This computer monitor has a feature that immerses you further into your games

BI Graphics_acer predator x34 4x3

Skye Gould/Business Insider

The Acer Predator X34′s screen is officially 21:9, but a better name for the ultra-wide category would be “monitor plus” due to its extra width.

It’s an ultra-wide, 1440p complement to your high-powered gaming PC, and it has the bells and whistles that gaming enthusiasts demand.

Of course, those demands come at a high $1,300 price ($1,250 on Amazon at the time of writing).

Check out the Predator X34:

The Acer Predator X34 is a 34-inch curved ultra-wide monitor with a 21:9 aspect ratio.

It’s wider than the traditional 16:9 monitors and TVs most of us are used to, like this black monitor in front of the X34.

The X34′s ultra-wide 21:9 screen won’t make your games necessarily look bigger, as its height is similar to a 24-inch monitor. Yet, the extra width does give a better sense of immersion and you can see more around you than a regular 16:9 monitor.

However, since most video content out there plays in the 16:9 aspect ratio rather than 21:9, that means you’ll see black borders called horizontal letterboxing on either side of your videos and they’ll look like they’re playing on a 16:9 monitor.

You unfortunately lose the X34′s ultra-wide immersion and narrow borders when watching videos. It either bothers you or it doesn’t.

For me, it’s not a big deal because I play way more games on the computer than I watch videos.

It’s a 1440p monitor, which is a higher resolution than the full-HD 1080p that most of us are used to.

However, since its aspect ratio is 21:9, the display’s resolution is 3440 x 1440. That means it has almost as many pixels as 4K monitors with the regular 16:9 aspect ratio, which often have have 3840 × 2160 pixels. That means that you need a decently powerful graphics card to push graphics to all those pixels at a decent frame rate.

The curve is more gentle than you’d find on other curved monitors.

The curve makes games look great and it helps bring in the side edges a little for immersive gameplay.

It’s a beautiful monitor with a seemingly edge-to-edge screen design due to its narrow borders around the display itself.

Despite the fact that the X34 is a gaming monitor, which can have somewhat garish designs, it looks right at home in a more serious office environment. However, you’d need a fairly large desk for the X34 to sit on, as the stand takes up quite a bit of space.

It has LED lighting shining from underneath the monitor, which is a cool optional effect.

And you can choose different colors.

As well as lighting effects.

It’s set up with a 60Hz refresh rate, but it can be “overclocked” through the on-screen menu to 100Hz.

Unfortunately, I found that my games flickered when the monitor was set to 100Hz, but setting it to 95Hz seems to have fixed that issue. There’s no perceivable difference between 95Hz and 100Hz.

The X34 also features Nvidia’s G-Sync technology, which makes for ultra-smooth gaming. It’s also partly responsible for the X34′s high price tag.

G-Sync is a feature that lets the monitor communicate with your graphics card. It syncs the number of frames that your graphics card is pushing with the refresh rate of the monitor, and it makes for smooth gaming.

So, if I have the monitor’s refresh rate set to 95, my graphics card will push out 95 frames per second for games.

Without it, you can get “screen tearing” or micro-stutters during gaming when your monitor’s refresh rate doesn’t match the frames that your graphics card is producing per second. At the same time, screen tearing is only really noticeable during fast gameplay, and I’ve found that it’s not the worst thing in the world. Several gamers I know can deal with it and can even ignore screen tearing altogether, myself included.

I’ve never experienced micro-stutters myself, but it was bad enough for a colleague of mine to buy a better monitor with G-Sync technology.

The X34 uses an IPS display, which displays richer colors and darker blacks than a monitor with a regular LCD display.

Notice how the X34′s IPS display produces a darker black color than the regular LCD monitor on the right, which indicates that the IPS display has better brightness than the LCD display.

Unfortunately, my camera couldn’t properly capture how much richer the colors are on the X34 monitor, but you’d notice a strong difference in the depth of the cat’s yellow eyes if you were in my position.

At the same time, I saw brighter spots on the top corners called backlight “bleed,” which is noticeable when playing or watching darker content, especially when you’re already in a dark environment. Yet, it’s not really a problem for brighter content in a normally-lit room.

Light bleed can be somewhat common on IPS displays, especially curved models. Still, it’s not something I’d expect in a $1,300 monitor.

Should you buy it?

If you’re looking for an ultra-wide monitor for work and casual gaming, you don’t really need to spend the extra bucks that come with Nvidia’s G-Sync Technology, and I’d suggest you find an ultra-wide monitor without G-Sync or AMD’s equivalent, called Freesync.

Those who spend a lot of time gaming and want their games to look their very best will be pleased with Predator X34. I’m one of those who likes games to look impressive, and the X34 does just that with its curved screen, high-resolution IPS display, and G-Sync Technology.

The light bleed, flickering at 100Hz, and horizontal letterboxing for videos is unfortunate, but they’re not deal breakers.

Is it worth the $1,300? That totally depends on your budget, but you wouldn’t be satisfied with a monitor without G-Sync/Freesync and an IPS display if you already have a $1,000+ high-performance gaming PC.

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