Is this a good monitor?

[JohnGabriel]

I am looking to move from dual 27" monitors to a single high resolution monitor setup.

Amazon has on sale ($799) a Dell Alienware 1900R 34.1", Curved Gaming Monitor LED-Lit, WQHD 3440 x 1440p Resolution, 4ms 120Hz Overclocked Refresh Rate, NVIDIA G-Sync, 21:9 Aspect Ratio, HDMI, Display Port, 4x USB 3.0, AW3418DW

I do have a GTX 1070 so I think I could go for a 4k monitor and I have seen some that are inexpensive. But the above is what my gut is telling me it wants, not sure if I should listen to it.

[mbox_bob]

I have the ASUS PG348Q, which sounds pretty much like this same monitor (although mine only does 100Hz). I run it from a 1070 (laptop version due to portability requirements).
It is very nice, and a great compromise on using a 4K monitor (I also have). I feel a 4K really needs to be 40" to 43", to get proper use out of it, and avoid display scaling (which for some of the programs I use, just doesn't play nicely regardless of what I do).

So for 6 months I use a 40" 4K, and 6 months the 34" Ultra Wide. I think the UltraWide does win overall, because with the 4K, I find I end up sizing windows so they are not as tall as the monitor, because otherwise I feel like a bit of a nodding dog (or my eyeballs do anyway). The 34" is just about right to be able to keep my eyes focused and notice things on the whole area (plus it just seems easier to move your eyes from side to side, rather than up and down). I would like a slightly tighter curve on my screen due to the distance I sit from it (about 2 to 2.5 feet), but at the same time, it is better than no curve.

[JohnGabriel]

The Dell monitor is default 100Hz and overclockable via the gaming panel to 120Hz. Looking at the stats for your Asus it says it is overclockable, very close to the same monitor. The non-sale price is about the same as well.

[Lyonheart]

i have an Predator X34 (https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824011185&ignorebbr=1&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-PC&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-PC-_-pla-_-Gaming+Monitors-_-N82E16824011185&gclid=Cj0KCQiAoo7gBRDuARIsANeJKUYmVO12KmQYevGHaUoO kVoNh4guqOCQdfZHMUA_hn_YpUAB0bBfpJMaAlpZEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds) and i got it new for 1200.00usa . it now sells for 848 on ebay. I think its close to the same as yours. If i ever buy a new montior ( have had this one for 3 years or so ) I will get what ever the newest version of this one is. LOVE it! I have tried to go to 4K and i just prefer the screen real estate this offers and how fricking awesome evey game i play on it looks. I have a 1080ti but will be upgrading to RTX line as soon as more games are out that take advantage of ray tracing.

Btw.. a few 2018 best of articles list your as the best of the ultra wide. here is one example (https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2018-11-30-best-gaming-monitor-7003#ultrawide)

[JohnGabriel]

I went ahead and bought it, arrives next Tuesday.

Thanks everyone.

[MiRai]

I loved my ultrawide setup, but using it for online content creation made it difficult because of its aspect ratio. If it was easy to go back to using 21:9 ultrawide while still being able to create content in 16:9, I'd do it, but it's annoying having to keep switching back between the two aspect ratios, as well as maintaining two UIs/multiboxing setups. However, I am eyeing the new 4K ultrawide from LG (https://www.lg.com/us/monitors/lg-34WK95U-W-ultrawide-monitor), and I'm hoping we'll see more of those in the near future.

[DasButo]

Massdrop has their Vast 35" wide-screen for a good price:

https://www.massdrop.com/buy/massdrop-vast-curved-gaming-monitor

[MiRai]

Massdrop has their Vast 35" wide-screen for a good price:

https://www.massdrop.com/buy/massdrop-vast-curved-gaming-monitor
You can't see the product page unless you're either a member of Massdrop, or you enable guest mode in the URL.

https://www.massdrop.com/buy/massdrop-vast-curved-gaming-monitor?mode=guest_open

However, you still can't see the price unless you're a member, but it's $550.

[DasButo]

Oops, my bad :p. The price went up, as it was on sale last week for $480.

[MadMilitia]

I am looking to move from dual 27" monitors to a single high resolution monitor setup.

Amazon has on sale ($799) a Dell Alienware 1900R 34.1", Curved Gaming Monitor LED-Lit, WQHD 3440 x 1440p Resolution, 4ms 120Hz Overclocked Refresh Rate, NVIDIA G-Sync, 21:9 Aspect Ratio, HDMI, Display Port, 4x USB 3.0, AW3418DW

I do have a GTX 1070 so I think I could go for a 4k monitor and I have seen some that are inexpensive. But the above is what my gut is telling me it wants, not sure if I should listen to it.

1070 might be a little subpar for 1440p. I know I was running a 1080 FE last year at 1440p and was getting reasonable framerates. About 45FPS in some areas, 60FPS in low density areas and 20FPS in Dalaran.

1080ti does 1440p * 5 easily. Champ mode like 55FPS in Dazar'alor.

[JohnGabriel]

I thought I would update this.

The monitor looked and worked great, I absolutely loved it. But today it broke, powers on but black screen. I had to go back to my old monitor and redo all my isBoxer window layouts yet again.

It failed 4 days before the warranty expired. I was lucky, not as lucky as having a working monitor but glad it broke now and not next week.

[MiRai]

It failed 4 days before the warranty expired. I was lucky, not as lucky as having a working monitor but glad it broke now and not next week.
Did you buy a refurbished model or something like that? That display from Dell has a 3-year warranty on it.

https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/alienware-34-curved-gaming-monitor-aw3418dw/apd/210-amsv/monitors-monitor-accessories

(located under "See More Tech Specs")

[JohnGabriel]

Did you buy a refurbished model or something like that? That display from Dell has a 3-year warranty on it.

https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/alienware-34-curved-gaming-monitor-aw3418dw/apd/210-amsv/monitors-monitor-accessories

(located under "See More Tech Specs")


Right you are, I didn't mean the manufacturers warranty but the no questions asked return period from Amazon where I bought it. It took two button clicks and I had a new one being shipped and a return label printed out for this one. It expires Jan 31st.

[MiRai]

Right you are, I didn't mean the manufacturers warranty but the no questions asked return period from Amazon where I bought it. It took two button clicks and I had a new one being shipped and a return label printed out for this one. It expires Jan 31st.
Gotcha - those are the best types of returns/exchanges, where you don't have to deal with the manufacturer.

[JohnGabriel]

Help Help Help. OMG my monitor broke yet again, less than 2 weeks use. The same problem, blank screen. After some experimenting its only the Display Port. I still get a signal out of HDMI port.

Am I losing much not using Display Port?

Trying to decide to return it now or just use it since I have HDMI. The exchange from Amazon is good until Feb 28th, and the manufacturer warranty is until 2022, so I have some time.

I already checked on the manufacturer website and this is indeed a brand new monitor. Amazon has sent me used items as new before, but not in this case. But two going bad in two weeks, maybe my GTX 1070 is blowing it out.

[Ughmahedhurtz]

Could also be a cable with a short, or a bad connector design. I presume you tried a different DP cable?

[MiRai]

It could easily be the lack of a quality displayport cable, outdated firmware (https://www.nvidia.com/object/nv-uefi-update-x64.html) on the GPU itself, or driver corruption.

[JohnGabriel]

I checked the firmware and thats fine. Going to go to Best Buy and pick up a good quality cable and try that. Its the new cable that came with it, I exchanged the cable when I exchanged the monitor.

I've got like a thousand cables sitting in a box in the garage yet only the one display port cable.

[mbox_bob]

I've had issues with DP cables before. Especially mini DP to normal DP. I ended up buying the shittiest cheapest cable I could find, and it worked super with my ASUS PG348Q. The more expensive cables (and the supplied cables) gave me grief with the display cutting out, not detecting. I tried the old plug/unplug/reboot/resets many many times and sometimes would work, sometimes not. In the end the really after being about to take the monitor back, I got a cheap cable, and viola.

So, not all expensive cables are good and not all cheap cables are bad.

[Padoolikay]

I've been lurking on the forums for a while but finally joining in. Hi all!

John - I'm intrigued on how you like the monitor when it is working. Happy with it? I've been getting more into multi-boxing and been making the same monitor decisions. I've gone with the Acer XR382CQK instead because it's a bit bigger (37.5 inches) and I'm a sucker for the larger screens, but I'm having second thoughts because the Dell/Alienware one has so many stellar reviews and I'd love to know from someone who is multi-boxing.

I'm also interested what window layouts you all use when on an ultra wide to make best use of the extra space. Previously I've been 5-boxing on a 16:9 24 inch and been using the standard lead character up top, 4 below approach which means my main window is roughly 21:9. Weirdly, on a 21:9 monitor I'm assuming the most efficient use of space is making the main window 16:9 and then putting the other four on the right in the extra space?

[JohnGabriel]

I've been lurking on the forums for a while but finally joining in. Hi all!

John - I'm intrigued on how you like the monitor when it is working. Happy with it? I've been getting more into multi-boxing and been making the same monitor decisions. I've gone with the Acer XR382CQK instead because it's a bit bigger (37.5 inches) and I'm a sucker for the larger screens, but I'm having second thoughts because the Dell/Alienware one has so many stellar reviews and I'd love to know from someone who is multi-boxing.

I'm also interested what window layouts you all use when on an ultra wide to make best use of the extra space. Previously I've been 5-boxing on a 16:9 24 inch and been using the standard lead character up top, 4 below approach which means my main window is roughly 21:9. Weirdly, on a 21:9 monitor I'm assuming the most efficient use of space is making the main window 16:9 and then putting the other four on the right in the extra space?

I use a basic windows layout, all 5 at 3440x1120 resolution. It makes use of the full immersion a curved monitor can offer.
https://imgur.com/a/bwtNX11

As for the monitor itself, I love it for gaming. Its kindof weird for surfing the internet and whatnot but I am used to that now. No dead pixels, no flicker, great accent lighting, easily adjustable, tripod legs keep it from taking up much desk space. If the cable thing works out I wouldn't find much fault with this.

[Sservis]

I've been lurking on the forums for a while but finally joining in. Hi all!

...

I'm also interested what window layouts you all use when on an ultra wide to make best use of the extra space. Previously I've been 5-boxing on a 16:9 24 inch and been using the standard lead character up top, 4 below approach which means my main window is roughly 21:9. Weirdly, on a 21:9 monitor I'm assuming the most efficient use of space is making the main window 16:9 and then putting the other four on the right in the extra space?

Welcome!

There's a reason the "standard" main on the top (or bottom), others smaller on a row at bottom (or top) is used so often. Mostly, it's because it's simple and it works well. Also, it creates an artificial wider screen with a bigger field of view. WoW is a Hor+ game (top to bottom, same amount depicted, horizontal size widens or narrows as needed to fill the screen). See http://www.wsgf.org/article/screen-change for more information on that, compare the two images in the Hor+ section, imagine the first one is 16:9 and the second what you see in the "standard" multiboxing layout (or in a 21:9 layout). A standard multiboxing layout on a 21:9 monitor is even wider still.

JohnGabriel is running at 43:14 (or about 27.6:9). Using only a side for the main screen and a vertical row for the others would reduce his FoV. Refer back to the two Hor+ pictures again, imagine an enemy standing in the space that is hidden on the first image, but shown on the second. Which would you rather play on?

Note that if a game is Vert-, then wider is not a better FOV, it's worse as instead of seeing more, you see less.

PS- The pixel math also doesn't work with making the main a side 16:9 (2560:1440) region of a 21:9 monitor. 16:9 smaller windows that are the width of the remaining 880 pixels of width would have a height of 495. You can fit roughly 2.9 of those on the side before they start overlapping. The standard window layout allocates 1 / (n + 1) * resolution pixels to the height of the row of smaller windows. This leaves n / (n + 1) * resolution pixels for the main screen and guarantees that when shrunk into the smaller row, it decreases in height by a factor of n. The width to keep proportionality also decreases by a factor of n, making exactly n windows fit across the screen.

More complex simple layouts are easily possible. JohnGabriel allocates 40 pixels for his start menu for instance before doing the chopping, leaving 1400 and n = 4, so to get the small row height he divides by 1 / (4 + 1) = 280, and that leaves 1120 remaining for the main window. It'd be 288 and 1112 if he didn't leave those 40, and different values if he had 5 smaller windows, etc

[Padoolikay]

Thanks SServis. Really good link. I totally agree that the extra FOV is fantastic, and definitely preferable for regular combat etc. As you caught: I highly simplified the math, and my thought was more whether you end up with "wasted" space dependent on camera zoom etc, and also whether the alt windows become too small to be useful.

However, I was definitely over-thinking the problem! My Acer arrived and it's 3840 x 1600, so doing the standard layout has given me a main window of 3840x1300 (~26.5:9) (ie fantastic FOV) and the alt windows are large enough to be meaningful too. Now it's just the fun challenge of rearranging all the UI components to be most useful.

It'll be really hard to go back to a 16:9 monitor now. Gaming is a whole new world.