Hi All, I'm finally going to take the leap to lightspeed and get a decent ultrawide monitor. However I have a couple of requirements, and I'm hoping for advice. 1) My video card is oldish, a GTX 980 and I'd rather not upgrade 2) I'm no longer a hardcore gamer. I just want to play games at a decent res and have a browser window open alongside my gaming pane on the same monitor 3) Max budget £450 So can someone help a time starved father out? The options are baffling so I turn to the pros for assistance. Thanks!
I did my research on this earlier this year, so can pass on some help (I hope!) In that budget, there are the 29" ones (e.g. 29UM68, which I plumped for) or this 34" panel (https://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/ele...-gaming-monitor-eiq-34cmuwq60gafs/version.asp). I haven't heard from anyone trustworthy on it, but there don't seem to be any terrible noises coming out either. You could surely run it at a lower resolution, if needed, or else at lower settings. The GPU isn't that old, and certainly not too weak! I ummed and ah-ed about sizes but thought the 29" would look less ridiculous and be a better match for my system. I wonder, though, if you aren't better served by a second, small, monitor? I suppose it depends on the kind of games you play - for me the UW purchase was all about the wider view in play.
I had a 22” (technically 21.5”) 1920x1080 screen and swapped it for a LG 25UM57. That’s 2560x1080 in a 25” screen so basically the same physical height but wider. I love it and the extra pixels don’t tax my R9 380 in anything except Overwatch, in which turning off shadows keeps me at 60fps+ (vsync on anyway). I doubt 2560x1080 will trouble you at all with a 980 therefore.
75hz IPS 29" 2560x1080 from LG for £280: https://www.overclockers.co.uk/lg-2...-widescreen-led-gaming-monitor-mo-14f-lg.html As you want to keep the GPU I wouldn't go for 3440x1440 as you'll struggle to run that res with a 980.
Yeah 2560 simple typo. Went back to fix it. I do find game support for anything older than a couple of years is a bit spotty for it. A common thing I see is transitions are fixed at 1920x1080 - so for example, you fade from black to full picture - the fade will apply to 1920 of the screen anchored left, and the right hand side pixels will have a bar where the transition/shader effect isn't rendered and you just get the normal screen draw from behind it. For desktop usage, the screen real estate is excellent. But only suitable for the most modern of games really IMO.
The two most useful resources for Ultrawide owners: Steam curator who tags games with native support (far from a complete list) http://store.steampowered.com/curator/9685213-r-ultrawidemasterrace-Group/ The go to forum for workarounds where it isn't supported natively: http://www.wsgf.org/forums/viewforum.php?f=95&sid=47302019915fc32a9e9446726f95f9e1