opinions from those in the know: Dual 27" or one Ultrawide 34"? for gaming and productivity

KnishofDeath

KnishofDeath

[H]ard|Gawd
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Greetings [H]ard members,

I currently have a 27" 2560x1440 Acer Predator IPS G-Sync Monitor. I am currently debating whether to sell this bad boy and replace it with the Acer Predator X34 (or similar) or buy a 2nd 27" IPS (non g-sync monitor most likely). I would like more desktop screen space overall, plus this solo 27" looks rather out of place next to my massive Case Labs SMA8.

I mainly play games on this rig but also do photo editing and video editing regularly. Thoughts from folks that switched from dual setups to 34" Ultrawide especially appreciated. Do you feel like your missing out on anything? Is the immersive gaming experience worth any modest trade-offs in productivity?

My all-time favorite personal monitor setup was what I had back in 2010, a Dell U3011 paired with dual 20" monitors in portrait mode flanking both sides. However, as much as I love 16:10, g-sync is too good to give up.

Also, isn't a new version of the X34 coming out soon? If so, should I hang on to the $$$ and wait for it?

Thanks

Specs in sig. I have 2 GTX 1080s in SLI, so driving the resolution shouldn't be an issue.
 
Darthvegan said:
Greetings [H]ard members,

I currently have a 27" 2560x1440 Acer Predator IPS G-Sync Monitor. I am currently debating whether to sell this bad boy and replace it with the Acer Predator X34 (or similar) or buy a 2nd 27" IPS (non g-sync monitor most likely). I would like more desktop screen space overall, plus this solo 27" looks rather out of place next to my massive Case Labs SMA8.

I mainly play games on this rig but also do photo editing and video editing regularly. Thoughts from folks that switched from dual setups to 34" Ultrawide especially appreciated. Do you feel like your missing out on anything? Is the immersive gaming experience worth any modest trade-offs in productivity?

My all-time favorite personal monitor setup was what I had back in 2010, a Dell U3011 paired with dual 20" monitors in portrait mode flanking both sides. However, as much as I love 16:10, g-sync is too good to give up.

Also, isn't a new version of the X34 coming out soon? If so, should I hang on to the $$$ and wait for it?

Thanks

Specs in sig. I have 2 GTX 1080s in SLI, so driving the resolution shouldn't be an issue.
Click to expand...
Well I absolutely hate the aspect ratio and how small it looks at 34" so my vote is for the dual monitors in this case.
 
A few things here. 1 - most ultrawides aren't the best for productivity, from what I understand. For content creation you probably wont have enough comfortable space to have multiple windows open and for coding/programming you're better going off with a vertical monitor. If you do editing casually then it might be fine for your purposes. 2 - not all games support 21:9 natively. There are workarounds (some easier to set up than others and there is a great community @ widescreengamingforum that helps discovering and sharing fixes) I would say if gaming is your main priority see if the games you play most support 21:9 and have a viable workaround if they don't. 1 big one that does not is Overwatch. 3 - yes there is a X34p that is suppose to come out at some point but it's not clear at all when. I wouldn't be surprised if Acer scrapped it all together with the new line of 4K HDRs coming out. If you truly want it I would go for it now.

All that aside - I have had my X34 for almost a year now and I love it. Sometimes I find myself wanting to snap another window to another monitor but that occurs seldom. The games that do support 21:9 look fantastic, the IPS and color accuracy is phenomenal, 100Hz feels great coming from nothing but 60Hz screens and G-sync is always a plus. If you have a reputable tech store in the area like Microcenter, I would go and see if they have any ultrawide panels on display and see how you feel about having multiple windows fitted to the one screen.
 
There are new 200Hz HDR Ultrawides announced for later this year, but it's possible that they will be delayed like the 4K 144Hz ones were.
They are also using VA panels rather than IPS panels, which may be an issue for some. (I don't like VA panels)

I do like using a 34" UW for things like photo/video editing as the extra width is a good fit for toolbars on the side of the image you're working on, or for an extended timeline.
I can't say how it compares to a dual 27" monitor set up though; I've never really been a fan of using multiple monitors.

That said, I can see why some might not like them for productivity.
I use DisplayFusion to split things so that I have 1000px windows left/right and a 1440x1440 window in the center of the screen most of the time.
Though it's nice to have 1720px wide windows with a 50/50 split, I feel like that can be too far apart for some tasks. Depends how you like to work really, and I would personally find 2x2560 to be even worse.
At the same time, if that is how you like to work, that's 5120x1440 rather than 3440x1440.

For gaming, I think you would only be wanting to use a single display.
You don't want monitor bezels to be directly in the middle of your view in games, so that would be 3440x1440 in games vs 2560x1440.

That assumes the game supports UW aspect ratios.
I've been more surprised at how many games can support UW aspect ratios than anything else, but it's still somewhat disappointing when a new game comes out and doesn't support it at all.
That said, you just end up with a pillarboxed 2560x1440 image on the UW display which matches what you would have with a 27" 2560x1440 monitor anyway.

Though it's not without issues (what is?) I don't have any regrets buying a 34" UW G-Sync display at all. I'm very happy with it.
The UW aspect ratio is so much more immersive in games than 16:9. I went from a 46" 16:9 display to a 34" UW display and consider it to be an upgrade.
shaolin95 said:
Well I absolutely hate the aspect ratio and how small it looks at 34" so my vote is for the dual monitors in this case.
Click to expand...
It's a 27" monitor, but 33% wider.
If you think a 34" UW is small, a 27" 16:9 is even smaller.
 
Your Predator sits at the top of the food chain of gaming monitors. There are ZERO displays above 2560x1440 with both ULMB and Gsync. If you are willing to give up ULMB, can tolerate VA gamma shift and lousy response times, there are 35" 3440x1440 monitors with gsync on the $900-1100 range.
 
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See heres the issue...for productivity it's dual monitors hands down. For gaming, ultrawide is nice when it works but incompatibility can lead to a few minor frustrations at times. Since you already own a high end 27 incher my vote is to add another 27 incher.
 
I went from 55" 4K curved Samsung to X34 Predator to 55" OLED. Had the X34 for almost 2 years but it wasn't the right size for me. It always felt like the top half of my screen was missing. If you were AMD I'd tell you to sell your Pred get 3 of these:
https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=24657
 
MistaSparkul said:
See heres the issue...for productivity it's dual monitors hands down. For gaming, ultrawide is nice when it works but incompatibility can lead to a few minor frustrations at times. Since you already own a high end 27 incher my vote is to add another 27 incher.
Click to expand...

I agree with this, but if you can afford it add two 27" great productivity! (3 total) And have some fun with Nvidia surround in gaming.

Playing Dirt Rally, Shadow of Mordor, Battlefront, Battlefield, etc will absolutely make your jaw drop at 7680x1440.

BTW, I've had similar experiences

20"/30"/20" with three Dells in plp orientation. (AMD drivers support PLP gaming since AMD 285. Nvidia still doesn't support)

An Acer 35" ultrawide, which I didn't like as much. FOV wasn't yet supported enough for gaming, and for productivity I was always looking left or right instead of straight on to the main display like you do with three displays.

Now I use three HP Omen 32" which is honestly too wide for productivity, but is jaw dropping for gaming with driving and flying games. I suspect I'd be willing to trade them out for 27" 1440p --- I think to lessen that 81" span so I could use them more effectively for general PC use and browsing.

VRR is a absolute must for me after using it. (Gsync for Freesync)
 
B!nd. said:
A few things here. 1 - most ultrawides aren't the best for productivity, from what I understand. For content creation you probably wont have enough comfortable space to have multiple windows open and for coding/programming you're better going off with a vertical monitor.
Click to expand...

I disagree. I have an ultrawide at work and really like it for those purposes. You can put just enough screens size by side and there is plenty of vertical height for programming too. However I don't feel that ultrawide gives that much for gaming. It's more like peripheral vision and I would rather take higher refresh rates and lower GPU requirements over that, especially when many games have issues with the 21:9 aspect ratio.
 
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