PC Gaming setup: If you had to choose...

dmoney1980

Platinum Member
Jan 17, 2008
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Between a triple monitor setup like Eyefinity or 3D Surround, or buying a single 30" 2560x1600 monitor, which would you choose?

Both require a big investment; beefy PSU, dual GPU's, roomy case and big desk. I'm sure the triple monitor setup is uber sweet, but how's driver support? Are most games supported out of the box?

Anyone here have a triple monitor setup? If so, are you satisfied with the investment? Anything you don't like about it?
 

boxleitnerb

Platinum Member
Nov 1, 2011
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I would go with the 30" simply because I hate the bezels. Immersionkillers, at least for me.
 

nitromullet

Diamond Member
Jan 7, 2004
9,031
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I personally went with a single larger screen - 27" (2560x1440) in my case. However, you're probably not going to get a general consensus on this from AT forums on which is better. They are really different setups, and you're just going to have to choose what works better for you.
 

bunnyfubbles

Lifer
Sep 3, 2001
12,248
3
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whether its for work or for gaming the triple monitor setup will be better and/or more productive, although it will need beefier GPUs (3 x 1080 is nearly twice as many pixels as 2560x1600) and ultimately more expensive if you go with higher end 23-24"ers
 

Smoblikat

Diamond Member
Nov 19, 2011
5,184
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106
Personally id choose the 30". But i game on a 15" 1024x768 monitor and HATE multi monitor setups, so take my answer with a grain of salt, and a few of pepper.
 

toyota

Lifer
Apr 15, 2001
12,957
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Personally id choose the 30". But i game on a 15" 1024x768 monitor and HATE multi monitor setups, so take my answer with a grain of salt, and a few of pepper.
how in the hell could you possibly enjoy gaming on a 15 inch 4:3 screen? and if that's an old crt then it may even be only 14 inches viewable.
 
Feb 19, 2009
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Do you have $1400 to drive 3 monitors @ 1080p?

That, is the question.

You can do with a lot less: CF 6950 2gb for <$500.

You may have to play on HIGH instead of ultra but its definitely capable. Even in BF3 MP, stock 6970 CF runs >60 fps on HIGH.

3x 1080p 24' 60hz monitors aren't all that expensive.
 

dmoney1980

Platinum Member
Jan 17, 2008
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I guess I should add this question - does gaming on triple monitors require special drivers or patches for individual games? how about for Windows?
 

blastingcap

Diamond Member
Sep 16, 2010
6,654
5
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Between a triple monitor setup like Eyefinity or 3D Surround, or buying a single 30" 2560x1600 monitor, which would you choose?

Both require a big investment; beefy PSU, dual GPU's, roomy case and big desk. I'm sure the triple monitor setup is uber sweet, but how's driver support? Are most games supported out of the box?

Anyone here have a triple monitor setup? If so, are you satisfied with the investment? Anything you don't like about it?

This question has been asked a TON of times and I see the answer is the same: "it depends."

If ALL you do is game, and most of your game hours are spent on games that don't support Eyefinity, a single big monitor is probably better for obvious reasons. If the games you actually spend most of your time on DO support Eyefinity, though, then in that case, I'd say 3x1 Eyefinity is as good or better than a big 30" panel. A 30" panel doesn't change the aspect ratio or field of view that you get, whereas 3 monitors DOES. (What's the aspect ratio of a 30"? 16:10? Compare that to 48:9 if you place three 16:9 panels next to each other in landscape mode.) Eyefinity FOV even gives you an advantage in some games, like racing games or FPSes; you can see people coming behind you more easily (fewer backstabs). Blizzard knows this which is why they intentionally ban landscape Eyefinity FOVs in StarCraft II... it would give the Eyefinity player an advantage compared to the 30" player. You are allowed to have 3 portrait-orientation monitors in Eyefinity for StarCraft II, though, as this does not give you the same magnitude of FOV advantage.

Some games don't need a ton of GPU power to do Eyefinity, believe it or not. Half Life 2 derivatives like TF2 and L4D2 can run fine on a single higher-end GPU.

Bezels are a minor issue; you can stack bezels behind each other to minimize the space, plus you will not really notice them when you're in a game, just like you don't notice the bars around your car's windshield when you're driving.

You don't need patches for Eyefinity for most games, since it's just extending your field of view and requires no additional programming, but you may need to update config files. E.g., for TF2, if you don't modify your HUD, then your information is scattered all over the place... off in the corners. Not a big deal on 1 screen, but too far from your central vision on 3 screens in landscape orientation. Some new games try to centralize your info though, so hopefully going forward, programmers will code with Eyefinity in mind and put the critical info in the central screen rather than in corners.

I know you specifically talked about gaming, but let me add this: If you multitask, such as watching a movie on one screen while web-browsing in another and typing a response to someone on AT forums in the third screen, then 3 monitors is more flexible than one big monitor. The 30" can't split-screen as well, e.g., if you do the Windows 7 splitting, a movie will be off to one side with a ton of black space above and below--a lot of wasted space. I can split 3 monitors up into 3 pieces very fast, something the 30" can't do in Win7 as well or as symmetrically. Heck, with the Windows + Left Arrow/Right Arrow method, I could have 6 windows open at the same time in portrait mode next to each other. Try that stunt with a single 30". Also, the 30" isn't going to natively display 1080p pixel for pixel whereas 1080p monitors do natively display at 1080p, pixel for pixel, for a sharper image. You can also switch down to one screen to save power/heat when you want to do so, something the 30" can't do. And if you don't game much and just want multitasking, then even a dirt cheap single Radeon card can handle 3 monitors just fine. Modern OSes support multimonitor multitasking pretty well, it's just splicing them all together into one giant screen that is not supported as well.

Edited to add: I forgot the timeless smartass response: Get three 30" in Eyefinity mode so you won't have to choose one or the other. ;)
 
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Subyman

Moderator <br> VC&G Forum
Mar 18, 2005
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I'd rather have three screens, but I do a lot of work on my computer. If it is ONLY for gaming then I'd say go with the big single screen. However, if you do half surfing/work/etc and half gaming, then I would definitely get the three screens. You will never go back if you do any type of work on your computer.
 

Ben90

Platinum Member
Jun 14, 2009
2,866
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how in the hell could you possibly enjoy gaming on a 15 inch 4:3 screen? and if that's an old crt then it may even be only 14 inches viewable.
Some of us enjoy games for their game play.
 

toyota

Lifer
Apr 15, 2001
12,957
1
0
Some of us enjoy games for their game play.
what does gameplay have to do with choosing to play on a tiny 15 inch low res screen? having a 2500k gtx470 gaming pc and then using such a monitor is odd.
 

96Firebird

Diamond Member
Nov 8, 2010
5,738
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I would rather have 1 30" display...

But I still like the idea of having 3 displays hooked up to one card, so I can watch movies on my TV and have 2 other monitors for multitasking (SolidWorks on one screen, Excel on another, etc...).
 

RussianSensation

Elite Member
Sep 5, 2003
19,458
765
126
If mostly for gaming, I'd take a 30 inch monitor. Less demanding on GPUs (so you'll upgrade less often), and no bezels, which to me ruin the experience.
 

SpicyTime

Member
Aug 9, 2011
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0
0
I used Eyefinity on three Dell U2412m monitors for a few months. I eventually sold it to get a 20-30-20 setup. Here's my mini review of the experience:

3x Landscape
  • Great for any game that supports it. It does take some getting used to with the peripheral monitors. I got dizzy the first few times.
  • The bezels are hardly noticeable in this setup.
  • For normal desktop use, it's very good. I usually have a chat monitor, browsing monitor, and video monitor. However, it's not perfect, since I had to turn my head so much to look at monitors 1 and 3. After extended use, you definitely feel it on your neck.

3x Portrait
  • I used this configuration the most, since my game of choice is HoN / Dota2. Even in FPS games, I felt this setup was more immersive than landscape. The screen real estate of three 24" in portrait is simply breathtaking.
  • For RTS games, the bezels are definitely noticeable in this setup. If an enemy unit is attacking you and it happens to fall into a bezel area, it takes a fraction of a second longer to see and understand the situation. This makes a big difference in diamond+ SC2 or 1800+ HoN. Still, it was worth it to game on such a massive screen.
  • The bezels are not a problem in FPS games for this configuration. However, it's annoying if there's ever any text that reads across the monitors.
  • For normal desktop use, 3x portrait is AMAZING for web browsing. You get to see so much information without scrolling, and you realize that most websites have wasted horizontal space.
  • The biggest weakness of this configuration is watching videos. Videos don't have the aspect ratio of a rotated monitor, so maximizing in one monitor means a small video with lots of wasted space. When maximizing across all three monitors, you really notice the bezels (plus it's blurry if the video isn't 1080p quality).

Taking in all the pros and cons of Eyefinity (both landscape and portrait), I decided to get an HP ZR30W flanked by two Dell 2007FP in portrait-landscape-portrait. Gaming on the single 30" is great, though it doesn't have as awesome of a feel as 3x portrait. However, I definitely play better since I don't have the bezels slowing me down. For general desktop use, I can't go back to using only a single screen after having used multiple monitors. The two 20" monitors make up for this weakness. Eventually, I will start tinkering with SoftTH to try to game across all three monitors. I'll let you know how that goes.

Conclusion
I like the 20-30-20 setup the most. It provides the best balance between gaming, productivity, and watching videos.
 
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dmoney1980

Platinum Member
Jan 17, 2008
2,471
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91
thanks for all the info everyone! Spicytime- what's the total rez for your 20-30-20 setup? Also, what kind og GPU(s) are you using? Is there a difference between ATI and nVidia for 3 monitor setup?
 

SpicyTime

Member
Aug 9, 2011
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The 30" is 2560x1600, and the portrait 20" is 1200x1600, so the total resolution is 4960x1600. I'm currently using a single 6950 2GB.

AMD/ATi cards can run 3 monitors off a single card, whereas you need two Nvidia cards to run 3 monitors.
 

nOOky

Diamond Member
Aug 17, 2004
3,225
2,278
136
I'd choose a single 30" high res monitor over 3 monitors. I'd also choose a 55" plasma or led/lcd t.v. over 3 monitors also.
The fact that the bezels "disappears" after a while never happened for me, I always found it annoying and disbanded the whole setup in favor of 1 monitor.
 

Obsoleet

Platinum Member
Oct 2, 2007
2,181
1
0
1 monitor (I run duals but the 2nd is for browsers ect), 1 videocard. You'll run into enough problems with just that, no reason to add in multimonitor + multicard madness. Just MO.