Monitor advice: UWQHD Curved 144hz VA vs. QHD 240hz IPS

I’m in the market for a new monitor. It’ll be used for gaming and browsing, but also light graphic design/video editing and lots of email- and document-writing, some spreadsheets, etc. My graphics work is not very color sensitive, and I have a “normal” $100 IPS monitor on the side to compare.

The two options that caught my eye so far:

BenQ Mobiuz EX3410R - 34” 21:9 1440p 144hz VA with 1000R curve (450 USD)

BenQ Mobiuz EX270QM - 27” 16:9 1440p 240hz IPS (570 USD)

I’m upgrading from a 24” Acer Predator XB253Q GX 1080p 240hz IPS, which I chose because I had a 90’s desk with a hutch that limited monitor size. I’ve been fairly happy with it despite a few quirks and low PPI, but that desk is going to the curb soon so it’s time for something bigger.

My PC is Ryzen 5800X3D, 32G RAM, RTX 4700 Ti. I predict my usual games will hover around 180-200 fps in QHD, and 120-140 in UWQHD.

I know I’d be happy with what would be a direct upgrade to a 27” 1440p version of my current monitor, but I’m feeling the pull toward the novelty of UW and curved. I’ve only had 16:9 and a few 16:10 flat monitors.

Here are my concerns about going UW curved:

  1. Since I’m doing some WFH text and graphics, I want to make sure I won’t regret the leap. I think I’d get used to the curve, but I’ve heard that some VA panels can get a bit wonky with text.
  2. While my graphics work is not very color sensitive, it sometimes is a little bit… I can’t be giving people jaundice, I mean. The Acer isn’t exactly perfect either, but it’s good enough. And I always check photos on my side monitor and my phone.
  3. Whatever I choose will be my daily driver for probably 7+ years. I’m concerned that there will always be adjustments and compromises if I go curved. Meanwhile, flat 16:9 is fool-proof, but I’ll always suffer from grass-is-greener syndrome.
  4. I know both of these options run the risk of backlight bleed - the VA because it’s large and curved, and the IPS because it’s IPS. The “IPS glow” doesn’t really bother me too much, but edge bleed would. I got lucky with my Acer - it’s pretty much solid black. I don’t know which would be more risky for developing backlight bleed.
  5. The EX270QM is brighter and has much better color - bother a wider gamut and more accurate. I’m not sure if the curve and extra width will be a worthy trade-off, even if I love 21:9 curved. So, again, a different grass is greener problem.
  6. I really enjoyed 240hz G-Sync smoothness, but I don’t play serious competitive stuff and I could downgrade to 144hz, as long as the other benefits are worth the trade-off. I also think QHD will hover around 180fps in my current games, and UWQHD around 140 maybe. I’d probably only get the full benefit of 240hz QHD in older games.

Do any of you own either of these or similar monitors? And even if not, please alleviate any of my concerns or try to sway me one way or another. If you have other recommendations in the $450-600 range, I’d welcome them too.

Edit - TL;DR: I’m torn and indecisive between 21:9 1440p curved VA and 16:9 1440p flat IPS. Color and quality are important, but so is gaming immersion. I yearn for something new from my 16:9 past, but I’m afraid I’ll fight with regret. I seek to learn from wisdom and experience. Please help.

Atemu,
@Atemu@lemmy.ml avatar

I’ve heard that some VA panels can get a bit wonky with text.

I haven’t. Where did you hear this?

OLEDs tend to have issues because of their subpixel layout and I don’t know the current state of font rendering support on M$'s stupid OS.

I can’t be giving people jaundice, I mean. The Acer isn’t exactly perfect either, but it’s good enough.

If your current cheap monitor is good enough, any monitor of this class will be at least as good.

If you need proper colours though, you should rather invest in a calibration device. Even good monitors should be calibrated for your specific room conditions if colour accuracy is of importance.

Whatever I choose will be my daily driver for probably 7+ years.

Then I’d get a newer OLED that isn’t prone to burn in or wait a few months for said OLEDs to do down in price.

LCDs are not future proof. The vast majority has no proper support for HDR for starters (HDRn’t).

I’m concerned that there will always be adjustments and compromises if I go curved.

Curved isn’t as significant as you imagine it to be. You usually don’t notice it at all.

Even extreme curvature as is common on Samsungs newer VA panels is only a little noticeable when you actually sit in front; eventhough it looks like a lot from the outside.

With VA, you actually want curvature as there is somewhat of a significant gamma shift when looking at a horizontal angle and the curvature helps mitigate this effect.

I really enjoyed 240hz G-Sync smoothness, but I don’t play serious competitive stuff and I could downgrade to 144hz, as long as the other benefits are worth the trade-off. I also think QHD will hover around 180fps in my current games, and UWQHD around 140 maybe. I’d probably only get the full benefit of 240hz QHD in older games.

Unless you really love playing E-sports games competitively and that makes up most of your gaming time, 144Hz is good enough. Though VRR with LFC is a must, look out for that.

Do any of you own either of these or similar monitors?

I’m not too familiar with the current market but what I can tell you is that you must always look up real-world measurements of rise and fall times, overshoot and colour accuracy. Ideally read or watch a review (TFT Central, RTings, HWunboxed/monitors unboxed).

This is especially important with VA panels as the vast majority use older tech that can have very slow rise and fall times that are often not actually sufficient for high refresh rates and/or bad overshoot. You need to filter these out.

I would not buy a monitor without having seen real-world measurements of rise and fall times aswell as overshoot.

If you have other recommendations in the $450-600 range

HW unboxed usually has many “current” monitors for comparison in their charts. I can highly recommend watching a few of their reviews.

I personally bought a UWQHD Nano IPS panel (LG 34GN850) after attempting to buy a working Samsung G9 VA UUWQHD twice a few years ago (yay Samsung QC…). It’s decent but I wouldn’t buy it again nowadays. I really miss the contrasts of the old (S)VA panel I had before. Decent VA panels have ~3000:1 ration while rather good IPS panels only have ~1000:0; it’s really that much of a difference.

I’d only buy IPS if I couldn’t find a VA with fast enough transition times for my specific constraints or desperately needed a colour accurate display.

These days, I’d buy LG WOLED or Samsung QD-OLED (or wait for them to go down in price).

Fester,

Thanks for the detailed advice!

I ended up just getting a Dell G2724D for now. It was on sale for only $200, so the decision wasn’t as weighty as the others, and I know it will be a solid upgrade over what I’m using now. I’ll use the rest of my budget to invest in some Ergotron arms.

I’ll watch what happens with OLED prices and/or longevity improvements, and will look at them more seriously for a dedicated gaming monitor in a year or two. At that point, the Dell can be dedicated to productivity or it can be demoted to side monitor.

Atemu,
@Atemu@lemmy.ml avatar

At $200, that’s a great deal.

It’s IPS, so contrast is quite poor but I’d consider it a great stop-gap until OLEDs are feasible to buy for you.

Make sure you set the overdrive to “Fast” for the optimal VRR experience.

I’ll use the rest of my budget to invest in some Ergotron arms

Note that the “Amazon Basic” branded monitor arm is an Ergotron one but a lot cheaper with no obvious quality deficit. It’s currently holding the monitor I’m typing this on ;)

Vash63,

VA will give you much better black levels and contrast. IPS is better for color accuracy. I chose VA for gaming but am replacing it with OLED ASAP to get those perfect black levels.

uzi,

VA is good for high framerate, not colour or picture quality. It’s your choice, I will always suggest something between IPS and OLED, never VA. If you can’t do a 21:9 nano IPS, get the highest IPS with Adobe colour rating that you can afford.

Fester,

Thanks for the reply. My understanding is that Nano IPS is LG’s term for IPS with enhanced color gamut, correct? It looks to me like the EX270QM probably uses similar tech - maybe even one of the same panels, not sure - with its 10-bit 1.07 billion color “98%” DCI-P3 coverage.

I’m not sure I’m interested in a 21:9 flat panel - if I go UW I’d prefer curved. So I’ll look out for 10-bit curved UW IPS options to compete against the 270QM.

Unfortunately, since I can’t commit to a dedicated gaming-only monitor, I’m avoiding OLED for now. Too worried about burn-in when I go AFK and the screensaver fails to work (Windows…), or when I work with a window in the same place for hours day to day. If I had the space and budget for two dedicated large monitors, I’d go for one OLED in a heartbeat.

uzi,

You got solid reasoning in all that you say.

Burn-in is not such an issue due to pixels auto adjusting/moving, so te same pixels are not always on.

I don’t have experience with ultrawide but it seems that some enjoy a curved ultrawide to bring the sides in more.

I’m not sure of the connect between nano IPS branding and LG, but I will always say IPS over VA. TN and VA are low grade compared to how much the price for IPS has dropped, that’s why I believe anything lower than IPS technology is not an option for buying, but do what works for you since it’s your money being spent.

lurch,

it doesn’t burn in that fast. also some OLEDs have mitigation by moving the whole picture unnoticably slow by 1px at a time for a dozen pixels or so in each direction. on some displays this can clip scrollbars off sometimes.

Atemu,
@Atemu@lemmy.ml avatar

VA has historically been terrible for high framerate, decent for colour accuracy and great for image quality (contrast is so much better on VAs compared to IPS).

VA panels with decent rise/fall times and not too much overshoot are far and few between. You really have to do your research and even then it’ll be close or even slightly over the refresh cycle target. Only Samsung’s more recent panels are actually good for high refresh; incredibly good actually.

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