Why wide when you can go dual?

SH4RKY

SH4RKY

SH4RKY

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I know wide screens are all the rage at the moment, but dual screens are arguably greater for multitasking... and I like that and don’t think I could go back to a single screen now I’m using duals at both home and work.

So at the moment I’m considering a pair of dell 20" (1600x1200) monitors over a single 24" (1900x1200). I thought about going for dual 22" wides, but think I would prefer the extra resolution offered by the 1600x1200.


Am I missing something about wide that is making them very popular?


I'm using my pc as a pc still at them moment, so games, documents, internet, music etc. I have a 73" HD Projector linked to ps3 etc so movies are never going to be watched on the PC, which is the only thing I can think off on pc that would benefit the wide aspect. I guess maybe games would too… but I think dual 24” would not only be too big for my desk but would also be too expensive…


Thoughts?
 
Games tend not to be able to be played on dual monitors without 3rd party apps. and Some people just dont like having a bezel inbetween the two screens.
 
Dual monitors wouldn't be particularly useful for gaming.

I'm a web designer using an A5 wacom. I used dual screens for a very short time before realising that the usable area for detail work on the wacom ended up very small indeed (half the width minus a fair amount of height on the pad, even with a wide pad).

I've just got my 24 inch which has a huge amount of screen area. If you're primarily using software like premiere then go for dual screen, but otherwise I think that a 24 inch should suit most needs.
 
dual monitors is awesome for work, designing things, and browsing

but pointless for 99% of games,

can't imagine playing CS with the cross-hair being split in two!
 
bledd. said:
dual monitors is awesome for work, designing things, and browsing

but pointless for 99% of games,

can't imagine playing CS with the cross-hair being split in two!
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Exactly. DON'T DO IT. :D Dual monitors is about great for anthing, but really you don't want to stretch games or movies over two of them.
 
I run a Widescreen as the main display, and a 4x3 as my secondary display, it's the best of both worlds :cool:
 
err.... sorry, I didn’t explain that very clearly.

Yes, of course, I wouldn’t play games across both screens, I agree completely that that doesn’t make any sense at all. What I would do and what I am currently doing at the moment is have the screens set up to act independently of each other. This way a game would run on one screen and windows would still be running on the other.

In terms of usable space, I understand the point about having two smaller screens you may end up with less space than having one big... again, never considered this as the CAD package I use allows use of separate windows, I have one window completely blank of toolbars, buttons etc and its just a single huge view, much bigger than if I just had a bigger screen but had to keep all the buttons and bars on the same screen. On the second screen is the 2nd application window and that one runs all the tools and dialog boxes. I do the same with photoshop at home, one screen runs a full screen window while the other will handle the tools. Another example, photo album on one screen full screen photo on the other.


Personally I think for normal windows usage a single big screen can’t match dual monitors. Games are the real issue I think… I’ve kind of forgotten all the problems I ran into when I first started using dual screens. As my pc ages and I can play less and less games on it. I’ve ended up basically using it as a WoW box with the rest of my gaming done via consoles.

WoW works beautifully with dual screens, you can keep it maximised on one screen and continue to use the other screen without any problems with minimising or getting the mouse to move off the first screen. It isn’t always like that though, if I played HL2 for example and wanted to get back to windows the game would have to minimised, as windows saw the game as a full screen app and thought that if I wanted to use the other screen the full screen app needed to be minimised so I could see it... I ended up just having a profile that turned the second screen off if I was playing a FPS.


Really, it comes down the resolution. I thought about dual 22”s but the fact they run at a lower res than the 20” square makes them unappealing. Hmm… choices choices…


'Best of both worlds'.... a 24 would match with a 20 as the vertical res's match... haha, that really is the best of both worlds, may think about that as a possibilty.
 
SH4RKY said:
'Best of both worlds'.... a 24 would match with a 20 as the vertical res's match... haha, that really is the best of both worlds, may think about that as a possibilty.
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Do this, it works brilliantly. I could never go back to a single widescreen, or dual 4x3s now.
 
I'd love dual monitors so I can surf while gaming/game is loading etc. Also handy when stuck on a game and need to go on the web for help :p:rolleyes:
 
oh... forgot to ask too...

How does windows Vista handle dual screens. as i mentioned above, XP was a little confused with what was a full screen application. WoW only works as it effectively works as a windowed application but maxed so it looks like a full screen application.

Does vista understand when one monitor has a full screen app open that if you alt tab to an application on the other screen the full screen app doesnt have to be minimised??


Also, running dual 1600x1200 or even dual 1900x1200 im guessing requires a bit of extra 'kick'. A GX260 should be able to run a couple of screens just dandy as long as games are limited to a single screen?
 
I agree actually, I've never understood the craze for widescreen, 2x 1600x1200 20" screens is about perfect for me. Unfortunely I'm working from a laptop most of the time these days so I can only have a single external screen easily...
 
I've also gone down the 1600x1200 route rather than lose vertical resolution (on many screens) or pay a premium for relatively few pixels. It's very simple of add *much* more workspace with my spare 17" LCD or another 1600x1200 if I really need it. Which, if I'm honest, I rarely do.

However for gaming life's more complicated. I avoided messing with this in the past because I feared I might like it. But yesterday I realised I could experiment with two monitors on my gaming box, and a few painless minutes later I was trying LFS, iRacing, and Crysis on 2x1280x1024 screens. That's an aspect ratio of about 2.5 compared to the average widescreen monitor at about 1.6-1.8. That's 40-50% difference.

And all I could think was... wow!

Yes, I had a nasty big bezel mess right where I didn't want it, but even with that I was immediately awed by the difference this genuine widescreen gaming experience had to offer. For FPS games it's perhaps not a huge deal (to me anyway), but for racing games/sims it's... well, it's a totally different experience. I really wasn't ready for that.

I now have to work out what the best and most cost effective way to 3 screen gaming is. It's against my eco-inclinations, but I'll just have to take fewer showers to balance out the energy use. After all, with a living room full of monitors no woman's going to come anywhere near me anyway. ;-)

Of course working out the best route to 3-screen sim-heaven is a whole new basket of worms... especially when it's pay day and I only have 24 hours to take advantage of my 10% 'welcome back' bonus.

What do they say... act in haste, repent at leisure? There may be some repenting on my financial horizon. :-)

Andrew McP
 
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I never liked anything played across my 2 screens, preferred the smaller but unobstructed single display.

As I say, I think dual 24s would be too wide/big for my desk, but am very tempted by a 24 paired with a 20.


Dual screen multitasking heaven and have that single BIG widescreen for games...


I hope Dells current range is up to scratch as to be honest, I really love their current designs (simple, plain and the entire range matches each other – I’m a sucker for symmetry.). Oh and ofc the other issue trying to find a 24" cheap...
 
SH4RKY said:
Really, it comes down the resolution. I thought about dual 22”s but the fact they run at a lower res than the 20” square makes them unappealing. Hmm… choices choices…
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Lenovo L220x is 1920x1200 so it has enough vertical resolution.


DreXeL said:
I run a Widescreen as the main display, and a 4x3 as my secondary display, it's the best of both worlds :cool:
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That's what I would get in case of needing two monitors.
Widescreen as primary display is good for movies and most games and then secondary 4x3 can be used effectively in applications.
 
Oh, another question...

Does a 20" square have the same vertical physical height as a 24" wide monitor??


Im guessing yes as the vertical Resolutions are the same... cant be having different sized monitors next to each other... haha, that would spoil the look ;)
 
I tried gaming with 2 x 24" dells on arma
THe res was 3840 x 1200 across the screens , after a while my brain started
to hurt cos it was trying to process way too much visual data.
As for the cross hair I was using trackir and managed to get most of the sight
on one window.

It did look amazing tho , and my 8800gtx hardly took any hit for x2 the normal res.
 
quick question, does leaving the 2nd screen active hurt FPS on the main screen? i remember it used to when i first did it
 
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