UWQHD almost the new UHD: Ultrawide continues to gain ground

The current one is still running PCGH Gaming Resolution Survey 2023. After more than 500 participants, however, a first, revealing conclusion can be drawn.

FHD and WQHD the losers

It is already clear that there are two big losers compared to the previous year. Among the PCGH Extreme members, Full HD will soon be close to irrelevance. At the beginning of 2020, the group with 1,920 × 1,080 was still in second place with over 20 percent, but now it is only in fourth place with a single-digit result. And 3,840 × 1,600 (QHD+) or 5,120 × 1,440 (Dual QHD) are no longer there far away. In recent years, Full HD has been characterized primarily by fast e-sports panels, which obviously did not find favor with the PCGH community. Compared to the last survey, the FHD share fell again by 35 percent.

WQHD, i.e. 2,560 × 1,440, is also one of the losers. Although this group is still by some distance the strongest faction among PCGH readers, there is a steady downhill trend compared to the peaks of early 2020. Currently there are still 31.6 percent of readers who use WQHD, a drop of a good 10 percent compared to the last survey and a drop of 27 percent at the beginning of 2020. WQHD was the quasi-standard for PC gamers for many years, so it is slowly crumbling this status but.

UWQHD the big winner

Consequently, if there are two losers, there must also be winners. This also includes 3,840 × 2,160, i.e. UHD or “4K”. From 12.6 percent at the beginning of 2020, the proportion has increased to 23.2 percent, which is almost twice as much. However, a saturation is recognizable. Compared to the beginning of 2022, it only increased by a good 5 percent, and large jumps are no longer to be expected for the time being.

Gaming Monitors 2023: LCD Buying Tips Ultrawide Monitors

Another group is currently making these leaps, namely UWQHD or 3440×1440, which PCGH regularly covers in its benchmarks. From 10.2 percent at the beginning of 2020, it rose almost evenly to 21.8 percent now. This puts UWQHD just behind UHD, which is a bit of a surprise. If the development continues, the 21:9 format will soon be number 2 for PCGH readers. But how is the effort for the graphics card to be assessed? The direct comparison shows: While Full HD (1,920 × 1,080) still corresponds to a total of just over two million pixels, almost five million pixels have to be displayed for UWQHD – an increase by a factor of 2.4 or 34 percent compared to WQHD. Almost every current game now supports 21:9 resolutions natively – if not, hacks often help.

Should PCGH provide graphics card benchmarks and monitor buying advice with a focus on UWQHD in a timely manner? Use the comment function and let us know what you think. You must be logged in to PCGH.de or the Extreme forum to comment. If you don’t have an account yet, you can consider registeringwhich brings many advantages.