If you're on the hunt for the best gaming monitor you've no doubt considered an ultra-wide display, but if you're also looking for high fps you may want to consider a few factors before diving into your purchase.
Ultra-wide monitors are seeing an understandable surge in popularity as more games are released for the ratio, and you cannot deny that they look absolutely fantastic.
However, tech is rarely a one-size-fits-all, and that's very much the case with ultra-wide displays...especially when it comes to frames per second.
Does Ultra-Wide Affect FPS?
The short answer here is yes, they do, but what effect do they have?
Well, frame rates tend to be impacted due to the sheer increase in pixels on the display, especially when compared to the equivalent on a standard scale.
Take a 1440p resolution monitor at 27", which typically comes in at 2560 x 1440 Pixels, which would equal 3,686,400 pixels.
Compare that to an ultra-wide 1440p monitor like the Samsung Odyssey 49", where you're getting 5120 x 1440 Pixels for a total of 7,372,800 total pixels, and you can see the difference.
How Do More Pixels Mean Lower FPS?
What you generally see is that you'll be able to get superfast frames per second on smaller displays, which is why pro gamers tend to favour screens of under 28", amongst other reasons.
As a rule of thumb, refresh rates can indicate how many fps the monitor can display, but imagine how much harder it is for a monitor to do this on a massive scale.
Since ultra-wide monitors are much bigger than regular displays, it means that frames per second can take a bit of a hit.
Should You Get An Ultra Wide Monitor?
There are two types of gamers, those who prefer competitive, reflex-based titles and those who like to sit back and immerse themselves in story-driven games.
click to enlargeIf you're the former, you'll want to head towards a 16:9 monitor so you can preserve higher frame rates, plus having a massive screen can be disadvantageous when it comes to keeping track of enemies on screen.
If you're the latter, we'd say go all-in with a 21:9 ultra-wide monitor as it offers serious immersion with some of the best titles available on PC.
It's worth noting that PS5 does not support ultra-wide officially, and the Xbox Series X also does not support the ratio.
They can still be used on these types of monitors, but you'll either be playing with black bars on either side, or it will be stretched to fit which may have an effect on image quality.
Read More: Do High Refresh Rates Actually Matter?