27" WQHD vs 3 24" monitor gaming

Single big one. Eyefinity is awesome, but barely works. On a single large one you can still run a letter boxed 2:1 resolution and have extra wide screen going on for games that you really want more width on.

To be clear, I run 3x24". Just Cause 2 was awesome on it. So was Shift 2 and Team Fortress 2. Most other stuff is mediocre, warps too much, or adds nothing of value. You'll be better served in general with a single large monitor for gaming, with maybe your small monitor as a secondary for system monitoring and whatnot while in game. My 19" rotated to be tall sitting to the side of my single 24" was overall a better experience and a better spend than my 3x24", all said and done.

I have both a single large monitor (30" DELL) and three monitor setups (3x24" ASUS) setups. For most gaming I use my 30" DELL and the triples are use only for my sim racing rig. I found with triples I just didn't feel right when I playing FPS. Some weird motion artifacts I just didn't like coming from the side displays. But for sim racing the triples are much better then one large display. The side monitors provide a sense of speed that is missing from an one display setup regardless of size (tried on a 100" projector screen, look impressive but just not realistic). The side displays artifacts are not really noticeable since they are only meant as peripheral vision aids. Yes this might help with some FPS games but for me it was just too disorientating.

I use a 46" 3DTV as my monitor now and love it. I think its a great solution for those that want a wider field of view but don't want the bars. It also adds greatly to the vertical fov, which in my opinion is highly under-rated as an immersion booster.

I'd i could get rid of the bars and increase the vertical fov, i'd agree with ya.

How about a 4k 55" then! Mounted at the back of your desk. Thats what im waiting for. That and a higher resolution Oculus Rift.

"That and a higher resolution Oculus Rift."

5" 1080p panels are now a thing. Oculus will be 960x1080 per eye before it ships to consumers. It's 720p right now to get it in to developer hands as quickly as possible.

"I just have a feeling the 3 panel thing is a more solid investment for future gaming. It can only get better."

No, it can't only get better.

Eyefinity isn't a new thing anymore. Developers have pretty much just said "No, we aren't going to put any effort in to making that work." Things can very reasonably get actively worse.

Get the bigger, high resolution panel, and run 2560x1080 or 2560x1280 for games that behave and you want wider ratios on. Or get an even larger 50"+ 1080p panel and run 1920x816.

If the games you like to play support wide FOV or if the FOV can be modified, or if you like doing a lot of tweaking, then multi-monitor setups are great. Without modification of the FOV, you're just stretching out the sides and creating artifacts and wasting electricity. Also, many games crop vertical FOV when widescreen resolutions are set (it's cheating, but most people don't notice). Otherwise, the single display will "just work" with everything you do. I'd let the games you play be the deciding factor. I've tried it both ways and prefer a single display.

Widescreen Gaming Forum is a great place to read to help make some of these decisions.

www.wsgf.org