The strength of your monitors, largely, depends on the strength of the graphics card you intend to use with them. Sure, I'd love to have a triple-4k setup, but I doubt that even four-way SLI on black edition titans would manage that particularly well. Still, I do have a triple monitor setup, and an R9 290X to power it. Here's some things I've learned:
- Anything larger than 24 inches is probably too large, unless you intend to be further from your monitors than usual. At approximately Three feet from my screens, they take up my entire horizontal field of view. It is also considerably wider than the desk I am using, and would reduce the possible angles allowed on a monitor stand.
- Speaking of, alignment of the monitors is essential, and if you're anything like me, you'll likely spend hours getting them perfect. A stand designed to hold all three with individual vertical adjustment is, therefore, a godsend. Even if you buy all the same screens, manufacturing allowances might have them just slightly out of alignment otherwise, and frankly, even one pixel off can be noticeable.
- Also, buy all the same screens. Mine might be all the same brand and size, but the slightly different model numbers mean slightly different colors, which I have not been able to properly calibrate to make match. It can be a bit distracting.
- As far as resolution is concerned, if you intend to run off of a single card, 1080p's about the maximum reasonable per-monitor resolution... or less, if you're using anything less than a top end card (e.g. R9 290X, GTX 780Ti). If you have a good multicard setup (once again, with top end cards) going up to 1440p might be possible, though you will not be able to manage it on all games (as multicard setups are fickle beasts). You will probably never get 1600p or 4k displays to work with current graphics hardware in such a mode, however.
- Follow the 4k benchmarks, however, as they show performance similar to 3-screens at 1080p. I tend to treat them like a worst-case scenario for my setup.
- On the other hand, for programming, Mo' Resolution is Mo' Better, and you can run eclipse on a 1080p triple setup with only integrated intel graphics (Sandy Bridge on up). I know this from experience. If you do opt for higher resolution monitors, you can always lower that resolution to 1080p for gaming.
As for the rest of it, a good monitor is a good monitor. I wouldn't call myself an expert, but you can get a good set of 24" monitors at 1080p with a solid triple-monitor stand for about $800. Unfortunately, that wouldn't leave much room in your budget for a graphics card worthy of powering all three in eyefinity/nvidia surround, as cards powerful enough to do so would easily eat up more than half your remaining budget.
Ultimately, you'll probably have an easier time if you only intend to game on one monitor, while having the three screen setup for your coding. For me, those screens, just for productivity, is easily worth the extra $600 they cost me (with the stand). As for gaming, however, the experience is somewhat underwhelming. Most games break at such wide resolutions--hidden GUI's, huds being caught between screens, inverted fields of view--and where they do work, your side monitors are going to primarily show you overblown textures on walls and whatnot. It's nice to have, but not anywhere near being worth the added cost, in my opinion.
I mean, I dropped $2k on the computer to run the three screens, without even factoring in their costs, or the cost of the desk I had to get for them, etc.
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram