In recent months ive noticed this to be a huge topic of debate among our forum users, Youtube comments sections in some of the reviews featuring triple monitor setups and just around the web in general. Most people will say that triple monitors are totally useless, its all for show, its cause you have a tiny *coughcough* but really.. Does it have it a use? As an owner of a triple monitor setup i figured i would share my thoughts for those of you out there that are wondering what its like, Pros and cons, Does it have any use in a gaming scenario? and some of the general questions i get asked on a daily basis
My initial thoughts
I had seen such setups all over the web, I was using dual monitors at the time and loved having the screen real estate on a productivity level, After a few months of dual monitor usage i had decided that i wanted more. Upon first setting up my third monitor i was somewhat in awe, It took up a HUGE amount of desk space which thankfully i had plenty to spare. It made for quite a striking sight. Upon first start up I set up nvidia surround (more on this soon) And found myself a nice triple monitor wallpaper to tie it all together.
Setting up Nvidia Surround
This, In my opinion is one of the biggest drawbacks to a triple monitor display. Nvidia surround is seriously picky about which monitors are plugged in where when you are running a multi gpu system which, If your trying to power a multi display setup you are probably running sli. After using some google-fu to track down a decent guide i got them all plugged in the way i needed. Once thats done its all pretty simple, You simply click span displays with surround, Next it will bring up a new screen showing you that all three monitors are plugged in. Youll want to click apply here, The screens will flicker a few times and then they will all be on however, in most cases they will not be in the correct order so you will want to match up the display number order shown in the window to the identifying number that should be showing up on your screen. The final (and admittedly option step) is to set up your bezel correction. This for those that dont know essentially creates a custom resolution that is slightly wider so that certain game elements line up more realistically by "hiding" a portion of the image inside the bezel. Its like when you look through a window with a design, frosted glass etc, Whatever is behind that one spot of the window is hidden and yet, you know its still there.
The look and feel of it
Sitting at the desk top you dont notice anything special, at the desktop it will behave exactly as though you just plugged the monitors in and thats it except for one major difference, If you right click and open screen resolution, Rather then showing three separate screens it will display it as been one very large screen. in general day to day use you wont notice anything major but there are a few flaws. One big drawback is youtube, If you want to watch a youtube video in full screen it will fill all three monitors. the left and right will just be black unless your watching a video recorded and uploaded in a native triple screen resolution (Yes they do exist, For triple monitor users out there that want to see a video here you go) in which case it will play on all three monitors. There is the odd game that has trouble supporting in which case (this is a very rare one) you will need to disable it all together.
Gaming!
Fps
This is one that bothers me most. Ive seen a ton of people say this boosted their K/D in CoD, Battlefield, Titanfall what have you while i see others say the opposite. This one depends the most on the person, Whether they will give it a bit of time to adjust to how differently it handles, Whether its something they can play with, whether their system can keep a high enough frame rate and so many other variables. Personally In battlefield 4, it hurt my stats for the first few days. Everything about it made the game feel very different. i had a habit of looking at the side monitors which would disorient me terribly because they are very skewed. After a few days of getting use to how it handled and breaking the habit of looking at the side monitors and moving my mouse my game improved a lot over just using a single monitor. some people cant handle it at all for example, I had a friend staying with me for about a month. He would use my system while i was gone to work and no matter how much he played with it and broke the bad habits, he just couldnt keep his K/D's up with this setup. In terms of story games such as bioshock infinite its a phenomenal experience. Flying around on the skyrails is an outstanding experience like no other and when you have a full 5.1 surround to go along with it theres nothing else like it (except maybe vr)
Rpg/MMO
Now this is where a triple monitor setup will really shine. I started playing mmo's for the first time ever a few months back, I tried out wow and had decided i didnt really care for it. I gave Final Fantasy XIV A realm reborn a try and i love it. You can organize your hud In just about any way you could ever want to (you can in wow as well just not nearly as easily) I havent had the chance to test the support on other mmo's like archage yet but i plan to very soon. Now what makes this setup shine on triple monitors you ask? Well how about 1 full screen dedicated to a constantly updating map allowing you to totally take the mini map off your main (center) screen thus freeing up a bunch of space there, Then another screen dedicated to things like quest logs, Hunting logs (class based challenges in ffxiv), Inventory etc. Personally i love having my hunting log up mainly, I have yet to miss hunting a single creature as yet thanks to being able to glance it at all times and knowing how close i am to the next rank gives me a drive to keep grinding it out like no other game can. Seeing those quest rewards, Hunting rewards, Waypoints, New areas to discover and so many other things on screen all the time just gives me a drive to keep going that just isnt there otherwise. I closed it all and ran the game on a single screen for a while and although i still enjoyed the game a ton, I noticed that i wasnt as excited to explore or a new area or complete a quest.
Now i know there are a lot more genres out there, srpg, adventure, jrpg and soooo many more. I would be here for months if i covered them all so instead i only covered the two i felt were most important and most played. If you want to know about more drop a comment or shoot me a message i would be happy to help out.
Who is this kind of thing for?
This is a very unique kind of experience and setup that requires a bit of know how. Some games wont support it without some research and tweaks, some wont support it at all while others run it as though it were built to do it. realistically unless your someone with a powerful system that wants to refresh their gaming experience then this might not be for you. If your an avid player of mmo's (which im quickly becoming one myself the more i learn about them) and you have the system to run it then this setup is something i would not hesitate to recommend. You have every single thing you could ever need already in front of you in most cases and if you lay everything out just right it makes your entire mmo experience much MUCH smoother and more enjoyable. Who else would i recommend something like this for? Content creators hands down, It makes things worlds easier for sure, Especially those that like to create mods for skyrim and other such games. Someone who tends to have 10+ tabs open on their browser? Yeah i would say it makes browsing the web a fair bit easier to. Youtube and facebook on one screen, Email forums facebook etc on the second and maybe some nice daily news or something on the third.
Ok shut up already and sum this up for me!
If youve sat and read all of this, Kudos to you! If not here is the quick and dirty version of it all, From a productivity stand point i would never EVER turn someone away from a triple monitor setup. It makes things worlds easier but on the flip side of things, If your wanting this purely for gaming purposes you may want to think long and hard about this investment. Fps games are very hit and miss on whether it will either improve your game or hinder it, Along those same lines if your an Rpg/MMO player then this is something you may very well want to invest in if your system can handle it. Triple screens in an mmo that can support it (In my case Final Fantasy XIV) is most definitely invaluable, Having my map, Quest log, Hunting log and inventory available for quick glance at all times has been extremely valuable and has made me enjoy the experience of the mmo genre a whole lot more.
I hope ive been able to answer some peoples questions. If ive forgotten anything please dont hesitate to ask, I rarely write this kind of thing up so its pretty likely i forgot something or screwed something up
A Few Screenshots From Various Games
Ill get more probably this evening, I recently reformatted my system so im short on screen caps at the moment
Final Fantasy XIV A Realm Reborn
Skyrim
Borderlands 2
Black Ops 1 Zombies. Not exactly a screen cap this time, A friend over seas asked me to snap a pic cause he was curious what my monitor setup looked like so i figured i would slap it up here to
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