Question Need help finding a good White 32-34" Curved Monitor

[Haliax68]

Hello everyone, need some assistance finding a good monitor. I don't know a whole lot about them, just enough to follow along. So I saw the helpful sticky post that says to use this handy question guide to make a post about finding a monitor for my needs. So here we go

1.What Is Your Country Of Origin?
US and A

2. What do you plan to do with this monitor? (ex. Games, Movie Watching, Photo Editing, etc.)
50/50 split of regular personal computing (email, internet surfing, netflix, youtube, email, etc) and gaming. But I don’t play a ton of games, just a few and don’t need or want the highest/latest/greatest visuals. I’m coming from last playing a PS2, so seeing a PS4 or anything newer looks like something from the future to me! I just played Zelda BOTW last year on my PC and it looks IN SANE and I only have a lower end monitor with a Gigabyte GeForce RTX 3060 Vision OC gpu. So almost anything that is considered avg or above will seem amazing to me

3. What resolution and screen size do you want?
I’m pretty sure I want a 32-34” curved monitor. So I think that is a WQHD at 3440x1440?

4. What refresh rate do you want? (ex. 60 hz , 70 hz.)
Again, whatever is good enough for most games, but does not need to be high end. I’ve been playing Zelda BOTW on my ASUS monitor that has 60hz refresh rate and to me, it looks IN SANELY good. I really can’t see a difference between the refresh rates unless you go from the worst to the absolute best. And even then, it seems like such a small difference to me. So refresh rate that is avg to good for most of the current games is good enough for me

5. How much are you looking to spend?
$250-$400 retail. But hopefully can snag a monitor during a black Friday or holiday deal for less

6. Brands Preferred (ex. Samsung, Acer, Asus, AOC, HP, Viewsonic, etc. )
Whatever brands make quality monitors but also have better than avg customer service

7. Brands Not Preferred (state reason why)
Don’t know. I just know I don’t want cheap products that don’t last and have horrible CS

8. Are You Buying More Than One Monitor?
No

9. How Many Displays Can Your GPU Support Maximum? And what GPU and driver version are you using if applicable?
No idea. I think 2, as I currently have a KVM switch and both my Desktop PC and MacBook Air laptop hooked up to it and both work fine. The MacBook though has lower resolution for sure, but it's no big deal. I’m only using 1 monitor IF I can find a good one, that fits all my requirements and is affordable

10. What Port Do You Want To Connect To (ex. DVI-D, HDMI, etc).
Probably HDMI, but could possibly use whatever works with my motherboard and gives me amazing resolution. I don’t know, that’s why I’m here asking for help. I currently just use HDMI

11. Is This Monitor A Primary Display Or A Secondary Display?
The ONLY monitor, so primary

12. Is This A Secondary Display For A Laptop?
Sometimes I will be using my older 2014 MacBook Air with this monitor. So it needs to be able to hook up to that using the Thunderbolt 1 cable I have. Right now I have a KVM switch to go back and fourth between my main desktop PC and the laptop. But I think I’ve seen some monitors have that built into the back of them now? Not sure. Would love info on that as well.

13. What are the all the requirements you desire in this monitor?
1. I need this monitor to be white. That’s a must. I won’t even buy one unless it’s white. So don’t even list or suggest something unless it’s White. It can possibly be silver, but that’s as far as I’ll bend. I have all white everything and no matter how stupid you think it is to stick to this theme, it’s my choice.
2. It must be a curved screen 32-34”
3. It must be able to have two computers hooked up to it using a KVM switch or using some sort of built in switch in the monitor itself to switch back and fourth between my desktop PC and my older MacBook Air
4. It must have good enough resolution and able to handle fast gaming movements without looking horrible, but also have good enough color, contrast and darks. Again, I don’t want or need top end. I just want something that works well for games, and has rich deep color, but at my price range of $400 or less. Preferably more like $250ish. But I’m willing to go up to $400 if it’s amazing. Again, my current monitor is the ASUS VY279HE-W 27" Monitor
5. Must be of good quality and the company is known to handle warranties or issues pretty well. At least better than other companies. I know a lot of times in electronics, the companies all have bad warranties or don’t handle issues well. But some are still better than the worst.
6. Lastly, my ASUS monitor I currently have is Ok or good enough in most respects. The color, contrast, darks, resolution and gaming all seem good to me. The only thing that might be not great is that for some reason, it’s hard to read the screen unless I get really close with my readers on (I have to wear readers for up close things and wear contacts for far away). Which I thought was weird at first, until some people here or on reddit explained to me exactly why it’s happening. So at work, we have smaller 24” monitors at the same resolution of 1920x1080. But my monitor at home is a 27”. And yet the monitors at work are easier to read, even though they are smaller!?! Which made no sense to me at first. But everyone said, the reason I’m having a hard time reading it, is because it’s lower pixel density! I looked it up, and sure enough charts show the pixel density being almost the lowest for my resolution and monitor size, haha! So a smaller 24” 1080p monitor has a pixel density of 92PPI, while my larger 27” 1080p monitor has a pixel density of 82PPI! So 10 lower! And my eyes can tell! It’s SOO frustrating. I come home to relax and use my larger awesome monitor, and yet, it’s impossible to ever get comfortable using it! I get farther away and can take off my readers, but then have to strain my eyes to see. I put my readers on and get the monitor closer and I still strain to see well!
TLDR: So I need a pixel density of at least 92PPI if not higher.

So far, my searching has revealed very few options. There are a staggeringly small amount of White or Silver monitors in general, which is insane. And then in white or silver, there are even fewer that seem like they meet my requirements. I did find a few others, but they were way too expensive. The 3 I have found that “may” be what I’m looking for are:

Samsung CJ791 White 34” Curved 3440x1440 @100hz
MSI Pro MP341CQW 34” Curved 3440x1440 @100hz
Sceptre Curved 32” QHD 2560x1440 @ 165hz

Thanks everyone

 

[Aeacus]

To pick a monitor, it's good when you know more about different monitor panel types. There are 3x kinds of monitor panels: TN, VA and IPS. Actually there are more (variations of the main three) but i focus on these main ones.

TN panel is oldest of the three and also cheapest. Where TN panel excels is it's performance, most notably response time (1ms).
Though, TN panel also has it's downsides. Prominent ones are: poor color accuracy (washed out colors), very narrow view angle and poor contrast ratio (max 1000:1).

Gaming wise, TN panel monitor is best suited for fast-paced games (FPS, racing etc), where you don't care as much about pretty colors as you do about smoothness of movements.

IPS panel has been around for some time and is also the most expensive of the three.
Where IPS panel excels is it's color accuracy, which is the best of the three. Also, it has widest viewing angles of the three.
But where IPS panel falls short is response time. IPS technology by design can't be any faster than 4ms (compared to the 1ms most TN panels are). Another area where IPS panel falls short is it's poor contrast ratio which is equal to a TN panel (max 1000:1), despite it's great color accuracy. This is most prominent when looking at black image and where black isn't black but instead gray or some form of blue. Refresh rates aren't IPS panel strong side either and many IPS panels are 60Hz, especially on higher resolutions. There are some 1440p 165Hz and 4K 120Hz IPS panel monitors out there but they are few and far apart, also costing a fortune.

Gaming wise, IPS panel monitor is best suited for slow-paced games (RPG, strategy etc), where you have time to see all those pretty colors and where smoothness of movements isn't that important.

VA panel is the newest of the three and price wise, it falls between TN and IPS. VA panel was created to take the best of both worlds (TN and IPS) and combine them.
Where VA panel excels is it's contrast ratio (min 3000:1), where you'd see the deepest and richest blacks. Also, it doesn't fall short on other aspects as well. VA panel color accuracy isn't as good as it is for IPS panel but it's close to the levels of IPS panel (considerably better than TN panel). It's viewing angle is also a notch smaller than that of an IPS panel but again, considerably better than that of a TN panel. Refresh rate wise, VA panel is more capable on different resolutions than IPS panel. Response time is another area where VA panel does good. While VA panel can't naturally be any faster than 4ms (just like IPS panel), it can achieve the magical 1ms response thanks to the software solution in it.
With VA panel monitors making waves lately, there aren't any major downsides of them. Availability used to be issue but not anymore.

Gaming wise, VA panel monitor is suited for all kinds of games. VA panel is like Jack of all trades but master of none (except when it comes to contrast ratio, there, VA panel is king).

but also have good enough color, contrast and darks.

When contrast and dark are important, then only option for you, within your budget, is essentially VA panel. OLED and QLED panels also have superb contrast ratio but those cost a fortune, so, no point talk about those.

3. What resolution and screen size do you want?
I’m pretty sure I want a 32-34” curved monitor. So I think that is a WQHD at 3440x1440?

32" to 34" monitors aren't actually fixed to ultrawide 2K reso (which 3440x1440 is). They can be: 1366x768, 1080p, ultrawide 1080p, 2K, ultrawide 2K, 4K and ultrawide 4K.

4. What refresh rate do you want? (ex. 60 hz , 70 hz.)
Again, whatever is good enough for most games, but does not need to be high end. I’ve been playing Zelda BOTW on my ASUS monitor that has 60hz refresh rate and to me, it looks IN SANELY good. I really can’t see a difference between the refresh rates unless you go from the worst to the absolute best. And even then, it seems like such a small difference to me. So refresh rate that is avg to good for most of the current games is good enough for me

Do note that monitor's refresh rate alone doesn't give you better gaming experience. Instead, it is to do with what your GPU can output FPS wise.

60 Hz monitor refreshes it's screen 60 times per second. Aka 60 FPS.
144 Hz monitor refreshes it's screen 144 times per second. Aka 144 FPS.
And so forth.

So, better to look what FPS your RTX 3060 can push. Since when your GPU can manage ~60 FPS at any given time, 144 Hz monitor is pointless, since you'll still be seeing 60 FPS.
But if your GPU pushes ~200 FPS and you have 144 Hz monitor, you can see screen tearing, since monitor isn't capable to match what GPU produces.
But for those instances, there are many easy fixes. Like G-Sync, Freesync, Adaptive Sync, Vsync. Which all work on the principle to match GPU FPS to monitor Hz. E.g GPU produces 70 FPS, G-Sync (and the like) sets monitor to 70 Hz. Or when GPU is starting to produce 120 FPS, G-Sync (and the like) sets monitor to 120 Hz. But never over what the monitor is capable of delivering.
Or another solution is to cap the FPS in-game to the max Hz of a monitor. This way, GPU doesn't have to work at it's hardest, producing frames that you'll never see regardless.

And then there's also the fact that human eye can register between 30 to 60 FPS. Those who have trained their eyes (e.g esports gamers), can see up to ~120 FPS or so.

E.g back in the day, i had 60 Hz monitor. 5 years ago, i bought 144 Hz monitor, while also upgrading my GPU to match the GPU FPS output to monitor Hz rate. Once new monitor was up and running, with ~144 FPS from games, i couldn't tell a diff moving from 60 Hz to 144 Hz. Some games seemed to be a bit smoother (in-game motion wise) but overall, no difference. Then again, i'm casual gamer and my eyes aren't trained for competitive first-person shooter games.

5. How much are you looking to spend?
$250-$400 retail. But hopefully can snag a monitor during a black Friday or holiday deal for less

I would not count on black Friday or any other sales. Since those sales contain items that people haven't purchased with normal price. Such sales are only for stores to get rid of the excess stock.

If product is good, it is bought out at normal price. If product is bad, it remains in the store. And to get rid of it, stores do sales once-in-a-while, to get rid of that "junk".

6. Brands Preferred (ex. Samsung, Acer, Asus, AOC, HP, Viewsonic, etc. )
Whatever brands make quality monitors but also have better than avg customer service

With customer service, it very much depends on a person and their mannerism, who contacts customer service.

If you go in yelling, demanding your rights, don't expect to be treated friendly and politely. With this, customer service rep has 0 incentive to help you out. No-one likes to get yelled at, especially when they aren't responsible of it.
But if you go in friendly and politely, you can expect the same friendly and polite attitude back. With this, customer service rep would do their level best to help you out.
Remember, respect is a two way street.

In my years, i've contacted many PC hardware companies about either my inquires or within RMA process. To name the ones i can currently recall: Corsair, NZXT, Seasonic, MSI, Samsung. I've ALWAYS been nice and polite. To this day, i have NEVER gotten bad experience dealing with customer service and i've always solved my issue to my satisfaction. Sometimes, i've even been pleasantly surprised on how far the customer service rep has gone, to solve my issue.
It is nice to be important - but it is more important to be nice.

There are a staggeringly small amount of White or Silver monitors in general, which is insane.

Well, this is because painting stuff in white is the most expensive compared to any other color.

To get true white color, red, blue and green must be combined in exact amounts, to get white. That, and also the fact that white fades in due time. So, companies must invest a lot into the white paint itself, to make sure that within time (e.g exposure to sunlight), the white doesn't turn into yellow.

This reminds me, old NZXT PC cases had this issue, where white plastic parts turned yellow in due time. Namely the white version of NZXT Phantom 410.

So far, my searching has revealed very few options.

These three you found are all VA panel monitors, with good contrast ratio.

To add to that, i also found one more:
MSI Modern MD342CQPW,
specs: https://www.msi.com/Business-Productivity-Monitor/Modern-MD342CQPW/Specification
egg: https://www.newegg.com/msi-md342cqpw-34-uwqhd-120-hz-modern-va-matte-white/p/N82E16824475419

There are actually more white 32" to 34" curved monitors but those are out of your budget.

As of how good the monitor is overall, for that, you need to read/watch a review. E.g;
Samsung CJ791 in-depth review: https://www.rtings.com/monitor/reviews/samsung/c34j791-cj791

The rest of the reviews you can search from the net, it isn't that hard.

 

[Haliax68]

To pick a monitor, it's good when you know more about different monitor panel types. There are 3x kinds of monitor panels: TN, VA and IPS. Actually there are more (variations of the main three) but i focus on these main ones.

TN panel is oldest of the three and also cheapest. Where TN panel excels is it's performance, most notably response time (1ms).
Though, TN panel also has it's downsides. Prominent ones are: poor color accuracy (washed out colors), very narrow view angle and poor contrast ratio (max 1000:1).

Gaming wise, TN panel monitor is best suited for fast-paced games (FPS, racing etc), where you don't care as much about pretty colors as you do about smoothness of movements.

IPS panel has been around for some time and is also the most expensive of the three.
Where IPS panel excels is it's color accuracy, which is the best of the three. Also, it has widest viewing angles of the three.
But where IPS panel falls short is response time. IPS technology by design can't be any faster than 4ms (compared to the 1ms most TN panels are). Another area where IPS panel falls short is it's poor contrast ratio which is equal to a TN panel (max 1000:1), despite it's great color accuracy. This is most prominent when looking at black image and where black isn't black but instead gray or some form of blue. Refresh rates aren't IPS panel strong side either and many IPS panels are 60Hz, especially on higher resolutions. There are some 1440p 165Hz and 4K 120Hz IPS panel monitors out there but they are few and far apart, also costing a fortune.

Gaming wise, IPS panel monitor is best suited for slow-paced games (RPG, strategy etc), where you have time to see all those pretty colors and where smoothness of movements isn't that important.

VA panel is the newest of the three and price wise, it falls between TN and IPS. VA panel was created to take the best of both worlds (TN and IPS) and combine them.
Where VA panel excels is it's contrast ratio (min 3000:1), where you'd see the deepest and richest blacks. Also, it doesn't fall short on other aspects as well. VA panel color accuracy isn't as good as it is for IPS panel but it's close to the levels of IPS panel (considerably better than TN panel). It's viewing angle is also a notch smaller than that of an IPS panel but again, considerably better than that of a TN panel. Refresh rate wise, VA panel is more capable on different resolutions than IPS panel. Response time is another area where VA panel does good. While VA panel can't naturally be any faster than 4ms (just like IPS panel), it can achieve the magical 1ms response thanks to the software solution in it.
With VA panel monitors making waves lately, there aren't any major downsides of them. Availability used to be issue but not anymore.

Gaming wise, VA panel monitor is suited for all kinds of games. VA panel is like Jack of all trades but master of none (except when it comes to contrast ratio, there, VA panel is king).


When contrast and dark are important, then only option for you, within your budget, is essentially VA panel. OLED and QLED panels also have superb contrast ratio but those cost a fortune, so, no point talk about those.


32" to 34" monitors aren't actually fixed to ultrawide 2K reso (which 3440x1440 is). They can be: 1366x768, 1080p, ultrawide 1080p, 2K, ultrawide 2K, 4K and ultrawide 4K.


Do note that monitor's refresh rate alone doesn't give you better gaming experience. Instead, it is to do with what your GPU can output FPS wise.

60 Hz monitor refreshes it's screen 60 times per second. Aka 60 FPS.
144 Hz monitor refreshes it's screen 144 times per second. Aka 144 FPS.
And so forth.

So, better to look what FPS your RTX 3060 can push. Since when your GPU can manage ~60 FPS at any given time, 144 Hz monitor is pointless, since you'll still be seeing 60 FPS.
But if your GPU pushes ~200 FPS and you have 144 Hz monitor, you can see screen tearing, since monitor isn't capable to match what GPU produces.
But for those instances, there are many easy fixes. Like G-Sync, Freesync, Adaptive Sync, Vsync. Which all work on the principle to match GPU FPS to monitor Hz. E.g GPU produces 70 FPS, G-Sync (and the like) sets monitor to 70 Hz. Or when GPU is starting to produce 120 FPS, G-Sync (and the like) sets monitor to 120 Hz. But never over what the monitor is capable of delivering.
Or another solution is to cap the FPS in-game to the max Hz of a monitor. This way, GPU doesn't have to work at it's hardest, producing frames that you'll never see regardless.

And then there's also the fact that human eye can register between 30 to 60 FPS. Those who have trained their eyes (e.g esports gamers), can see up to ~120 FPS or so.

E.g back in the day, i had 60 Hz monitor. 5 years ago, i bought 144 Hz monitor, while also upgrading my GPU to match the GPU FPS output to monitor Hz rate. Once new monitor was up and running, with ~144 FPS from games, i couldn't tell a diff moving from 60 Hz to 144 Hz. Some games seemed to be a bit smoother (in-game motion wise) but overall, no difference. Then again, i'm casual gamer and my eyes aren't trained for competitive first-person shooter games.


I would not count on black Friday or any other sales. Since those sales contain items that people haven't purchased with normal price. Such sales are only for stores to get rid of the excess stock.

If product is good, it is bought out at normal price. If product is bad, it remains in the store. And to get rid of it, stores do sales once-in-a-while, to get rid of that "junk".


With customer service, it very much depends on a person and their mannerism, who contacts customer service.

If you go in yelling, demanding your rights, don't expect to be treated friendly and politely. With this, customer service rep has 0 incentive to help you out. No-one likes to get yelled at, especially when they aren't responsible of it.
But if you go in friendly and politely, you can expect the same friendly and polite attitude back. With this, customer service rep would do their level best to help you out.
Remember, respect is a two way street.

In my years, i've contacted many PC hardware companies about either my inquires or within RMA process. To name the ones i can currently recall: Corsair, NZXT, Seasonic, MSI, Samsung. I've ALWAYS been nice and polite. To this day, i have NEVER gotten bad experience dealing with customer service and i've always solved my issue to my satisfaction. Sometimes, i've even been pleasantly surprised on how far the customer service rep has gone, to solve my issue.
It is nice to be important - but it is more important to be nice.


Well, this is because painting stuff in white is the most expensive compared to any other color.

To get true white color, red, blue and green must be combined in exact amounts, to get white. That, and also the fact that white fades in due time. So, companies must invest a lot into the white paint itself, to make sure that within time (e.g exposure to sunlight), the white doesn't turn into yellow.

This reminds me, old NZXT PC cases had this issue, where white plastic parts turned yellow in due time. Namely the white version of NZXT Phantom 410.


These three you found are all VA panel monitors, with good contrast ratio.

To add to that, i also found one more:
MSI Modern MD342CQPW,
specs: https://www.msi.com/Business-Productivity-Monitor/Modern-MD342CQPW/Specification
egg: https://www.newegg.com/msi-md342cqpw-34-uwqhd-120-hz-modern-va-matte-white/p/N82E16824475419

There are actually more white 32" to 34" curved monitors but those are out of your budget.

As of how good the monitor is overall, for that, you need to read/watch a review. E.g;
Samsung CJ791 in-depth review: https://www.rtings.com/monitor/reviews/samsung/c34j791-cj791

The rest of the reviews you can search from the net, it isn't that hard.

Thank you for explaining all of that. Very helpful and in depth info.

After reading your explanation of the types of panels in monitors, I definitely think the VA type would suite me the best. I would appreciate the deep rich darks and vibrant colors (as I said, anything I've used looks amazing to me). And I don't play any games where the movement is fast and furious with crazy stuff going on all over the place. As I said, I only play 1 game at a time and don't play a lot. I only get a few hrs a day a few days a week to sit down and relax with a game. Too busy with work, gym, mtb'ng, etc. But it's nice to be able to sit in a nice chair at a nice desk with a nice game and get lost for a bit. I guess I mostly just play RPG type games. Zelda, I'm on Ghost of Tsushima right now (absolutely STUNNING game), probably will play some Assasin's Creed games, maybe some Xenosaga or something like that. Basically never anything super fast and crazy. So it sounds like I don't need a TN type monitor.

Then on to the refresh rate of the monitor compared to what my GPU can "push." I looked up the specs of my GPU and it doesn't say how many FPS or anything about refresh rate. Here is a link to the specs:
https://www.gigabyte.com/Graphics-Card/GV-N3060VISION-OC-12GD-rev-10/sp#sp

It says it has 7680x4320 Max Digital Resolution. Not sure if that has anything to do with what FPS it can do? Looking at some online charts for GPU series vs resolution, it looks like my 3060 does 1080p best. That 1440 would be pushing it or not look the best at all times? That I'd have to get a 3070 for that. And to go up to 4k, I'd have to get a 3080. Which again, I don't care. I'm not spending anymore money on my computer. It's already amazing and better than I ever imagined. Just not sure what my GPU can handle as far as a monitor refresh rate?

And one more thing I forgot to ask about, is why are there SO many bad reviews for almost every single monitor out there?! Like all 3 monitors I have listed, all have 7-15% of all their reviews with 1 star. And then a lot more in the 2-3 range as well. People saying all sorts of stuff is wrong with them. Dead pixels, color not working straight out of the box, the monitor breaks or stops working months or a year after buying it. Zero customer service to help them fix it or replace it. Not working with certain laptops or MacBooks. When you do hookup a lapptop, the resolution is super bad or the screen is squished. Only having certain hookups and not the "std" amount of hookups most monitors have. Super weird glitchy problems like the monitor has weird lines or flashing when the refresh rate is near or at it's highest level it says it can handle, and only when you turn it all the way done, does it work. And a BUNCH of other horrible sounding problems. Like EVERY SINGLE MONITOR. Not just some, but all of them have reviews like this.

I have been on rtings.com and looked at their list of best 32-34" curved monitors. And even the ones rated THE BEST by them have TONS of horrible reviews that make it sound like these monitor manufacturers are literally just making garbage. NO quality control at all. And that's scary reading stuff like that. I've never read SO many horrible reviews about products, then while doing this monitor research. It's crazy. And every single one of the reviews that is 3 stars or less all say the manufacturer would not help them and not honor the warranty and replace the monitor, at no cost, like the warranty stated.

So how would you respond to that? How should I take that as a buyer? Are these reviews honest? Are they full of BS? Is it somewhere in between? Are monitors just inherently faulty products that have a high lemon rate? Normally, I can read a review of a product I'm interested in, and can cut through the BS reviews, and the real reviews. I know the product I'm buying and I know that some of the reviews are being truthful and others are just full of it. They're abusing the product, not using it how it's supposed to be used, etc.

But I don't know much about monitors and this would be a BIG investment for me and I can't afford to get burned. So of the 3 brands I listed, do you have any opinions on which one would probably be the best bet? I know MSI and I know Samsung, but I've never heard of Spectre (outside of a Bond movie, haha). Lots of reviews of that monitor I listed either say: "it hits WAY above its price point." Or they say "this company makes straight up garbage, stay away!"

Also, after thinking about this more, I may HAVE to compromise and just get a black monitor possibly. There seem to be SO many more choices in black, and I might find a well priced model that fits all my needs if I open up to possibly getting a black version as well. But I'm going to try and find a white one.

 

[Aeacus]

Then on to the refresh rate of the monitor compared to what my GPU can "push." I looked up the specs of my GPU and it doesn't say how many FPS or anything about refresh rate.

GPU FPS output depends on the game's own engine (if it is CPU bound, GPU bound or more-or-less middle), resolution and in-game graphical settings (low, medium, high, ultra).

Overall, CPU bound games are strategy and simulation games, where CPU has to compute all the minute details of the game. E.g Cities:Skylines or Sid Meier's Civilization series.
GPU bound games are usually stunning looking first or 3rd person games. They can be shooters or RPG games. E.g Crysis series or The Elder Scroll's series (latest is Skyrim).

Since each and every game gives GPU different load and depending where you're at the game itself, there can be varying FPS output.
Only way to know what FPS you could expect, is to read GPU review.
Link: https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/nvidia-geforce-rtx-3060-review/3

RTX 3060 is best for 1080p. It can do 1440p as well, but would take a hit on FPS.

E.g on 1080p, on average, you can expect ~100 FPS;

But if you look at game specific performance, you can get better idea of FPS, like Assassin Creed's Valhalla, on 1080p, ~65 FPS;

Now, if you go higher with resolution, to 1440p (2K), you'll loose on FPS. ~75 FPS on average.

And if you look game specific, AC Valhalla, then you're looking at ~50 FPS on 1440p;

2K ultrawide is even more taxing on the GPU than 2K. Since most GPU reviews doesn't include ultrawide resos, i can only estimate how much FPS you could get on 3440x1440 with your RTX 3060.

On 4K, you're looking at ~43 FPS on average;

Or with AC Valhalla, ~30 FPS;

Now, 4K has more pixels than ultrawide 2K. So, i'd estimate that you'd get ~60 FPS on average at ultrawide 2K (3440x1440). AC Valhalla FPS would be ~40 FPS.

With this, and since your GPU is too weak, i would not advise buying ultrawide 2K 144 Hz (or 120 Hz) monitor. Heck, even 60 Hz monitor would be more than enough.
Due to the screen size of 32" to 34", 1080p monitor would have too low pixel density, whereby you could see individual pixels. Though, this mainly depends on how close you're sitting to the monitor. If less than 1 meter, then i don't advise getting 1080p monitor.
E.g i'm sitting ~40cm from my 23" 1080p monitor.

And one more thing I forgot to ask about, is why are there SO many bad reviews for almost every single monitor out there?!

This is actually quite easy to explain;

When people have bad experience with any product, they are FAR more likely to complain about it. But when product works like it is supposed to, only very few people actually leave positive feedback.
Just look it from your own experience. E.g you have RTX 3060, have you left a positive feedback about it somewhere? Or about your OS drive? Or about your keyboard? I don't think so.

Since many people leave negative feedback when they have issues and only few leave positive feedback when they are happy with it, it does paint the picture that the product itself is bad, while in fact, it may not be bad at all.

In a nutshell, it comes down to statistics.
E.g 5000 people have bought one specific monitor. Out of the 5000 only 10 people leave positive feedback of it. While there are 100 people who have had one or another issue with it. And out of those 100, 90 people leave negative feedback.
So, when you look at the feedback, you'll see 90 negative feedbacks but only 10 positive ones. One could assume that the product is bad, since there are so many negative feedbacks, far more than positive ones. But in reality, the rest of the users, 4890, who haven't left a positive feedback, actually prove that the product overall is good.

So how would you respond to that? How should I take that as a buyer? Are these reviews honest? Are they full of BS? Is it somewhere in between? Are monitors just inherently faulty products that have a high lemon rate? Normally, I can read a review of a product I'm interested in, and can cut through the BS reviews, and the real reviews. I know the product I'm buying and I know that some of the reviews are being truthful and others are just full of it. They're abusing the product, not using it how it's supposed to be used, etc.

When buying a product, i usually doesn't read customer feedback since many people can find faults with everything and complain about those. Instead, i read unbiased reputable reviews, to get a understanding of what that hardware is capable of. Once i know the limitations, there's no point for me to get mad when hardware doesn't meet my expectations.

But I don't know much about monitors and this would be a BIG investment for me and I can't afford to get burned. So of the 3 brands I listed, do you have any opinions on which one would probably be the best bet? I know MSI and I know Samsung, but I've never heard of Spectre (outside of a Bond movie, haha). Lots of reviews of that monitor I listed either say: "it hits WAY above its price point." Or they say "this company makes straight up garbage, stay away!"

Out of the three: MSI, Samsung and Sceptre; i actually do have MSI and Samsung monitors in use.
I'm using MSI Optix MAG241CR and my missus has Samsung S23C650D Series 6 business monitor. Thus far, both of our monitors have worked like a charm for years. Samsung monitor is now 9 years old and MSI monitor is now 5 years old. So, for my personal experience, can't go wrong with either of the two; MSI or Samsung.

I have actually more MSI and Samsung products in use. E.g both MoBos and both GPUs in our PCs are MSI. Then, all our storage drives in our PCs are Samsung (both M.2 NVMe and SATA SSD). Both of our smart phones are Samsung. Somewhere there's Samsung tablet as well. And even our fridge is Samsung.

Sceptre (not Spectre) is privately held American consumer electronics producer. Sceptre is most well known by producing and selling affordable (cheap) monitors and TVs.
Further reading: https://handwiki.org/wiki/Company:Sceptre_Incorporated

Since Sceptre is in-house brand in USA, there are no Sceptre monitors outside of USA. So, for me, there's no option to buy any of those. Then again, i, personally, would not buy value brand products regardless.

Also, after thinking about this more, I may HAVE to compromise and just get a black monitor possibly. There seem to be SO many more choices in black, and I might find a well priced model that fits all my needs if I open up to possibly getting a black version as well. But I'm going to try and find a white one.

White monitors are rare. Also, the bezel around monitor edge is quite small nowadays and if you get monitor that supports VESA stand, you don't even have to use monitor's own (black) stand. Instead mount the monitor with it's VESA mount to any monitor arm of your choosing.

E.g this thing or similar,
amazon: https://www.amazon.com/VIVO-Adjustable-Articulating-100x100mm-STAND-V001W/dp/B083G7G5PK/

Plenty of white monitor arms out there.
Just need to make sure that the monitor supports the VESA mount what the monitor arm has. E.g the one i linked, has VESA 75x75 and VESA 100x100 mounting options.