Single large display or dual/triple displays?

[Kremlar]

Currently have dual 22" displays at my office and home and thinking about upgrading.

A buddy of mine just got a 39" ~4K display and is loving it. Not sure if I can go back to a single display, even if it is a large high resolution one.

Anyone else make the switch from dual back to single? Happy? I'm afraid I'll be resizing windows all the time... Dual 39" is out of the question... for now!

Would love to hear any thoughts and experiences others might have.

Thanks!

 

[blastingcap]

Depends on your usage needs. For instance, for photoshop users, artists, etc., you would probably want one big panel. For hardcore multitaskers, I think triple panel is the way to go as you have more screen real estate--more pixels and more surface area. And of course there is nothing stopping you from going triple-big-panel like 3 x 2560x1600.

 

[Ken g6]

I'm debating similarly, although I currently have only one 17" display. I think I might want to make one large display act like several small displays at times with one of these:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiling_window_manager#Third-party_addons

 

[greenhawk]

I use to use dual 19" 4:3 montiors but then upgraded one to a 27" 16:9 screen

For gaming / video watching the larger one is miles better than what it replaced, but when web surfing I find I perfer the smaller screen. Reading some pages on the large one just has half the screen blank. And resizing for each site gets tiring.

It is good for multitasking but forever resizing or fighting window's "who has focus" issues.

It nearly gets to the point of upgrading windows to 8 just to get better window display control, but then I remember 7 works better for me in ever other way.

 

[tsupersonic]

I'm using a 24" Asus VG248Q (1080p) as my primary display, and a secondary 19" Viewsonic VX1962WM (1680x1050). If I'm gaming, I disable the secondary display. Otherwise, it's nice to have music, IM, or videos playing on the secondary monitor.

 

[adairusmc]

I love my big u3011, but sometimes I consider selling it to get 3 panels for surround or eyefinity.

 

[Kremlar]

Not interested in any gaming, all standard office type work. Browsers, email, RDP sessions, etc.

 

[blastingcap]

Not interested in any gaming, all standard office type work. Browsers, email, RDP sessions, etc.

For standard office work, you could go either way. A big honkin' screen would be helpful for some kinds of spreadsheet and programming work for instance, so I'd go with a big 30" or 4K screen in that case. But if you do stuff like document comparisons and like having another window open for email or whatever, triple-1080p or larger is suitable.

Multiple panels of anything smaller than 1080p is not that great imho. I had triple 1680x1050 at one point, and it still felt cramped.

 

[tullnd]

Not interested in any gaming, all standard office type work. Browsers, email, RDP sessions, etc.

It's entirely personal opinion.

I just switched. I had 3 HP ZR24W(1920x1200 IPS panels) on an Ergo triple stand. Great for gaming. If you go multiple for gaming, you pretty much need 3 obviously. However, I don't game all that often. I enjoyed the real estate though for browsing, work(I write a lot of documentation) and general useage.

I just sold that setup and consolidated to 2 Dell u2713HM's (27" 2560x1440p panels). For me, it's perfect. A 39" monitor just seems a bit difficult to manage to me. I like being able to maximize windows individually on each screen and not having to manage window sizes constantly.

 

[SiliconWars]

The great thing about eyefinity or double/triple monitor is that you can choose what you want to see whenever you want it. Switching off the side screens is just a keypress away.

When working I actually like the split between screens - I use each screen as a separate desktop most of the time. There's no need to mess around with sizing windows that way - just drag over to a side screen then maximise it with a double-click. I could never, ever go without at least one side screen now.