There's a magical place of video game myth and legend that you may have caught a glimpse of once or twice in your life. It's called Gamer Nirvana: a serene oneness that occurs when your body is perfectly in tune with your hardware. Perfectly in sync, reality melts away as your body flows seamlessly into the machine. Yes, this is what peak performance looks like.
When you find a mouse that fits perfectly into the palm of your hand, or put on a pair of headphones that feel weightless against your ears, you're experiencing moments of Gamer Nirvana. The process of finding the perfect equipment can take a lifetime. Last month, my quest for the sublime took a step towards forward with the Predator X35: a 4k ultra-wide monitor that, as it turns out, is exactly what I've always wanted.
The X35 is an incredible, fully-featured 21:9 display with HDR (1000 nit), ultra-low latency (2ms), G-Sync Ultimate, and an absurdly high refresh rate (200Hz!). This is my first UltraWide and, despite my initial hesitance, there is no way I can ever go back to a 16:9 display and give up the incredible this incredible boost to my productivity and gameplay experience.
Wide Is The Way
Folks, the future is in UltraWide. Games and films simply present better on an UltraWide display. Games that support UltraWide (which is almost every game made in the last couple of years) offer a wider, panoramic field of view. More information on the screen means both a more beautiful picture and a stronger game sense. UltraWide provides a real competitive advantage and the X35 is simply stunning in 4k.
As a journalist and a stay-at-home worker (like most of us right now) productivity is incredibly important to me as well. An UltraWide like the X35 allows me to spread out my tabs and work areas on my screen without having to constantly switch back and forth. I can see more, so I can work faster. It's like having two side by side monitors with a dramatically reduced footprint. I have used a giant 16:9 monitor (the Acer CG437K) to try to achieve the same effect, but the X35 keeps the entire screen at eye level, meaning I don't have to crane my neck to look all around the screen. The X35 has a subtle 1800R curve that helps a ton with the viewing angle, and the built-in base has a swivel and tilt to help find the position for your screen.
One further hidden benefit of ultrawide: the X35 gives so much desk space back. The minimalist stand is quite sturdy, but takes up so little space that I feel like I have twice as much surface to work with. The screen itself sits a full 8" above the desk. I'm using all that new space for my microphone, streamdeck, and speakers, and it makes it look as if my screen is just floating freely above my desk. I love how much extra space I have on my desk now.
Every Feature Imaginable
The Predator X35 has one of the cleanest looks of any gaming monitor we've seen. The bezel is barely a millimeter thick on the sides and top (though there is a quarter-inch dead zone on the screen on the top and sides I don't really understand) and the previously mentioned built-in stand is sleek and minimal. All of the monitor controls are on the right-hand side and have a nice sturdy feel, including the directional control stick. The menu is easy to navigate and the settings are easy to understand.
On the back, the Predator X35 has exhaust ports and simple LED accents that make it look like a cool sports car. The LEDs work on Acer's proprietary engine Light Sense which allows you to customize the pattern or sync them to music and games like League of Legends. The ports are all downfacing which can make connecting a bit of a challenge but ends up working nicer for cable management. There are 2 DisplayPort adapters because the X35 can be overclocked to a 200Hz refresh rate (native 180Hz).
The HDR is absolutely jaw-dropping. Turning on the 1000 nit HDR in your Windows settings increase the brightness quite a bit, but the increased contrast in both movies and games is just unbelievable. A lot of times HDR can add strange trails but I experienced none while playing Metro Exodus or watching Avengers: End Game on it. Not all HDR is created equal, but the X35 absolutely shows off what the technology is capable of.
The X35 includes G-Sync Ultimate, the latest processors and newest technology for Nvidia's impressive G-Sync functionality. If you haven't seen it in action, it synchronizes the refresh rate of the monitor to your video card to reduce input lag, screen tearing, and stuttering. With Gsync on and my refresh rate cranked to my max FPS, I've never had a better time playing PC games. If you have the power to back it up, the X35 is, frankly, about as good as it gets.
The Definition Of Premium
The Predator X35 is a particularly demanding display. One downside of a UltraWide like this is that if you don't have the hardware to push 4K, it doesn't scale as well as a 16:9 display. You can scale down to 1080p if you need some frames back, but the screen has to crop pretty severely on the left and right sides to accommodate. This is true when playing older games too, which might turn some players off. Add to the fact that a higher FOV is more demanding on your systems simply because there's more to see on the screen, it becomes clear how powerful your machine has to be to make the most of the X35.
Just because you buy a 4k monitor with a 200Hz refresh rate doesn't mean you'll get the benefit automatically. I don't recommend buying this monitor unless you have at least an RTX 2060 or equivalent and can maintain a high FPS in the games you play. This is a top of the line monitor, and while it's perfectly fine to grow into it (after all, it's going to work with any computer no matter what the specs are) no one wants to buy a Lambo and drive through neighborhoods. The Predator X35 needs an open road if you really want to see what this puppy can do.
A Predator X35 was provided to TheGamer for this review. Check out the X35 and the entire Acer line on their website.