Triple 27" Screens or alternatives?

I'm inching ever closer to complete my racing setup. The next step is now monitors... or rather, to get an idea for what I want, so that I know what to buy in terms of monitor stands once I finished moving apartments in a few days.

My original plan was getting triple 27" monitors and a monitor stand that goes with that. Now over the past weeks, I read more about this matter, and found that a lot of people are using altermative setups, like 40"+ TVs, Single Widescreens, projectors etc which offer higher screens and therefore show you the top of the car as well as the dashboard.

I'm looking for the best immersion and peripheral view I can get, but I will be a little short on available space. Triple 27" will work, but triple 40" TVs will be too large, so it's either 3x 27" or a single something else. VR is not an option, I'm not buying one until there is a uniform standard. What kind of hardware do you guys (and of course girls, if any) use, und what are your recommendations?

 

triple 27'' gsync here and very very happy with it. Had 46'' low input lag TV before, but triple 27'' is way better. And gsync is well worth it, really recommend it

 

Is the rift cv1 not a standard?
Anyway, was happy with my 3x24" setup for a few years, was looking at 3x27" gsync but that ment more pc upgrades, and I got hands on the cv1 in the meantime. For my time with AC, the rift is fine and nothing beats the immersion.
If I was still racing regularly several days/hours a week, I would go for 3x27" gsync too.

 

3 27 inchers are spot on. You can pick them up from ebuyer for about £129 each for 60hz, 144 would be better as would g sync but it depends on your budget.

 

I'd stick with that idea. I'm on triple 27" BENQ XL2720Z (144 Hz, 1 ms), about 58 cm from my eyes. I feel surrounded

 

I was using a single 40" 60hz monitor in my setup for more than a year. A few months ago I decided to get the Rift CV1 to play AC and also purchase a 27" high refresh gsync monitor for other games.

I ended up selling the CV1 because it wasn't good enough yet for me. I also found that the high refresh gsync monitor was much nicer to use in every way than the 40" 60hz monitor which was a surprise.

So I sold the 40" monitor and will get two more 27" gsync monitors when the prices come down.

 

Maybe one ultrawide? 34? I went this way because of input lag on triples and limited space on my desk...

 

Racing porn! Very very nice.

 

VR with all its imperfections is still so much more immersive than any 2D flat screen(s) that before making a move to a triple 27'' set up you owe it to yourself to try VR first. If after trying VR, you still feel you prefer flat screens, then at least you won't have to think about it any more.
Trying VR is not so difficult any more.
I tried it myself this summer, it changed my all perception of what a SIM can be and although 2D flat screen are still pleasant, for immersion VR rules.

 

Is that sim-lab P1?

 

Correct

 

Nice dsd box too. Took me a bit of fussing to find the mobo settings to turn off the always on USB power.

 

Yes, you got a point there. A switch to turn it off would have been helpful.

 

Saying VR is not an option because of uniform standards doesn't make sense to me. I went form triple 27" displays running 144hz to the Rift and I'd never EVER go back to screens. The driving improvements you get in VR is almost as big as going from a game pad to a proper wheel. It's not just about immersion and yes, being inside of the car instead of staring at a screen is huge. You get a true sense of elevation change (if you have things set up properly) and you can judge distances (depth of field) as accurately as you do in real life. It's a game changer. Most people who say the resolution is way too low haven't spent enough time in a CV1 running AC at 2.0 pixel density. You can see far down the track and see upcoming corners with ease. Sure it's not as sharp as looking at at a high res display, but it looks good enough to not complain about it. If it looked like it does when running a 1.0 pixel density, then yea I can see how some might still prefer triples. I'd probably be in that camp as well. But as soon as I was able to run AC at 2.0, there was no going back ever. And the space I save not needing triple screens (and not needing external telemetry data displays) has been a huge bonus as well.

 

Since VR was not an option for OP, I did not reply to that.
But I tried it twice over the last months (some of my friends have one) and both times I felt nausea coming up after some laps. That was one negative for me.
A second one: I like to be in touch with my real surroundings. Don't want to knock a toddler over or have a cat scare me when it jumps into my lap (both things happened to my friends, being one of the reasons they are not using it that much).
Another one found the solution: he locks himself into his room...

 

Triple all the way, if i'll moving to anything other, that would be bigger and faster triples again - like 34" 165Hz.
I've been using also 34" 21:9 100Hz and it's great, much more universal for any other game type, but as stated nothing beats 3xLCD for racing purpose.
Tried DK2, didn't like it and im not going to try it again until 2x4K 200Hz with min lag and latancy. 3-4 years?

 

I'm really interested in VR, when I finally go that way I still don't know.
Currently I have triple 27's setup, but no longer use them as my center monitor is also 3d.
I use nvidia 3d vision 2 set at around the 90% mark and love it.
Sense of depth makes playing in 2d, whether single or triples something from the past. There's no going back. Ever.

 

So it seems like triple screens it is then

Short explanation: VR is not an option until there is a standard in the sense that all headsets are natively supported by all VR enabled games - eg over a common interface. As long as there is only eg the Rift supported natively and I need Revive to use a Vive with it I don't really care for it. I know it works, I know it works kind of well, I still don't care for it. In my eyes it's more a gimmick at the moment than a viable option. Adding to that, I need (want) a soloution that works with all the sims I play, and VR is not that.

Thanks all for your input!

 

All these rock solid opinions in here. OP must find out for himself, each solution has pros and cons. Just some considerations:

- Triples: awesome for immersion, but crazy inconvenient (100% racing rig or combined space?) with possible performance can of worms (can you hit decent FPS? I've always had rare and random instabilities with triples, completely gone with single screen)
Plus: you don't need triples to be aware of everything on track, it won't make you faster and it won't necessarily make your races cleaner.
- TV: been looking into it. I'd say: good, if you find one with low input lag. Those are not exactly cheap...the one I considered wassomething not far below 1000 €.
- VR: Personally, I'm staying away from it for now. Currently it's like going back in the stone age resolution-wise. Immersion factor will obviously be huge...personal preference.
- Single PC monitor: It's what I chose now because on convenience reasons and the fact that the FOV/screen area is enough for me. If you aim at maximum immersion it's not an option I guess (triples or VR) but you'll see everything you need for racing (like tight apexes) even with realistic FOV if you choose a large enough monitor and place it close enough.
- GSYNC/FreeSync: try before you buy. I had Acer Z35 at home and while the syncing was great, the image quality with varying FPS changed a lot. At 90 FPS/Hz I had unacceptable smearing on that screen (possibly the AMVA panels...smearing is being reported on most of them). Now I'm trying a new approach: LG 34um67-p IPS monitor that I'll be running either with GTX1070 or R9 Fury Nitro. It's a FreeSync panel so if this works well than I'll obviously go for the R9.
- General display technology: IPS is still king of the hill for me. Maybe take a look at TN and AMVA panels in a store. After my experience with Z35 I'll stay away from both. But again: personal preference!

 

I recently upgraded my monitors to these BenQs which I thought were very reasonably priced, they are quite fantastic and look so much better than the three 32" TVs I was using previously (even if they are a bit of a downgrade in size).
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00IZBIMLK/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Not as pretty as Fanapryde's setup, but here's what they look like.