I’m in the market for new monitors. My old ones will be donated to a home office setup for when my wife and I work from home.
I’m running a gtx1080 so I can push the pixels as it were. Looking for dual monitor setup, but I don’t span the games across both - I use the second for “productivity” type stuff (discord, web browser, etc) while playing the game. For example I’d have charts up on it while flying.
That being said, I occasionally watch Netflix on that secondary monitor while gaming as well, so sacrificing on picture quality isn’t a huge appeal.
Basically wondering people’s thoughts on setup, and what you currently run.
Current options I’m considering are:
two identical monitors
larger monitor with smaller monitor for productivity to the side
larger monitor with smaller monitor for productivity on monitor arm mounted above main monitor
If going for route 1… 24" inch is kinda the max size limit I would think, as I can’t really fit 27s side by side. I’m flexible on the other 2 options.
I’m looking to spend less than $1k total CAD if possible. I mean the monitors I currently have are good enough. If I can’t find a setup I like, I’ll just buy two mediocre monitors and use those for the home office.
I’ve been running a 34" 21:9 WQHD curved, 3440 x 1440 etc, and honestly I’m not sure I’d go back to a dual monitor set-up personally. I have more than enough screen space to open a game in the old 1920x1080 and have a window open on the side watching netflix or other, or code like normal and still have room to look up the stuff i forgot/didn’t know/watch a tutorial on without having to switch from foreground to background repeatedly etc.
In other words, pretty much the same as having two monitors screen space wise without the occasional hassle of stuff popping up on the screen you didn’t want it to. I have a very small desk, so the thing takes up all the room available, but probably not much different than 2 x 24" maybe. Plus looking they seem to be in the 500 USD range, I don’t know my conversion to loonies but fairly certain it’s relatively well under the budget
Just going to throw up a SS of the desktop here just to show the basic similarity. Anyway, just throwing it out as the set up. Was very high on dual monitors, previously, but don’t feel like I’ve lost much more than a few pixels overall.
Over the years I’ve run a few combinations of dual monitors. Always with two different size monitors, and always with games on the primary, info/productivity on the secondary.
For a while I ran 22" + 15", later a 24" + 17" and most recently a 27" + 22" setup. Never had any issue at all, but there are some troubles to watch out for. Often I’ll run a game in “full-screen window” mode for easy alt-tab. However, in a couple of games from years back, sometimes this would result in just a single row of pixels from my game window drawing on the 2nd display, and boom… half the FPS because the 2nd display was counting as a full 3D viewport. So ensure any 3D windows don’t touch other screens.
For the last couple years though, I’m back to a single 22" monitor. I’m enjoying the feeling of having a desk again! Though to be fair, back about 10 years ago, I had both of my monitors hanging on wall mounts. This gave me all the desk area clear, but where my PC is now, this isn’t an option.
I’ve got a similar setup as @Mudcat and although sometimes wish that it has more vertical space for dogfighting, really enjoy not having to deal with two separate monitors. Works well for pretty much every application, whether that be work or play.
I like a separate second monitor and have been running an old 24" for a long time.
A few years back I used a large Samsung 48" curved tv as a monitor. While it was impressive, it could not keep up with the scenery changes when flying low. And it did not have gsync.
Now I have a 32" (?) Alienware curved ultrawide as the main, and awhile back realised that I do not like it all that much. I run DCS at 3440x1440 and the sides of the scenery are stretched out.
I say that a 34" to ~40" wide screen would be best.
Oh, now monitors is a subject I am not that well versed in. I’m still using a 10 year old Sharp 1080p 32 inch TV. I wouldn’t mind upgrading at some point but right now I have other priorities.
I use a 47" 4k Visio TV and it has been fantastic. I work from home in graphics technology and it has served perfectly, Color does matter in my job, and it does fine. Video games are great and paired with VR, I don’t feel I’m lacking anything.
Best of all, they are marketed as TVs. Economy of scale… you can get one for ~$350, especially right now.
LOL! I was tempted to go ultrawide but most of the ones I liked the reviews for didn’t do PIP or PBP or whatever. The ones that offer that has worse image quality. In the end, I’m better off with two screens.
I diddled around too much this week reading reviews and the only place that had this on sale is out of stock and not taking back orders. So I’m paying $60 more pre-tax, but meh. This monitor has really good reviews and outscores pretty much all its more expensive competitors on rtings reviews.
I’d only get one, but my two monitors are going to my wife
for Christmas 
