Eyefinity is so beautiful ;_;

[KingFatty]

I think there is something else going on when you use eyefinity, and you can never fully appreciate it till you actually experience it. This recent post on The Verge I think captures the idea of why triple-monitor gaming is fundamentally different/better than single screen, even if you get a huge screen it's just not the same:

http://www.theverge.com/2012/7/3/3076197/geforce-gtx-680-radeon-hd-7970-graphics-card-upgrade

Triple-monitor gaming is simply amazing. A sensory revelation. You still spend the majority of the time with your eyes anchored on the middle screen, but the sense of atmosphere that comes from the two auxiliary displays is spine-tinglingly good. After a while, you may even learn to look at things with your own neck rather than the mouse. In truth, this is how any sort of visual simulation is supposed to operate. The tight horizontal field of view of a typical monitor, no matter how resplendent its color reproduction may be, is just unnatural — human beings have peripheral vision which has gone (mostly) neglected, and it’s only once you move to this sort of surround view that you’ll understand what you’ve been missing.

 

[blckgrffn]

A good single monitor has a higher resolution than your pasted together bezel monster, with a sane aspect ratio and no gaps in the picture...

And costs up to 2x more? Yeah, awesome.

I happen to prefer more monitors as it gives a ton more places to snap to and easier segregation of work projects & non work, you can get three 21.5 Dell Ultrasharp IPS 1080p panels for ~$600 on a good day - and three 24" panels for $900.

Personally, I'd take that over a really nice 27" or 30" any day for getting work done. Gaming? TV or projector is a better investment than a big, slow panel IMHO. The Cat Leaps are getting there though - if/when we get 27" awesomeness from Dell for the same price I'll be there.

 

[Ferzerp]

? TV or projector is a better investment than a big, slow panel IMHO

You realize that TVs are 1080p at most, and a 30" has double the resolution as far as pixel count, yes?

Who cares if it costs 2x more. It's still a technically superior solution for playing a game. Why on earth would I have $1k worth of video cards and then skimp on the display?

Sure, you get more pixels in 3 1080p monitors, but then you get to look at your game with 1" lines through it. Sorry, that's just not a good answer.

If you want to bring work in to it, win7 has easy half-screen snapping for window sizing, giving you a nice tall 1280x1600 portrait view for each half screen. If you need three, dangle a small monitor off to the side, but don't put it in to the mix with games.

I see a lot of rationalization to excuse away those massive bars in the middle of your game (e.g. "after a while, you don't see them" or "it's so much cheaper"), but when it comes down to it, one screen far and away better than two in a game, and quite a bit better than three.

 

[KingFatty]

I see a lot of rationalization to excuse away those massive bars in the middle of your game (e.g. "after a while, you don't see them" or "it's so much cheaper"), but when it comes down to it, one screen far and away better than two in a game, and quite a bit better than three.

Something that may be mind blowing, is that we already have a big blind spot that our eye deals with everyday, as well as all kinds of swirling lines caused by blood vessels on the back of your retina. Your brain has learned to see around them. Therefore, they seem to disappear and after a while you don't see them.

This is not rationalizing it away, it simply is science about how our brains work when processing visual information. your brain learns to ignore big glaring visual issues like these.

The same sort of phenomenon happens with multi-monitor separation bezels.

For clarification, here is a test you can use to see the swirly lines that you've already learned to ignore: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_W-IXqoxHA

And as far as the eye's blind spot, try this: http://www.moillusions.com/2012/03/find-your-blind-spot-trick.html

So are you saying that the "after a while, you don't see them" regarding bezels is just scientifically impossible?

Edit: just remembered a silly thing - your own nose! As you stare at this text, pay attention to your peripheral vision and how you see your own nose in the lower left and right. Not quite the same because we have stereo overlap and use one eye to fill in for the other. However, if you pay attention to your nose, it can be a huge bother and get in the way of your view. But, your brain learns to just ignore that too and your nose disappears from view.

So bezels are like that, like how your nose disappears, after a while you just don't notice the bezels like how you don't notice your nose sitting there blocking your view.

Edit 2: oh another example, what about wearing eyeglasses? You ever make that transition? When you first put on eyeglasses, you can't help noticing the frames, they are just in your way all the time, distracting your peripheral vision. Then after a while, your brain learns to disregard the frames, and you stop getting bothered by them. I mean, it's nice to wear contacts, but I think when you wear eyeglasses, your brain learns to adjust and stops being bothered by the frames. I think it would be a mistake to argue that everyone should avoid eyeglasses and use contacts because the frames are too distracting, because there is this phenomenon where your brain learns to adjust and selectively ignore things like eyeglass frames, and bezels.

So I think that's my long-winded defense of multi-monitor gaming, an attempt to dispense with the tired excuse that bezels are too much to accept. I think it's only too much to accept for people to speculate when they've never actually tried it long enough to let their brain ignore the bezels.