I'm planning to upgrade my PC in the new year, but I would like to get a new monitor probably before Xmas.

Should I go for a 4K monitor or a 21:9 one? for example this

As much as I think 4K looks great, I do love that whole cinematic feel you get with 21:9

What do you guys think?

Here is an example of 21:9 compared to 16:9 and 4:3

Well, ultra wide has less pixels so it's less taxing on your card and you'll be able to play at better settings. On the other hand a few games seem to have bad support for it, ui stretching, black bars etc. I guess it's just up to what you want in the end.

I don't really keep up to date on most pc tech outside of graphics cards, and this post raised a few questions

1) are most 21:9 monitors just 1080 vertically with just extra pixels on the horizontal or are they lower/higher on the vertical?

2) is there a monitor that does both? one that has 21:9 aspect and 2160 vertical? or would that just be completely ridiculous and expensive

1. I've only seen them that way. 2560*1080.

2. I've not seen one but I'm sure it'd be super expensive. Also like 5k horizontal.

E: Ok super quick Google shows there's a buncha resolutions now. Definitely didn't realise 21:9 was so popular. Always kinda wanted one for the better FOV.

There are (ok, not actually 21:9 because that would be exactly 5040 x 2160) a couple that came out of CES2014 in the "crazy TV no one actually buys" which weigh in at 5120 x 2160. Samsung and LG, both huge prestige sets.

But your typical, affordable 21:9 display is 1080p with extra on the edge. 2560 x 1080. Not to say they're all cheap but even an expensive high-refresh curved 34" panel is under a grand. Then you have panels like the one linked above that are 3440 x 1440.

@alexw00d: @shivoa: Thanks :)

ya OPs gif really sells you on it, it must be great for racing games.

The problem with 21:9 is that not all games support it, and you'll probably end up with back bars on the sides when watching movies or playing games that aren't supported. Since it's a wider aspect ratio, it won't scale to 1080p well. Not as taxing on the GPU though.

True 4k is essentially 1080p x4 so it will scale up or down perfectly with anything 16:9. The problem is that's a shitload of pixels to be driving and even the fastest cards on the market have trouble running it at 60 fps. It's going to be another 2 or 3 years before 4k gaming is really feasible. There is some 4k content out there, expecially with the upcoming UHD Blurays and recent games supporting 4k.

I say go for 4k and run picture in picture, or get 2 1440p monitors.

I would go with the 16:9 for compatibility reasons (and I actually did buy one yesterday). Not to say 4K does not have issues as well, but you can always downscale to 1440p or 1080p if you need to. The problem most people have is the lower refresh rates. No 4K monitor has a better refresh rate than 60hz, while 1440p can have as high as 165hz. The 21:9 monitors can get 100hz, so ideally they would look a little smoother than 4K, but not as smooth as a 1440p monitor.

The 21:9 will definitely cost you more than a 4K. A Samsung u28e590d or an Asus PB287q will cost you around $400, while the good 21:9 monitors start at $600. If you're going for the gaming centric monitors with G-Sync(Nvidia cards only) like Asus ROG Swift or Acer Predator, it's $800-900 for 4K vs $1200 for 21:9. You can get 4K with g-sync for less than $600 if you buy a TN panel instead of IPS.

Like I said, I just ordered an Asus ROG Swift PG27AQ monitor, so I've been doing a lot of research these past few days. It's a 4K IPS monitor with G-Sync. I probably paid more than I should've ($900) and they didn't have any in stock so now I'm just waiting.

I recently bought myself the ASUS PG279Q and I got lucky with no backlight bleed, next year I'm tempted to upgrade to 21:9. The 16:9 ASUS I have is amazing, I'm really impressed with how much of an improvement it is over my older IPS monitor.

Beware if you buy the 3440x1440 21:9 monitors you are closing in on 4k resolution so a GTX 1080 is more or less the minimum card you should look at.