Widescreen Gaming Forum

I got a triple monitor EyeFinity setup (1x 19"@1024 1x23"@1080 1x23"@1050) and I always wonder whether I should play on all three of them.

+more immersive
-resolution is downgraded to 1024 vertical for each of the 3 monitors (central monitor is 1080 native)
- sometimes you get very slight nausea
- games are sometimes a little buggy on triple screens (bf3)
- black edges
- my field of view is less than all 3 monitors
- takes a few min to enable and disable eyefinity

what would you do under these cirucmstances?

buy 3 equal monitors :)

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We gonna send it to outa space!

dont want to spend the money

So, given that I don't want to spend more money, should I play on three monitors or one?

try on 3, if you get headache or your eyes hurt, switch back to one ^^

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We gonna send it to outa space!

Sounds like you've done your homework and know the consequences of playing triple-wide versus single-screen. Have you actually given it a try? It's certainly not hard to set up just for one or two of the better supported games to see how you like it.

The immersion is what keeps me playing in triple-wide. It's not quite as awe-inspiring as it was the first time I booted it up, now that I've been using it for a little over two years. But, I notice the LACK of triple-wide and it makes me much less likely to play a game if I can't run it triple-wide.

I don't think the resolution downgrade is too bad. Of course, I try to play as much as possible at my native resolution of 5760x1080, but on Battlefield 3 and Shift 2, my crossfired 5870s just cant push a high enough frame rate. So, I drop down to 4800x900 and don't really notice after a few sessions. I will admit it bugs the hell out of me when I compare 5760x1080 and 4800x900 back to back because I can tell enough of a difference. But once I start playing, my brain forgets about it and it's worth the higher framerate.

I used to get a little nauseous in Just Cause 2 when I'd leap out of a plane at 10K feet and plummet into the ocean because my brain was tricked into thinking I was actually falling. Frankly, I enjoyed the hell out of that sensation because it felt real. But, now I've acclimated and don't really get nausea any more. Pro tip: try busting out an accelerometer-controlled iPhone or iPad flight sim on a turbulent flight. Talk about nausea!

Games being buggy in triple-wide is a big downside. But, that's what WSGF is here for! If you just want things to work without any trouble, stick with single-screen unless the game natively supports triple-wide. Refer to the Detailed Reports found in the Games menu at the top of the site to find out what kind of support a specific game has. If you don't mind fiddling with ini files, Cheat Engine, Flawless Widescreen, and Widescreen Fixer, then you'll be fine with all but the most stubborn games.

As far as Battlefield 3 goes, specifically, all the triple-wide bugs I'm aware of have been patched out. It was pretty poor at release though. At release, sun/scope glare was oversized and made it impossible to see, player team indicators were missing above players' heads, and the map was skewed and on the left screen. So, yeah, it was a mess. Now I don't have any of those problems, though.

Every triple-wide detractor I've ever heard from mentions that monitor bezels or "black bars" make triple-wide pointless. I patently disagree. They don't bother me on my desktop in Windows and they don't bother me in game. It's a non-issue. I've never heard of a community member reverting to single-screen because of bezel annoyance. Although, some members do find it distasteful enough to use projector setups or remove the bezels from their monitors.

When you say that your field of view is less than all 3 monitors, do you mean that you physically can't see the entire screen area in triple-wide? It takes some getting used to, but you're not actually focusing on the side screens. They're just for peripheral vision. For example, in Battlefield 3, I might not be able to perceive whether a friendly or enemy is approaching from my right, but I can see the movement and spin my character to face it on my main screen. Some people like to compensate for the wider field of view by angling the side monitors inward. I prefer for them to be almost flush, though.

There are some tricks for making Eyefinity switching very quick. In Windows 7, I use the keyboard shortcut "Windows Key + P" and swap between "Duplicate" and "Extended" modes. This perfectly swaps between Eyefinity and extended desktop modes and takes all of 3 seconds. Alternatively, you can set up Display Profiles from the Catalyst Control Center and bind keyboard shortcuts to swap between them. That also makes it take only a few seconds to swap modes. But, I've found Display Profiles work well in some driver releases and a bit finicky in others.

Thanks a lot for the detailed answer. I didn't expect that.

I have given it a try (I just ask here because I don't know what I want), but I noticed the discrepancies above. The biggest issue I have is the resolution (the "pixelation" gets noticable). I could put the weakest link in the center, but I want to keep my best monitor in the center for when I'm browsing, watching movies, or doing producitivty.
I assume you have a set of full HD's. I have 1280x1024 and the rest fullHD's. and it really degrades the central image significantly; it becomes way less sharp.

The second biggest issue was the setup time, but I'm gonna look into those shortcuts.


Nausea and the black bars arent big issues. I'm relatively insensitive to those factors.

I've recently played BF3 and in the fighter jet mission the voice was out-of-sync when I played in triple screen mode.

Like I said, I'm often bad at these assessments (whether I enjoy something or I just try to rationalize because I spent so much money on it).

It really boils down to the question of whether I want a crisp image or a slightly more immersive feeling. And I tend to value the former. Maybe I should just use triple screens for games where graphics arent central and immersion is important (amnesia). but usually in these types of decisions, one factor dominates the other and its always (or 99+% of the time) optimal to play one way.

When I first started using my triple monitor computer, I was getting "eye strain".

Like most everything else, you need to ease into it.

Over about a two week period, I played for an hour or so at a time, or at least until the eye strain started. I'd shut the computer down, and go do something else. After the "2-week break-in", I stopped having the eye strain and haven't had any since.

I've had this current computer for over a year now. I did take a break from gaming for a month or two, and upon returning to them, I had to work through the eye strain again, but this time only for a couple days.

Uldred

Have you tried using SoftTH rather than standard Eyefinity?

Since you have different sized monitors, it might work better for you since you can keep all of the monitors in their native resolution, and position them around eachother correctly relative. Rather than skewing the image to fit, imagine if the image was the size of your largest monitor x3, and each monitor was a cut out of that overall size.

I might be on completely the wrong lines here, but I thought it might be worth a mention.

I tried 3x LLL with 27" LCDs and it was too much. I need a big center screen for my work so 3x24" (more sane) didn't quite fit the bill.

The PITA of getting everything working, for me, did not pay off. I really don't like the "fisheye effect" you get on the sides even though I understand why it happens.

So I am selling two of my 3 27" screens and picking up a 30" and 2 Dell 2007FPs to do PLP. Gaming will go on the "L" and maybe if I really want to spend some time on it I'll tinker with SoftTH. I doubt it though.