5 Of The Best Ultrawide Monitors To Elevate Your Gaming Experience
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If you're in the market for a new gaming monitor, many exciting choices lie ahead. How big should it be? What kind of a refresh rate are you looking for? Do you want an IPS panel with wonderfully bright colors, or perhaps a TN screen for fast-paced esports titles? Alongside all of those choices, there's one more decision for you to make — do you want a standard display, or are you going to take the plunge and try out an ultrawide?
Ultrawides are growing in popularity among gamers. These screens, usually curved, offer the perfect degree of immersion for a solo gamer. While a curved TV might be problematic, because not all viewers would be able to enjoy the best viewing angles, a curved ultrawide gaming monitor serves its purpose well by providing top-notch visuals, extra screen real estate, and entertainment. Not to mention that some games look their best if they're optimized for ultrawides, and it's an experience unlike any other.
There's a catch, though — ultrawide gaming monitors often aren't cheap. How do you pick the best one that suits your needs and your budget? No worries — just browse through our suggestions down below and find your dream monitor.
Gigabyte M34WQ 34
While ultrawides often cost a pretty penny, it's entirely possible to get a great gaming monitor at a reasonable price. One of the most popular options in the $300 to $500 range is the 34-inch Gigabyte M34WQ. The brand, also responsible for some of the top graphics cards on the market, has a fair number of solid monitors under its belt, and this one stands out due to its excellent combination of price and performance.
For gamers, it ticks most of the boxes. You'd be getting a massive 34-inch flat screen with a resolution of 3,440 x 1,440 and an IPS panel. As mentioned above, IPS displays are known for their brightness and color reproduction, so this should make some of the latest games look pretty great. However, this monitor also satisfies the need for high refresh rates and quick response times, serving up 144Hz and 1ms, respectively.
It's not just gamers who'd enjoy this Gigabyte display, though. It comes with some productivity-oriented features, such as a built-in KVM switch that lets you use the same keyboard and mouse to control two separate devices, like a desktop and a laptop. Priced at around $420, it's an enticing entry point into the world of ultrawide monitors.
Dell Alienware AW3420DW
If you don't use your PC for work and want a gaming beast, the Alienware AW342ODW is the way to go. This is a 34-inch monitor with a noticeable curvature rated at 1900R. It ramps up the immersion to the max, and its display panel makes it a great pick for vibrant RPGs. The curvature also delivers great viewing angles, which is something that cannot always be said of all IPS panels (although they are typically way better than TNs in that regard).
The screen is fairly luminous, with a maximum brightness rated at 350 nits. Aside from the vivid colors supplied by the IPS panel, you're also getting a high refresh rate of 120Hz, making this an optimal choice for first-person shooters and other games where this is important, although this isn't the fastest monitor on our list.
All other things aside, this monitor looks cool. Set it down next to your gaming PC decked out in RGB lights and enjoy the experience. The downside? It's pricier than the Gigabyte model — you may need to spend around $870 to get your hands on it, but various reviewers make it clear that it's worth the money.
Samsung Odyssey Neo G9
This is it — the best of the best ultrawide monitors for gaming. There are options that are more powerful, and there definitely are options that are cheaper, but this is the monitor that many deem to be the top of the line. It combines performance, stunning visuals, and a price tag that's pretty high, but not as excessive as some of the screens that are even further up the ladder.
In terms of specs, this is a massive behemoth of a display, measuring 49 inches and serving up a resolution of 5,120 x 1,440 pixels alongside a 32:9 aspect ratio. Like any monitor of this size, it's curved, and that certainly helps boost the experience. It delivers deep contrasts and beautiful colors; plus, it handles HDR like a champ, and that's on top of the impressive 240Hz refresh rate.
With that said, the Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 is not cheap. Its standard price is a whopping $2,199, and yes, that is enough to build a great PC — but you can often find it on sale for as low as $1,379, at which point it becomes more than worth it.
BenQ Mobiuz EX3410R
This is another pick for pure gaming. If you tend to close your Excel spreadsheets and turn on your games the moment the clock strikes 5, you're better off picking a different model that supports productivity more, such as the Gigabyte at the top of this article. This BenQ monitor is aimed to satisfy the needs of gamers and gamers only, and it does a good job of it indeed.
You're getting a 144Hz refresh rate that can be easily overclocked to 160Hz, provided your computer has the juice to reliably deliver 160 frames per second (fps) in whichever game you're playing. The response time is kept low for a curved ultrawide at just 1 ms. All of this is combined with a brightness that hits 400 nits at the peak with HDR, a contrast ratio of 3,000:1, and solid viewing angles.
As far as the display goes, it's an IPS panel with a resolution of 3,440 x 1,440. Some reviewers enjoy the color coverage of this monitor, which is more than great for gamers, but if you tend to do a lot of colorwork, it's probably better to buy an ultrawide monitor for creatives instead. For a gaming display of this size, it's relatively affordable, priced at $499.
Dell S3422DWG
If your budget is tight, it's possible to buy an ultrawide monitor that can fit into it. This Dell S3422DWG model will cost you less than many smaller flat screens, and while it can't compete against high-end options, it still has most of the things that a gamer would want.
Priced at just $349, this is a 34-inch curved Dell display with a refresh rate of 144Hz and WQHD resolution (meaning 3,440 x 1,440p). The curve is fairly strong, rated at 1800R, meaning that viewing angles should be decent as long as you sit in front of the screen; at an angle, the experience might be worse. While some reviewers note that there's some smearing, on the whole, this is a responsive screen that will work just fine with fast-paced games like "Fortnite," but also RPGs like "Hogwarts Legacy."
It's worth noting that this is a VA panel, which means great contrasts and deep blacks. IPS panels tend to have better color reproduction, though, but a VA offers a nice balance between speed and visuals, making this a well-rounded budget pick for gamers.