Cooler Master GM34-CWQ2

[Inle]

The Cooler Master GM34-CWQ2 is the successor to an excellent 34-inch ultrawide gaming monitor. It brings a boost in panel refresh rate and comes equipped with an integrated KVM switch, but it's not as straightforward of an upgrade as it initially appears.

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[Onasi]

Is the new worse panel still from TCL or have CM jumped manufacturers for this one? The second might explain the discrepancy, but if it is still TCL then it's a bit worrying that their ostensibly newer gen panels are measurably worse than older ones.

 

[Chrispy_]

NOPE.

37ms best-case black response is dark-smear central that would have been "poor" a decade ago. This isn't even 2014-level VA performance, and in 2024 anything this slow simply isn't acceptable for gaming!
Doing quick maths, the dark smears on this shitty Coolermaster 'gaming' monitor will be present for SEVEN FRAMES.

There are so many faster VA monitors than this. Even old, cheap Dell gaming monitors are 2-3x faster:

(The Dell S3220DGF I bought before my Odyssey G7)

(The Odyssey G7)

 

[Veseleil]

NOPE.

37ms best-case black response is dark-smear central that would have been "poor" a decade ago. This isn't even 2014-level VA performance, and in 2024 anything this slow simply isn't acceptable for gaming!
Doing quick maths, the dark smears on this shitty Coolermaster 'gaming' monitor will be present for SEVEN FRAMES.

There are so many faster VA monitors than this. Even old, cheap Dell gaming monitors are 2-3x faster:

View attachment 338127
(The Dell S3220DGF I bought before my Odyssey G7)

View attachment 338128
(The Odyssey G7)

But, but, it's highly recommended!

 

[mechtech]

Anyone use a curved monitor? Preference curved or flat?

 

[starfals]

In 2024, i thought monitors would finally be good enough, sadly there are still many trade-offs while picking 1... not to mention prices for the high end ones. This monitor is okay-ish, but seems to have a meh performance. I wouldnt pick it over other ones i guess.

 

[Gmr_Chick]

Anyone use a curved monitor? Preference curved or flat?

My Aorus CV27F is curved. The curve is very gentle, however, to the point where I don't notice it when looking directly at the screen. It's either 1500R or 1800R, I can't remember. But the curve is so slight that I don't think I'd notice a stark difference if I switched to a flat monitor....

 

[Chrispy_]

Anyone use a curved monitor? Preference curved or flat?

Curves are better than flat beyond a certain size, which for me is about 30" at desktop sitting distance.

The viewing angle of large, flat screens really suffers when you sit close to them, so a curve helps to mitigate that. People who vigorously defend flat screens are the same people who angle screens towards themselves in a polygonal curve when using multiple displays, so they want a curved screen without realising they want a curved screen. I've used 27 and 32" curved, and felt the 27" was unnecessary. I've used 29" ultrawide flat and wanted the curve (though that was IPS so off-angle viewing wasn't good). And I think a 16:9 flat screen can be reasonable if you have it further back on your desk. Using a 42" TV as a monitor, even at the back of a large desk was horrible, reading detail in the edges of that TV were just as disappointing as watching a movie but the only seat is right at the front corner of the theatre.

IMO the distortion is something your brain adapts to within a day or two. Old CRTs were curved and cinema theatre screens are still curved to this day, nobody every complained about that! Realistically the projection mapping of our human FOV isn't perfectly mapped to a flat display anyway, so a flat display is already "wrong" to our eyes, we're just used to it. You can get used to a slightly different "wrong" in no time at all. I jump between curved and flat displays several times a day and getting used to a curved screen is not something that is mutually exclusive to flat screens. Once you're used to it you're good to go for life.

The caveat with curved displays is that it's harder to get one with uniform backlighting unless you go with OLED. The diffuser sheets in curved displays are never quite at the perfect, uniform distance of higher-quality flat displays, so you just need to avoid ultra-cheap curved monitors as they're likely to have backlight bleed and uniformity issues.

 

[Vario]

Anyone use a curved monitor? Preference curved or flat?

I use a curved, I prefer flat. In my opinion, curved is okay (not better or worse) for gaming but not as nice for general computing. For my gaming computer I have a dell 32" curved 1440p 165hz va. For my workstation I have three dell ips 21" 1080P screens in 3x portrait on ergotron arms.

 

[Kadath]

Anyone use a curved monitor? Preference curved or flat?

I have a flat 34" ultrawide. It depends on the distance you are from the screen.
If you are too close then curved is better since you don't have to scan the screen constantly. At a decent distance it doesn't really matter.

YMMW.