How hard is it to run games at ultrawide resolutions?

How hard is it to run games at 21:9 ultrawide resolutions like 3440x1440 or 2560x1080? How does performance compare with standard resolutions like 1080p, 1440p, and 4K? This video should be helpful to anyone who has an ultrawide monitor and is trying to decide which GPU to buy for ultrawide gaming since most GPU reviews don't cover ultrawide performance. This could also help people considering buying an ultrawide monitor to decide whether their GPU is up for the job. In this video I explain the number of pixels involved at each resolution to show how to predict gaming performance when reviews only tell you standard resolutions. I also compare these predicted results with actual Ultrawide gaming benchmarks on my RTX 2070 in Red Dead Redemption 2 and Shadow of the Tomb Raider, so we can see if they line up.

Chapters:
0:00 Intro
0:25 How many pixels?
2:26 What does the number of pixels tell us? (graph)
3:22 Actual game benchmarks
4:47 Summary of benchmark results
6:40 Other thoughts on using review benchmarks
7:02 Is upgrading to ultrawide worth it?
7:29 Thanks!
7:47 BUT AT WHAT COST?!?!?!

[kevinbrewer]

I absolutely love my 1440 ultra wide monitor. I’m using an MSI 100 Hz panel, myself, and my 6800 XT performs amazing on it. I don’t think I can go back to 16 x 9 gaming. Thanks for all the great content, congratulations for the channel growth, and I look forward to all of your Contin.

[Keebnator]

You really make some good content, I tried searching more about ultra wides and there is not enough info on videos or even web pages, besides the obvious points its Nice to see an actual real person make a review sin the tech experts well they can change the set up evert 6months while I build a computer for years. Keep the good work! Cheers

[hienchi]

Got the ultrawide 1440p and never go back to 16:9. Best decision ever.

[filipepedrini]

Best ultrawide GPU review. Just what I needed. Great job!

[leifrogerandersen]

After having ultrawide for just over a year now, at first it was neat, some games it made a big difference, but what it did do however was make everything 16:9 look bad.

[Thesasquatch]

I do think ultrawide has an element of being harder on the cpu just because it's handling more physics and objects on screen at once than 16:9 typically does. I usually always go by your suggestions though for sure when I'm looking at benchmarks for new games. Edit: I'd be interested in seeing a video with a custom resolution set that matches the same pixel count as 1080p but at an aspect ratio of 21:9 and see what the differences are if that's even possible

[cjw]

This was the video i was looking for since im looking at 1440p ultrawide montors atm.

This sort of content is so good. Your content is so practical and insightful.


🙏🙏

[Cygnus]

Just the information I'm looking for. Bravo!

[Camper]

A while ago bought an ultrawide monitor 1440p and I knew already it will cost some more GPU power, but how much. It seems different from game to game. Sometimes I use ultrawide 1080p with FSR and that works very good so far. But watching benchmarks from games does not give me that info I want. I also calculated the difference in % and used that on benchmark results to give me some hint about where I can land in fps for those games tested. Btw, very good video and good explanation around these resolutions compared.

[SvalbardSleeperDistrict]

It also depends on the genre. Ultrawide or triples are almost a necessity for high-level, competitive simracing, for example.

[deathbossom]

Got my first ever ultrawide yesterday (ASRock 34" PG34WQ15R2B 165Hz VA Phantom Gaming), and I love it already. Yes my games have taken a bit of an FPS hit, but that was to be expected. It's not only perfect for the games I play (World of Warcraft, Overwatch 2, Baldurs Gate 3 etc), but it's also great for work-so much real estate to work with for aps etc. So long 16:9 and thanks for the memories.

[rileycrain]

my wife got to bring home dell 60hz ultrawide from her work and I began my gaming on that, and it set the precedent. I passed on PS5 for the sole reason that it doesn't support 21/9.. i went for a prebuilt with rtx 2060 and 10700f, I have to play 1080p at low settings to dream of 100fps, even with dlss on performance I get 80-90 fps at 1440p. So im stuck on balanced dlss and living with 65-78fps... last year I set aside a 1000$ and said this is for a 3070 and as soon as it falls to 1000$ I'm getting it. Im happy to say that i was a little patient and I can finally get a 3070, but now im thinking of getting a 3080 and never looking back. No matter what next gen has to offer I feel I am finally gonna maximize my system for years to come. I am pretty happy man

[ibayodeperegrino]

I would never, never! go back to a 16:9 aspect ratio. Every time I watch at a 'normal' monitor it just feels tiny. I have even bougnt my own ultrawide monitor for my desktop pc at work. And i would ove to try one of these super ultrawide monitors.

[schnup]

everything i think about making a differance youve already made a video about. awesome :D

[billaustin]

Thanks for the Clear and concise way to look at things.
I was overthinking (to be honest) before pulling the trigger on an ultrawide
Advtange to dragging feet (didn;t really give into FOMO) is that the prices have dropped nicely on the monitors, and there are more powerful (though still not super cheap) GPU upgrade options.

[ShaighJosephson]

I dumped ultra wide and went back to a slighty curved 40" 16:9 4k monitor and I sit about 5' away from it... My eyes like having both the height and width as opposed to just the width... Feels more immersive to me...

[neilstack]

Yea math wise I'd like an ultrawide 2k it seems the best price to performance ratio using a Turing card. Well documented stats bar graphs BTW. Makes for easy comparison. Oh and cool haircut Dan!

[KickThatZombie]

Thank you for the approach man, nice logic and data to back it up, I will keep using this moving forward

[sagex]

I feel like I ended up with the best of both worlds (for me). 1440p 16:9 32" -- same pixel density as a 1080p 24" but a lot more screen real estate. When I game I typically run 2560x1080 custom resolution. This gets me the same image height as my old 24" 1080p gaming monitor but more peripheral vision and easier to drive. Basically it's now a 29" 1080p ultrawide but my 32" monitor has much better motion handling and refresh rate and is actually *cheaper* than the majority of small ultrawides which are generally pretty crap va panels (Gigabyte M32Q 165Hz fast ips-- fantastic monitor). I really like a BIG screen for general computing and work but find 32" too big for games.

[kaan.]

Thats really nice video and good explanation! Keep it up man!