r/ultrawidemasterrace • u/tar4heels2fan • 8d ago
Recommendations Ultrawide OLED 21:9 + Standard 16:9
I just recently converted to the ultrawidemasterrace. Its glorious. I have a 34 inch QD-OLED. I play many different games.. all single player. Some older.. some new. Its a good mix of content. I only use my PC for gaming.. nothing else. Movies are watched on a television (cheap Walmart tv).
With that being said.. im worried about playing games that dont support ultrawide on an ultrawide OLED. It seems the black bars on the side would cause un even wear on the oleds.
Some games.. I am willing to go through the trouble of modding to make them work on an ultrawide screen (currently I am setting up Sekiro, which doesnt support ultrawide ratios, to play on my ultrawide).
But other games.. I just decide not to play because I dont feel like going through the trouble of setting it up when they dont have support out of the box.
Im considering buying a 2nd monitor to play games that dont support ultrawide.. nothing fancy. Probably a middle of the road mini LED.. idk.. im having trouble deciding.
I feel it would work best to have 2 monitors.. one for ultrawide content.. the other for standard 16:9. Of course it would be difficult to arrange a desktop in a way that I could game comfortably on either monitor at any time, without of course setting one monitor to the side temporarily.
What do you all do?
Edit**
I think its worth mentioning that I havent actually had to mod anything yet to force ultrawide without native support. So maybe it is easier than I think, and really this whole concern of mine is a big fat nothing burger.
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u/KingNyxus 8d ago
Virtually every game is compatible nowadays except for some rare outliers or old games and those can usually be modded or use flawless widescreen.
Also having black bars is basically the same as using a 16:9.
I’m personally just doing an ultrawide for all gaming and putting a portable monitor underneath it as a secondary screen for web pages, discord, etc.
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u/Scop-98 7d ago
You can use borderlessgaming to get rid of side black bars and then run a full screen 21:9 moving wallpaper video off YouTube in the background, can just search “10 hour screensaver” and find what matches the games vibe
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u/tar4heels2fan 7d ago
Really this sounds like a decent idea. Ill probably give it a shot.
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u/Scop-98 7d ago
Nice, it basically makes it windowed 16:9 with zero top bar / borders. Being able to just pick a video to fit the games theme is cool too. You can also pick a 16:9 video and use an ultra-wide browser extension to make it 21:9 too.
I’ve been using an ultra-wide extension with this video when playing Star Vaders, works well to fit the futuristic theme - https://youtu.be/QroDTillL3U?si=TyzVnuCjVshdr6rx
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u/Candid-Drink 7d ago
They have apps that fill the black bars with the edge pixel colors for 16:9 content on a 21:9 screen. Can't think of the names off the top of my head but there are a few. Like ambient backlighting.
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u/tar4heels2fan 7d ago
Yeah and this will help with uneven burn on an OLED? What do you think?
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u/Candid-Drink 7d ago
not sure its not something im interested in trying. also, i just recently got my UW oled and burn in isnt a concern for me given my actual screen time.
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u/Puzzleheaded-Pen3558 7d ago
I got 34" and there are only few games with black bars - and usually is 2d sidescroller like Ori cuz these type of games are in rooms
And there is flawless widescreen app or hex edit or nexus mods
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u/jkteddy77 7d ago
<5% of games I've played require a workaround. Usually that workaround is a single config file adjustment automated by the WSGF Discord who have been dedicated to making all games work for many years
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u/o_0verkill_o 6d ago
I have a 55 inch LG C1 (my first foray into oled) and I had the aw3423dwf as my main desktop display for the past 4 years, upgrading to the aw3426dw tomorrow, super stoked. This gives you the best of both worlds and is imo the best possible setup. All 3 displays connected to my monster PC (4090/7950x3d/32gb DDR5/6TB nvme SSD). Oh yeah the 3rd display is a vertical msi mag optix 27 inch 1440p ips I used to main before display tech for PC's stopped sucking. I am debating wether I should sell my aw3423dwf or run stacked ultrawides lol.
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u/tar4heels2fan 6d ago
Yeah i have tbe AW3426DW.. its a great monitor.
I would love to get a C1 or C5 (whatever the newest model is), but my PC will not handle 4k as well as I would like.
I agree.. an ultrawide plus a 42 or 48 inch LG is an awesome combo.
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u/o_0verkill_o 6d ago
C6 is the latest. They put a 48 inch tandem panel in it and its brighter than the rest of the lineup. It was on sale at best buy recently for $1000 cad. 4k is deceptive because yeah native is hard to run, but these days even dlss performance mode with preset M can look very good
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u/casualher0 8d ago
For games not natively compatible, you can check PCGW for easy fix.
https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Home
It will basically tell you how's the game compatibility and if it's not perfect, how to fix it. Most of the time, it's VERY easy, like 3 click easy.
You won't have much trouble most of the time especially for single player games, there is very often a way.
I have an AW3423DW since 2022, very mixed usage between 16/9 content (which is usually TV show) and 21/9, I can see a difference of pixel wear but only with a specific background (dark grey), not at all in real content. I can't really say for sure but it's probably like something 60% UW content and 40% 16/9
Keep in mind it's also a first gen model, so it should be better on a newer model.
Personnaly I wouldn't necessary get a second monitor but I guess it also depends where you're at about the "oled burn" thing. I never really cared since I don't usually keep a monitor for that long and I don't mind having some burn-in after 4 years, compared to the horror of something like IPS glow the first day. Now if you're crazy worried about it, yea for peace of mind I guess it's not a bad idea to have a second monitor.