Is 3x19" worth it?

[stolid]

I currently have a 24" monitor. I'd like to get eyefinity, but getting 2 more 24" monitors is rather expensive. Would trading the 24" for a 3x19" setup (I'd only have to purchase 2 as a family member has one) be worth it in your opinion?

My 24" is an Acer 1920x1200. The 19" in question is 1280x1024 which I could get 2 more of for about $300 including an active displayport adaptor. So, what are your thoughts?

[scavvenjahh]

19" is not really the problem... 1280x1024 is. Giving up comfortable widescreen to game on 3x 5:4 monitors is not a good idea. What you would gain in overall picture width would be ruined by cramped bezel-to-bezel areas. If you can't go TripleWide, don't go Triple, you might regret it.

[suiken_2mieu]

19" is not really the problem... 1280x1024 is. Giving up comfortable widescreen to game on 3x 5:4 monitors is not a good idea. What you would gain in overall picture width would be ruined by cramped bezel-to-bezel areas. If you can't go TripleWide, don't go Triple, you might regret it.

This + 1
You can get rather cheap widescreen monitors. There are cheap 23" - 24" monitor available. Do some shopping.

[Slinky]

These are out of stock at the moment, but they are the monitors i use.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824009266

[stolid]

I prefer buying off newegg, but what about these (20" Acer G205HV)? They're scary cheap. Any big cons? I don't really have the budget (and perhaps the desk space) for 3 1080p displays.

[scavvenjahh]

Seems like a good bargain. 4800x900 sounds about right for a single 1GB GPU, too.

[matt73]

maybe you could keep the 24" and flip 2 x 19" (16:9/16:10) wide srceen monitors 90 degrees so they are in portriat or maybe it would work better with 2 x 18" monitors or maybe even get 2 x 19" monitors at 4:3 (non wide screen) then you dont have to flip them then. Just a though :)

[stolid]

maybe you could keep the 24" and flip 2 x 19" (16:9/16:10) wide srceen monitors 90 degrees so they are in portriat or maybe it would work better with 2 x 18" monitors or maybe even get 2 x 19" monitors at 4:3 (non wide screen) then you dont have to flip them then. Just a though :)

You can't do portrait-landscape-portrait configurations, not to mention there'd be no bezel compensation for the mismatch of displays, but it is certainly an awesome idea. Maybe some day...

[matt73]

hmm i could have sworn I seen it somewhere on the softTH web site before. maybe not

[stolid]

hmm i could have sworn I seen it somewhere on the softTH web site before. maybe not

I was talking about eyefinity. Anyway, I think it'd be tough to find 2 secondary monitors not only whose horizontal resolution matches the center monitor's vertical, but the pixel density (and thus physical width that becomes the height) does so too. It would be cool...

[matt73]

ya this is where i seen it

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=74568

[Slinky]

I recommend 3 1080p monitors but thats just my opinion.

[Dem Pyros]

I recommend 3 1080p monitors but thats just my opinion.

I have three 19" Dell monitors, and I quite like them. Nothing bigger would fit on my desk, and it's nice to have a triplewide setup without feeling dominated by the monitor size.

I picked them up for less than $100 each at the time.

[discopooh]

running 1 x22, 2 x19 at 1280x1024 and I'm never returning to single monitor gaming again. Very happy

[stolid]

Thanks for your input, everyone. If anyone is curious, I ended up ordering 3 19" Acer monitors (each 1440x900). I'll make a post about my setup and performance with my lowly 5770 when I get them.

One final question - can I plug in an old PCI video card to drive a fourth display (obviously separate from the eyefinity config)? Or rather will eyefinity conflict with it in any way? What would happen if I moved a video between it and the other displays (assuming software rendering I guess)? The card is a super old ATI Rage card (haha).

[Dem Pyros]

One final question - can I plug in an old PCI video card to drive a fourth display (obviously separate from the eyefinity config)? Or rather will eyefinity conflict with it in any way? What would happen if I moved a video between it and the other displays (assuming software rendering I guess)? The card is a super old ATI Rage card (haha).

Assuming that the drivers don't conflict I don't see why you would have a problem.

When I initially got my displays I ran an 8800GTS (320) with an ancient (well, more ancient) 5200 FX. Used the same drivers and worked like a charm.

Video should work seamlessly. Note however that if you choose to use something like SoftTH to render across all four monitors fullscreen you will run into bandwidth issues. For me the PCI bus was limited to ~20 fps, no matter what I was trying to do (be it Half Life 2, video, or Pong: 20 fps)

[duniek]

I got 3x19" "old" widescreen LG monitors with analog VGA input only. All of them for only 150-180$, but important thing - these monitors have 11,5mm bezels :O

[suiken_2mieu]

I got 3x19" "old" widescreen LG monitors with analog VGA input only. All of them for only 150-180$, but important thing - these monitors have 11,5mm bezels :O

That's beautiful. I wounder how much smaller you could go by debezeling them.

[duniek]

[quote]I got 3x19" "old" widescreen LG monitors with analog VGA input only. All of them for only 150-180$, but important thing - these monitors have 11,5mm bezels :O
:rockout

[img]http://img573.imageshack.us/img573/583/lcdu.jpg" alt="" />

[duniek]

boring afternoon and

LG 19" L192WS/L194WS (probably the same casefit)
5x1P
3x1L