Multi-monitor N00b question.

[Locut0s]

Ok I'm thinking that the future, maybe a year from now or so, of extending my current desktop to 3 monitors. Currently I have a 30" Dell 3007WFP which is really nice but I'm going to upgrade my computer at some point down the road and will probably be spending more than a few bucks on it.

With the price of LCDs where they are at now it's not all that hard for me to imagine adding 2 smaller displays on the side of the 30". The question(s) I have are these though. Which size configurations would work best. I've seen others with 30" central displays who get 20" side ones. Does 20" work best because of the height of the 30" display? Or would I also be able to go with 22-23 etc...? Seeing as the 30" display has a native resolution of 2560x1600 by itself I'm assuming that extending the desktop across all 3 I would be looking at running something like 5760 x 1600?

Now powering that kind of resolution is no problem with top of the line cards nowadays so long as all we are talking about is windows but few games are going to be able to run at anything close to that resolution I imagine. And I know that there are aspect ratio problems even with games that can run at these resolutions (which I believe are fixed by a small tool that I can't remember the name of). So I'm just saying that I know that I won't be doing much gaming at these insane resolutions.

Question is then what are my gaming options with such a setup? Can I just output to the central 30" at 2560 x 1600 and effectively turn off the side monitors? Can this be done for specific apps only (like older games and specific apps) but run the full rez on everything else? Would I be looking at rebooting every time I wanted to do this? Sorry for the long post I'd just like to know what I'm getting myself into, and I know there are quite a few people with multi monitor setups.

Thanks for any help!!

 

[Locut0s]

Bump ?

 

[rahvin]

Ok I'm thinking that the future, maybe a year from now or so, of extending my current desktop to 3 monitors. Currently I have a 30" Dell 3007WFP which is really nice but I'm going to upgrade my computer at some point down the road and will probably be spending more than a few bucks on it. With the price of LCDs where they are at now it's not all that hard for me to imagine adding 2 smaller displays on the side of the 30". The question(s) I have are these though. Which size configurations would work best. I've seen others with 30" central displays who get 20" side ones. Does 20" work best because of the height of the 30" display? Or would I also be able to go with 22-23 etc...? Seeing as the 30" display has a native resolution of 2560x1600 by itself I'm assuming that extending the desktop across all 3 I would be looking at running something like 5760 x 1600 ? Now powering that kind of resolution is no problem with top of the line cards nowadays so long as all we are talking about is windows but few games are going to be able to run at anything close to that resolution I imagine. And I know that there are aspect ratio problems even with games that can run at these resolutions (which I believe are fixed by a small tool that I can't remember the name of). So I'm just saying that I know that I won't be doing much gaming at these insane resolutions. Question is then what are my gaming options with such a setup? Can I just output to the central 30" at 2560 x 1600 and effectively turn off the side monitors? Can this be done for specific apps only (like older games and specific apps) but run the full rez on everything else? Would I be looking at rebooting every time I wanted to do this? Sorry for the long post I'd just like to know what I'm getting myself into, and I know there are quite a few people with multi monitor setups.

Thanks for any help!!

Breaking that up in paragraphs would help.

IMO matching monitors is the best setup, but if all you want is extra desktop for multitasking then it won't really matter but the closer in size the better, it's painful on the eyes to adjust resolution as you move back and forth between monitors so your best bet is match resolution to size so they match as best as possible if you don't buy a similar monitor. Personally I've been using multi-monitor setups since 1996 as part of my work and I can't imagine more than two, the neck strain of switching back and forth between two is bad enough and you take a 30" central monitor with two sides and you will be straining your neck a lot. As far as games, as long as your multi monitor isn't setup as spanning then you shouldn't have any problems with games as the game will only occupy the monitor you choose and the others will sit at the desktop (though moving the mouse to the desktop on the other monitor will cause the game to minimize).

Just to clarify in case you a newbie, you can configure windows to setup the multi monitors as a single desktop spanned across each monitor or you can setup each monitor as a separate desktop. If I was you I would buy a single additional 30" that's the same model and brand as your current one (you run into color issues with different monitors moving back and forth, they never match) and try out a dual before you even consider a triple monitor. Triples are very rare for the reasons I've mentioned.

 

[Locut0s]

Breaking that up in paragraphs would help.

IMO matching monitors is the best setup, but if all you want is extra desktop for multitasking then it won't really matter but the closer in size the better, it's painful on the eyes to adjust resolution as you move back and forth between monitors so your best bet is match resolution to size so they match as best as possible if you don't buy a similar monitor. Personally I've been using multi-monitor setups since 1996 as part of my work and I can't imagine more than two, the neck strain of switching back and forth between two is bad enough and you take a 30" central monitor with two sides and you will be straining your neck a lot. As far as games, as long as your multi monitor isn't setup as spanning then you shouldn't have any problems with games as the game will only occupy the monitor you choose and the others will sit at the desktop (though moving the mouse to the desktop on the other monitor will cause the game to minimize).

Just to clarify in case you a newbie, you can configure windows to setup the multi monitors as a single desktop spanned across each monitor or you can setup each monitor as a separate desktop. If I was you I would buy a single additional 30" that's the same model and brand as your current one (you run into color issues with different monitors moving back and forth, they never match) and try out a dual before you even consider a triple monitor. Triples are very rare for the reasons I've mentioned.

Thanks for the reply! Yea it was a wall-o-text .

The only reason I dislike the idea of 2 monitors is the thought of staring at the central seam between the 2 all the time. I'd rather be focused on a central monitor than have to look back and forth between 2 that are angled inwards and have a seam straight in-front of me. But what I really need to do is have some way of testing this kind of thing out before deciding. hmmm. :hmm:

 

[cbn]

Eyefinity can't do mixed resolutions. I am not sure about Nvidia surround view.

 

[Locut0s]

Eyefinity can't do mixed resolutions. I am not sure about Nvidia surround view.

Huh well then I guess I might be looking at getting 2 instead of 3. Only problem is the price premium you pay when going up to 30".

 

[Nancypants]

For Eyefinity, I would definitely want to match my monitor sizes. If you just want it for general desktop stuff, matching size is much less important IMO. At work, I have a 20" Widescreen and a 17" piece of junk (damn economy). I use the 17" for things that I generally don't stare at, like documentation, quick google searches, command prompt, etc.