Dual Monitors vs 22"

freestyler105

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So today I was bored and I thought I'd try out something new. I hooked up another monitor to my box. I'm planning on either building a new system or seriously pimping out my current one very soon, so my question is:
Which is better, dual LCD's or one big 22" widescreen LCD?
I'd like to know the following:
Do dual monitors affect performance? If so by how much?
If anyone out there has dual monitors, does it become an annoyance looking back and forth?
Do most all current graphics cards support this setup?
Is it possible to say, run a game on one monitor and be on AIM and iTunes on the other?
Would I be better off with 17" or 19" monitors?


From what I've looked at so far, both setups are about the same price. I'm kind of assuming that 2 17/19 monitors have more space than a 22", but go ahead and prove me wrong...
 
i would say the widescreen, just because with dual monitors u have that bar in the middle of them that annoys the hell out of me.
 
From what i've heard, Daul moniters does not affect perormance. however, if it does, i doubt it'll be notice able.

i know all nvida cards taht are a 6 series or higher support dual moniters and i'm sure its the same with ATI.

yes, it is possible to have games on one moniter while the rest run of another. this is the biggest benifit to having daul moniters. it makes multi-tasking soo much easier. (an example i like to use is you can have a research site up on one moniter, while typing a paper on the matirial on another, with out hassel)

as for 17 vs. 19, it would almost be a matter of preferance and avalable desk space. I have room for a 19, but i prefer the size of a 17", so that is my choice. but if you only have room for 2 17's then that would be your option. However, i do not see a problem with mixign and matching moniters.
 
celegorm said:
From what i've heard, Daul moniters does not affect perormance. however, if it does, i doubt it'll be notice able.
Wrong. It's actually very noticable if you play games. You have to force the hardware acceleration to your primary display in order to keep decent performance, but even then, I lost about 10 fps in quake4 with dual monitors. If you are a gamer, go for the widescreen.
 
MikeReiner said:
Wrong. It's actually very noticable if you play games. You have to force the hardware acceleration to your primary display in order to keep decent performance, but even then, I lost about 10 fps in quake4 with dual monitors. If you are a gamer, go for the widescreen.

whoops. sorry. thanks for correcting me Mike.
 
MikeReiner said:
Wrong. It's actually very noticable if you play games. You have to force the hardware acceleration to your primary display in order to keep decent performance, but even then, I lost about 10 fps in quake4 with dual monitors. If you are a gamer, go for the widescreen.

I haven't noticed any difference in performance. Though I don't measure my fps, but all the games are running as smoothly as they were when I had 1 monitor. But sure, there is some effect, but I doubt it's anything that u would really care about. As I said, I haven't noticed any problems.

And no I don't think it's annoying looking at 2 monitors, I think it's pretty good.
And sure u can run games on the other monitor and whatever u want on the other. It's very nice to be able to read irc/msn/whatever when u are playing.
 
Depends on what you plan to use the monitors for. If you're a gamer and multimedia person, stick with the 22" widescreen. You'll lose a few frames due to the 16:9 format compared to the 4:3, but it's not as bad as gaming on dual-screens.
 
i have used dual monitors before, and i dont liek it if you have a windows stretched accross the 2 screens ebcause of the bar, but it is kinda cool having a different browser in each window or a browser in one windows and ims in another. i also watched a video on one screen while i did toehr stuf on the other. but i still would prefer having widescreen monitor.
 
Yeah, that's why I said it depends. If you like to multitask and you do more workstation stuff like editing, accounting etc. then dual-monitors is a good choice. If you're more for media and games, go with widescreen. :)
 
Who knows if this has been said or not, but ill say it anways:

The bar in the middle of the screen is hell of annoying.
A single 17'' is too small if you have the extra $$$ to go up.
A 19'' is a very nice size.

The 22' Wide is an Insane Montier, but assuming you play games you gotta have the Gcard to back it up. Id say nothing less then a 7600GT/X800.

For daily use you really should have a Gcard and not just intigrated.

And you dont need a 22'' because thats huge. A sick 20.1'' or even a 19'' wide screen would do just fine. Anything bigger then that, means your an insane gamer, multitasker (just hard core computer stuff) and if your just basic computer stuff with games here and there you only will have a 22'' to say mine is bigger then yours.

But to get good FPS your going to need a high end graphics card. So for hard core gaming on something like this there really is no middle of the road. Its either I game hard core and have the hard ware to back it up or you dont.
 
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