This 34-inch IPS 144Hz ultrawide gaming monitor for just $240 is something of a steal

Acer Gaming XV340CK — (Image credit: Acer)

In terms of sensible-money monitors, the 34-inch ultrawide is out favourite form factor among all the best gaming monitors. To that you can add minimum 144Hz refresh and preferably an IPS panel.

Well, now you can have all that from a brand you've actually heard of for just $240 from Newegg. Give it up for the Acer Nitro XV340CK PBMIIPPHZX.

Yes, it's another Acer with absolutely idiotic nomenclature. But we'll forgive it that for the conspicuous value it offers. This is so much monitor for the money.

If you're thinking there surely has to be a catch, well, the most obvious issue is the 250 nit brightness rating. That's pretty mediocre for a modern LCD gaming monitor.

That said, you could spend $1,000 or more on a fancy OLED monitor and get a full-screen brightness of just, yup you guessed it, 250 nits. Of course, those OLED panels will go far higher in a small window. But still, if 250 nits is acceptable for four times the money...

What else do you need to know? It has HDR10 support, so it will process an HDR signal, even if it won't really render an HDR image properly. Oh, and the IPS panels means Acer rates the monitor at 1ms for response, though doesn't specify if that GtG or MPRT. We suspect the latter.

To that you can add both HDMI and DisplayPort inputs, plus variable refresh support. Oh, and it's flat rather than curved, which some gamers definitely prefer.

The feature list, then, isn't exactly excessive. And this thing came out about three and half years ago and probably isn't long for the world.

But if you're looking for than immersive 34-inch ultrawide experience for sensible money and you'd rather sidestep the response problems that many similar monitors using VA rather than IPS panels, this is a pretty nice deal.

Jeremy has been writing about technology and PCs since the 90nm Netburst era (Google it!) and enjoys nothing more than a serious dissertation on the finer points of monitor input lag and overshoot followed by a forensic examination of advanced lithography. Or maybe he just likes machines that go “ping!” He also has a thing for tennis and cars.