eyefinity worth it?

[killernerd]

I'm in the market to buy some new displays (my current ones are about to die) but i simply don't know where to start looking.

1080p?
1440p? (4k display)
2 screens? 3 screens?

My current setup consists of 2 different monitors running at 1680x1050.
They're connected to a crossfired pair of HD7970's (non-GHz editions btw) and an intel i7 3820 cpu with 16gigs of ram.

The system is primarily used for entertainment (gaming, movies) and work (software development).

I'm looking to spend about €1000 in total (~$1350), that seems reasonable, no? Ofcourse, the less the better. If 3 150 dollar monitors suffice then that's fine by me. I'm not a professional gamer so a 1 ms faster response time doesn't really matter to me. They just have to be decent.

Is Asus a good brand? perhaps LG or even dell? Suggestions are welcome

 

[J Macker]

How much time do you spend gaming vs. office work? (ie., 20% 80%?)

1440p is not 4k.

I had an Eyefinity setup with 3x 22" lcds for about 2 years. I have since switched to a single 2560x1440 lcd, and I am very happy. It depends on what games you spend the most time playing and how much time you spend doing office work.

The best games for eyefinity & surround (3x lcds) are:
FPS, racing, Skyrim, Flight sims and third person shooters/ rpg.

However, eyefinity isn't nearly as beneficial (and completely useless) for:
RTS games & DOTA style games or tower defense.

If you get a surround setup, be aware that there are many games that do not have a Field of View option (FOV) in the graphics settings and you may have to modify configuration files in order to get it working properly.

I highly recommend a 2560x1440p Qnix LCD that can be purchased on ebay because it can be easily overclocked to 96-120hz. I've not seen a single person post that said it wouldn't do at least 96hz. They are around $300 usd, so you could even go for the gusto and get 3 of those with your budget; you will have to reduce graphics settings to run 3x1440p displays on a pair of 7970's though.

 

[BIGGRIMTIM]

I love my Eyefinity setup. Until recently I was also running a pair of HD7970's. Most games ran great. You will have to sacrifice some quality settings, but I feel it is worth it. Plus all of the extra desktop space is great for work.

 

[killernerd]

How much time do you spend gaming vs. office work? (ie., 20% 80%?)

1440p is not 4k.

I had an Eyefinity setup with 3x 22" lcds for about 2 years. I have since switched to a single 2560x1440 lcd, and I am very happy. It depends on what games you spend the most time playing and how much time you spend doing office work.

The best games for eyefinity & surround (3x lcds) are:
FPS, racing, Skyrim, Flight sims and third person shooters/ rpg.

However, eyefinity isn't nearly as beneficial (and completely useless) for:
RTS games & DOTA style games or tower defense.

If you get a surround setup, be aware that there are many games that do not have a Field of View option (FOV) in the graphics settings and you may have to modify configuration files in order to get it working properly.

I highly recommend a 2560x1440p Qnix LCD that can be purchased on ebay because it can be easily overclocked to 96-120hz. I've not seen a single person post that said it wouldn't do at least 96hz. They are around $300 usd, so you could even go for the gusto and get 3 of those with your budget; you will have to reduce graphics settings to run 3x1440p displays on a pair of 7970's though.

my pc usage is about 30-70 games-work i'd say.
I meant 1440p (or perhaps 4k?)

I'm more of an fps guy myself (absolutely loved skyrim). I do play a bit of League of legends every now and then and I might launch anno 2070 when i'm bored but that's about it when it comes to RTS and MOBA games.

I do play the odd indie side scroller (vessel, limbo) but mostly games like
Crysis 3, some batman games, space engeneers, red faction series, saints row, gta IV (and V when it gets released for the pc),... etc.

So mostly games that do benefit from eyefinity
And I'm not afraid of config files, i've done my fair share of game modding

That qnix does look interesting though, i'll look into it. Wouldn't 3 monitors make it easier to split tasks? Do something on the left while watching a movie on the right monitor for instance.

 

[Scoobydo]

I got rid of my eyefinity because most games do not support it properly. Borderlands 2 was supposed to support it, but the UI's were borked, and the game would lock up frequently with it. After awhile I got sick of trying to work with it in every game and realized games were just created for 16:9 or other standard resolutions and that's just the way it is.

 

[J Macker]

my pc usage is about 30-70 games-work i'd say.
..
So mostly games that do benefit from eyefinity
And I'm not afraid of config files, i've done my fair share of game modding

That qnix does look interesting though, i'll look into it. Wouldn't 3 monitors make it easier to split tasks? Do something on the left while watching a movie on the right monitor for instance.

Have you ever used an lcd with a refresh rate higher than 60 hz while playing FPS games?
For the past couple of years I just ignored the people who swore by it, and now that I have an LCD that will do 96-110hz, I must admit, it is really nice.
The smoothness is definitely a huge plus, and there's hardly any horizontal tearing from twitching too fast.

Because the Qnix screens are relatively cheap and have massive resolution, I suggest getting one to try it out. If you don't like it you can sell it. I liked it so much at home, I bought a second one and brought it to work. Then my co-worker saw it and decided he had to get one too.

I had the same mindset about "not being afraid" of config files and FOV, and after having eyefinity for 2 years and tweaking things, my lazy half won the battle and I switched. I got tired of having to mess with stuff, and more importantly, I really, really, REALLY did not like 1080p vertical; it always felt too constrained after having used 1600x1200 and 1900x1200 for so many years.

With 2560x1440p, I'm in pure heaven. For work, it's simply awesome. When your eyes get tired, you can enlarge the documents. When you're editing Microsoft Word documents & need the navigation pane for quick access to sections, with bubbles for editing and track changes, all of the sudden that 2560 pixels wide is all used up.

If I ever decide to do a surround setup again, it will be with 3x 2560x1440 screens. But that would take WAY too much desk space and I love my bookshelf speakers too much to shuffle them farther away.

 

[killernerd]

so far i've only ever used 60Hz screens but that doesn't mean i don't want to change ^^

But if i'm going with a 1440p monitor i'm going to take 2. I'm too used to having at least 2 monitors. One for gaming, the second with info (guides and whatnot).

so it's either 3x 1080p for eyefinity or 2 x 1440p or perhaps even 1 1440p and 1 1080p?
btw 1 1440p is that similar (in terms of total res) as 3 1080p monitors? (nvm, obviously not. 3 1080p monitors add up to 5760x1080)

 

[FrgMstr]

I still game and use 3 1200p displays on my desktop in portrait mode. ( I do a lot of document editing and this setup is great for that.) I will likely not move away from these till I see bezel-less 1440p displays or a single fast 4K display at about 40" in the future.

 

[Zepher]

3 1080P screens are 5760x1080 so more than double the pixel width and around 30% less pixel height.
I've been eying the 29" ultra-wide monitors.