So much for no flicker @FoulOnWhite

 

[AusWolf]

Gsync on? So much for no flicker @FoulOnWhite

No Gsync, only FreeSync. It's on, and it's doing its job. It just seems to be taking a good few seconds to adapt to the game for some reason.

The worst curves are the aggressive ones and when they force a curve on to their 16:9 monitors. Literally makes no point without the width of an Ultrawide.

They mostly do it because they use VA panels.

I liked my curved 24" 1080p Samsung, too, but it's definitely more pronounced with 21:9.

Another thing I've just played with... Response time has 4 settings: "Fast" looks normal. "Super fast" is the same as fast, but with some slight black ghosting (useless). "Extreme" is just extreme ghosting (super useless). "MPRT" disables FreeSync and HDR (extreme useless). Why does this function even exist?

 

[Outback Bronze]

Why does this function even exist?

So you can get hard-ons playing around with your new monitor