[SOLVED] 27'' QHD vs 38'' WQHD+

[bluekaterpillar]

I was planning upgrading my PC's monitor, and I have been eyeing two:

[Alienware AW2721D](https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/alienware-27-gaming-monitor-aw2721d/apd/210-axsw/monitors-monitor-accessories) (27'' 1440p 240hz)
[Alienware AW3821DW](https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/alienware-38-curved-gaming-monitor-aw3821dw/apd/210-axvg/monitors-monitor-accessories) (38'' 3840x1600p 144hz)

I use this PC for work (mainly coding) as well as for gaming, so I thought the ultrawide 38'' would be nice.
I have used multi-monitor setups in the past, but I've always found the space between them annoying, the head-moving tiring, and I always just gravitate toward the center one anyway.

I play games that would benefit from a higher FPS, and games that would benefit from larger/nicer image, so one monitor doesn't seem to offer an clear advantage over the other for me on that front.

I recognize the 38'' is roughly twice the cost, but I'm willing to pay the higher amount if the larger screen can be used to its full potential.

So, the main decision points that remain appear to be what my PC is able to run, and what 1600p gaming is like, or if 240hz is feasible and simply so much better for gaming.

I have an RTX 2080 Super for my GPU and a Ryzen 7 3700X as my CPU.
With these specs, what sort of framerates can I expect at each of these resolutions?
Is my machine not powerful enough to take full advantage of either of these monitors?
Is it overpowered? (I doubt it, but just asking)

How widespread is support for 3840x1600p in gaming?
How frequently should I expect to have to run games with black bars on the side?

I've never done 240hz gaming before. What is that like compared to 144hz?

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

21:9 ultra-wide is very nice, i would never go back to 16:9 now.
the extra field of view in games is much more immersive and the extra screen space makes multi-window work & browsing much better.

How widespread is support for 3840x1600p in gaming?
How frequently should I expect to have to run games with black bars on the side?

i haven't found a game that doesn't offer 21:9 support yet, though some have taken a bit of manually tweaking settings and\or mods to work 100%.

I have an RTX 2080 Super for my GPU and a Ryzen 7 3700X as my CPU.
With these specs, what sort of framerates can I expect at each of these resolutions?

3840x1600 is quite a bit more pixels to be processed vs 3440x1440.

my current system can maintain between 70-100fps in your average AAA game with mostly ultra settings.
with Cyberpunk 2077, between 60-80fps with a mix of medium-ultra settings.

moving up to 3840x1600 would probably drop that quite a bit in every game.
it should be fairly easy to look up the 2080 Super handling ultra-wide games to find some articles, videos, etc explaining the performance others are achieving.

I've never done 240hz gaming before. What is that like compared to 144hz?

240Hz means nothing unless you are doing competitive gaming and trying to reach the maximum frame rates possible, like 200+.
which also includes lowering all settings significantly to reach and maintain the extreme fps.

the majority of displays out there claiming they offer 240Hz are really running 120Hz with some sort of fast motion feature enabled, much like older televisions that claimed they could do 120Hz but only doubled the frames displayed @ 60Hz.
you should really research if this is the case with any super high refresh rate display you may choose.

unless you are consistently surpassing 144fps in games and experiencing screen tearing due to it, there's no reason to look for anything higher.