Pc Gamers.. simple questions about multiple monitors. Why use them?

[Lightingbird]

Title says it all.

Recently I've been thinking of hooking up my gaming laptop to a docking station and buying a 40inch monitor or even a 23inch 3d monitor. Doing some research, I came across videos on youtube regarding curved monitors and multiple screens. I have been amazed. They looked really cool. Anyway, so I'm wondering. Besides it looking cool, why would a person play on three screens when they can just look at one? Wouldn't it be annoying to actually look to the left or right compared to just looking at one screen? Just wanted to get some opinions about this in case I'm missing out on something.

 

[bash64]

i use 2

I use 2 monitors because I like how that works when I am at work.
I use a 21.5" external for my laptop.
Just having 2 monitors is really great.
I don't know about using 3.
Give it a shot. Couldn't hurt.
I won't buy a monitor so big I have to turn my head to see it all.
21.5" is the max for me.

 

[pparks1]

Multi monitors give you a wider field of vision because of the increased resolution. That's why people use them. I'm not one of those people, I just use a single monitor and am perfectly happy.

 

[bash64]

Multi monitors give you a wider field of vision because of the increased resolution. That's why people use them. I'm not one of those people, I just use a single monitor and am perfectly happy.

forgot to mention that I don't extend my desktop.
I have 2 independent screens. Great for dragging a window over so I can browse for help and play my game at the same time. Nothing quite like it. Try it.

 

[M1GU31]

i prefer 1 monitor but people like my friend like to use them for the higher resolution on games or doing multiple task and have them spread out

 

[xarden]

I like 1 monitor for gaming. Keeps everything in front of me.
I like 2 monitors for work. More screen real-estate to work with, so not having to win+tab all the time.

 

[Corazon]

Simple answer: Immersion (and geek) factor.

Simple counter-question: Would you prefer to fly a small plane with only one window out the front?

 

[badger906]

I'd love a multi screen setup, just for the geek factor, but I don't have the space, so I sit as close to a 32" monitor as I can.

What I don't get is people who do the multi setup on the cheap, and buy really cheap nasty monitors. As then you end up with like 5" of dead space, in the form of the screens bezel/case, a lot can be missed in that space lol.

I've an old laptop screen rigged up to a convertor board to act as a monitor, that has like a 4mm frame, if they did larger laptop screens then I'd conside doing that, or taking the panels out of the monitors case and making my own stands for them, that way there's minimal dead space.

When I was invited to microsoft research centre in cambridge they had an original xbox (this was months before the 360 came out and they let us play on the prototypes ) hooked up to 3 large monitors and 2 smaller ones, to resemble a car windscreen, side windows and rear view side mirrors, it was rather cool

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[Corazon]

That's the one thing I know I couldn't stand about a multi-monitor setup: the actual monitor borders and the resulting "dead space" within the total image spread across all screens. Gah, it would drive me insane!

Obvious exception: flight simulators and racing games. It would be absolutely awesome since the monitor borders would actually represent the window frames within the virtual reality view. Sadly I never had the pleasure

 

[MrNeeds]

i don't have multiple monitors, but i'd love to use it for multitasking, playing games and teamspeak etc....

 

[smarteyeball]

I did the Eyefinity thing with 3x24" and overall I found it to be a pain in the bum. It does look impressive, but the novelty soon wears off when the cons really start to outweigh the pros.

It tends to suit certain games, ie racing, 3rd person etc where the extra FOV comes in quite handy. Some like it for FPS, but I didn't.

But for the most part you still tend to focus on the primary (middle) screen anyway.

The other major downside is the grunt it takes to run certain games (sacrificing a fair bit of detail) and not all games play nicely with multi-mon setups. (Odd aspect ratios, HUDS on the far left and right) etc.

I persevered for a while before going back to single screen. Better frames, more eye candy and less buggy.

It's a YMMV type of thing. Some love it, some hate it. Personally I grew to hate it. Aside from the odd game, I don't think you're missing out on much at all.

 

[FredeGail]

I run a 24" for my main-screen, and a bit smaller one for the other one.
Ask yourself what you're going to do on your computer on general. Playing an MMO-game on two monitors is awesome, you can either watch your Ventrilo, Skype etc on the other screen and play the game on the main screen, unless your game supports dual-monitoring.
If you're a developer you'd also like having two monitors and that's what most developers do today also.
You can use two monitors for almost anything, and really..

Who doesn't like to drag a window to another monitor! It's magic!

 

[alphanumeric]

I use dual monitors for everything except gaming. Then I switch to a single monitor. I play a lot of first person shooters and having the screen boarders/frames in the center doesn't cut for me. If I had three monitors maybe but not with two.

 

[severedsolo]

Personally, I use my multi monitor setup for flight simulator, those long flights get awful boring sometimes, so I have FS open on one screen, and keep an eye out for ATC calls, and on the other I browse the web.

 

[badger906]

Just change simulation speed to like x10 less boring when your around the would in 2.4 hours

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