Single Monitor VS Surround Gaming

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Enthusiast Extreme

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jul 1, 2011
Messages
334
Hello everyone! I am debating for my next computer build whether I should do one 30 inch hp IPS panel monitor the zr30w or do 3 monitors in surround with lets say Acer 120hz.:D Money is not an issue really, I am just looking for the best gaming experience! THANKS!!
 
Do bezels bother you?
Do you mind researching fixes for games that do not support surround out of the box or have problems?
will the response time of an IPS bother you, or do you prefer the better colors?
 
If money is not an concern, than get both :)

The two main things that i did not take into account with Multi display gaming are......

Cost - Sure there is an upfront cost for three monitors, but for me i didn't take into account that even after dropping 1000$ on 2 580's there would still be games that ran like shit. If you are like me and know that game X has certain graphics features that you really don't want to play it without, you will need to always be on the bleeding edge of hardware and that comes at a pretty high cost. Looking at your sig, that doesn't look like it will be a problem for you :)

Tweaking - Once again i knew that certain games would take some tweaking to get working and wasn't really bothered by that, until it happened again, and again, and again. Even new games like Skyrim, or BF3 at launch Multi display sucked or didn't work at all and that just gets irritating.

If your Ok with those two things, Multi-display gaming, (For me Portrait is the best) will blow away any single monitor experience. If you don't have the wallet to drop 1K$ on Video cards every year, or don't care about max graphics, and don't mind spending a few hours screwing with new games to get them working correctly then go for it. You wont be let down :)

Edit - Dont concern yourself with the Evil Bezel argument, 30 minutes of playing any game and you wont even realize they are there anymore. (unless you choose monitors with three inch bezels)
 
Bezels are the only worry here... After doing some research I have came to conclusion the response time is not noticeable at 7ms on the hp ips.
 
Bezels are not that big of a deal. If you get a monitor with thin bezels they will disappear as you get engrossed into a specific game. The only real concern is when you working through the UI in some games.

For example, With Bezel Compensation (It rendering behind the bezels) Fallout was a pain, because some of the chat dialogs when talking to NPCs would be cut in half. (remember i play in portrait. not sure how it would work in landscape) Also in Starcraft 2 some of the Score screens at the end were blocked out. And BC2 when showing the scores you couldn't read some of the last columns. But any of those game when actually wandering around or playing them, the bezels are not a concern.
 
my preference is one large monitor with a low pot pitch. So I'd go 30" over anything...of course I do a good portion of Photoshop and other editing taht would make it more useful.
 
Having 3x24" monitors with small bezels, I am over it. I like to have my in game settings close to maxed out, and as new games come out, you have to make sure you are always on top of getting better video cards to support them, that is if the game itself even supports surround. I would recommend a 30" flanked by 2 20" monitors for when you needed that extra space for multi-tasking and game on one huge monitor. That is my next move when I can get the funds to upgrade.
 
t0asty said:
Having 3x24" monitors with small bezels, I am over it. I like to have my in game settings close to maxed out, and as new games come out, you have to make sure you are always on top of getting better video cards to support them, that is if the game itself even supports surround. I would recommend a 30" flanked by 2 20" monitors for when you needed that extra space for multi-tasking and game on one huge monitor. That is my next move when I can get the funds to upgrade.
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This is what I will probably do as I have another 23" inch Samsung laying around doing nothing. :p Thanks everyone!!
 
That's nice... I wish money wasn't an issue for my setups as well haha. But yes,
20" x 30" x 20" is nice. My boss has that at the office... I envy him...
 
I say 24"x30"x24". IMHO 20" vs 30" is a bit too much of an adjustment for your eyes when scanning from one monitor to the next.
 
The reason you do 20x30x20 is when you put it in PLP they match up perfectly. Just know that PLP is not supported by nvidia or amd right now. The only way to get it to work with games is either SoftTH or running in windowed mode. I use PLP set up and have sli nvidia cards and when in windowed mode, they still share GPU load.

I have tried 3x monitors and while it was fun for a while, it got old. Drivers are glitchy. Some games don't support the extended res either. In the end I found PLP to be much better and more useful. Especially if you plan on doing work on it as well. Just be aware that I can't guarantee that every game with work across all 3 screens in PLP.
 
I sitck with two monitors just so when I am gaming I can see my TS and email etc on the 2nd monitor. So in essence I am gaming on a single. Never liked the bezel of multi-display gaming.
 
Triple monitors is nice. However, purely for gaming I would rather have a single, much nicer monitor.

Too many games do not support eyefinity. Moreover, it requires a massive investment because of the GPU power you need. It's not fun to play on low settings, or for me, under 50-60 FPS.

So, now you're going to run crossfire too. Too many games do not support crossfire.

I ran 5960x1080 on 6950 2gB (used to have 2 of these cards, became too much of a hassle.)
 
Wow, everyones comments are making me re-think the 3x20 or 22" monitor setup im debating on building and going instead with a single 23" or 24" monitor.
 
mazdaboi said:
Wow, everyones comments are making me re-think the 3x20 or 22" monitor setup im debating on building and going instead with a single 23" or 24" monitor.
Click to expand...

Heh, I had a 3x2007wfp portrait setup for almost a year. I stopped using them and went back to a single 24" TN because Skyrim didn't support Eyefinity on release. The things that I miss the most from the Eyefinity setup are the color accuracy, ease of multitasking, and the sheer size. Santa might get me a ZR30W, which is (close to) the best of both worlds.
 
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