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jim1174
Up and Coming
July 21, 2016
Question

What can you do with multiple monitors

I know you can have half a game on one screen and the other half of the game on the other screen but wouldn't it be better to just get a 40 plus inch monitor/television ? what are some other things you can do with multiple monitors?

    12 replies

    Thug
    Inspiring
    July 21, 2016
    Depends what you mainly do.
    I use Photoshop and have that running on my main and additional content on my other (or full screen previews).
    When gaming I will run Steam friends or TeamSpeak on my second so I can see who is on (or who is talking, having problems with their mic).
    When surfing I will run additional programs on my second. At this very moment I am writing this on my main, where I have iTunes showing on my second.
    There are endless things you can do,
    CPU: Intel i9-10990k. Graphics Card: Nvidia Geforce GTX3080, RAM: 32GB DDR5, Viewed on: Oculus Quest 2 or 28" BenQ monitor (x2), Hard Drive: 2TB Samsung SSD (games), 512GB Samsung SSD (OS), 512GB SSD (3d), OS: Win 11 64 bit
    Greenfire32
    Up and Coming
    July 21, 2016
    If you only have two monitors, then yes, you'd be better off with a single big screen for gaming because having your game split half and half isn't exactly going to make your experience better.

    2 monitors is good for workflow. As a Graphics designer, I have my workspace on one screen and all the files I need on the other.

    3 monitors is good for gaming because you don't get that bezel right down the middle and your field of view increases dramatically. I have 3 monitors and when I'm not gaming, I'll use one for internet browsing, one for oculus home and Rift display, and one for anything else that I need.

    Depending on the game, some work better as a single-monitor experience (like Banished for example) and so in those cases, I'll have one for the game, one for the internet, and one for skype.

    Basically more monitors means more windows open. Whatever that means to you.
    cybereality
    Inspiring
    July 21, 2016
    Multi-monitor is great for work and also for gaming. I run triple-screen at home. For developing it's great, I can have Unity open on one screen, Visual Studio on another, and a web browser with documentation / tutorials or whatever on the third screen. 

    For gaming it's great too. I played DOOM at 7680x1440 resolution and it was glorious. However, the Nvidia Surround drivers are a bit buggy so I usually leave it disabled unless I am specifically playing a game that supports it.
    AMD Ryzen 7 1800X | MSI X370 Titanium | G.Skill 16GB DDR4 3200 | EVGA SuperNOVA 1000 | Corsair Hydro H110i Gigabyte RX Vega 64 x2 | Samsung 960 Evo M.2 500GB | Seagate FireCuda SSHD 2TB | Phanteks ENTHOO EVOLV
    LZoltowski
    Inspiring
    July 21, 2016
    I use a dual monitor setup for work mainly, reading a clients brief or doc and chipping away at code on the right, I also have a surface pro 3 running next to me for movies and what nots
    Core i7-7700k @ 4.9 Ghz | 32 GB DDR4 Corsair Vengeance @ 3000Mhz | 2x 1TB Samsung Evo | 2x 4GB WD Black ASUS MAXIMUS IX HERO | MSI AERO GTX 1080 OC @ 2000Mhz | Corsair Carbide Series 400C White (RGB FTW!) Be kind to one another :)
    Zenbane
    Zenbane
    Honored Contributor
    July 21, 2016
    If you are talking about a VR experience, Virtual Desktop will recognize your additional monitors and you can experience them in VR; with full configuration options.
    Solsland
    Up and Coming
    July 21, 2016
    I agree with the OP, I run a 55 inch LG 4k OLED as my monitor and have a Mac Pro at my side for surfing/other stuff.  Really don't understand multiple smaller screens but each to their own.
    Zenbane
    Zenbane
    Honored Contributor
    July 21, 2016
    I assume people with a bunch of smaller screens are doing more than just gaming. I work with lots of developers and network architects... the things they have on each screen is pretty darn cool. It's not always about video games alone :o
    LZoltowski
    Inspiring
    July 21, 2016
    Yeah, past jobs I had as a Creative Director I would have 3 screens on my set up ... one to monitor social channels, analytics and a JIRA dashboard,  one for main work (would be the biggest) ... one for side content like documents, checklist etc ... it minimised a lot of window swapping ... they were all no larger than 26"
    Core i7-7700k @ 4.9 Ghz | 32 GB DDR4 Corsair Vengeance @ 3000Mhz | 2x 1TB Samsung Evo | 2x 4GB WD Black ASUS MAXIMUS IX HERO | MSI AERO GTX 1080 OC @ 2000Mhz | Corsair Carbide Series 400C White (RGB FTW!) Be kind to one another :)
    Anonymous
    July 25, 2016
    As far as gaming goes, some race/flight sims properly support triple screen setups. Those games use multiview or multiprojection (as it's being called now). Race/flight sims with proper support allow you to input the distance from your eyes to the main monitor as well as it's width, they also allow you to specify the angle that you have your side monitors at in relation to the main monitor. The game will then take that information and create 3 separate cameras in game oriented where your head should be with the angles and information provided to create the most realistic view as it would be seen from the car if you were actually sitting inside it. Those 3 images are then composited into a single image and sent to your video card for display.

    This fixes the stretching problem when you use super wide resolutions or ultrawide monitors (the stretching/fisheye effect is best seen when in a car cockpit and the side mirror takes up the whole left screen).

    99% of games don't support triple screen properly and just support large/wide resolutions, nothing special has to be done to support that, they just have to allow it (which is why it's possible for old games to support newer, larger resolutions, the resolution option just has to be added most of the time).

    I hate stretched/distorted images so I don't use triples for games that don't have real support for it.

    As far as productivity, multiple monitors is far better then a single large monitor. Being able to maximize windows to the monitor they are on alone is great, fiddling around with window sizes on a large screen when you need 5 windows open sucks. Also, you can play games in fullscreen mode and still be able to view your peripheral monitors at the same time which is quite handy.
    vlodato
    Up and Coming
    August 20, 2016
    I prefer using the middle monitor in landscape and 2 side monitors in portrait. I forgot the exact dimensions but I think it was a 27 in the middle and 2 19s in portrait on the sides.
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