3x30" or 5x24"?

3x24's or 27's and be done.

Anything beyond that is pretty much impossible to run (latest titles) if your thinking about gaming with any kind of reasonable IQ, even 4 way systems would struggle not to mention the VRAM issues you'll be faced with in a 5x screen setup. You'd have to lower the IQ levels to such a degree it would make the experience still immersive but horrible to look at. And when you spending that kind of money on displays and a system that could drive it. Who wants to compromise visuals? I sure wouldn't for that kind of money.
Edited by Mhill2029 - 10/26/12 at 12:08am

^That is rather important to consider.

Regardless, 5x24" portrait is rather small on the vertical axis, and even up close cannot provide the same amount of field of view filled both axises that 3x30" portrait would allow for, even if it'd provide more horizontally. I'd argue that 3x30" is more immersive than 5x24" as a result. It depends on how you like your display array, though. If you're the kind that likes to sit a bit farther from large screens, then probably better to go with the easier to digest 5x24".

Also, if you'd like to calculate some comparisons with real numbers, you can use the tool here to check some numbers and then apply them to your multi-display setups.

HI guys. I am in a similar scenario. I have had one ZR30w for a little over a year and love it. I am considering 2 more of these to put in portrait. Vega has done this in the past and you can see it on a thread here.

I also bought one samsung s23a700d. I wanted to try 120hz and the glossy screen and was considering buying 2 more. I like the screen but one 23 inch screen is impossible for me to use after being on the zr30w for so long. I did measurements to get an idea of what 2 more would look like in portrait and im not sure it would be enough. I hadnt considered 5 of these.

My concern with the 3 zr30ws, and multimonitor gaming in general is the amount of titles that support it. I have no experience with this. On some games, i get black bars on the top and bottom because the game only supports 16:9. Im thinking if i put 3 zr30ws in portrait those games would look terrible with all the black bars. Anyone have experience/fixes for this?

My other concern is the bezel width on the zr30w. I would likely remove them but it still looks thick. Do you guys notice them a lot in your multiscreen setups?

Libertariat, please keep us updated on what you decide. I cant find many people who have done similar setups

Many ubisoft games have the black bars problem in 16:10. I recently downloaded the latest assassins creed (think it was revelations) on a steam sale and the bars were annoying.

I was thinking the same thing as you, turn back to lanscape with the center one if the surround doesnt work for a specific game but its a pain with the zr30w. Considering getting a stand that rotates so i dont have to physically screw it off each time i have to rotate it. I havent found one yet.

i have 3 24" monitors in portrait + 1 zrw30w in portrait.

i've been thinking about upgrading my real estate and see which direction i wanted to go and decided on 4 or 5 24" monitors. the zr30w is a great monitor but the cost of 30" monitors would be too much because they'd have to be 4 monitors. 4 because gaming would tie 3 of them down.

i chose 4-5 24" monitors because the 1200x1920 is perfect. the 1600x2560 on the zr30w is a little much with quite a bit of wasted space. i've only used it for 3 weeks in portrait mode vs a year in landscape, so i'm still experimenting with it. i love the 24" monitors in portrait. i always find myself drawn to them for now.
i'm not much of a gamer but when i do i have the eyefinity on the 24" monitors and have other stuff on the zr30w. i play my eyefinity in windowed mode so i can get out when i want. the problem of me having 3 zr30w's would be that i'd have to do another one for multitasking. that'd make it 4 monitors and about $4,000 in monitors and gpu's and that's not gonna happen. that'd be a dream setup and nice for bragging rights. vs 5 24" monitors (u2412m) which would cost around $1700. another huge personal factor for me is power consumption. 5 24" LED monitors would use about 200W vs 3 zr30w's would use over 510W. 4 would use about 680W. the cost of running 30" monitors is just too much. and anyone that owns a zr30w knows how much heat the beast produces. 3 of them would be just too much. it's nice to own a zr30w but more than one it's starts getting a little too much. then again me personally i'm a green freak.
alternatively, i've been thinking about the 27" korean monitors. i'm drawn to them because of the real estate and power consumption being less than my current setup. they are cheap and have more real estate than my 1200x1920. but i hate 16:9 with a passion that i have to really think about that decision. what i don't like about the current korean monitors is their bezels; they're just not designed for multi portrait mode use. and the probability of getting a faulty monitor if i get 4 of them.

and also what i like about the 5 x24" 1200x1920 set up is that i could always use onboard graphics on 2 monitors or usb video.

I've kept my crossover in my display setup in portrait mode on the side for a while now. I'm experiencing what you might call a lack of space. The 1440 width isn't really enough for anything but the most basic tasks, anything else is awkward. I guess you'd have more space in multi-portrait arrays but you'd either have to maximize to one monitor or deal with the bezels. To minimize this sort of awkwardness, the 1600 width of the 30"ers would help.

That being said, most content would be fine even on a 1080 wide (using 1920x1080 displays) portrait displays. Most websites are at most 1024 wide, and a few extend a bit further, like OCN does (it's a tad bit less than 1280 wide). You'd really have no real issues on a 24" portrait setup, using 30" ones might help deal with the slight claustrophobia you might experience.

It doesnt matter with black bars on a 30 inch monitor bc u get bigger picture with black bars on the 30 incher than a 27 monitor without bars.

Look ---> http://www.displaywars.com/27-inch-16x9-vs-30-inch-16x10

As a 16:9 monitor the 30 inch is 29.19 inches.


Edited by BlackCatSoul - 10/26/12 at 5:27pm

if it were me with your setup with a 30 in landscape and a 27 in portrait i'd find myself working with the 27 more than the 30. because i could fit 3 windows vertically on the 27" vs only 2 side by side on the 30". i mostly work with browsers and 1440 wide would be more than enough. i dont find a 30's 1600 vertical (landscape) to be long enough for multitasking. so i mostly had 2 pages side by side and a little bit of extra space not useful for anything. with 2 24's portrait that's 4 workspaces for me. more real estate than a 30 and cheaper. add another 24 in portrait that's still cheaper than a single 30" for way more real estate.

http://img1.UploadScreenshot.com/images/orig/10/30016153411-orig.jpg




now about bezels... i do photography and use photoshop and lightroom. i have found that having monitors in portrait has no disadvantage over landscape. infact a lot of my photos are in portrait. photoshop and lightroom detect multi monitors and work very well with them.

i've even mistakenly gamed on a single 24" in portrait mode in my early days of dealing with eyefinity and it wasn't bad. the gameplay was much faster than eyefinity and it was a very interesting experience.
for me the 24" eyefinity overall blow away a single 30" due to the cost of the 30.


if i were OP i'd also highly consider 3-4 x korean 27" (2560x1440).