3 Monitor Setup Research

[paddler 64]

I run 3 X Dell 24 inch UHD screens at a 45* angle and really enjoy the peripheral vision feel that I don't believe that I would get from a single 34* curved monitor. Mind you, I would love to have three of those babies in my setup. A dream some day!

 

Rick

[BMagann 11]

I run 3 X Dell 24 inch UHD screens at a 45* angle and really enjoy the peripheral vision feel that I don't believe that I would get from a single 34* curved monitor. Mind you, I would love to have three of those babies in my setup. A dream some day!

 

Rick

Amen!

[glsimpilot 2]

I've made my decision, and am happy with it. I've always envisioned 3 monitors but after the last few weeks of studying this, and then looking at what it would cost me to do it the way I want and what I would get back over all from it I decided against 3 screens and went with the Dell U3415W 34" Curved LED IPS  5ms Monitor. I spent some time in front of this device at a local store and was really impressed with it. Needless to say I've spent quite some hours researching curved 21:9 monitors vs 3 monitors. No matter what direction I went there was going to be some compromise on features or functionality of one over the other but I feel confident for me, right now, this will suit me the best. You never know, I may buy two more one day. HA... I found it on sale at newegg out the door for $809.99 using promo code DELLBTS. My new PC parts are here and I'll be assembling soon, and the monitor should arrive soon after I'm complete. Happy times.. Thanks for all the feedback!

[Jim Young 2,356]

Think you made an outstanding choice. I've had mine for a month or two now and really like it. I like the price too! You got yours for about $20 cheaper than I got mine. Hopefully Newegg did not charge you for shipping or taxes. I got mine through Amazon w/o those nasty addons. I hope to be getting my new Skylake CPU and system in September.

 

Best regards,

[glsimpilot 2]

I plugged it in yesterday and wow...wow... Gorgeous! Might only be 60hz refresh but in flight sim or other games I tested it looked great. I also have two 17 inch Dell monitors on portrait mode and it all lines up on the desk nicely. I will say newegg gave me a ten dollar gift card because the day after I bought it the monitor went on sale for $799!!

[Jim Young 2,356]

I plugged it in yesterday and wow...wow... Gorgeous! Might only be 60hz refresh but in flight sim or other games I tested it looked great. I also have two 17 inch Dell monitors on portrait mode and it all lines up on the desk nicely.

Nice setup! Last night I discovered I made a stupid mistake with my Dell U3415W. FSX did not change the resolution in the fsx.cfg to the monitors native resolution (3440 x 1440) so I had to go into the FSX Setup and manually change it in the General tab. It still look good at 1920 x 720 but even better with the native resolution. Can't figure out why FSX did not "see" the new monitor and resolution when I first started up FSX. Just wanted to give you a heads up in case it happened to you too.

 

Best regards,

[Djang0 1]

 

 

It still look good at 1920 x 720

 

Jim was the display at 1920x720 literally as crisp as at full resolution? On my 1080p display all the lower resolutions are slightly blurry compared to the full resolution.

[Jim Young 2,356]

Djang0, on 05 Aug 2015 - 9:12 PM, said:

Jim was the display at 1920x720 literally as crisp as at full resolution? On my 1080p display all the lower resolutions are slightly blurry compared to the full resolution.

Trying to answer your question and tried to go back to 1920x720 and could not as the resolution does not exist in FSX. If I change the resolution through the GPU, FSX will show that resolution so the resolution setting within FSX does not mean anything. So, evidently I was actually at 3440x1440 even though my FSX settings were showing 1920x720 that probably was set based on my previous monitor. I did change the desktop resolution in the display driver settings to 1920x1440 and started up FSX and the scenery is still crisp. In fact I will probably keep it here for a while to test as it appears to give me more fps too. Apologize for the confusion and the fact I am confused too.

 

Best regards,

[LittlePaulio 3]

Trying to answer your question and tried to go back to 1920x720 and could not as the resolution does not exist in FSX. If I change the resolution through the GPU, FSX will show that resolution so the resolution setting within FSX does not mean anything. So, evidently I was actually at 3440x1440 even though my FSX settings were showing 1920x720 that probably was set based on my previous monitor. I did change the desktop resolution in the display driver settings to 1920x1440 and started up FSX and the scenery is still crisp. In fact I will probably keep it here for a while to test as it appears to give me more fps too. Apologize for the confusion and the fact I am confused too.

Best regards,

Hi Jim. As a virtual newbie, this has been an issue that has completely perplexed me. I run two 24" monitors, my main screen is 16:9 1080p and my secondary monitor is 16:10 1900x1200 resized in Windows to 1080p to match up with my main monitor. Regardless of what resolution I manually inserted in the fsx.cfg file for the second monitor it always displayed in game as 1280×800, and as a result the 2D cockpit instruments I placed there always looked blocky. However, since upgrading to a 980 GTX and deleting the entry for the second monitors resolution to let FSX detect it it has been displaying at a much improved 1080p. That's great and all but my 780 card should have been more than capable of doing the same. Just plain confusing and annoying!

 

On a related note I'm currently debating whether to replace my main monitor with a 30" or a 34" model, depending on what sort of deals I might chance upon. I assume you and many other members here have had a number of setups over the years so I was wondering if people thought a 24" to 30" upgrade would add a significant amount of immersion and a really noticeable difference, or should I save up for a 34" model? Thank you.

Just to clarify, I intend to keep my original two monitors for displaying instruments and an outside view and I wanted to determine if the 980 GTX was up to the job.

I have an I7 @ 4.5Ghz, 16GB Crucial 2133Mhz Ram and two 500GB running Windows 7 and FSX respectively. I'm also running Orbx Global and their Ireland and England sceneries as well as REX 2.0. I also intend intend to purchase Steve's Direct 10 fixer, having being very impressed with the stability gained using his freeware version. Impossible to answer conclusively of course, just wondering if anyone else is running a similar config. Cheers.

[Jim Young 2,356]

I had a Dell 30 inch monitor since 2007 for FSX and it worked well.  I now have the 34 inch monitor and it is also working well and the immersion is great.  I have never used multiple monitors with FSX for flights but have used my 24 inch monitor to open up other utilities and monitor the flight as you suggest.  I tried to move instruments and maps to the secondary monitor but it brought my computer to its knees so I only use it for certain programs like ProATC-X where I can open up a map of the flight plan and monitor the flight.  I can also open up my weather program, ASN and other programs and leave FSX in full screen mode.  Hopefully others will respond with their experiences.

 

Best regards,

[LittlePaulio 3]

Thanks for feedback Jim. Well, based on your experience with moving instruments and maps to a secondary monitor I think a 30" monitor might be the best option for me. I would love to try out my TrackIR on a 34" screen though, it might negate my need to place the main instrument panel on a second screen. Plus I use my Nexus 10 for my moving map. Food for thought.....

Just one more question if you don't mind Jim - what graphics card are you currently using?

[Jim Young 2,356]

what graphics card are you currently using?

 

GTX780.  I would go for the 34" monitor.  The one I have now from Dell was a little more than $800 and is highly rated on the Internet.  The 30" monitor I got from Dell a few years ago was about $1500.  I just saw the following 35" monitor released by BenQ for around $1000 and wish I had waited for it as it has a 144Hz refresh rate which works well with 3D Vision - http://www.guru3d.com/news-story/benq-releases-xr3501-curved-monitor.html.%C2'>

 

Best regards,

Edited August 7, 2015 by Jim Young
Added link to BenQ Monitor

[LittlePaulio 3]

A 34" model is what I'll keep an eye out for then Jim. I doubt it'll be a high quality Dell model like yours, but I've only ever owned TN panels anyway and I find them perfectly fine. I don't think I'll need a 144Mhz refresh rate either as 3D content isn't something I feel I need, although 120Mhz would be nice.

 

Thanks for the recommendation Jim, much appreciated! Off to Amazon I go. I really wish we had a Best Buy in Ireland, I'm constantly hearing about the amazing deals people get. Ah well.....

[DaveCT2003 1,820]

Man, I miss being able to run to Microcenter... the only thing that wasn't a postiive with my move across country.  Lucky guy!  The ULTIMATE Toy Store.

[Jim Young 2,356]

I agree Dave. I have one near me in Fairfax, VA but it's about a 45 minute drive through heavy traffic. They run out of the "good stuff" pretty fast though. Amazon and/or B&H are usually the best places to go as they have sales and they deliver it to your door pretty fast.

 

@LittlePaulio - I had to remove your photo as it was broken and not working properly. If you can save the format as a .png instead of a .jpg. The png extension usually works.

 

Best regards,