LG 34UC79G monitor
Beautiful, wide, expensive
Pity the monitor manufacturers right now. They’re caught in an inflection point for panel technology. They can integrate all these amazing gamingspecific feature like “black stabilisation” and “dynamic action sync” and “1m motion blur reduction” but doing that on a 1440p (let alone 4K+) monitor would make the product too expensive. And that’s even before they curve it. So to bring this tech to a big 21:9 display at a price that’s merely extreme rather than untenable, they’ve had to drop the resolution to 2560x1080.
That’s right: this gaming entry in LG’s excellent range of curved 21:9 monitors has a vertical resolution that won’t stress any but the lowest of the low-end GPUs. It also runs at 144Hz and supports AMD’s FreeSync, along with the afore-mentioned gaming functions, but losing all those pixels is a bitter pill to swallow.
Yes, the 34UC79G is $250 cheaper than the 1440p 34UC98 but we’d take the superior colour and resolution of the “pro” display over slightly smoother movement any day. The 34UC98 is a 60Hz monitor in any case.
Then again, it all depends on what you prioritise. As much as we can’t go back to a sub-1440p desktop, there are still some games where turning the res down to 2560x1080 gives a crucial framerate bump from “pretty good” to “silky smooth”.
And this is where the pity part comes in again. LG has to make this a 1080p display not just for cost but also to reach as wide a segment of the gaming market as possible. Insane as it might seem to a PCPP reader, there are folks out there who won’t pay more than $150 for a GPU!
Three years from now of course, a $150 GPU will be as powerful as a 980 Ti. And then you’ll be stuck with a 1080p monitor while everyone else - including those console folks - will be running 4K.
If 1080p is where you want to be, this is one of the best widescreen monitors on the market right now. It has better build-quality than the BenQ unit we reviewed a ways back, and it’s an IPS display too. At the moment the market is beginning to see an influx of $200 GPUs that are 1080p powerhouses like the Asus GTX 1050 Dual Edition reviewed this issue, so there’s no shame to be had sticking with a lower resolution. But there comes the rub. Sticking to 1080p at the moment is a move to stay within a constrained
If 1080p is where you want to be, this is one of the best widescreen monitors on the market right now
budget, so the pricing of the monitor seems a little on the strange side. Considering that you can buy FreeSync or G-Sync 27” 1440p 144Hz monitors for around the $1000 range, or similarly sized, no frills 4K monitors for the same price or less, $1300 feels like it somewhat prices the LG 34UC79G out of consideration for its target market.
It is a lovely monitor, but not quite lovely enough to justify its hefty price tag. If you can scrounge up an extra $250, its professional sibling is even better and is a smarter long-term investment. ANTHONY FORDHAM