Are Ultrawide 21:9 Monitors the Future of PC Gaming?
Peter Donnell / 8 years ago
Final Thoughts
21:9 gaming can be a lot of fun, but it’s worth spending some time to find the best monitor for your budget too. There are many on Amazon and most other major technology retailers to pick from. I would suggest many, but since the Acer X34 is the only one I’ve personally reviewed, I don’t feel it would be informative to make guesses. If you’re on a tighter budget, a 1080p ultrawide is the way to go, if you’re eager to boost your productivity with work, and reap higher resolutions for your games, then 1440p ultrawide is the way to go, but expect to pay up for it.
Of course, there are so many other features on the monitor we reviewed and tested. It has a curved 100Hz G-Sync 34-inch panel. Sure it’s awesome, but it’s nearly £1000, so obviously not for everyone. However, if you can stretch your budget that far, you certainly get a lot of screen for your investment.
There are so many games on the market now with native 21:9 support, and if you’re eager to ask “does this game?” then good news, you can check out the WSGF website for a full list of updated games which support the format! You’ll also find plenty of resources below to find support for games in ultrawide, and so much more.
When it comes to productivity wider screens are great fun to use. Of course, you can game on them too, and then you’ve got the benefit of movies. With players like VLC you can crop the black bars out of movies (if they’re hard coded) or just play them natively in ultrawide and it’ll fill the screen as the movie maker intended.
Of course, it’s not a perfect world, and there are some “drawbacks” to ultrawide. Content that only works in 16:9 for example, such as the new Resident Evil 7 game, or quite a lot of movies and streaming content, will be presented with black bars on the side. Honestly, I don’t mind, you’re not losing any information from the source material, but it can take some adjusting to watch movies with the bars there.
Is the world ready to fully embrace 21:9 ultrawide? Absolutely, and you should be too! I’m still a big fan of 4K gaming, and I’m happy to stick with it for a lot of things, perhaps soon we’ll be seeing 5120 × 2160 monitors so we can still enjoy native 4K content and ultrawide gaming, but I wouldn’t expect them to be cheap, or for modern graphics cards to have much more at such a bonkers resolution for a couple of years.
Resources and tools for 21:9 Users
Find like minded 21:9 users and cool content!
Ultrawide Master Race Subreddit
Get rid of those pesky black bars on streaming video content!
Get some lovely 21:9 wallpapers for your new display!
“Games that work with ultrawide (21:9) monitors for the ultimate immersive experience! Games that offer 21:9 support during “gameplay”, but not cutscenes and/or menus will be approved.”
