I thought I was locked into ultrawide monitors for good. It had been 10 years of an expanded 21:9 aspect ratio and 3440x1440 resolution on my desk, after all.
But that all changed a couple of months ago when I got my hands on a "regular" widescreen 16:9 gaming monitor from Alienware.
The screen in question, the AW2726DM, came my way temporarily as a review unit, and it reintroduced me to several display perks I'd forgotten I was missing.
I saw an improvement to my first-person shooter skills with a 16:9 monitor
OK, yeah, I totally forgot that playing first-person shooter (FPS) games on a 16:9 monitor is way different than playing on an ultrawide. I've always said there's a reason that pros don't go for extra pixels on the sides, but I guess I forgot why I was saying it.
Switching back to a regular monitor while playing games like Battlefield 6, Escape From Tarkov, Hell Let Loose, and a few others made a noticeable difference to my scoreboard.
With fewer pixels to watch, especially outside of my main area of focus, I found that I was able to do a lot more shooting and a lot less dying. It largely has to do with a tighter HUD and a smaller window of focus — in any case, when I'm on a first-person shooter jag where I care at all about my performance, I'll be using a 16:9 display.
Indie games and singleplayer gems usually fit better on a 16:9 monitor
When I'm not enjoying first-person shooters, I spend a lot of time with indie and single-player games, many from decades ago before ultrawide screens were even an option.
While some of them offer ultrawide support, there are plenty that fill the space with black bars instead. It's not the worst look, but it's certainly not as clean as gaming on a 16:9 monitor where the graphics fill the screen from bezel to bezel. Worse, some games struggle with a 21:9 aspect ratio in terms of UI functionality.
Even some high-profile games lack native ultrawide support. Elden Ring is a good (bad?) example, requiring me to download a mod or a third-party tool to get rid of black bars on an ultrawide monitor.
My PC doesn't work as hard ... and that's especially important in the summer
PC gaming in the summer usually finds me with a Steam Deck in hand near the air conditioning. But, as we all know, a gaming handheld just isn't the way to play a lot of demanding titles.
It's a coincidence, but my switch to a 16:9 monitor lines up nicely with hot summer weather. Because my GPU isn't having to produce extra pixels for a 3440x1440 ultrawide monitor (compared to 2560x1440), it's not running as hot, and I'm seeing similar (or better) frame rates.
Forgetting ambient temperatures for a moment, giving my RTX 5070 Ti some extra headroom for advanced stuff like ray tracing is always nice. A 16:9 monitor doesn't have to be any less crisp than an ultrawide, and it doesn't take long to stop noticing the lack of extra space on either side of the picture.
My desk isn't being dominated by one screen anymore
I have a dual-monitor mounting arm attached to my desk, and I found that with an ultrawide connected to one fork, there was always one screen taking over my setup.
That's not necessarily a bad thing. My secondary monitor is an old 16:9 screen I use for running Discord and other secondary apps while I game, so it can easily be pushed to the side to make space for the ultrawide.
With two 16:9 monitors back in play, the setup feels a lot more balanced. There's just more space to work with, and I don't feel like I'm turning my head nearly as much when I'm looking at the secondary screen.
I want to be honest about the 16:9 monitor trade-offs
I truly thought I was an ultrawide lover for life, and I spent a considerable amount of time trying to nail down the best high-performance QD-OLED option for gaming.
But my time with a 16:9 monitor has convinced me that a regular aspect ratio is more than enough for my needs. That should also help soften the blow to my wallet when I finally upgrade once and for all.
Regardless, there are a few things I know that I'll miss without a 21:9 screen. The biggest impact is felt when I'm working. Sure, it's easy to drop a couple of windows side-by-side on a 16:9 display, but on an ultrawide, I had a lot more room to play with. Enough that I could fit three windows if I really needed to.
RPGs and racing games don't feel the same
I'm certainly not a gamer who only plays first-person shooters. I enjoy plenty of roleplaying games (RPGs) and racing titles, too, and I won't pretend that they don't look better on an ultrawide display. The extra pixels add a lot of immersion.
In an ideal world, I'd have an ultrawide to swap to when enjoying these genres. Alas, that's a lot of dough to drop on screens, and I'm convinced I'd be better off with 16:9.
The switch back to a 16:9 display went way different than I expected
If you've been mulling over your next gaming monitor's aspect ratio, I'm here to tell you, as a long-term 21:9 enjoyer, that the ultrawide prophets might not always be right.
My experiment with a regular 16:9 gaming monitor certainly didn't feel like a downgrade (especially thanks to a QD-OLED panel and a high refresh rate), and I'm extra happy that I won't have to spend as much on new hardware.
Are you gaming on an ultrawide monitor, or are you sticking with 16:9? Any plans to make a change in the near future? Do you agree with my opinions? Let me know in the comments section below!
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