Acer Predator X45 review: The ultimate racing sim gaming monitor

The Acer Predator X45 is a huge 45-inch OLED display that, for several reasons, is essentially a bit of a poor fit for a normal desktop gaming PC setup. However, if you’re after a single, large, wraparound screen for a racing or flight sim rig, it’s an ideal choice. Its 240Hz refresh rate, ultrawide 21:9 aspect ratio, and dazzling image quality make for a lot of fun in plenty of other scenarios too.

It’s this sim rig suitability that earns this display on our best gaming monitor guide, though, as it really is a top-tier choice for those sorts of setups. Acer is targeting an even wider audience, however, so read on to find out exactly what this display can and can’t do.

Specs

Design

It should come as no surprise to learn that this monitor is huge. If you’re at all familiar with gaming monitor sizes, you can essentially think of this as an extra wide 32-inch display, although even 32-inch monitors aren’t quite as tall as this one. The panel itself is almost exactly 18-inches (455mm) tall and 39-inches (990mm) wide, but once you account for the curve of the display, the panel itself has a 41.5-inch width (1,050mm).

What’s more, the aggressive 800R curve adds depth to the display. From the very front edge of the panel to the rear of the foot of the stand, this display takes up 16 inches (400mm). As a consequence of all these hefty dimensions, this screen dwarves even a large conventional computer desk, such as the Secretlab Magnus Pro. This alone is one reason why the X45 isn’t a go-to recommendation for us when it comes to a regular PC screen. Displays with the same ultrawide aspect ratio and resolution, but at a smaller 34-inch size, are much more sensible options.

Equally, though, that’s what makes this display so suited to sim rigs. You can set up the display a little further away from you and not lose its visual impact or wraparound feel. It can’t truly contend with a multi-monitor setup, with screens right alongside you, but it’s the next best thing.

It’s an elegant enough-looking display too, with its silver-painted pointy V-shaped stand and very thin OLED panel edges. There is a large, thicker section on the back where all the connections and other electronics reside, and the bezels aren’t the absolute narrowest (at around 8mm), but this still gives you that “wow, OLEDs are thin” factor.

One feature I’m less keen on, though, is the huge size of the stand. It projects forward and back by almost a foot (30cm), and the front feet splay out to a ridiculous 27 inches (68cm). As such, not only does the overall display take up a large volume, but the stand really encroaches on your desk. I’d be inclined to mount this display on a monitor arm, such as the Secretlab Magnus Monitor Arm Heavy Duty, although this display uses a wider 200 x 100mm VESA mount, so you’ll either need to get an adapter for the Secretlab’s 100 x 100mm mount or find an alternative.

The X45’s display also has a semi-matte coating to keep reflections in check, and this is a particularly useful addition on a screen with a curve such as this one. The curve pulls in reflections from a wider range of angles than a flat screen so it’s important to dampen them as much as possible. Moreover, the anti-reflective coating is particularly effective, without introducing too much of a grainy look, unlike some anti-reflective monitors.

The included stand offers 110mm of height adjustment, as well as the option to swivel the panel left and right by 15 degrees and tilt up by 15 degrees or down by -5 degrees. It doesn’t incorporate a carry handle, though – unlike the AOC AG276QZD – which would be useful for maneuvering such a large screen.

Features

The big feature of this display is, of course, its 44.5-inch OLED display. It boasts a 3,440 x 1,440 resolution, which is quite low for a display of this size, resulting in a pixel density of just 85ppi. That’s roughly the same as having a 1080p (1,920 x 1,080) resolution on a 27-inch display.

The panel uses LG’s WOLED technology, as opposed to Samsung’s QD-OLED, which means it forms each pixel of the display from four colors – red, green, blue, and white – rather than the three colors of QD-OLED (and as used in other display technologies, such as LCD and CRT). The extra white pixel helps boost white brightness, without having to blast all three red, green, and blue pixels at full brightness.

As with any OLED technology, the biggest image quality advantage is that you get true blacks, with each pixel of the display able to switch off fully. That’s in contrast to standard LCD displays where the backlight can still shine through a bit, making for a gray-looking black level. That means this OLED display can essentially boast an infinite contrast level; Acer rates its contrast ratio at 1,500,000:1, whereas a typical LCD is 1,000:1.

The panel can also rocket along at a 240Hz refresh rate and take advantage of OLED’s other big boon, which is a very fast response time. The pixels can change color in just 0.03ms, which is roughly 100x faster than an LCD.

Aside from the panel, the X45 is reasonably well-appointed with features for a gaming monitor. It supports AMD FreeSync, and it’s compatible with Nvidia G-Sync, so it can remove image tearing and stutter in your games.

Its connections are decent too, with one DisplayPort 1.4 input being enough to take care of your main PC’s connection, while two HDMI 2.0 ports provide extra inputs for consoles, with support for high refresh rates. There’s also a USB-C video input, so you can connect your laptop. The display uses an internal power supply with an IEC C13 (kettle lead) input too, so you don’t have to contend with a power brick.

A USB hub is also included, with a USB-B uplink and two USB-A downlink ports, which give you enough ports to connect your keyboard and mouse via the monitor, for instance. There’s also a headphone jack and a pair of 5W speakers. The latter are just a touch worse-sounding than we hoped, considering the space in this screen’s rear section. Sound quality is no better than speakers on much smaller displays, and in fact they distort at quite low volumes. They’re useful for quickly sharing a YouTube or TikTok clip and not much more.

Image quality

Let’s cut to the chase. This display isn’t ideal for desktop work. Not only does its low pixel density mean it’s not particularly sharp at normal viewing distances, but the use of WOLED also makes it even worse than a typical LCD with the same pixel density. The four sub-pixel colors just don’t align well with the edges of high-contrast onscreen elements, such as text, resulting in fuzzy, sometimes multi-color edges. It’s super distracting when you’re trying to read or just navigate the desktop.

The other factor that really hampers the usability of this screen for desktop use is the way its brightness constantly changes depending on what’s being shown on the screen. If the whole screen is white/bright, it will have a lower overall brightness than a small bright window on an otherwise darker image.

You can see this in the image below where the top half shows the display with half the screen dark and half white, while the bottom half is with the display fully white. You can see how dramatically darker the lower white level is than the upper white level, and the effect is exaggerated even more with a smaller white window.

This is a common occurrence on OLED displays, as reducing overall brightness whenever possible helps reduce power consumption and improves the longevity of the screen (reducing the natural degradation from which OLED panels suffer over years of use). While it’s common, though, it’s also incredibly distracting. As you switch between windows on your desktop, the screen brightness jumps around all over the place. It’s less of a problem in games and video, where brightness changes tend to be more fluid and natural, but it’s terrible for desktop use.

Some displays, such as the AOC AG276QZD, offer an option to turn off or reduce the severity of this effect, making it far less distracting, but there’s no such setting on this display.

With all those caveats out of the way, we can finally look at where this display excels, which is in the sheer size, brilliance, color saturation, and overall impact of its image. Fire up a racing or flight sim – or any other game – or watch an ultrawide video (it’s the perfect fit for most movies) and your vision is filled with an incredible view.

Sure, the overall resolution and pixel density means it doesn’t have the absolute sharpest image when viewed up close, but it still works wonders for movies and more cinematic-feeling games. More intricate games where detail matters – Frostpunk 2, for instance – would benefit more from an even higher resolution but if you’re intent on sitting back and just taking in the view, this screen is superb.

Crucially, its out-of-the-box image quality is fairly accurate, with no desperate need for a severe adjustment of color balance to get colors looking perfect. A small tweak here and there helps to dial it in, but most gamers will be entirely happy with the out-of-the-box image.

That said, the initial brightness is quite low. With a full white screen, it hits just 104nits brightness with the monitor menu’s default 70/100 brightness setting. Up the brightness level to 100/100, and this rises to 141nits, which is a much more usable level.

If you don’t change any other settings, the screen peaks as high as 400nits if you’re only showing a small bright area on a black background, though, demonstrating the severity of the brightness variance. That’s great for making HDR look punchy, but I don’t know why Acer hasn’t included a setting to slightly rein in these extremes. A more sensible variance range of, say, 200nits for full-screen brightness to 300nits for small window brightness (for non-HDR) would make all the difference for desktop use.

Otherwise, colors are really well saturated without looking unnatural and, as hinted at above, HDR really pops. The ability of OLED tech to show true black levels means images like the above one of a lightbulb turning on hits with such punch. Peak HDR brightness can’t compete with nanoLED LCD screens – they can hit 1500nits – but the low black levels somewhat make up for this. The below image of racing at night also demonstrates the absorbing nature of the image – it looks even better with the lights off.

Gaming performance

As mentioned above, there are simply some games that aren’t all that well suited to this display, as its big-screen, middling resolution presentation doesn’t give you that crisp, up-front detail that’s so useful for real-time strategy games or similar. The screen is also a bit too wide and curved for my liking when it comes to first person shooters. You have to move your head around so much to keep up with what’s going on onscreen.

As such, it really is in more sit-back-and-relax types of games where this screen excels. Fire up Forza or move over to Microsoft Flight Simulator, and this screen is a joy to use, especially if you have a racing wheel or flight stick that often inherently needs you to sit back a little from your desk. The wraparound effect of the screen also works well in these games, as you need that slight extra peripheral view to get the most from them. Most other controller-controlled games also work really well, with again that little bit of extra viewing distance helping a lot.

What’s more, the 240Hz refresh rate and 0.03ms response time combine to create a fantastically fast image. It makes for an incredibly smooth and responsive feel when racing and flying, or if you do use the screen for FPS gaming.

Price

The Acer Predator X45 price is officially $1,599.99 but the display is widely available at $1,269.99. At either price, it’s a lot of screen for the money but the lower one certainly helps make this a more compelling buy.

We’re starting to get 34-inch ultrawide OLEDs available for well under $1,000, though, and these have the same resolution as this model, so it really is all about whether you need the huge screen size as to whether this screen will be worth it for you.

Verdict

The Acer Predator X45 is one impressive gaming monitor, with its sheer size and dazzling OLED image quality making a huge impact in certain games and when sitting back to watch a movie. Its blazing-fast 240Hz refresh rate and nippy response time mean it can also hold its own in competitive, fast-paced gaming scenarios. Its price is also reasonable for the size of this screen.

All the above combine to make this monitor a fantastic choice for those seeking a single display for a dedicated flight or racing sim rig, or that just like to sit back a little when gaming. However, for more normal desktop gaming use, the screen size is a bit much, particularly as the ratio of screen size to resolution makes for a low pixel density. Text readability is also not very good thanks to that low pixel density and the quirks of current OLED/WOLED panels. The constant brightness changes are also a major irritation for desktop work.

As such, while this screen comes highly recommended for certain gaming setups, it’s not one we recommend as a general-purpose upgrade. Instead, 49-inch superwide screens or 34-inch ultrawide monitors are a better bet.

Alternatives

MSI MPG 491CQP

With its 49-inch superwide screen size, the MSI MPG 491CQP is even wider than the X45 but gets you an extra 1,680 pixels of screen width, while being not as needlessly tall as the X45. Its tighter pixel density, coupled with its use of QD-OLED panel tech, makes for much crisper-looking text too, and all for less money than the X45. Its superwide shape isn’t as well suited to some games or conventional widescreen movies, though.

Read our full MSI MPG 491CQP review.

LG 32GS95UE

If you’re looking for a more general-purpose large-screen gaming monitor, the LG 32GS95UE is an ideal choice. Its 32-inch screen size gives you a more impactful view than smaller screen sizes (though not as all-encompassing as the 491CQP and X45) but, thanks to its 4K resolution, it also looks pin sharp. Its 240Hz refresh rate at 4K also ensures you get fantastic gaming performance. Its party piece, though, is that it can also flip to run at 1080p at 480Hz for blazing-fast performance that’s ideal for first person shooters.

Our full LG 32GS95UE review is coming soon.