Huge 1080p LCD vs. 3 20" LCDs for gaming?

[dijuremo]

Hi,

I wanted to get comments, suggestions or recommendations on these two possiblities to help me choose the right one. The idea is to use the computer for gaming with either a single 7950GX2 card or maybe two 7800GT or even 7800GTX in order to be able to connect 3 monitors (2 monitor setup is out of the question since cross hair would be in the edge of monitors in FPS games).

Option 1. One big monitor setup: Westinghouse 1080p monitor.
PROS:

• Available in 37", 42" and 47" (LVM-37w3, LVM-42w2 or LVM-47w1)
  Native 1920x1080 supporting 1080p
  Wall mount available
  Needs a single Video Card
  Great variety of inputs including HDMI (nice to hook up a ps3 in the future).

CONS:

• Widescreen, but line of sigth limited as compared to 3 LCDs
  A bit pricier than 3 smaller monitors
  Can't find any good reviews about possible ghosting with these.

Option 2. Triple 20" LCD setup:
PROS:

• 3 Monitors may be cheaper than big Westinghouse
  Capable of 4800x1200 with 4:3 LCDs or 5040x1050 with 16:9 LCDs
  Gaming could look like ( http://anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2806 )

CONS:

• More desk space used
  Need to buy calibration tools to make all monitors look the same
  Not sure if games will correctly support the high resolutions (some may some may not)

 

[Lonyo]

Triple 20" LCD setup will be expensive too (remember to add $270 for TripleHead2Go) and you will need a LOT of graphics power, and triple monitor supporting games. You can't run 3 displays as gaming outputs from 2 different cards I don't think. And if you use SLI then only one output is supported (not sure about the GX2 though).
A single larger TV will be supported in most games at a good res, and won't require so much power, so it's the better option if you are gaming really.

 

[dijuremo]

Originally posted by: Lonyo
Triple 20" LCD setup will be expensive too (remember to add $270 for TripleHead2Go) and you will need a LOT of graphics power, and triple monitor supporting games. You can't run 3 displays as gaming outputs from 2 different cards I don't think.

While I have not tested this myself, nor have seen it running in someone else's rig, I believe it should be possible. Windows is supposed to handle the 3 displays and then as long as the game supports the high resolutions needed for the three monitors it should work. If you take a look at this post that speaks about SLI ( http://www.tomshardware.com/2004/11/23/nvidia/page31.html ), you will see that they say that at least in games like Flight Simulator, you can use 3 or 4 displays with two cards without configuring them in SLI.

 

[Falloutboy]

my vote is for a single 24" and two 20s on the side the 24in is for gaming the 20s are auxiliery for web surfing

multi monitor for gaming doesn't work well

I like to play all my games in window mode with duel screen so I can surf the web while playing an mmo or when i'm dead in a FPS game or any other downtime

 

[Rage187]

I game on a 37" 1080P westy, it has 0 ghosting. I moved up from dual 24" WS dells and glad I did. 1920x1080 is better then trying to run 1920x1200 on dual 24"s.

Someone has the 42" westy on here and uses it as a pc monitor and says it's just too big.

 

[SkylinGTR26]

Maximum PC did a review on the Dell 3007FPW, it was in there september issue just in case you wanna download it and check it out. They said its better to get 2 WS 2407FPW (24" WS) instead. The 30" just isnt fast enough for gaming yet. But i recommend getting a big westy or something. LCDs are just too pricey and 2 of them gaming? thats just too much to handle, plus IMHO i hate when you have 2 monitors and gaming cause you get that stupid line in the middle. It just seems like a waste of desk space and money too.

 

[Todd33]

Originally posted by: Rage187
I game on a 37" 1080P westy, it has 0 ghosting. I moved up from dual 24" WS dells and glad I did. 1920x1080 is better then trying to run 1920x1200 on dual 24"s.

Someone has the 42" westy on here and uses it as a pc monitor and says it's just too big.

I went from a 37" to 42" and it's not too big. Of course it's not on a desk, it's mounted on a wall and I sit around six feet back while gaming. If sit 2' from it then its too big.