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Perhaps it's down to the sheer amount of 4K benchmarking we've done and the whole question of just how important resolution actually is, but recently we've been wondering - are GPU resources best deployed in ever-increasing resolutions based on the same 16:9 aspect ratio? Or should we be considering a different application for the surfeit of graphics power available to PC owners? The rising popularity of ultra-wide 21:9 aspect ratio displays provides a potential alternative to the standard presentation, and based on our initial experiences, this new approach to PC gaming has much to commend it.Ultra-wide aspect ratios screens typically come in two flavours, running at either 2560x1080 or 3440x1440 resolutions. What we're looking at here are alternatives to the standard 1080p and 1440p displays, with a horizontal pixel count expanded out by 33.3 per cent. Our test model for this feature was supplied by LG - the 34UM67-P - and it's an interesting screen on two fronts: first of all, it's a mammoth 34-inch screen (pretty much the largest available) and secondly, it features support for AMD's FreeSync, the adaptive sync technology that promises the performance of gaming with v-sync disabled, without any of the usual tearing artefacts.
First impressions of this screen are stellar - but it's important to put the screen measurements into context. It's a 34-inch screen, but it's measured across the diagonal meaning that horizontally it's a lot wider than you might imagine, while vertically, we're looking at a height broadly equivalent with a 27-inch 16:9 screen. The 34UM67 boasts the less pixel-dense 2560x1080, but in all other areas, it ticks all the boxes for an upper-mid range display: it utilises IPS technology (with excellent coverage of the sRGB range you'll need for gaming) with decent uniformity and little to no light bleed on the edges. By default, it's rather bright, but once calibrated, image quality is excellent.
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