More Monitor help needed

Ace · 10 Nov 2016, 09:57

Hey guys. I made thread discussing monitors a few months back, and I'm making this one because I'm tired of waiting and need a new setup soon. I intend to use it for non-competitive gaming, general productivity, coding (learning Java), and other engineering things in uni. I'm considering 3 things:

1. Take my current 30in 2560x1600 and smack a 1600x1200 on both sides. Simple, cheap, fast, and tried and tested.

2. Take my 30in and add a 30in on either side. This is much more expensive, and risks being overkill.

3. I have no idea. No monitor on the market seems to compare to my 2560x1600. Im not sure if there's any large monitor or to that can replace it, but I doubt it. Also worth noting that any 3rd option would need to be BETTER than my 30in. I'm considering expanding my 30in as described in 1 & 2 because it's began to feel limiting. I need something better.

Let me know if it's 1 or 2, or if you have any suggestions for 3.

Thanks!

seebart · 10 Nov 2016, 10:00

Just saw this, not sure if this is something for you?

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/acer-b ... 32991.html

cookie · 10 Nov 2016, 10:13

@Seebart: This one looks amazing! Sadly it has just 70 Hz which limits my godlike ability to play CS:GO

Can I ask for what reason you need that much monitor space?

andrewjoy · 10 Nov 2016, 13:04

Forget multiple monitors

IIYAMA Prolite X4071UHSU

Your welcome.

40 inch 4k 60fps 4.4.4 croma

I have it and its wonderful.

Its like having 4 1080p screens of average size on your desk.

Black levels are fantastic.

There is a small amount of darkening at the very edge of the screen on full white background but thats not something you can avoid on such big VA screen.

make sure you change the settings on the monitor to display port 1.2 and hdmi 2.0, but use DP beacuse HDMI is shit. (if only SDI had become a consumer standard , never had SDI fail me, we have a saying in this office, if it cannot fail use SDI)

For some reason nvidia control panel would only run it at 30htz but i set a custom res and refresh and it works fine, it will even overdrive to about 75htz if thats your thing.

Ace · 10 Nov 2016, 18:19

cookie wrote: ↑@Seebart: This one looks amazing! Sadly it has just 70 Hz which limits my godlike ability to play CS:GO

Can I ask for what reason you need that much monitor space?

While I too would love to have a quality screen over 100htz, it just won't happen. I've been fine with my 60htz, so it shouldn't be a huge problem.

About why I need so much space, it's more a want than a need. I want additional space for multi-tasking (although my 30 in is quite nice as is). When looking for multi-monitor setups utlizing my current screen, I stumbled upon the PLP setup. Then I asked myself "if I'm going to drop a few hundred for extra screens, why not just buy a new one"?

That's about it. The PLP still seems the best option for me, but I want to be sure.

I haven't checked out the TV yet, but I doubt a TV could compete with the colors and quality of my 2560x1600.

andrewjoy · 10 Nov 2016, 20:40

Its not a TV, its a VA monitor, unfortunately most of the reviews are in german

seebart · 11 Nov 2016, 09:37

andrewjoy wrote: ↑Forget multiple monitors

IIYAMA Prolite X4071UHSU

Your welcome.

40 inch 4k 60fps 4.4.4 croma

I have it and its wonderful.

Its like having 4 1080p screens of average size on your desk.

Black levels are fantastic.

There is a small amount of darkening at the very edge of the screen on full white background but thats not something you can avoid on such big VA screen.

make sure you change the settings on the monitor to display port 1.2 and hdmi 2.0, but use DP beacuse HDMI is shit. (if only SDI had become a consumer standard , never had SDI fail me, we have a saying in this office, if it cannot fail use SDI)

For some reason nvidia control panel would only run it at 30htz but i set a custom res and refresh and it works fine, it will even overdrive to about 75htz if thats your thing.

Hmm if I get this for a PC monitor I'll have to rearange my desk in a major way...interesting because the price is phenomenal.

cookie · 11 Nov 2016, 10:29

Ace wrote: ↑ About why I need so much space, it's more a want than a need.

Ohh I get it, you opt in for some /r/battlestation wankery

I must say that I was totally fine with my 1920x1080 60Hz AOC monitor for programing and gaming, thought I had plenty of space. Since I have a 2570x1440 Apple Thunderbolt Display at work, my window arrangement and how I programm have changed a lot... 144Hz is a plus but I am going to buy a different monitor soon.

andrewjoy · 11 Nov 2016, 10:52

I like the old Apple cinema displays ( the CCFL ones, the later one with the higher brightness).

The modern ones are form over function IMO.

cookie · 11 Nov 2016, 11:30

There is no way I will spend a grand on a Thunderbolt Display... absolutely no way.
And I agree, they are indeed form over function.

andrewjoy · 11 Nov 2016, 12:31

cookie wrote: ↑There is no way I will spend a grand on a Thunderbolt Display... absolutely no way.
And I agree, they are indeed form over function.

Not when you can get a 4k 40 inch panel for at least 50% less

cookie · 11 Nov 2016, 13:42

I must say that 4k doesn't interests me that much right now, I doubt that my machine could handle 4k at the same framerate as my current monitor. Also I believe that it's quite useless for the games I play, I can't justify a 4000x2000 resolution in CounterStrike for example.

For work though, I guess 4k is very nice depending on the pixel density. I really need to be able to read what I write

andrewjoy · 11 Nov 2016, 14:00

You don't have to render in 4k , you could always render in a lower res and let the screen upscale ,if it has a decent scaler in it .

You can do it the other way around to with Nvidia cards , you can run a higher res and downscale to the screen.

Before i got the 4k screen i did a render test at 8k downscaled to 1440 just to make sure my card could handle 4k when i got the screen, everything was going fine until i enabled AA in the latest version of WoW then it dropped to like 2fps when the frame buffer on my poor 980ti was maxed out

, 4k with light AA is fine.

Modern games i turn off AA and put shadows and water effects ( if there is options for them) to med, everything else ultra and your fine at about 55-60 FPS.

If your willing to turn off stuff you honestly don't need at 4k ( such as AA and super high res shadows) 4k is not as hard to run as you would think.

That being said i will pick up a 1080ti when it comes out.

Ace · 12 Nov 2016, 09:04

After looking into it for a bit, I think that I'm going to go with the cheapest route of adding 2 1600x1200 displays to my current Dell 3007wfp.

Do you have any suggestions as to which 16x12 would be a good option?

davkol · 13 Nov 2016, 00:24

Some dells were pretty decent. Personally, I have a couple of Lenovo ThinkVision L201p monitors, that are very solid and fine for "office" usage, but there could have been more configuration options and gaming/colors are outside my area of interest.

Ace · 13 Nov 2016, 13:20

Say I decide to go triple 30in. In that case, I'd want my bezels to be as small as possible. I can't imagine how anyone here could possible know this, but I need to ask anyway: which one of the 30in (2560x1600) monitors have the smallest bezels? As in, which would be best for multi-screen setups?