Review on Experience Superior Gaming with the VIOTEK GNV34DB2 34 Inch UltraWide Monitor: 3440X1440, 100Hz, Adaptive Sync, HDMI by Ethan Theriot

I really liked this monitor (GNV34DBE) - on paper it's almost everything I was looking for: ultrawide, 3440 x 1440, 1500R curve, 2 DP inputs, Free Sync, 144Hz, HDR, VESA mountable . Unfortunately, the black smearing common to VA panels and some flickering issues with the free sync were so bad that I had to return it. Pros: Ultrawide – I really like ultrawide for gaming and productivity. You can open three windows side by side for better performance, and the game is much more immersive than the usual 16:9 aspect ratio. High refresh rate - 144Hz is worth it, I would never go back to 60. Games like it more comfortable and even better mouse resistance. That's about the cheapest you can get for an ultra-wide 144Hz, 1440p monitor. 1500R Curve - I thought it was too aggressive, but I really like that curvature on an ultrawide monitor. I have an ultra wide flat model and I hate looking at it after the nice curve on this one. You have to turn your head significantly less to see content at the edges of the screen. Not sure if it matters in terms of ergonomics, but it feels a lot more exciting and looks super cool. would get from a good TV. There is also an odd quirk where enabling HDR locks the maximum brightness of HDR to the current brightness setting, so remember to turn the brightness all the way down before enabling HDR. OSD - The OSD is fine, nothing special. There are several game features that I have never used. Aside from an odd HDR brightness quirk, everything else is pretty straightforward. Button placement is too far back and clunky for normal use, but standard navigation buttons are expected at this price point. There are also volume controls, but this monitor doesn't have built-in speakers. VESA mount. The monitor is VESA compliant by default, but I find that it uses 75x75mm holes instead of 100x100mm, which is odd for a monitor of this size. Also, due to the curvature, the monitor protrudes slightly from the bracket, which should be taken into account due to the torque on the bracket from the extender and the weight of the monitor. On/Off on the back of the monitor. Seems cool but I left it as it didn't add anything. Cons: Black/dark smearing is by far the worst part of the monitor. I've heard about dark streaks on VA panels, but after reading Tom's Hardware's review of this monitor I decided to bite the bullet anyway. Black level smearing is unbearable for me. I play a lot of FIFA and you can see players with black hair just get smeared across the screen when the camera moves. Even in GTA, if you rotate the camera, you can see buildings blurred in the distance. I've tried fixing this with various overdrive settings, but all result in either too much blur or too much halo if you overdo it. Maybe I'm just used to IPS monitors with minimal blur, but I just couldn't help but notice. Freesync flickers. Although this monitor is not certified as Gsync compatible by Nvidia, you can still enable it in the Nvidia Control Panel settings. It works, but causes noticeable flickering in some games for some reason. Many have suggested that this is due to switching between low frame rate compensation and free sync at lower frame rates, but I had this problem even between 100 and 120 fps. Disabling and re-enabling freesync in the monitor's OSD usually resolves the issue, but this is something I keep encountering when just playing a game with freesync on .TLDR. Good monitor but black blur and freelink flicker issues forced me to return it.