Triple screen vs ultra wide curved

oliver65 · Jan 9, 2016

Hy everyone

I driving at moment with a 37" monitor and I thinking to change to a triple screen solution. After reading a lot of comments there are several options:

- 3 x 27"
- curved or not curved? Whats better?
- 1x 34" ultra wide (21.9) or bigger? Quality?

Im driving only simracing (pcars, r3e, ac, dirt rally and forza 6) and I like the cockpit view. To see the Tacho etc. is important to me, so with a ultra wide there is perhaps a problem.

My goal is to see better when the street goes at the end in a apex. Today I go with the seat forward as I can see the last of tacho.

I have a i7 with gtx970.

One disadvantage with triple screen is to playing forza 6, because there is no triple screen possible and so I have with the triple screen solution just a 27" monitor. to buy 3 32" monitors is much more money and I'm not sure, if the solution so much better.

Do you have experience with that or can you give a recommendation?
thanks Oliver

Emery · Jan 9, 2016

The big advantage of triple screens using multiview is that you can see out the side windows. If you have triple screens without multiview, then you just have higher resolution and would probably be better served with a large screen TV.

Skazz · Jan 11, 2016

There are many things:
1. The 34" widescreen is 3440x1440 pixels, and this is 21:9 ratio. If can display 16:9 as if it were a 27" display. So displaying an image with 1080 vertical pixels (e.g. Forza) will look a bit fuzzy and will be 27" in size.
2. Number of pixels to drive will tax the video card differently:
3x27" screens could be 1080p or 1440p. More screens is more pixels.

3x 1920x1080 screens means 5760x1080=6.2 million pixels to display.
3x 2560x1440 screens would be 7680x1440= 11 million pixels (more than 4k resolution!). And Forza would also look fuzzy running on the single center screen.
The 34" widescreen comes out at 3440x1440=4.9 million pixels.

A single GTX970 is going to have trouble pushing 5 or 6 million pixels (you will have to run stuff at medium settings in many cases). 11 million pixels is out of the question with that card. You'd probably need 2xGTX980 Ti in SLI mode.
3. Field of View is all about distance from screen and size of screen. If you sit closer to a very large screen, then you can use high field of view while still having correct ratios (based upon measuring and adjusting the appropriate setting in each of the PC sims). Forza doesn't let you adjust FOV, and comes with a pretty bad default, so it will always work best with a single big screen close to your head.

oliver65 · Jan 11, 2016

Skazz
many thanks for your extensively reply. I have seen in the Forums that with a Gtx970 a triple screen 1080p should be possible, if the settings are medium or high (not Ultra).
3 x 1440p is no way, thats clear for me.

If I seat close to a big screen, the sharpness is not the same, because the pixels are more large und I heard the distance to a screen is depending on the size of a screen. So I'm not sure if I sitting close to a large screen that this will be comfortable for my eyes?
Forza would be definitely more bad with a 3 x 27" solution and would be a compromis to maybe the better solution for pc-sims.

If I would go to triple screen I'm not sure whats better - curved monitors with 5ms and 60Hz or normal screen with 1ms and 144 hz.

Flying Kefran · Jan 12, 2016

oliver65 said:
Hy everyone

I driving at moment with a 37" monitor and I thinking to change to a triple screen solution. After reading a lot of comments there are several options:

- 3 x 27"
- curved or not curved? Whats better?
- 1x 34" ultra wide (21.9) or bigger? Quality?

Im driving only simracing (pcars, r3e, ac, dirt rally and forza 6) and I like the cockpit view. To see the Tacho etc. is important to me, so with a ultra wide there is perhaps a problem.

My goal is to see better when the street goes at the end in a apex. Today I go with the seat forward as I can see the last of tacho.

I have a i7 with gtx970.

One disadvantage with triple screen is to playing forza 6, because there is no triple screen possible and so I have with the triple screen solution just a 27" monitor. to buy 3 32" monitors is much more money and I'm not sure, if the solution so much better.

Do you have experience with that or can you give a recommendation?
thanks Oliver

Hi Oliver,

I have both types of displays in my game room (3*27' and 1*35' curved in 21/9).

First: the Xbox One thing will not really be a decision criteria:
- On a triple monitor set-up: you will just play in 16/9 in the center screen
- With a 21/9 screen, it will be the same as your Xbox One does not support 21/9 aspect ratio. So the best experience will be to avoid stretching the image over the display and to keep the 16/9 aspect ratio. You will get lateral black bars (as when you watch old 4/3 TV shows on a 16/9 TV).

3* 16/9 or 1* 21/9:
Having both, I now play racing games on my triple-screen display and all the rest on the 21/9 screen.

21/9 recommendation
I have two GTX 980 Ti in SLI and I chose a screen in 2560*1080 (but 144Hz) over a 1440p alternative. Mainly for two reasons:
- I prefer ultra graphics and 100 fps+ framerate to incresed resolution. (But this is a personal choice, I am not saying it is wrong to value more an increased of resolution at the cost of framerate or graphical options decrease. It is a personal choice)
- I also use consoles. They display better on a 1080p base than on a 1440p one. PC monitors are not good at upscaling signals, there are not TVs.

3* 16/9 set-up
I have had two type o^f set-ups: with curved screens and with flat screens:
- Flat screens: Great for interior view. Most simracers will tell that you should set a 45 to 60 degrees angle and place panels so that lateral screens become more of less the side windows of your car.
- Curved screens: If you go for that option, the best result is obtained by placing the screens so that the curve is regular over the three displays. This is not the "recommended simracing installation". Actually, it is perfect for Project cars. The game is made to be displayed like that... it's why some say that triple-monitor set-up is broken in this game !

Pär Öqvist · Jan 18, 2016

I would also not go down in size. a 37" 16:9 is a lot more surface area then a 34" 21:9.

Bram Hengeveld · Jan 18, 2016

Not a fan of triple screens myself. I am going to save up for a large single setup monitor. Currently on a 27" one but 34" or higher would be better.

Moxley6969 · Jan 18, 2016

Single VS triple Doesn't even come close. I came from a Single 47" about 32" from my eyes, and now to triple 43" about 24" from my eyes. There's no question about it that Triples are 1000X more immersive. After trying a triple 27" 1440 setup, I was more than happy to spend 5-600$ less and get 3X the screen real estate.

Anthony Hodges · Jan 19, 2016

Also I don't think pcars, r3e and dirt rally support multi-view. The two side screens will look stretch and it kills the immersion.

Correct me if I'm wrong.
rf2, ac, iracing and to some extent sce all have proper triple single screen rendering.

oliver65 · Jan 20, 2016

So in the meantime I have buyed 3 x 27" ASUS with 144 Hz and 1920 x 1080p. One big screen I tested to my tv 65" 4K My intension was not good (maybe the pixels are to great).
At first I tested just one new asus monitor with 144hz. I'am so enthusiastics it's so smooth to drive....
Then I added 2 monitors again, select at the gtx 970 to surround and because I have at the gtx 970 1 x dvi-d, 1x dp and 1x hdmi the resolution is just 60Hz. With hdmi is not possible more than 60Hz. To drive with 60hz compared to 144hz its a big difference. As example the difference in R3E without changing videosettings ingame is very big. 1 screen 144hz vs 3 screen 60hz.
Im thinking to add a second gtx 970 in my medion x5360d. Is it then possible to drive with 144hz because I have more grafic power and the necessory third dvi-d or dp? Or do you see another solution?
Is it a problem to add a second gtx970 to the medion?

Oliver