Widescreen Gaming Forum

So after looking so long at replacing my multi-monitors' centre 24" with a 34" 21:9, I've decided to acquire a 32" 16:9 centre and 19" 16:10 sides for PLP. It should fit my Ergotech triple nicely, give me the extra height I desire, will have uniform height of 1440 pixels, and remain wide, but not ridiculously so. It'll also come to the same price for all 3,as the Dell 21:9 i was looking at.

But the only thing I'm running into is thick bezels on just about every 19" 16:10 that I find. The ONE that i found with a nice, thin bezel (a full 11mm thinner than most) only has a VGA/D-Sub connector. Now, I've no VGA cables so I cannot test this, but IS the quality vs DVI really that bad? Since I'll be using them for the sides, I'm super overly concerned with PQ and sharpness, but If it's that bad, it'll drive me bonkers. So am I worrying for nothing? Does VGA give any problems to running Eyefintiy in PLP? I are stumped.

Oh, the one I'm looking at is the ACER V196WL B. If anyone has suggestions for any other 19" 1440x900, I'd love to hear it. Uh, see it.

EDIT: rephrased title for clarity

I used to run a mixed configuration with DVI and D-Sub and I didn't really notice a difference.

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EVGA GeForce GTX 970 SC ACX 2.0 3.5GB | 3 X LG Flatron 24EA53VQ in Nvidia Surround | Optoma HD20

Abram, nice aesthetic choice.

Regarding VGA sides, I mostly agree with MobsterOO7. VGA sides in PLP looks perfectly acceptable. Sides of PLP can be of slightly inferior quality to center, & it makes minimal difference because you stare at center. You don't notice minor imperfections on sides.

VGA sides still look fine for surfing & Word, but you wouldn't do precision art on VGA sides. You do it on center like normal.

VGA is slightly lower visual quality & will have more tearing in games. So depends how perfectionist the gamer is, price requirements, monitors on hand.

VGA also has a strength: it is about the most forgiving connection available. If all else fails, VGA likely works.

Here's details for your chosen layout.

http://plp-gaming.wikia.com/wiki/Big_Medium-Heavy_PLP_Layouts#19-32-19_2560x1440_1440x900

Notice the text stating you will be hiding sides' bezels. This is a great feature, cutting inner bezels in ~half. It also means that your side bezel size does not matter very much, as they will be hidden.

EDIT:
You can find some other 19" examples here. I don't remember which of them are best.
http://plp-gaming.wikia.com/wiki/Small_Monitors_By_Viewable_Size#19_Inch_1440x900_.2816:10.29

Thanks, folks. Yes, I found that PLP Wiki and as soon as I saw the picture you posted above, I knew i hit it, especially with matching pixel height. I haven't used VGA since my 19" about 12 years ago, so I had nothing to go on, really. Maybe by the time I buy these things, DVI-enabled 19's will be a bit cheaper. Now I jsut have to settle on a monitor. Pretty sure I'll get Samsungs' 32" ....

I may chnge my mind once i get it all mounted, but I tried hiding the bezel on my current 3x 24" setup and having the edges tuckled behind kinda got to me. I still prefer to have my relatively-thick bezel of 1.75inches.

Abram, just to make sure you understand. You have no choice re monitor positioning. For this layout, you must hide side bezel in order to line up pixels. If you line up these monitors flush, pixels will not line up in games.

[Edit: I should explain. Center has 15.69" ht, sides have 16.11" ht = sides are 0.42" taller & so their pixels slightly bigger. But when placed behind center's bezel, sides are perceived to line up pixels & side screens appear the same height as center -- though they are not. This hide-a-bezel feature is awesome, but is not for everyone. I also dig hanging sides, they are useful, though not as attractive. Hang is useful in borderless gaming, where you can display e.g. a player or tiny game map or a section of walkthrough. All layouts have appeal for different reasons; it is hard to choose, so many interesting options]

If you want flush-fitting monitors, you should pick a different PLP layout.

I see. But can't AMD drivers stretch the sides now? I seem to recall seeing the ability, the last time i set up my array.I wouldn't mind trimming half an inch of screen space.

Though after reading this: http://www.wsgf.org/forums/viewtopic.ph ... 52#p161152 Maybe I can not worry so mch about trying to match physical pixels... Still lots of time to mull all of this over, at least.

thanks for the info.

Of course, thinking about that now I'm considering keep my 24" sides in portrait, adn deal with the 5" of blank screen. I've seen it on pictures of other PLP setups... I'll order the 32" first adn see how it goes. I DO already have a single 20" 1680x1050 that i try out, but the bezel sucks, so I'll be giving it away.

Straying further off the topic of this thread, I'm not sure which way to flip the sides. If I recall correctly, having the top of the displays facing the centre should give the least amount of color distortion. I already have the 100-D16-B03-TW, So i should be able to angle the sides in enough. I'm almost an arms-length from my current centre screen screen.

AMD driver does not allow resizing scale of individual monitors in multi-monitor.

However, Windows 10 has this feature of individual display scaling, & has a chance of looking good. I have not tested it yet, may look like crap no idea. May be blurry, or not stick in games, no idea. Or it may scale games great, something like Windows Preview does for images.

Certainly you should not trust this Win10 feature without testing it first. If you test Win10 scaling feature, I am very interested in your results.

Well I'm starting away from Windows 10 until dx12 games come along. But food for thought.. I'm sure I'll be postig a "hey look what I did" thread if all goes well, or posty hairpulling troubles.