120Hz 27" Widescreen vs. 60Hz Surround

Greetings all, before I begin I'd like to share a brief introduction about myself and background. Please note, this article is 100% opinion. What I find useful/necessary, others may not. Hopefully this article provides insight to newcomers thinking about purchasing hardware in the coming 2013 year and future.

Who am I?

I'm a lurker on this site mostly, as I am with all other message boards. However I tend to speak up when I feel like an opinion would be useful to the community at large. I spent many weeks/months reading various topics about what I was looking for in a monitor and a setup, only to get more discouraged at the amount of polarization I found from site to site. I tend to be as objective as I can when writing anything, so while I do have a personal loyalty to Skip and this site he's created, I want to share my no-bias opinion about what I found.

I started out with triple screen gaming via the same way others have: TripleHead2Go. My father had purchased me a Dell 2001FP when I was in college to help assist with my "studying". This was the first widescreen display I had owned ever (I believe this was the second LCD I had ever used).

Eventually I began playing WoW with some friends I met through DOTA 1 - which led me down the path of interface customization. I became obsessed with creating a clean, user-friendly, yet minimal UI - it was almost more important than playing the actual game itself. Eventually I stumbled onto websites showing triple screen UI setups in WoW, which provided the ability to have more "real estate" for the non-essential parts of the WoW UI.

After some searching I discovered the Matrox hardware and purchased two letterbox 1280x1024 monitors. Initially, I had to run my middle widescreen monitor resolution at a non-native, non-wide, resolution to match the outside screen. Naturally this was not ideal, and after some more searching I stumbled onto SoftTh (through wsgf.com) which provided a more flexible configuration - letting my middle screen run at 1650x1080, while the sides at 1280x1024.

Where I am today?

After finishing college and starting a "Real" job, my wallet was a little more flexible. I'd also gained some experience with my first setup and had learned the "do's" and "dont's". I purchased 3 x Dell 2311U monitors powered by 2 x Nvidia 580 3GB's in SLI.

Nvidia surround was not without it's quirks, but I found it much more pleasant overall compared to SofTH and TH2G. I had quit WoW a year before and was had branched into other games - Battlefield 3 / Skyrim / Fallout.

Where do I want to go?

The current dilemma of 120hz monitors is the lack of power required to drive them on three screens. Running eyefinity/surround @ 120fps with the visual settings at High is not something the current line of video cards can do. Though I've since upgraded to 2 x 670's 4gb, I had to make a decision between triple screen 60hz vs single screen 120hz gaming (something that may not be an issue on the next line of video cards). To support my current direction , I purchased a WSGF edition stand from Skip locally - wonderful guy. Regardless of the configuration I chose, the stand is excellent build quality and an improvement to my setup.

My 120hz Single vs 60hz Surround Review

I purchased a 1440p 120hz Catleap monitor from the group buy deal found on the 120hz.net website. Overall very satisfied with the screen itself, other than some minor issues. The construction of the stand is very poor/cheap (remedied by the WSGF stand) and there is some backlight bleed in the bottom right corner. Response time is very good. While the picture quality is above average, I prefer the colors on my Dell U2311's.

When testing between the two, I tried to use games that supported Surround as well as different generes of games. It didn't feel fair testing two FPS's since I felt the overall immersion vs visual quality would be about the same regardless. My test for FPS was the most visually demanding I could think of - Battlefield 3. With overall great surround support and visuals, I tested on both 2560x1440p @ 120Hz and at 6030x1080 @ 60Hz.

FPS (BF3):

My system was more than capable at keeping the game at around 120fps (with only minor dips averaging around 90fps), which allowed me to get a feel for the increased smoothness that 120hz provides. In my final conclusion, I determined that while the smoothness was a welcome addition (and my shots improved in-game), I felt like I was viewing things "in a tunnel". I assumed my many months of surround gaming had training my brain to visually want more, even after using the single screen for more than a week straight.

If you're serious about shooters and have the horsepower, 120hz is probably the way to go. The added smoothness allows for better shots and "twitch" aiming. Surround is much more immersive and visually stimulating. For a guy like me who just pubs, surround is preferred.

MMO (Guild Wars 2):

For my second test, I ran Guild Wars 2 - Though I don't play MMO's anymore, I was very interested in the PVP since you can obtain max level and jump right in without grinding. One of the first things I noticed was the inability to move UI elements around. This was one of the keep staples of WoW that I enjoyed so much before in the past. Due to this realization, I felt that the side screens were wasted somewhat (Though immersion was good, it was less so than BF3).

Had UI elements been movable, I would call this one a win for triple screens easily. However, because of the locked UI I felt like the smoothness was a very welcome aspect. I suppose if I had been adventuring around in the deep world doing leveling/PVE I would have wanted more of an immersive feel, but PVP was strictly about targeting and skill rotations. Therefore, 120hz edged it out.

Closing

After my WSGF stand purchase, I decided to just leave my surround display alone and connect my top screen to a secondary computer I have (Mac Pro desktop). I use Synergy (http://synergy-foss.org/) to control both computers simultaneously with 1 mouse and keyboard. I would recommend to anyone who is considering between 120hz and surround to first think about what their goals are. In a perfect world, I'd have both. Perhaps that's right around the corner! I'm very interested in the strobing effects of the LightBoost technology that Asus monitors have. Apparently this eliminates ALL motion blur games (Read more here: http://marky.com/backlight/lightboost-zero-motion-blur/). In my dream setup I'd have three monitors running at 120fps/120hz with a strobing effect. A guy can dream...

120hz 27" Widescreen

• Mainly plays twitch shooters and wants the best possible advantage
• Less budget to buy 3x monitors or doesn't have desk space
• Cares less about immersion and more about overall framerate and minimizing motion blur

Surround/Eyefinity

• More immersive. Feels like you are looking into a window of another world.
• More demanding hardware wise (even compared to running 120fps)
• More expensive. Especially if considering purchasing a multi-monitor stand.
• Games have more motion-blur and therefore are not for "hardcore" shooters. Harder to track enemies.

Misc screenshots:

World of Warcraft

Pre & Post WSGF Stand