PC gaming has long been a much more expensive endeavor (relatively speaking) than console gaming. Granted, PC gaming can also yield a far more superior graphical gaming experience. Provided you spend your hard-earned cash on high end components.

But what is the point of building a high-end gaming PC if you don’t have a good enough display to view it all with?

Much like the current range of televisions, trying to separate real specifications from marketing gibberish and then trying to figure out what matters and what doesn’t, choosing the correct gaming monitor can be overwhelming & costly if you make the wrong choice.

As a personal preference, the 21:9 ultrawide monitors are my favourite for PC gaming. If the game you are playing properly supports 21:9, you will end up with more game on your screen, rather than just a stretched 16:9 image. Ultrawide gaming will increase the GPU load also, so keep that in mind if looking to purchase one.

So, let’s get to the Alienware 34 AW3423DW QD-OLED display.

The Alienware 34 AW3423DW is a 34-inch panel, with a 1800R curve and 21:9 ultrawide aspect ratio. Many of the specs of this monitor are run-of-the-mill I guess you could say. A 175Hz refresh rate that is certainly fast, but still nothing new, and 3440 x 1440 native resolution is common these days.

What makes this display a stand-out & something special is the OLED panel that is packed into its Alienware shell.

I have been playing on a Kogan 3440 x 1440 34” Ultrawide 144hz LED HDR monitor for over a year now, and while it is certainly an inferior image compared to the Alienware 34 AW3423DW, there is one thing it does ‘better’, in my eyes anyway. That is that it will stretch the input from a console to cover the entire panel, whereas the Alienware 34 AW3423DW keeps console input at 16:9 leaving you with black bars of dead space on each side. Do note however, the input is stretched to 21:9 by the display itself rather than by the console. This is also why it is a stretched 1080p image rather than a properly rendered 21:9 image. Neither XBOX nor PlayStation natively support 21:9 currently.

I use the term ‘better’ lightly as it is all relative really. I prefer the stretched 1080p 120hz console input on the Kogan over the 16:9 1440p 100hz console input on the Alienware 34 AW3423DW. That is just my preference, yours may be different.

The Alienware 34 AW3423DW is infused with an OLED panel that gives this display some significant advantages over the LCD tech used in most all gaming monitors to date.

OLED also has significantly faster response times, as specified by the 0.1ms grey-to-grey time on the spec sheet of the Alienware 34 AW3423DW

Other features include Nvidia G-Sync Ultimate, colour accuracy of 99.3 percent coverage of the DCI-P3 digital cinema space, 178 degree viewing angle, built in USB 3.2 Gen 1 hub & a 175Hz refresh rate. Also included as standard is a three-year cover for OLED burn-in.

Connecting your PC to the monitor can be done via the Display Port or either one of the two provided HDMI ports. The HDMI ports are limited to 100hz refresh rate which is another reason why it isn’t really suited to XBOX Series X or PS5 console gaming. Perhaps if the XSX & PS5 could properly support 21:9 gaming, it might be a different story.

Using the Alienware 34 AW3423DW without HDR enabled is something you should avoid at all costs. In SDR mode, the Alienware 34 AW3423DW really doesn’t impress a whole lot. Flick over to HDR however, and that is where the Alienware 34 AW3423DW absolutely shines.

It comes with 2 HDR options, HDR400 True Black & HDR1000 Peak Brightness. I am not sure that HDR1000 was necessary as it really only allows for that higher peak brightness in small areas of the panel while showing HDR content.

Selecting the HDR400 True Black setting is where the magic happens. I have never seen Destiny 2 & God of War look SO. DAMN. GOOD! Everything just looks sharper and brighter! Just be sure that you install Dell Monitor Drivers if you are using with your Windows 10/11 PC, otherwise you will get a sub-par experience.

Forza Horizon also not only looked so much brighter, but with the 0.1ms response time, it just felt so much more fluid and maybe even helped my somewhat slower reaction times 😊 I did have some screen tearing issues with Destiny 2 early on, but considering I had problems with any other game I tested, I am confident that it was a Destiny 2 issue, not a display issue.

Deathloop was another game I tested it with, and the visuals just popped with colour and vibrance on the Alienware 34 AW3423DW when compared to my own Kogan LCD.

Understandably, you might be concerned with OLED burn-in and the annoyance that can bring with it. But fear no more my young padawan, within the panel settings, there is an OLED Refresh option that works to remediate any worries you might have.

With all the goodness this display brings, don’t think that LCDs are now dead in the water. A quality LCD panel with a much higher refresh rate will still be superior when it comes to online competitive fast-paced gaming. An LCD panel is also much more friendly on the bank account. Those things aside however, I am not sure how I am ever supposed to go back to LCD after this! I wonder if I can expense the purchase Alienware 34 AW3423DW to the company 😊

This is my first experience gaming on an OLED panel, and I’ve never really been super convinced that OLED was worth the extra cash either. As far as overall image quality, the Alienware 34 AW3423DW has it in spades! At this price point, the Alienware 34 AW3423DW is not going to fit in a lot of people’s budgets, and others may not even care about OLED. There are a lot of great LCD gaming monitors on the market that do a fantastic job of giving you the best visual gaming experience possible for a more affordable price.

Like any recent technologies, OLED is going to carry a price premium for some time I believe, but if you can afford it, you won’t get a better visual gaming experience than you can on the Alienware 34 AW3423DW right now. The QD-OLED panel just makes my games look brilliant and I can’t wait until I can manage to fit an OLED monitor into my gaming budget!

Written by: Kurt Frohloff

A Founder of MKAU, a gamer, a family man. I have a love of all things gaming and a wish of mine is to have more time to actually play the games we review here!