Displays Dell U2711 or triple LG IPS231P cheesecake?

So I phoned Dell and negotiated the price of the U2711 down to £570 delivered. However for slightly less I could buy a triple LG IPS231P rig which includes a proper monitor stand. Not sure I could live with the bezel obstruction in games but it does win on wow factor. Having said that I'm not sure my GTX 460 SLI could deliver the triple monitor resolution in games!

Not convinced on the purchase yet, just curious what's possible. Might even try to knock Dell down on the price a little further, anyone else get good deals over the phone for the U2711? Reckon £550 is doable.

 

A 460's can't push that kind of res, the 27"'s res may be a struggle with them when BF3 comes out even...

 

I'm sure you could play games with a U2711 on a gtx 460, but you might end up turning all the eye candy down in order to get a playable frame rate, also I reckon 1Gb vram would struggle at that monstrous resolution, personally I think both option's would be good choices, but with both monitor's you'd probably want a GPU upgrade as well, although with the U2711 you could get by on the 460 for the time being, while with triple monitor's, you'd need something like a 570/580 x 2 with 3Gb VRAM or switch from the green team to the red's and get a single 6970 or 6950

If it was my money I'd pick the 3 LG monitors and use the money I saved, plus the money (possibly if your going with red team) from selling the 460, to buy a new gpu, or you could sli two 460's

 

My opinion is that triple monitors are always better than one larger monitor as it is better for compartmentalising your multitasking. However, if you are just looking for the biggest screen for playing games and watching movies the 27" offers you the best option. If you have an Nvidia GPU it probably doesn't offer support for more than two monitors, you'd need to SLI another to it (much more cost).

I have a 22" widescreen and two 19" 4:3s (all the same height) because it is most convenient for working on and slightly less taxing than 3 24" widescreens (not to mention cheaper). You could always get the 27" and pick up some Dell 196FPs to go either side (or the like), you can pick them up pretty cheap. Got one of mine with an all in one printer, 2.1 set of speakers, keyboard etc for just 30 pounds!

 

I thought it was an interesting price comparison all the same.

Also on the U2711, PS3 and XBOX 360 games look fantastic playing through it, so I'm guessing a lower resolution would look nice in PC games. Also plenty of scope for improved resolutions when I decide to upgrade the GTX 460 SLI rig; in the meantime desktop applications would kick ass! More tempted by a hard negotiation around the £550 mark, I like a good haggle!

 

I have just started a thread with pretty much the exact same question! But I am running a 570....

 

Would have thought a single 570 would struggle even more with triple monitors?

What sort of jump in image quality would I see coming from a Dell SP2309W to a U2711?

 

Personally, for multi monitors, I'd have 3 U2311H's as you can run them in portrait, which is a better multi setup in my opinion...

 

It's important to make a distinction between size and resolution - these 27" and 30" IPS monitors are chiefly about resolution, not size. You say yourself (Blogins) that lower resoultions look nice in games, which altogether defeats the purpose of getting that enormous 2560x1440 and extremely pricey 27" display. I can vouch for it, considering I sometimes use my 40" HTDV for gaming and at 1080p it looks fantastic. IMHO, display resolution is becoming the "new" e-peen... where having "moar pix3ls" is simply better, regardless of whether or not it can be perceived.

I'd sooner suggest a 27" or 28" WUXGA (1920x1200) display because they are a lot cheaper and still look fantastic, so long as you aren't doing colour-critical work (which is what IPS panels are best for).

If you really are set on the U2711, consider getting a refurb from ebay; you can get it for £489 with free express delivery, and it includes a 1 year warranty and a guarantee of no dead pixels (which is more than Dell themselves can offer lol).

 

Lower resolution if I wanted more candy under my GTX 460 SLI!

Still ample headroom for the new Nvidia cards should they be righteous enough!

On the flip side Dell have offered £570 delivered with a 3 year warranty, that's only £81 more for a new U2711!

Plus if there is a problem I can return it under Distance Selling Regulations regardless of any fault.

 

This is precisely my point: hardware capability is meaningless if you don't factor in the difference it makes to you, the user. Let's say the new Nvidia cards can output at 6000x4000... despite looking good on paper, it won't mean $h!T to your eyes lol

As for the U2711, I can see that getting it new is definitely the safer bet.

 

Just leave me to my dreams LennyRhys!

 

I got 3 brand new dell u2311h for £495 off eBay.

 

If you the XBox 360 looks nice on it.. well most game on XBox 360 are in 720p, so imagine playing games in 1920x1080, which your GPU should have 0 problem doing, as mine doesn't.

I think you CAN play your games at native resolution, you you;'ll need to cut down on textures to free up some GPU memory for the resolution, and that should mainly do the trick. And perhaps reduce AA to free up some processing power for the running the game smoothly.

At worst you can always get a second GTX 460, or wait for Nvidia next GPU expects at the end of the year. It should technically speaking, based on GPU power increase over every version, handle this monitor without problem.

 

The LG can rotate in portrait...

 

Just tried the same and only got it down to £800 inc VAT

 

It's currently around £670 delivered including VAT...

http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/p...note_bnrank=0&baynote_irrank=1&~ck=dellSearch

If you want a good deal you need to indicate your a self employed professional such as a graphical artist (aren't all gamers!) which worked for me on the discount front. Also it helps not to appear too keen! You can even chat via the Dell website online sales system (go on the Dell business website though, not consumer version) and they will give you a call for the quotation!

 

From my perspective, this is an absolute no brainer, the U2711 wins out every single time. There is no way I want 2 inches of bezel between two parts of my screen, no way at all!

On the flipside, 27" of IPS goodness right there in front of me? Yes please!

 

single monitor is always better than multiple.

if you are ONLY going to play racing games or flight sims, NOTHING else, then 3-monitor surround is better.

if you want to do other stuff such as watch videos, play normal RTS games. single monitor will work without tweaking, single will work no matter what.

suuround and eyefinity configures screen as a single large screen to trick the games. that means after you play a game each time, you have to go through a lengthy process of reconfiguring your desktop screens to be 3 separate monitors. not forgetting the games that doesn't support such setup, you'll have to either live with stretched interface, or a tiny 23inch experience.

for less hassle, just go for 27inch. it's well worth it. don't forget U2711 has a higher quality panel, it's true 8-bit H-IPS rather than 6-bit e-IPS.

(or go for the cheesecake )

 

27 Inch cheesecake!

So my GTX 460 SLI will be able to handle Homeworld 2 at 2560 x 1440?

Seriously though, I left Afterburner on in the background and observed Homeworld 2 actually has an SLI profile!