Looking at a new Monitor (love some input/evaluation)

HaaStyleCat · July 18, 2023, 4:18pm

Hello all. Been a while. Heat and life in general have been crazy and keeping me very busy.

So my next bit of advice/input I would love to get from the community is on my next Monitor Purchase. YAHOOOO

I am being “allowed” to buy a new monitor for my birthday. I’m looking in the $250-$400 USD range (I’d love to buy a $1200 49-Inch Dual QHD (5120x1440) display), but not in the cards sadly.

Let’s start with what I currently own.
I have a AOC AG352UCG6 from October 2018. HERE
I love the monitor overall, it still performs well even with an AMD card (Is a G-sync monitor). The color is ok. The darks aren’t the best, but they do ok depending on the settings (I’m sure due to the brightness not being great).
Here are the specs if you don’t wanna view the link.

What are my needs (ok wants not NEEDS)?
I’m mostly using it at 3440 x 1440 at 60Hz. I prefer higher fidelity vs higher frame rates. I occasionally do 85 or 100fps. I’d like to start using HDR mostly for a brighter screen and better colors. So I’m looking at a few monitors in my price range I’m hoping are upgrades, with AMD freesync now that I am using the AMD RX 6950XT in my main gaming rig at the desk of my office. I love having the ultrawide and would like to keep that size (35"), and I dont feel 4K is really needed for a screen that is so close to viewing position. Know there are different fields of thought here, but just my opinion. Vesa mounting is important to fit the arms mounted on my desk. I should say I don’t need speakers I use a 5.1 sound system or headphones.

Here are the contenders with links to the manufacturer websites tech specs if possible. I keep flipping between them all and reviews are ALL over the gamut. I’m hoping for some input maybe from owners or people who are visual fidelity guru’s or picky like me. lol

If these are all lateral upgrades without much image improvement I’ll probably just hold off.

Samsung G5 LINK

Gigabyte G34WQC LINK

LG 34WP60C-B LINK

Dell S3422DWG LINK

Hope you all have some good input for me.

I’m really flipping between the Samsung and Gigabyte model.

I love all my Samsung QLED TV’s. I still have my first Samsung I bought, a 3D HDTV from 2012! It works beautifully STILL. I would love to get a screen with the same tech but bit too pricey for now so I use my TV hooked up to my gaming rig to play some games. So I love and trust the brand.

Gigabyte I’m not too familiar with. I had a 1080Ti from them I was happy with performance but software was buggy and not the best in my opinion.

All in all hope to start a good discussion.

Here is a Poll and feel free to put information below on the rational for the choice

Samsung Odyssey G5 34"
Gigabyte G34WQC 34"
LG 34WP60C-B 34"
Dell S3422DWG 34"

0 voters

lemij31400 · July 18, 2023, 4:21pm

I personally have the G5 Ultrawide and no complaints here, especially the price I paid for it! With a Amazon trade in I got it for $220

Although you need to disable free sync from my experience on the monitor(with an Nvidia card anyway) as it seems to cause awful ghosting. With Gsync/Freesync enabled other than that it’s been rock solid

diizzy · July 18, 2023, 4:27pm

Most if not all of these will suck for HDR, you really want to look at prad.de tests or similar. In general you need to step up quite a bit compared to what you’re looking at.

HaaStyleCat · July 18, 2023, 5:37pm

Yes, I realized that compairing spec sheets. But there are pluses and minuses to em all. Like I said kinda on a budget sadly.

Also, while I was all nvidia before now that I’ve moved to AMD, I was hoping to try a freesync certified monitor. Even though they have 3 levels of freesync just like g-sync now. I think its FreeSync vs. FreeSync Premium vs. FreeSync Premium Pro. Article HERE that was informative.

HaaStyleCat · July 18, 2023, 11:25pm

Well I’m looking at numbers and features and it seems the Dell Monitor has the edge

vic · July 19, 2023, 4:20am

Hold off. Save $400 for a birthday gift from another category.

If you can switch runway, consider an IPS panel at 27-inch for graphics design, video editing and software coding, then ask again for recommendation. There are some very good candidates below $400.

Vaultboy · July 19, 2023, 9:58am

I can’t comment on all of these but did do a lot of reviews before I pulled the trigger on mine, I eventually brought an Alienware AW3423DW 3440x1440x175Hz GSYNC HDR Tru Black QD OLED display, it is god tier equipment and thus you pay god tier prices…

You can stop drooling now. The one absolute NEGATIVE I did read was with regards to the Samsung G5 and other models from Samsung which seemed to have problems with periodically turning off ( apparently a firmware bug ) I don’t know if it has been fixed so I would be EXTREMELY hesitant on buying that one.

The Dell S3422DWG is a VA Panel so be aware with that one that if you do ever require higher refresh rates you may experience smearing on the screen in dark scenes. The Gigabyte G34WQC while it has decent brightness has a limited colour gamut so colours could appear a bit washy.
The only information I could find regarding the LG said this “the LG 34WP60C-B is an ideal monitor to consider purchasing. It has outstanding smoothness but the mediocre picture quality,”

I would say keep looking, trust me I know it’s hard finding the right monitor to scratch that itch, even my one has its own set of issues - being QD Oled its suseptible to burn in for static images.

My best suggestion is at the end of they day - you need to be able to see them side by side and compare for yourself. Compare a totally black screen in a dark room to look for lighting bleed, check the quality of the colour in SD and HDR and definitely check that if you for example play a game with a dark area showing that the dark area is as close to black as possible and not grey, these are the things that if you test them to your satisfaction should give you the best experience.

Good luck.

HaaStyleCat · July 20, 2023, 2:51am

Yeah im not seeing godly changes from the current screen I have. And while its a gsync monitor it plays everything perfectly smooth and I get no tearing while playing anything with the right AMD settings on my RX 6950xt

Besides, higher end games I play on my VRR enabled (ie freesync) Samsung Qled TV.

I guess I’ll wait to scratch the itch till I can do something like the G9 45" lol. I do love the extra realestate of the ultrawide. Little work to get some games right, but usually a little google-fu and you can find out if its an .ini change or some mod to fix aspect ratio if it’s not natively supported.

Yes, that is a godly screen. Ill probably stick with what I have now. Others would be a lateral upgrade. Im sure with a little more tweaking I can get a slighly better color/contrast setting I’m happier with. Sure I can get more vivid colors, but contrast for blacks Ill probably have to live with.

I do appreciate the input from everyone.

system · April 18, 2024, 8:52pm

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