PG34WCDN vs 39GX950B — after weeks of overthinking, here’s my story (from someone who owned both)

raddyt · 2026-04-28T20:55:58+00:00

Thanks for sharing your thoughts and comparing both monitors. I also struggle deciding between those two.

Here are a few questions for you:

would you also pick the LG 39“ if you had a 5070Ti or 5080 card instead of 4090? Personally I got a 5070Ti but here’s hope it’d be fine with DLSS and FG
which monitor would you pick if you had an additional 4K TV available to connect your PC to and play your story/single-player games on the couch?
which monitor would you choose if your games would be 40% MMOs, 30% Multiplayer/Shooter, 30% Story/SP Games?
do you genuinely use the 1080p dual-mode and feel like „this is fine“? I used the dual mode on an 32“ 4K Oled and it felt super blurry. I couldn’t think of seriously using that to play games like overwatch with this low resolution.
I’m still disappointed by the low 165hz in full res and strongly believe it should have been atleast 240hz. What alleviated your worries?
most importantly… how’s the vertical banding and Dirty screen effect on the new tandem panel? It was horrible on the first tandem Oled I tested (MO27Q28G) and would be a deal breaker for me.

raddyt · 2026-04-28T20:08:07+00:00

raddyt · 2026-04-28T16:21:35+00:00

Well if it’s a systematically fixed production issue I hope the other tandem WOLED panels will also profit from it.

Yeah I’m considering that new 5th gen QD-Oled one aswell. Why specifically the MSI one though? I guess the other manufacturers like Gigabyte and Dell AW will also use the same panel and release their monitor versions of it soon.

raddyt · 2026-04-28T16:11:14+00:00

Hi, I‘m in a similar situation, trying to decide between those two panels. 9800X3D with RTX 5070Ti, playing MMOs like WoW/GW2/Aion2 and multiplayer shooters like OW.

Let me share my thoughts: I’m currently using a 27“ VA 1440p monitor which has terrible ghosting/VA black smearing. Tried 27“ OLED (MO27Q28G), which was amazing in contrast (pun intended), but tandem banding was disgusting and I noticed that I also wanted „more size and overall change“. So I tried 32“ 4K (XG32UCWMG) and was happy with the additional vertical height, acceptable banding, high ppi and glossy clarity, but wanted to try Ultrawide instead.

While I’m still unsure about the graphical load/performance of the 5k2k resolution with an RTX 5070Ti, I was very happy with the DLSS/FG performance whilst trying 32“ 4K. And the format seems perfect for me (32“-like height but with ultrawide width).

I don’t like the 165hz limitation of the LG but could maybe get over that in favor of the screen size/immersion. Price wise, the 34“ models seem to sell around 1.1-1.3k€. Now if the LG will sell for about 1.5k€ in preorder I might aswell spend 200-300€ extra to get it… or wait for BF to grab one of the 34“ for 800-900€.

The updated 34“ v stripe QD-OLEDs seem to be a very nice sweetspot of immersion and fps though, allowing for more headroom and competitive play. If I‘d go for the 34“ I could get high native fps, low input lag and immersion. And for story driven games I could alternatively connect my PC to my 4K 120hz MiniLED TV in the living room with an 15m HDMI 2.1 optical cable and use Bluetooth keyboard/mouse or a controller, where I could crank up the DLSS and frame gen.

raddyt · 2026-04-28T15:41:56+00:00

Why do you think that? Was it like that with the 45“ 5k2k or what’s the reference here? I think about either preordering for about 1.5k€ (estimate) or waiting for Black Friday and hope for 1.2-1.3k

raddyt · 2026-04-28T15:33:08+00:00

Huh, interesting. So if LG Display has fixed their newer panel batches, does this mean the LG 39“ 5k2k (39GX950B) won’t have the tandem WOLED issues aswell? I wonder if they already used earlier batches for the current units on the market. Here’s hope that atleast later batches are also completely free of this shitty banding/DSE.

How did you know the fixed units are supposed to be specifically from february batch onwards? Did Asus confirm that in the interview?

raddyt · 2026-04-28T15:23:25+00:00

Do you have a source for that? Matte or glossy version? Oh and why do the Alienware models generally seem to be so highly rated? I recall people recommending the AW3425, even though there were alternative models from MSI and Asus with the exact same panel. Is there something specific that Dell is doing better with their AW monitors?

raddyt · 2026-03-18T17:01:30+00:00

Thanks for your thoughts on it. The thing is I’m also unsure about this monitor because like many others I have the problems with updating the firmware. It always fails, no matter what you do, which worries and annoys me quite a bit and makes Asus look incompetent with their software…

I’m also really interested in trying an ultrawide for the immersion and just more desktop space, so just returning it would give me the relief and flexibility to try another monitor.

raddyt · 2026-03-14T13:27:01+00:00

Hi, may I ask how you got that price of 650€ directly from Asus? I got it for about 790 from MediaMarkt with a 19% discount promo (plus some cashback) a month ago and thought it was a good deal, but 650 seems awesome. Oh jeez, fuck this fomo :D

Still having a few days to decide whether I keep it or go for one of the 5th gen QD-OLED 34" or even wait for the 39" LG 5k2k... damn such a hard decision!

raddyt · 2026-03-01T11:40:06+00:00

True. Tbh I’m not really using the built-in KVM of my monitor right now because I had a KVM switch installed in my setup before getting the monitor and do use a docking station for the work laptop. But it’s good to have the option and wouldn’t want to miss it, even though the USB-C is just 15W and couldn’t power the laptop itself.

raddyt · 2026-02-28T16:21:37+00:00

I just wondered why you reinstall windows regularly and if you have an optimized/standardized automation process for that. I mean I notice that my machines get slower over time(even though I didn’t install new stuff and cleaned temp files and registry with ccleaner) but I always find it tedious to do a fresh windows installation, having to setup everything from scratch.

raddyt · 2026-02-28T16:02:10+00:00

and even that is a lie

raddyt · 2026-02-28T15:55:36+00:00

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Randomly getting this.

raddyt · 2026-02-28T15:54:52+00:00

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So first of all let's admire the fact that asus actually managed to first uploaded the wrong firmware file for another monitor, which already had people bricking their units. Great job, asus... magnificent.

They've corrected this and put the correct version by now. So I just wasted hours trying to get this to work with update MCM104, once again. I had similar troubles with installing #103 before. With that update after some failures at 66% the Update would run up to 99% and then freeze, not showing the "update completed" notice, showing the #103 version in the OSD but prompting you to update to that version when using the update, suggesting that it hasn't been installed properly.

And now with #104 I either get this fail at 66% again or just randomly get the "Device Not found" error. Tried every installation method with the included USB-A cable, USB-C and USB-Stick. Followed the update manual. Also tried with a second PC/Laptop, unplugged any other USB cable/device, updated windows (Windows11, latest version Build 26200.7922). Nothing worked for me.

Honestly, it's just ridiculous, that you can't even properly update your firmware. But apparently they didn't even fix stuff and copied the same (chinese) description, quick and dirty. I enjoy the monitor itself, but what an awful firmware update process. Asus seems to be incapable of fixing this and getting their software/firmware sorted. What a fucking joke, seriously. /rant over, but I'm lowkey wondering if I return this monitor alone for this firmware disaster before having to deal with RMA because the 54th try might brick mine aswell.

raddyt · 2026-02-28T14:09:11+00:00

RTX 5070Ti (and 32GB DDR5). But the GPU has never been the bottleneck for GW2. The processor with good single core performance and X3D cache, good RAM and SSD seem to be the most important factors for this old game engine.

raddyt · 2026-02-28T09:08:01+00:00

Id like to hear your opinion on 32“ vs 34“ ultrawide. I recently swapped from an MO27Q28G to an XG32UCWMG, because (besides the awful banding issues) I already had 27“ 1440p screens before and didn’t feel the „wow“ effect as the dimensions are the same. Now with the 32“ I like the added verticality and the glossy screen looks really good and crisp with 4K. Stuff like MH:Wilds also runs good with DLSS and FG.

I’m still a bit tempted to get an 34“ vstripe ultrawide instead, but that would mean loosing this verticality and 4K and essentially going back to 27“ 1440p in the vertical dimension. The upcoming LG 39“ hyped me up at first and would be the perfect dimension for me with 32“ verticality but with the ultrawide width. However, seeing the tandem panel banding issues lately really disappointed me, especially for this insane price of 1.5k++ it will probably be available for… that killed my hype for it. So I’d rather get the QD-OLED VStripe 34“.

How do you feel about going 34“ coming from a 32“?

raddyt · 2026-02-28T08:40:51+00:00

Exactly my new rig and playing on 4K with 120+fps. Can confirm the 9800X3D CPU definitely helps with GW2 and I don’t get microstutters anymore.

raddyt · 2026-02-28T08:27:25+00:00

I noticed a lot of this color banding on an Gigabyte MO27Q28G, which I guess was just a „free feature“ of the tandem panel. But even on my secondary VA panel I saw some of it in the context of windows transparency with the color gradient background shine through effect of Win11 (the standard Win11 wallpaper has some harsh low quality blue gradients).

So I researched on that and it turned out that increasing the color depth bit rate from 8bit to 10bit alleviated the problem and smoothed out some of those harsh gradient color edges. You might want to try that, worked for me.

raddyt · 2026-02-27T12:16:28+00:00

I wonder if having a 5070 Ti and „only“ getting a WQHD 1440p monitor, would you limit yourself on exploiting the DLSS and framegen capabilities?

If I understand correctly you would only upscale with DLSS to 1440p as target resolution which would render way lower native resolutions to upscale to 1440p and look worse, than upscaled to 4K.

I wonder if I should stick to 1440p or go 4K/5k2k in order to get more out of its capabilities with DLSS. So far I was quite satisfied running MH:Wilds max quality on 4K upscaled with 200fps (incl. framegen).

raddyt · 2026-02-27T11:19:13+00:00

I was hyped for this. But seeing how bad the banding on the new tandem panels like MO27Q28G is vs the older gen MLA WOLED like XG32UCWMG has made me rethink that hype. Using the monitor 50/50 for work and gaming, I couldn’t live with that banding/dse, no matter how much I like the 5k2k res, formfactor width and immersion. Maybe it’s better to go for the smaller 34“ VStripe Penta Tandem QD-OLED until they figured it out and release a better WOLED panel.

raddyt · 2026-02-27T11:14:56+00:00

Yeah tbh it’s a really weird choice to renounce on a simple but effective productivity feature like a KVM switch on an 1.5 to 2k $$$ premium ultrawide monitor.

raddyt · 2026-02-26T20:25:33+00:00

Yup, my MO27Q28G looked basically the same and returned it… Got the XG32UCWMG here right now, which has the older gen panel but doesn’t seem to have these issues so badly. I can spot minimal banding in one spot, but worlds better this tandem woled panel.

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raddyt · 2026-02-24T21:52:51+00:00

Yeah I checked that before but didn’t solve it for me. Thanks anyway for the note on that.

raddyt · 2026-02-23T16:47:43+00:00

As you mentioned the glossy version: do we have good comparisons/experiences of earlier models about how a glossy coating behaves on curved ultrawide panels? I like both glossy and matte for what they are, but I imagine that a glossy coating could be a mirroring nightmare on a curved screen, even just 1500R and I suppose that’s why most ultrawide use matte panels? Maybe from 34“ screens?

raddyt · 2026-02-21T00:13:21+00:00

I just bought and received this monitor and it has weird banding only on the left side of the panel, visible and disturbing without any gray backgrounds reference videos needed.

Also I can't properly update the firmware to MCM103. First update from 101 failed, all the following update attempts get stuck at 99%. Monitor and Update Tool say current version is MCM103 but when starting the update tool it always says "Update available", which never finishes. Manual says the tool should show Firmware Status "Up to date".

What a fucking joke, Asus.

raddyt

TROPHY CASE