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So, I took the dive and purchased the ultrawide, ultraexpensive, and ultramazing Predator X34 with G-Sync and am completely blown away. I'll caveat my experience in several ways - last time I actually used a monitor for PC gaming was about 20 years ago with Tie Fighter (and that was CRT), I've never really seen g-sync in action, and I've never gamed at above 60hz. I've also only had about an hour with it since "life" got in the way. PC stats are in the sig, but basically I run a GTX 760 2gb, with an i5 3570k and 16gb ram. Fine for 1080p, but I was a bit worried about 3440x1440. I'm trying to get this card to last me until pascal, and I think it will since I don't tend to play crazy graphic intensive games at the moment (Smite, Divinity: Original Sin, etc).

For those who don't know, the Predator X34 is a 34 inch, 3440x1440p, 21:9 ultrawide, g-sync compatible monitor. Standard refresh rate is 60hz, but you can "overclock" it by hitting a few buttons using the annoying on screen display (ODS) and setting it to 100gz. Might be a limitation on my GTX 760, but max it will show for me is 95fps. Maybe I'll figure that out at some point.

Here are my first impressions:

I've read that g-sync is ultra smooth. Those people are 100% correct. Even when I tried Crysis 2 (about the most graphic intensive game I had installed) and it ran really well on high at around 60fps - silky smooth just like you'd think it should given all the g-sync hype. Awesome.

Then I fired up Smite, my main game at the moment, and was blown away. I had played at 150fps on my tv without v-sync and that was pretty smooth since Smite doesn't have bad screen tearing anyway. I tried it first at 60fps since I forgot to overclock the monitor and thought I was running at 100fps since it was so amazingly smooth. Then I realized all I was seeing was g-sync in action. Every frame in basically perfect sync. Awesome. I turned the overclock up to 95hz and everything got just a bit smoother. 50% more frames didn't have the same impact as just adding g-sync, but all that smoothness is awesome regardless.

G-Force Control Panel automatically recognized that the X34 was g-sync compatible and change the settings automatically. No pain there.

Panel has some backlight bleed, but not that much. Didn't notice it after I booted up the game, so eh.

Love this monitor so far. Will post updated impressions if people are interested.

Anyways, happy to answer any questions you may have.

Thanks for the review on the monitor. I've been looking at upgrading my current 2 monitor setup with 1 bigger monitor with freesync or g-sync. Although the Predator X34 might be a bit more than I want to spend.

spiritwalker2222 wrote:

Thanks for the review on the monitor. I've been looking at upgrading my current 2 monitor setup with 1 bigger monitor with freesync or g-sync. Although the Predator X34 might be a bit more than I want to spend.

The Predator X34 is an expensive bit of indulgence on my part, and I can't say it's really "worth" that kind of money, but its a really sweet monitor. I had my eye on the Predator Z35, the 35 inch 2560x1080p monitor as well for "only" $1000, but in the end decided that I would go for the higher resolution and get a really great monitor that I should use until it stops turning on years down the road.

The FreeSync ultrawides are far cheaper. I could have gotten the FreeSync version of the X34 for about $800 and a Fury X on top of it and probably spent just a bit less money than the X34 alone. I went for the X34 since I like Nvidia's ecosystem better (Shadowplay, etc) and I know they can pretty much be trusted to always have their drivers in order. AMD has been spotty on that lately, but maybe they will improve with Damage moving over there. I have high hopes for Pascal too, so I'm all set for when that comes out.

The monitor itself is really slick and built well. The speakers on it are actually pretty decent for gaming that isn't that serious or for watching Youtube videos. It doesn't really have a frame, but it does have a centimeter thick border between the image and the outside edge of the monitor. It has the LED underlighting, which is cool in a street racing kind of way but I just turned it off.

The on screen display is just not great. The buttons are small and close together, and the only indication of what they do is on the screen itself rather than on the monitor frame. Once you get the hang of it its not that bad.

Don't read this if you are happy with your X34. However, if you are thinking of buying one you should know what you're getting into, just in case.

drfish wrote:

Don't read this if you are happy with your X34. However, if you are thinking of buying one you should know what you're getting into, just in case.

Yeah, I read up a lot on it before buying. I'm hoping this is a later production run so that a lot of the kinks have been worked out. I know other monitors are cheaper, but I really want the ultrawide and the G-sync. There's 60fps, then there's 60fps with G-Sync. They really don't compare. I'm sure I'll feel it once this monitor is half the price by next Christmas, but I want it now.

Sweet, I assumed you were well informed but I didn't want to burst any bubbles just in case.

Since you're already "in the know" please let me know if you can detect the scan-line problem that caused me to return mine.

drfish wrote:

Sweet, I assumed you were well informed but I didn't want to burst any bubbles just in case.

Since you're already "in the know" please let me know if you can detect the scan-line problem that caused me to return mine.

None yet, but it seems like yours took a bit to develop. Smite runs clean and clear. Stinks you had issues, but I hope it worked out for you in the end.

I noticed them right away but didn't investigate for a couple weeks because they weren't as obvious in all games and no one else was complaining. I don't think they are something you have to worry about getting worse over time but I have no proof and not everyone agrees. My red flag was after a couple weeks without Acer saying anything beyond, "it's on our radar" - since they couldn't say they understood/can/would fix it I bugged out while NewEgg would still give me a refund. The LG I ended up with that has the same panel for half the price is good enough for now. If you have a solid X34 though I'm totally jealous.

It's unfortunate that Acer has had so many problems- and I have to wonder if the problems aren't largely centered on the revision 2? G-Sync module they're using, aside from design/assembly/quality control issues that result in backlight bleed. Still, when it works...


I'll be saving up .

34" LG 34UM95 here and super happy with it do not need no stinking gstink.

vargis14 wrote:

34" LG 34UM95 here and super happy with it do not need no stinking gstink.

Have you seen it in person?

DancinJack wrote:

Have you seen it in person?

I have seen/used it on a friends Asus gaming monitor. It's great. I'm still not going to buy a monitor with G-Sync despite me owning an Nvidia GPU. I refuse to support Nvidia pushing us towards this route. I hate the notion of my future GPU purchases being limited because I want to make use of my very expensive monitor's features. That's outrageous. Plus there's a significant price premium with G-Sync, there's a severe limitation of the port selection on G-Sync monitors and it could just become straight up useless either via dropped support or me deciding I want to go with AMD next time. These are not just small issues, they're huge red flags.

slowriot wrote:

I have seen/used it on a friends Asus gaming monitor. It's great. I'm still not going to buy a monitor with G-Sync despite me owning an Nvidia GPU. I refuse to support Nvidia pushing us towards this route. I hate the notion of my future GPU purchases being limited because I want to make use of my very expensive monitor's features. That's outrageous. Plus there's a significant price premium with G-Sync, there's a severe limitation of the port selection on G-Sync monitors and it could just become straight up useless either via dropped support or me deciding I want to go with AMD next time. These are not just small issues, they're huge red flags.

I wasn't trying to start the "vendor lock" and faults discussion. I was more just wanting to emphasize its merits. Especially considering Vargis spent ~700+USD on a monitor.

We don't have to be negative all the time guys!

DancinJack wrote:

slowriot wrote:

I have seen/used it on a friends Asus gaming monitor. It's great. I'm still not going to buy a monitor with G-Sync despite me owning an Nvidia GPU. I refuse to support Nvidia pushing us towards this route. I hate the notion of my future GPU purchases being limited because I want to make use of my very expensive monitor's features. That's outrageous. Plus there's a significant price premium with G-Sync, there's a severe limitation of the port selection on G-Sync monitors and it could just become straight up useless either via dropped support or me deciding I want to go with AMD next time. These are not just small issues, they're huge red flags.

I wasn't trying to start the "vendor lock" and faults discussion. I was more just wanting to emphasize its merits. Especially considering Vargis spent ~700+USD on a monitor.

We don't have to be negative all the time guys!

G-sync does for monitors what SSDs did for storage. Totally worth it.

I don't like the vendor-locking that Nvidia has done with G-Sync- but I absolutely appreciate that they took the time and put forth the effort to essentially perfect adaptive v-sync right out.

Freesync is going to need both more software refinement in the drivers *and* in the ASICs used in monitors.

DancinJack wrote:

vargis14 wrote:

34" LG 34UM95 here and super happy with it do not need no stinking gstink.

Have you seen it in person?

Yeys I have..Luckily so far my rig has no problems staying above 60fps and yes it looks a bit smoother at times compared to no Gsync but most of the time I do not notice the difference. Albeit I did not spend but 30 minutes messing with it.
Wish i had a Predator to compare it to my current monitor at the same resolution..perhaps that would change my mind.

Hope everyone had a great holiday!

After a week of intense gaming, I am happy to report that my Predator X34 is going strong. No weird issues at this point. A few more points that I've noticed/noted/experienced/tried:

-The speakers are really decent. Maybe a bit tinny, but overall they are fine for modest use.

-The curve really is gentle. I never notice it except when I'm stopping to look at the monitor from far away. When in game, I've never had a moment where I stopped to think about the curve. I don't necessarily feel any more immersed or anything. Basically, for anyone worried about the curve, just consider it a non-issue - it either works so well, or doesn't work at all, to the point where you just won't care or notice that its there.

-The GTX 760 is actually a pretty decent card for someone who wants to dive in 3440x1440 as long as you are okay playing slightly older games. Smite runs at over 100fps on max settings with low AA and shadows turned down a bit. Payday 2 runs at 60fps+ with most settings on high. GTA V ran at a pretty consistent 60-70fps during the entire benchmark (there was a decent amount of texture pop-in, but I'm guessing that's a GTA V issue, not a GPU/monitor issue). That all said, looking forward to seeing what Nvidia does with Pascal this year, though I'm not in a rush.

-Using Nvidia Shadowplay to record gameplay footage will give you two high end options - 1080p60 or 1440p30. 1080p60 results in letterboxing for your videos, still need to test 1440p30. I prefer the smoothness of 60fps, so I always go with that.

-I've been too busy playing games to both calibrating the monitor, but the colors work fine for the games I've been playing.

All in all, still happy with the purchase.

Please some youtube gaming videos to watch in 3440-1440 would be swell even at 30fps since most people recording gaming in 1080p do it at 30fps anyways even though 1080p at 60 fps is becoming more and more popular. I am getting tired of watching 1080p stretched videos with huge 440 lines worth of black bars to the right and left of picture.

21/9 will catch on more and more..I was very surprised that gsync 21/9's came out so quickly. In a year or 2, 21/9 will be the gamers and workers choice over multi monitor setups. Still with that 650$ 4k monitor was out before I bought this 750$ LG 34UM95 that was 25% off its 999.99$ price a long while ago when they were very close to just being launched . With that 4k monitor I could run a custom ultra widescreen resolution of 3840-1600 or 1440 or 1280 easing the strain on video cards along with giving me that ultra 25/9 estimated widescreen effect. With a 40" panel it would probably look very much like my 34" 21/9 panel just a bit wider since my 34" panel is about 1/2" less as wide as my 37" HDTV just a lot shorter. Just the extra peripheral vision and immersion of 21/9 or wider is the best for gaming leading to less mouse scanning and lets you scan a still picture with your eyes before committing to use your mouse to look to one side or the other. That 4k panel with a custom resolution would be even better. I think anyone that does not want a extra 880 vertical lines of resolution compared to a 2560-1440 16/9 panel is just being stubborn, it is just glorious.