I have a triple monitor setup right now, but am thinking of trying a single ultrawide monitor. What is your preference?
As others say…. Multiple monitors for work. One big ultra wide for gaming.
My only “complaint” about ultra wide is that most gaming ui’s aren’t configured for them. Meaning that to look at the mini map in a game like Cyberpunk, you have to take your eyes off the centre of the screen. Then you will crash your car.
As someone who dabbled in gamedev (no expert though), I would find it hard to find a solution for the UI problem. The base of many UI implementation is always a reference screen resolution where stuff gets resized and/or stretched according to the width of the monitor. So if a minimap is, let’s say, placed 40 pixels from the edge of the screen, it will always be 40 pixels from the edge of the screen. Creating custom UI’s for every resolution would be really timeconsuming.
Maybe some day it will be the standard that you allow people to customize the UI and drag things around themselves. But for now, such systems are not readily available in game engines and would have to be custom built.
I run triple LCDs at work and an ultrawide OLED at home. I prefer triple for productivity because of W11 window snapping, you can divide the three screens up really well in no time. For games I prefer the ultrawide, the unbroken picture and smooth curve are great.
You might be interested to learn of the Fancyzones Powertoy which makes snapping windows to preconfigured zones quite easy.
Almost as good as Divvy, but free
I bought an ultrawide monitor, and it has over the years, become my least favorite part of my setup. The games that I play usually do not even support ultrawide, movies don’t support it, and Youtube videos do not support it.
Basically, I spent the extra amount of money on a monitor that shows black bars 90% of the time I am at my desk, and that has really soured my experience with ultrawides.
The next monitor I get will be a flat, 2 or 4k OLED monitor.
But when it works it’s excellent, reminds me of going from 4:3 to 16:9. Playing 16:9 feels jarring, like I’m playing with blinders on. I’m not sure what you’re playing but most of the games I play do support 21:9.
And YouTube actually supports 21:9, it’s just that most content creators don’t make videos in that format.
I’ve been using an ultrawide since 2017 and I have no desire to go back. If anything I want to get an even wider monitor next time. My advice is to make sure that you don’t get a 1080p ultrawide. The 1440p versions are well worth the price difference. Had a 34” 2560x1080 monitor at work one time and it felt really claustrophobic compared to the 34” 3440x1440 I had at home.
I also have 3440x1440 curved at home and flat at work. My personal recommendation is to get a curved one. But if I have to shop now for a monitor, I will simply get a 4K flat. 32-34 inches. The lost vertical space is a real deal breaker for me and it annoys me.
Ultra wide are nice for example for audio/video editing, where you want to visualise the timeline, but majority of tasks you would do, including gaming on them are better on a standard 16:9 monitors.
3 monitors, any day. I already hate 16:9 over 4:3
16:10 FTW!
Single ultrawide for everything. The ergonomics are superior.
4 virtual desktops
21:9 ultrawide for main desktop and gaming and 16:9 to the side for discord, browser, whatever else is plenty for me. Also that’s all that will fit on my desk arms lol.
Similar set up for me. But 21:9 is my desktop, so discord, web browser, anything that is lower quality. Then my 16:9 is my gaming and high quality content screen.
This is because my 21:9 monitor is a bit older now, and a 144hz VA panel, and I hate it for games. My new 16:9 is an OLED and 240hz and it is absolutely gorgeous. I also mostly play fighting games, so anything more than 16:9 is just black, well in the case of the VA panel grey and a bunch of light bleed.
I’ve been a multi monitor guy for a LONG time, mostly because I use a WM that benefits from it. But I recently moved and the company offered me a pick of monitors under a certain budget, so I decided to pick an ultra wide (34" 21:9) and a regular one (32" 16:9, I wanted smaller because I plan on using it vertically, but ended up preferring having two monitors with the same refresh rate), and sincerely, just the 34 is more than enough, since it arrived first I had to make due with it for a week so I built up some scripts to make it be seen as two monitors by the OS so I could use it as if it were two side by side and that was working great, and when I wanted to game just run my other script and it’s one monitor again so it’s the best of both worlds.
Given the chance in the future I would definitely go for a single 32:9, since I could even make it be 3 (or more) monitors with specific areas designed for slack and others for code, etc. That being said I’m not sure the same is possible on Windows.
Could you share the method you used to divide a single monitor from the OS perspective?
If you got the script or wiki page somewhere…
I’m curious
Sure, it’s quite simple:
xrandr --setmonitor LEFT 1720/1x1440/1+0+0 DP-0 xrandr --setmonitor RIGHT 1720/1x1440/1+1720+0 none i3-msg reloadEssentially the first like tells it to only use a 1720x1440 starting at 0,0 area from the DP-0 screen. The second line creates a virtual monitor also with 1720x1440 but starting on 1720,0. The third line just reloads my WM so that it shows the bar at the top nicely.
Edit: obviously this only works if you’re running X11, but I’m sure that Wayland has something similar
3 screens for me works so well, I can’t imagine changing
I’ve used multiple monitors (2-3) for the longest time. Switched to a widescreen last year and never looked back. Now I just use one monitor plus my laptop as an extra screen for static apps.
3 monitors for me
Simply because I want 2 stacked on top of each other with 1 more vertical on the side for apps like Discord, Notepad, etc.
It has a lot to do with my job, though. Otherwise, I would’ve just taken 2 monitors.
Ultrawides don’t have this versatility. They are great for immersion, however.
I’ve never gotten the point of ultrawide. It’s bigger and more expensive than 3 monitors, yet can fit as much as 1… Because yk, you can only have 1 fullscreen window per monitor.
Yeah, I’m triple monitor all the way.
It’s pretty easy to just split the ultrawide into as many virtual monitors as you want. At least on Linux, I have zero experience on Windows or Mac. That said, I prefer 2 monitors, one vertical.
Windows has the free zones powertoy which does the same. So its an option but not in the OS by default.
But why split the ultrawide into virtual monitors when you can just buy 3 monitors for less money than an ultrawide
Maybe you want an ultrawide for some tasks. I can see why people use them, it’s not something I’ve felt I need.
Not sure for triple, because you can face the central screen and have two satellites, but for two screens yeah, one wide is much better. I’m not going back! Was always turning my head and having to pick one or the other. Was not convenient at all.
Just a single 16:9 for me.
If I want immersion, I’ll wear my VR headset.
