32" 1440p 16:9 vs 34" 21:9 1080p for PC gaming

[Wayoftheflower]

I've spent the last decade gaming on a seemingly indestructable Acer 24" LCD and I think it's time to treat myself to an upgrade.

Recent Black Friday sale had an awfully tempting deal on a 34" ultrawide 2560x1080 at £300 but I held off as it had been that cheap earlier in the year (and by contrast the 29" was down at £170).

Then I was browsing in a Currys last weekend and sat in front of a 32" 2560x1440 and thought it was pretty nice, unfortunately they didn't have any ultrawides to compare with.

Graphics card is an AMD RX580 8GB which not much taxes at the moment driving 1920x1080, the 34" would be driving a third more pixels and the 32" double but I still think it should be fine with maybe a balacing of settings. Freezync is supposed to be nice to have too.

Anyone had the chance to sit in front of both types and compare directly?

Lately I've spent most of my gaming time in Elite Dangerous but I'm about to embark on The Witcher II and my pile of shame has Shadow of Morder, Space Marine, Deserts of Kharak, Total War Warhammer 2 and Deus Ex HR , I sit about 60cm from the monitor which is on a swivel arm so I think at that distance the 34" is going to nicely fill my vision and be pretty damn awesome for Elite (VR is out of budget would make me even more anti-social) but the 32" is significantly cheaper and probably be more "useful" the times I'm doing my taxes or browsing the net.

[mmm-five]

All things being equal, your current screen gives the same PPI (pixels per inch) as a 32" running 2560x1440, so I'd go for the 29/32" to save some cash and get a 'sharper' looking screen than the 34" will give you.

• a 24" screen running at 1920x1080 gives you 92ppi
• a 29" screen running at 2560x1440 gives you 101ppi
• a 32" screen running at 2560x1440 gives you 92ppi
• a 34" screen running at 2560x1440 gives you 86ppi

Maybe a 28" 4k screen is the best option. These start at over £200 though.

• a 28" screen running at 3840x2160 gives you 157ppi

FYI my 27" screen running at 5120x2880 gives me 218ppi

Edited by mmm-five on Monday 3rd December 11:14

[conkerman]

I have a 32in 1440p monitor.

I was leery of ultrawide, plus the 32in 16:9 fits perfectly in the space my gaming PC is in.

I was running a GTX970 and it struggled at 1440p with lots of shiny, I imagine you would have to turn settings down in a 580.

As a general comment, I think anything wider wuld make gaming a bit like a tennis match.

[deckster]

I game on a 34" Ultrawide at 3440x1440, and it's awesome. The extra width really does help fill your field of vision and increase the immersion factor.

There are two downsides though - firstly, my old 980 struggled to drive it at a decent quality and framerate, so I replaced it with a 1080ti which overall made it a pretty pricey upgrade. Secondly, some older games don't work entirely well at 21:9 resolutions (SkyrimSE, I'm looking at you) which means that you either need to play with sidebars, or you lose the top and bottom of the screen where status bars or important menu items often are, which isn't entirely ideal. I've not had that with any games released in the last few years, mind.

[8bit]

I have a 29" Ultrawide at 2560x1080 and while I like it for some games you get used to it after a while and it seems less of a thing. I mostly use the PC for stuff like photo editing so I'm currently considering selling it on and getting a 16:9 format display instead. I find a vertical resolution of 1080 pixels to be a bit restrictive nowadays for non-gaming stuff but it is fine for gaming.

[Wayoftheflower]

Ended up picking up a 32" 4k electriq of fleabay for £170 and think I got a pretty good deal.

The full rez is nice for photos and gaming at 1080p doesn't flog the GFX card too hard. 1440p would be ok but for the marginal cooling of my micro ATX case.

E and Destiny 2 have been great fun on it and at the distance I sit just comfortably filling my field of view (and desk!) 34" might've been step too far.