Triple-Screen or Single Screen Curved ?

124036 · Dec 24, 2020

Hey there from Germany,

at the moment Ive an LG TV (45 inch, 4K) and my head is 120cm away from when sitting in my rig.
Im not lucky about the quality and got no real immersion and the frames seems stuttering a little bit.
I want to get an triple-screen setup (maybe 3x 27inch flat or curved?) or maybe 1x 34inch curved?

Whats are the PROs and CONs ?
What Freq is good (144Hz or is 60Hz enough?)
What reactiontime is recommended 5ms/4ms/1ms ?

I use an stock aluminium-profiles rig.

Budget is around 400-600 EUR for the screen(s).

Next investment should be PC Hardware and a better seat so cant spend all the money for screens

Need CPU,Mainboard,GPU,....because I often race on Assetto Competizione and dont like to play on low Settings.
At the moment Im on i5-4590 and 1060 GTX 6GB, 16GB RAM.

Thank you very much and nice x-mas days !

Des Pearce · Dec 25, 2020

Triple 27" flat screen seems to be the sweetspot for most people. I'd go 1080p with higher refresh rates over 1440p and 60hz (if that's what you're asking. 1ms is best but I'm not sure you'd notice much difference compared to 4 or 5ms.

A 2070 super would run 1080p triples well in everything other than ACC without the need for the other changes. You may be a bit cpu limited in AC, iRacing and RRE though.

paokkerkir · Dec 25, 2020

I agree, but I'd go bigger screens if I could with the same specs.
Also, If you can find a used i7 4790k cheaply, it could be a very good cost effective upgrade that would not bottleneck a 2060 and could give you some headroom for other upgrades right now (with the same m/b and ram).

For measure, I race 3x1080p 60hz (32 inch but makes no difference in performance), with a i74790k and a gtx1080, and I play ACC on high with >60fps, and usage say I'm gpu bound.

Des Pearce · Dec 25, 2020

paokkerkir said:
I agree, but I'd go bigger screens if I could with the same specs.
Also, If you can find a used i7 4790k cheaply, it could be a very good cost effective upgrade that would not bottleneck a 2060 and could give you some headroom for other upgrades right now (with the same m/b and ram).

For measure, I race 3x1080p 60hz (32 inch but makes no difference in performance), with a i74790k and a gtx1080, and I play ACC on high with >60fps, and usage say I'm gpu bound.

I agree that size, and refresh rate are personal preferences. I'm not keen on the image from 32" 1080p screens and there are a number of 120 and 144hz 27" screens within budget.

If you don't mind 60hz then Viewsonic do a 32" 1440p screen for £180 each but ACC would need a 3080 to run 3 x 1440p screens on high settings at 60fps!

Kurvz · Dec 25, 2020

I just opted for trill 27" 1440P over a G9 49" curved, so will be swapping out my 35" wide screen for them, My RTX 2080 will be under pressure but luckily it's a good overclocker and can easily reach 2100mhz 24/7, but being I'm mainly driving ACC I, will have to turn my epic settings down until I can get my big sausage fingers on a 3080/3090.

I went for the 3 screens from the better view you get, I'm going to struggle to fit them in my rig but where there is a will there is a way for sure.

I personally went with 1440p as it seems better suited to 27" than 1080p imo, years back I have two the 1080p same monitors from Benq a 27" and a 24" and I used the 24" as it looked better than the 27".

stigs2cousin · Dec 25, 2020

Another voice for the tripples here.
I myself have tripple 27s on an DIY aluminium rig.
All three screen centers are abou 65 cm s from my nose which gives a nice "wrap around".
Coming from a 42" TV that helped me immensly with car control and car placement.

The screens are 1080p/144hz which is fine for me, my rx5700xt/ R53600x combo can power that fine.
It´s locked to 80FPS with a rare stutter ( which could be windows, on some tracks it did 120FPS stutterfree.)

With 65 cm distance wrap around 1080p is ok.
In the menues you can spot pixels, when driving ist´s ok.

1440p would be futureproof, but until you get a new graphics card you will have to compromise.

In my opinion it would be better to upgrade in larger intervalls with better gear.
So get good futureproof screens now, get a graphics card when they get available again and you got the funds and so on.

MFG Carsten

124036 · Dec 25, 2020

Thank you very much for your tips !
I forgot that I already own two 27 inch LED ASUS screens (1080p) - at the moment I use it on my desk and in a few days I can get a screen from a friend so these two ASUS could be used for a triple screen setup.

1x VE278H : 2ms response and 60Hz
and 1x VG278HE : 2ms and 144Hz

What you think about this triple setup: when I take the VG278HE (144Hz) at the middle and on the left and right the VE278H (60Hz) ?
Will it be extremely noticable ?

Its budget-friendly at the moment maybe it works well ? Or its important to get 3x same screen model ?
Also I need to buy triple screen mounting and can spend more money for CPU/GPU/Mainboard.

Whats your opinion ?

Clover11 · Dec 27, 2020

It is possible to mix different monitors but color matching can be difficult from what I have read.

I'm another in the triple 27" flat 1440 camp. I upgraded from a 42" plasma TV to triple 27" 1440p set up recently and am very happy. With your 80/20 setup, you will be able to position them wherever you need them so size should not be much of an issue. There are a lot of 1440 options now and I don't think you will see too much savings going 1080 over 1440 but honestly 1080 is just fine at 27".

You probably won't be able to run triple at 1440 with high refresh rates on your current set up, but you will be future proof for when you do upgrade your computer.

protocolgeorge · Dec 28, 2020

Having tried both super ultrawide and triple, all I can say is triples all the way. I currently run triple 32” 1440p.

124036 · Dec 28, 2020

thank you for your reply. I after reading the last days and watched many videos and reviews I also think I will go triple 32" 144Hz.

You have 32" 1440p screens - you also play on 1440p ingame-resolution or play on 3x 1920x 1080 ? Which GPU+CPU you use atm on which sims you race ?(ACC/iRacing ?)

protocolgeorge · Dec 29, 2020

I have a 9900k w/2080ti, Playing ACC at 1440p mostly high/ some med settings is a very solid 60fps or greater. That said my LGGK850G-B monitors (which are now discontinued unfortunately) are also G-Sync so everything looks amazingly smooth.

I play primarily ACC and Raceroom (DTM) with a little iRacing

Clover11 · Dec 29, 2020

Before you buy 32", consider if you can move the screens father forward. 27" when moved closer to you looks bigger then 32 a foot further away. If you can position your monitors wherever you want, not much of an advantage to going 32" over 27". With triple 27" and where my monitors are positioned, the edge of the side screens is just out of my paraphernal vision. If I went with 32", I would need to push them out father from my seat but would end up with essentially the same area of vision. Not sure why more people don't mention that in these threads. There are a lot more options at 27" right now then 32 for fast refresh rates.

Kieran527 · Dec 29, 2020

Clover11 said:
Before you buy 32", consider if you can move the screens father forward. 27" when moved closer to you looks bigger then 32 a foot further away. If you can position your monitors wherever you want, not much of an advantage to going 32" over 27". With triple 27" and where my monitors are positioned, the edge of the side screens is just out of my paraphernal vision. If I went with 32", I would need to push them out father from my seat but would end up with essentially the same area of vision. Not sure why more people don't mention that in these threads. There are a lot more options at 27" right now then 32 for fast refresh rates.

What is your distance from eye to screen?

protocolgeorge · Dec 29, 2020

670mm (~26.5"). I have adjusted my in game seating position / fov to replicate the that of windshield as I a external dash mount to my DD1.

Clover11 · Dec 29, 2020

Kieran527 said:
What is your distance from eye to screen?

About 26.5 inches or 67 centimeters if I remember correctly.

Kieran527 · Dec 30, 2020

Clover11 said:
About 26.5 inches or 67 centimeters if I remember correctly.

you must have a slighty narrow field of view then.
I have 32” screens at 75cm from my eyes and I can see the screen edges, my screen fov is 152degrees, yours must be in the region of 145ish.
A lot of screen placement is determined by wheel base and mine had to be behind the wheel base which is why I went 32” screens. Would like them closer to get around 170 fov, but then the screens would be placed too high and my eye line wouldn’t be centered on the screen

BillyBobSenna · Dec 30, 2020

Kieran527 said:
you must have a slighty narrow field of view then.
I have 32” screens at 75cm from my eyes and I can see the screen edges, my screen fov is 152degrees, yours must be in the region of 145ish.
A lot of screen placement is determined by wheel base and mine had to be behind the wheel base which is why I went 32” screens. Would like them closer to get around 170 fov, but then the screens would be placed too high and my eye line wouldn’t be centered on the screen

I also debated with myself regarding the screen placement. I have triple 32" displays. I ended up placing them at 24" (61 cm) to my eye. I considered moving them behind the wheelbase so I could lower them. For me, the disadvantage of moving behind the wheelbase is the base would always cover the bottom of the screen making it hard at time, the distance is not ideal for my computer glasses, and the FOV would be less.

My eye level is a bit lower then the center of the display. I adjust my seat height in games to account for my eye position.

The trade-offs for me was to get the displays closer to my eye.

stigs2cousin · Dec 30, 2020

With aprox. 65 cm eye distance and 60° angel the peripheral vision is completely covered for me.
I have to turn my head deliberately for more than 20° to notice the screen corners.

Middle of the screens vertically is in eye height, TM T300 just fit under it (because I´m tall, 185 CM)
With SC2 theres lots of room, I could mount the wheelbase 5-8 cms higher ( which my shoulders don´t like at all).

My be you could do a mockup with cardboard an tape to see how it feels to be "encapsuled" by monitors.
I for my part shure like it.

MFG Carsten

Emery · Jan 2, 2021

124036 said:
What you think about this triple setup: when I take the VG278HE (144Hz) at the middle and on the left and right the VE278H (60Hz) ?
Will it be extremely noticable ?

Your budget doesn't really let you do all things at once, so as an economy measure and to give you a taste of triple screens, this is an acceptable move. I'm pretty certain that you'll have to run all the monitors at 60 Hz and it will take effort on your part to color match the screens.

I used to have triple 1080p 60 Hz 27" monitors, but overclocked them to 75 Hz. Ultimately went back to 60 Hz because every time there was a video driver update, I had to go through the overclocking process and that was tedious.

This year I upgraded to triple 4k 60 Hz 43" monitors... vertical FOV is about 40 deg and horizontal FOV is a bit beyond 180 deg, 60 Hz kind of sucks, but RTX 3090 FTW does not get triple 4k performance to the level where higher refresh rates are particularly useful, at least not with full fields of opponents.