Two or three monitors?

Sharpedge · 31 Mar 2010 at 16:40

I currently have a BenQ 24" with a HP 19" monitor set up in extended desktop. I'm thinking of replacing the 19" as it is getting a little dated and I'm fed up of not being able to get the colours to match. The latter is not such a great deal but it does grate on me when I'm working in Photoshop with both screens.

I'm after a little advice from people who have experience with multi monitor setups. I don't know if I should get another 192/20"/22" monitor to replace the original 19" or if I should replace both with 2 new 24" monitors. Or would it be best to replace with 3 x 22".

I don't have an ATI card so I'll not be able to link more than two, unless I get another GPU. Rather gutted that the new 480 only supports two monitors

What have you guys had the most success with, 2 screens or 3. Main use for the PC is FPS games and FSX

kylew · 31 Mar 2010 at 17:17

Well if you're looking at a GTX480, why not just get a 5850/70 and have 3 outputs?

UKDTweak · 31 Mar 2010 at 17:26

I had a three screen setup for a month or two when i was using an 8800gts 512 as main card and an 8800gts 320 as Physx, I had a 19" 4:3 LCD with a 20" widescreen LCD on either side.
The left most 20" was main screen and used for games, I set Media player and IE to open in the Right most 20" and used the 19" in the middle for monitoring tools etc....

Now im running a 5850 and have done away with the 19", as the colours looked odd compared to the two new 20" and I was getting a sore neck reading web pages....

I think x2 screens are enough for me personally, though have to admit, when working on web pages and word and FTP, it was nice to have each on its own screen, but was not worth the pain in my neck to do so.

I say get another 24" screen to match your existing one

Sharpedge · 1 Apr 2010 at 08:47

I'm with you there on the multi-monitor thing. I'll not go back to using one screen, as you say it's great for multitasking. Drawback with 2 screens is the centre when linked in games is well..... right between the two monitors, if you had three linked it would be great. It's going to take some GPU to run 3 x 24" at 1920x1200.

datalol-jack · 1 Apr 2010 at 09:16

If you often work on multiple unrelated tasks, it helps to have as much screen real estate as possible. I am planning to go with three smaller screens myself, but if you already have a 24'' model, get another one as suggested above for a total of four A4 pages side by side, which is very comfortable indeed.