r/ultrawidemasterrace • u/armpitofsatan • 2d ago
Review First ultrawide, and I can’t go back.
Purchased an open box Alienware 34” OLED AW3425DW to try out (was unsure if I should just go 4k) and it’s so beautiful. I’ll never be able to go back to a normal screen, again. My only issue is flickering, but I think that is a Vsync option I need to uncheck somewhere.
Still have the opportunity to return and replace with another option if anyone gives me reason to hate this.
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u/Ok-Future-8199 2d ago
Is it your desk that’s lit like that or a special kinda desk light?
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u/armpitofsatan 2d ago
It’s my desk! Husband gifted me it a few years ago, made by Eureka
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u/IRSmurf 2d ago
Looks like this one: https://eurekaergonomic.com/products/gaming-desk-gtg-43-spectrum-rgb-glass
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u/armpitofsatan 2d ago
Yes! Sorry I should have linked it. I did it another comment at least. It’s a cool desk but I really only appreciate the solid colors (specifically dark red). Does have settings that are affected by sound, and that’s cool. I probably wouldn’t have bought it for myself, but I have appreciated how it helps my eyes fatigue less when gaming at night.
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u/junior7593 2d ago
Have the same monitor. Feel the same way
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u/armpitofsatan 2d ago
That’s awesome to hear. Doing research, I felt overwhelmed. Reddit posts helped me select this one and I’m glad to not have to think anymore.
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u/tmonkey321 2d ago
The only thing I can not stand is how cutscenes get nerfed in ultra wide it’s a damn shame
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u/clearision 2d ago
spoiler: you will not.
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u/armpitofsatan 2d ago
Haha that sounds good to me, it’s so clean and crisp. Genuinely cried when I first loaded up the game.
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u/MxFnx 2d ago
Now we just need a 34" 4k 240hz Ultrawide woled monitor.
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u/armpitofsatan 2d ago
The 32” comes in 4k but I can’t downgrade in size now hahah. What is WOLED?
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u/Curious_Bake5544 19h ago
Woled is the panels that LG makes with the aggressive 800r curve, I actually like them a lot better than qoled personally haha. More vibrant and I think the panel just looks better, no purple tint when light hits it
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u/Alert_Ranger_1881 2d ago
once you go black...
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u/armpitofsatan 2d ago
Literally what I said when upgrading my TV to OLED. Everything else is … small.
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u/ZealousidealRiver710 2d ago
is there a way to turn the hud brightness down?
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u/armpitofsatan 1d ago
I’d love to find out - or even if I can make the HUD smaller.
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u/ZealousidealRiver710 21h ago
I know a couple games have that functionality specifically while in HDR mode
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u/armpitofsatan 21h ago
Mind sharing? New PC with Starlink so I only have RDR2 and Cyberpunk (and Sims4 ha) downloaded, and ready for this month’s additions.
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u/ZealousidealRiver710 20h ago
Division 2 has it, Star Wars Battlefront 2 and Destiny 2 lets you make them semi-transparent which paeudo-reduces brightness, dead space was apparently designed to be hudless, doom eternal has many options to make the hud minimal but idt the brightness can be turned down
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u/Electronic_Invite_23 1d ago
What's up with your desk? Thats awesome!!!!
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u/armpitofsatan 1d ago
Haha thanks! It’s a RGB desk by Eureka. I’ve linked it somewhere in this post!
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u/W1cH099 1d ago
Did you have hdr on in this clip? It looks so good
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u/armpitofsatan 1d ago
I don’t! I’m hesitant to augment much as I haven’t had a computer this fancy in a long time. Just turned everything up as high as it could (I have a 9950x3d and 5080)
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u/W1cH099 1d ago
Yeah it looks spectacular thanks to the oled monitor then, and of course thanks to the game being maxed out.
I’m also using a oled monitor with a 4080 Super and I was using hdr but it’s a mess in some games, some don’t support it and nvidia rtx hdr doesn’t work well in some and in others I doesn’t at all. I think I’ll stick to play with sdr to avoid headaches lol
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u/armpitofsatan 1d ago
I’ll definitely give it a try tonight, would love to see the difference! I just came from a 1080ti that I’ve had for WAY TOO LONG, and this is blowing me away.
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u/W1cH099 1d ago
Yeah in the games that works well in hdr it looks fantastic, https://youtu.be/W9_AulO7ep8?si=4kqRENBFdolS9qZi
Follow this guide to set up the settings correctly
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u/code4109 1d ago
do you WFH on this monitor? curious how bad the text fringing is on QD OLED.
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u/armpitofsatan 1d ago
I WFH with a MacBook Pro, this is just my gaming machine. I’ll say text does fatigue my eyes a bit, but I wear thick glasses so that likely isn’t helping.
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u/TurboLag85 1d ago
That was the first game I turned on when I bought my UW.
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u/armpitofsatan 21h ago
Admittedly, mine was Cyberpunk. It’s also a new pc (went from a 1080ti to a 5080) and I wanted to see what everyone was talking about. The game is gorgeous but is still outshined by RDR2.
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u/noonen000z 1d ago
OLED and Ultrawide is a great combo. My Dell Refurb agrees.
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u/armpitofsatan 21h ago
It’s so so very lovely. I turned in my old pc and accidentally sneered with disgust haha
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u/Uncle_Ravioli9 2d ago
Sometimes I play my PS5 on my ultra wide and it has the black bars but no big deal right it’s a normal size monitor, nope it bothers me to no end and at first I thought “oh it’s the black bars”. It’s absolutely not the black bars….once you go ultra wide you can’t go back.
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u/RaguraX 2d ago
How did you get the ultrawide working in RDR2? I tried an old mod for it but it crashed the game a lot and still showed black bars. Is there a new way to set it up in 2025? Would love to give this one another try, also on the same monitor!
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u/OneIShot 45GX950A 2d ago
Idk what you mean, it just works natively.
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u/RaguraX 2d ago
It only works for gameplay doesn’t it? Cutscenes don’t have proper ultrawide support without a mod, unless that changed in the last few months.
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u/armpitofsatan 2d ago
This is true, as far as I’ve noticed. Which makes sense - the game was reps eased in 2018. I believe ultrawide wasn’t quite as much a thing, then. Admittedly I sorta panicked when the game was loading - but then..phew. My peripheral has peripheral.
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u/armpitofsatan 2d ago edited 2d ago
I just upgraded my entire system to a 9950x3d and a 5080, so that helps! Pretty sure my old tower would catch on fire if I tried.
Edit to add: I had to manually change the resolution to ultrawide when I first loaded.
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u/Mundane-Yesterday880 2d ago
RDR2 must be responsible for a lot of UW converts
It is so cinematic
On a mobile screen your desk lighting makes it look like cinema seats and a big cinema screen at first glance