Would you choose a 3 monitor setup or one 30"

**Boyiee** · 2011-01-01 02:04

Topic I've been discussing with friends, soley from a gaming point of view. There isn't much price difference between both setups.

I'm running 2 26" monitors right now and was thinking about getting a 3rd, but after watching some videos and such I'm not sure if I'd like landscape mode. However, 3 monitors in portrait looks pretty cool to me, but my current monitors would need some customizing for that since the stands don't do it. So we got into the discussion of how is 3 in portrait that much different than one big monitor or a tv.

What would you guys prefer? Considering a system that is capable of it. For me, If I took the 30inch I'd pair it with one of my 26" and run dual like I do now. If i did 3x1 though, my current monitors while decent aren't IPS, so I wouldn't add a 3rd I'd probably replace them with 3 new Dell 23" ultrasharps lol.

**SubzeroDiabolos** · 2011-01-01 15:07

What would they be used for? If gaming, what kind?

**Boyiee** · 2011-01-01 15:29

I was looking at a broad spectrum, for all around gaming. Mostly Enthusiast settings, or as high as possible while maintaining 30-60fps.

FPS, MMO, Racing, etc.

Games such as Black ops, BFBC2, WoW, SC2, AVP, Diit2, CIV5, Metro2033. Mostly games that scale well in SLI I suppose.

**sruon** · 2011-01-01 15:54

I'd get three monitors just because it's easier to multitask with resizing windows and shit, but for gaming it's a different deal I guess

**Darus Grey** · 2011-01-01 16:58

As someone who has both setups, I'd get 3 monitors.

The biggest issue is with multiple monitors you can downgrade to 1/2 on the fly based on the game, where with 2560x1600 monitors there are games I literally cannot get good performance on at native resolutions ever, it's more frustrating than awesome in the long run always having to play games windowed or with fullscreen scaling that makes it look terrible, which is why I eventually got smaller monitors for gaming.

And this is from the perspective of a multi GPU guy like you, don't ever think you have "too much power anyways" for 30inch.

**CoronA1979** · 2011-01-02 00:40

If I had the room on my desk I would run a 3x setup, but I don't... Thus, I am totally satisfied w/ my single 27" Sammy

**Deadgye** · 2011-01-02 03:30

I'm slowly working my way towards a 3 monitor set up. I have one 24" 1920x1200 right now, and enough money for a dell u2410.. but my father says he isn't going to give me money for food if I buy it. I need to find a job for during school semesters.

**Minions** · 2011-01-02 04:10

Three monitors all the way. Of course I do programming often so being able to do things without having to constantly tab is a god send.

**Boyiee** · 2011-01-02 06:20

In my case there would still be a lot of workspace since I'd still have a 2nd monitor. One at 2560x1600 with a 1900x1200 next to it.

But this is about gaming at higher resolutions - gaming at 2560x1600 and at ~5700x1200(or 1080) or in portrait at ~3600(3240)x1900 depending on 16:10 or 16:9.

The price for the 30inch is like $1399.99 new, 3 of the dell 23inches would come to $900, or 24inches $1650. The 23 inches are 16:9 whilst the 24 is 16:10. I'd probably be running portrait though so the aspect ratios don't matter as much.

Everyone raves about how great those 30inch panels are on hardforum. In fact, most of them say to buy one gradually adding a second and third as time goes on even if it takes over a year to get all 3. Credit cards make it easy lol.

Originally Posted by Darus Grey

As someone who has both setups, I'd get 3 monitors.

The biggest issue is with multiple monitors you can downgrade to 1/2 on the fly based on the game, where with 2560x1600 monitors there are games I literally cannot get good performance on at native resolutions ever, it's more frustrating than awesome in the long run always having to play games windowed or with fullscreen scaling that makes it look terrible, which is why I eventually got smaller monitors for gaming.

And this is from the perspective of a multi GPU guy like you, don't ever think you have "too much power anyways" for 30inch.

See if I went 3 monitors I'd run portrait so having the option to game at a lower resolution wouldn't work out so well as it would with landscape. Game running shitty? Just use one monitor. Well in portrait mode that would be pretty shitty. But looking at some benchmarks I'd be ok maintaining 30-60fps on the games I play with my current system, and it isn't to expensive to upgrade at this point.

**Arc07** · 2011-01-02 07:19

What video card are you running/plan to be running? If you're going to go the Eyefinity route, don't forget that you need a display port -> VGA adapter. I didn't read up on it and I figured the $550 video card would have everything required to run six screens... guess I was wrong. You don't need a bullshit "active" adapter that the say you need and that'll run you at least $80. Monoprice has some adapters that are like $18 and will work fine.

I have a three monitor setup (3x ASUS 24" screens) and to be honest there are times where I wish I had one huge screen instead. Three screens is nice for multitasking but it's mainly overkill for me. It gets a lot of compliments I guess. As far as gaming, racing sims like iRacing and Live for Speed were designed for multiscreen setups. You get a slight advantage playing first person shooters too but looking at your left/right screens too much will get you killed. Also for some reason OoT on Project64 runs in Eyefinity resolutions and it looks insane.

**Boyiee** · 2011-01-02 08:51

I currently have 2 570's possibly going on water soon, they are cheap enough to add a 3rd as well. Gonna change the TIM first and see if I get better temps (even though they are already fantastic). These things run 2560x1600 really well. So it'll be nvidia surround not eyefinity. Bought them with the intention of addng the 3rd monitor, but my 2 asus vw266h's have a stand capable of portrait, and after looking through setups/screenshots/videos I determined if I was going to go 3x1 I'd want 3 IPS in portrait for sure. But for the 900 (for 23inch) or 1600(for 24inch) it would cost, the option of just a plain old 30inch came into the picture.

Hardforum is kind of split. Some people say "meh, 3 screens isn't great, why go portrait with 23's when you get almost the same resolution from one 30" and others swear by 3x1. It seems a LOT of people are running 3x30" monitors though, quite a large number surprisingly have that setup, and their opinion is obviously to get both, 3 monitors, all 30inch lol. They all recommend doing it over time. Buy one, then in 3-12months another, then another.

**Blabj** · 2011-01-02 10:14

For gaming I'd definitely go for one monitor, I couldn't stand having all the action split into 3 parts with 2 huge pillars 'blocking' the view.

Having said that, in terms of day to day stuff and some specialised applications (video editing, image manipulation, any task where your workload is spread across multiple applications...) 2 or more screens is totally the way to go.

**Omnipotent** · 2011-01-02 12:21

Originally Posted by Boyiee

The price for the 30inch is like $1399.99 new, 3 of the dell 23inches would come to $900, or 24inches $1650.

What? Are you buying a monitor/TV laced in Gold trim?

**Kurokikaze** · 2011-01-02 13:13

3 monitors and never look back. If you're using a decent ATI card (5850+) that 5670x1080 (higher if you use 30s) resolution yo.

**Boyiee** · 2011-01-02 13:41

Originally Posted by Omnipotent

What? Are you buying a monitor/TV laced in Gold trim?

no...

**Blabj** · 2011-01-02 13:44

Dell U2311 for 23" and u2410 for 24", basically the best monitors in terms of price/performance. I just bought two u2410's myself because they're shit hot for graphics and video, amazing colour accuracy for a fraction the price of "professional" monitors (read: the joke is a lot of pros actually use these monitors instead of mega expensive ones because of how well they perform.)

**Boyiee** · 2011-01-02 13:51

I'm leaning towards the 30" if I can get it for around 1k. It'd be paired with my 26inch so I'd still have the workspace, and for 900 for 3 brand new u23's id only be losing a tiny bit of resolution. In the future can always buy a second, and if not, it's got the best resale and the easiest to dump off.

**Isiolia** · 2011-01-02 15:46

Originally Posted by Omnipotent

What? Are you buying a monitor/TV laced in Gold trim?

Probably just IPS panels instead of the TN crap that most people settle for.

**Apelila** · 2011-01-02 15:58

I just bought a 40" LCD TV to use as monitor #2 and I'm not looking back. I wanted a TV in my room, and the TV i got was nice for the price. Just an aside, consider what else your using it for. If your going to be watching movies/tv from bed/across the room or playing console games on it the larger screen is better. if its strictly for gaming/pc use I'd think the 3 monitors would be better.

**Blabj** · 2011-01-02 19:42

I don't know how anyone can bear looking at a TV screen as a monitor for any longer than about 5 minutes. It hurts my eyes. The pixel pitch is just too much on LCDs above 22", you either get a fuzzy looking image (which causes you to strain your eyes) or have to sit further away (thus necessitating squinting to see smaller text etc.) - it's just a whole load of eye strain.

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