Surround vs Single Display

[RohanLeRoux]

Hey Guys, I was just wondering if you could please provide me with some input.

In the case that your PC is powerful enough to run NVIDIA Surround combining 3x 1080p monitors or a Single 4K monitor, which option would you choose and why? Just for some context, lets just say that the 3x 1080p Monitors are 23", and that the 4K monitor is the new Asus PB287Q (The 28" Value oriented One). Just to elaborate on some more context, I mostly play First Person Shooters and MMOs. The main reason why I'm asking this question is due to the fact that the two solutions roughly end up costing the same amount of money, however I'm accustom to motion sickness, and I've heard that that's a by-product of running a surround setup, whilst a single display shouldn't cause that kind of an affect.

Kind Regards, Rohan.

[H4X3R]

single 4K >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 3 x 1080p (unless you are are playing racing games)

[Bagmup]

single 4K >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 3 x 1080p (unless you are are playing racing games)

 

This.

[lx_srs]

single 4K >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 3 x 1080p (unless you are are playing racing games)

True enough, but I like having 3 monitors anyways.

[ForsakenLive]

For simulation surround is the best, but for overall use and other game genres I prefer a larger high res display.

[RohanLeRoux]

For simulation surround is the best, but for overall use and other game genres I prefer a larger high res display.

Thanks for the response. 

[Tacitus]

I'd take 3x1080p. It's better for everything other than in game image clarity, and the very wide FoV will give a degree of immersion you'll not get from a clearer, small image.

[RohanLeRoux]

I'd take 3x1080p. It's better for everything other than in game image clarity, and the very wide FoV will give a degree of immersion you'll not get from a clearer, small image.

Thanks for the response- I had the opportunity to check out a surround setup today, and I experienced motion sickness from the start- think I'll be going with a single display.

[ShadowCaptain]

Much prefer single displays, the only time I would want a surround display is for a racing/flight sim, but for normal stuff I like ONE big monitor

 

If you want one monitor that is more immersive look into the 21:9 monitors, although support is limited

[RohanLeRoux]

Much prefer single displays, the only time I would want a surround display is for a racing/flight sim, but for normal stuff I like ONE big monitor

 

If you want one monitor that is more immersive look into the 21:9 monitors, although support is limited

Thanks. I checked out 21:9 displays as stated, however, as you stated, the limited support and overall notion to cause motion sickness repels me.

[ShadowCaptain]

Thanks. I checked out 21:9 displays as stated, however, as you stated, the limited support and overall notion to cause motion sickness repels me.

 

Yeah, personally since current GPUs are a bit meh with 4k I think a 27" 1440p display is currently the best overall experiance

[Guest]

I admit, surround isn't for everybody. Some think the bezels are in the way, others have motion sickness as you see above ^^

You really have to try it yourself and see if you like it. I personally love my surround setup (The bezels dont bother me as peripheral vison is peripheral vison)

I find I simply cant play simulators like Euro Truck Sim on one monitor.... it's simply not enough.

 

There are pains with surround though, windows + surround =/= no multitasking options (For example, you can't snap windows to monitors in suround mode)

Plus switching in and out of surround is a bit of a pain in the butt every time you want to play a game.

[RohanLeRoux]

Yeah, personally since current GPUs are a bit meh with 4k I think a 27" 1440p display is currently the best overall experiance

Yeah, I was considering getting one. My major problem is that the non-Korean models, like the Asus PB278Q cost ~$500, just under that of 4K monitors. A major strong point of grabbing a 4K monitor would be that I would be able to keep it, instead of upgrading the 1440P panel when GPUs catch up- your thoughts? I was always thinking about simply scaling the resolution on games that I wouldn't be able to run on the native resolution.

[Tacitus]

Thanks for the response- I had the opportunity to check out a surround setup today, and I experienced motion sickness from the start- think I'll be going with a single display.

Sorry to hear. I'd second checking out 21:9 though - it's only 1/3 wider than a 16:9 screen and doesn't make use of your peripheral vision so much so might be better for that.

[RohanLeRoux]

I admit, surround isn't for everybody. Some think the bezels are in the way, others have motion sickness as you see above ^^

You really have to try it yourself and see if you like it. I personally love my surround setup (The bezels dont bother me as peripheral vison is peripheral vison)

I find I simply cant play simulators like Euro Truck Sim on one monitor.... it's simply not enough.

 

There are pains with surround though, windows + surround =/= no multitasking options (For example, you can't snap windows to monitors in suround mode)

Plus switching in and out of surround is a bit of a pain in the butt every time you want to play a game.

I totally agree with this. I was able to cope with racing games, but as soon as I started playing Battlefield I started feeling extremely motion sick, regardless of the frame rate (which was capped at 60 FPS). 

[ShadowCaptain]

Yeah, I was considering getting one. My major problem is that the non-Korean models, like the Asus PB278Q cost ~$500, just under that of 4K monitors. A major strong point of grabbing a 4K monitor would be that I would be able to keep it, instead of upgrading the 1440P panel when GPUs catch up- your thoughts? I was always thinking about simply scaling the resolution on games that I wouldn't be able to run on the native resolution.

 

Very true you can scale down and upgrade performance later since monitors tend to outlats a couple of rigs in a row

 

4k was still thousands when I bought mine just a few months ago, only recently  have they dropped in price much to my annoyance. 

 

Also I run my 2 year old gaming laptop in 1080p on my 1440p monitor and honestly it looks like a native 27" 1080p panel. 1440p and 1080p should run just fine on a 4k panel (and whatever the 3/4 resolution is, I cant remember) and in the games that are less demanding or in the future you can run native 4k where appropriate

 

 

I totally agree with this. I was able to cope with racing games, but as soon as I started playing Battlefield I started feeling extremely motion sick, regardless of the frame rate (which was capped at 60 FPS). 

 

 

I think that is because in a racing game you see the car move relative to the enviroment, where in an FPS its your own frame of view moving relative to motion on screen - this is probably what makes you feel sick, there is no frame of reference. 

 

I am willing to bet VR would have the same effect on you

[Tacitus]

Yeah, I was considering getting one. My major problem is that the non-Korean models, like the Asus PB278Q cost ~$500, just under that of 4K monitors. A major strong point of grabbing a 4K monitor would be that I would be able to keep it, instead of upgrading the 1440P panel when GPUs catch up- your thoughts? I was always thinking about simply scaling the resolution on games that I wouldn't be able to run on the native resolution.

I'd personally take a good 1440p monitor over a cheap 4k one. The pixel density is too high to be useful in day-to-day tasks and GPUs will take a while to be able to run 4k on a single card with good settings fluently. Not to mention the console game market is bigger than the PC one so most games will be developed with 1080p in mind, and as the screens remain costly people will continue buying 1080p screens for a while yet. I genuinely don't think 4k will become a standard anytime soon since a lot of things are still chasing 1080p.

[RohanLeRoux]

Sorry to hear. I'd second checking out 21:9 though - it's only 1/3 wider than a 16:9 screen and doesn't make use of your peripheral vision so much so might be better for that.

Yeah, I've checked out 21:9 monitors in the past, however I haven't had the opportunity to game on them. Once again (Sigh ), my only problem with this setup was that the display looked extremely small due to the measurement accounting for the diagonal length, not the horizontal length.

[Tacitus]

Yeah, I've checked out 21:9 monitors in the past, however I haven't had the opportunity to game on them. Once again (Sigh ), my only problem with this setup was that the display looked extremely small due to the measurement accounting for the diagonal length, not the horizontal length.

If you can wait a few months competition is about to warm up in the 34" 1440p 21:9 market and those monitors look phenomenal.

[RohanLeRoux]

Very true you can scale down and upgrade performance later since monitors tend to outlats a couple of rigs in a row

 

4k was still thousands when I bought mine just a few months ago, only recently  have they dropped in price much to my annoyance. 

 

Also I run my 2 year old gaming laptop in 1080p on my 1440p monitor and honestly it looks like a native 27" 1080p panel. 1440p and 1080p should run just fine on a 4k panel (and whatever the 3/4 resolution is, I cant remember) and in the games that are less demanding or in the future you can run native 4k where appropriate

 

 

 

 

I think that is because in a racing game you see the car move relative to the enviroment, where in an FPS its your own frame of view moving relative to motion on screen - this is probably what makes you feel sick, there is no frame of reference. 

 

I am willing to bet VR would have the same effect on you

^ Damn! Haha! Hopefully Oculus Rift works well with me. As for your first statement, thank you for the assurance. You've definitely made me feel confident about getting a 4K display. 

[RohanLeRoux]

If you can wait a few months competition is about to warm up in the 34" 1440p 21:9 market and those monitors look phenomenal.

Haha yeah, the definitely do! I loved that 34" LG panel that Linus checked out- main problem is that it exceeded my budget.

[ShadowCaptain]

^ Damn! Haha! Hopefully Oculus Rift works well with me. As for your first statement, thank you for the assurance. You've definitely made me feel confident about getting a 4K display. 

 

No problem!

 

I hope so too, they said they are working on the rift sickness issues. they want to make sure you have a frame of reference in games, like seeing your hands/craft etc, not just a floating head in space

 

Yeah Why not life is too short. I will stick with my 1440p monitor until I manage to upgrade my rig (or I get a 4k DSLR) but If I was in your position I would go 4k, but Please only do so if you can run things reasonably well and downscale only when needed

[RohanLeRoux]

No problem!

 

I hope so too, they said they are working on the rift sickness issues. they want to make sure you have a frame of reference in games, like seeing your hands/craft etc, not just a floating head in space

 

Yeah Why not life is too short. I will stick with my 1440p monitor until I manage to upgrade my rig (or I get a 4k DSLR) but If I was in your position I would go 4k, but Please only do so if you can run things reasonably well and downscale only when needed

Yeah, I think that my setup should be fine with most games- I'll most likely have to limit settings on demanding games like Battlefield, MLL and C3, and/or downscale them to playable resolutions, however, for the most part I think it should be fine- I mostly play games like WoW, TF2, Battlefield 4, most of which aren't that demanding. I mostly just want to hop on the hype train and see where it leads!

[ShadowCaptain]

Yeah, I think that my setup should be fine with most games- I'll most likely have to limit settings on demanding games like Battlefield, MLL and C3, and/or downscale them to playable resolutions, however, for the most part I think it should be fine- I mostly play games like WoW, TF2, Battlefield 4, most of which aren't that demanding. I mostly just want to hop on the hype train and see where it leads!

 

Go for it!! And good luck. Its nice to be on the bleeding edge. 

[RohanLeRoux]

No problem!

 

I hope so too, they said they are working on the rift sickness issues. they want to make sure you have a frame of reference in games, like seeing your hands/craft etc, not just a floating head in space

 

Yeah Why not life is too short. I will stick with my 1440p monitor until I manage to upgrade my rig (or I get a 4k DSLR) but If I was in your position I would go 4k, but Please only do so if you can run things reasonably well and downscale only when needed

Just on another note, I was reading some forum posts, and I noticed that 5760x1080 is slightly less demanding than 4K. I checked out some 5760x1080 benchmarks using systems relatively similar to mine, and from what I've seen, I'm assuming that my system should be able to tackle most higher end games at medium settings to hit the 60 FPS mark. And of course, if the next 'Metro' or 'Crysis' comes out, I'll scale it down to 1080 or 1440- I just like that the option of 4K is there.