Specifications

MAXIMUMPC
JUL 2011
maximumpc.com
47
DESPITE THE PITFALLS of the MD230X3, we weren’t convinced
that multiscreen bliss couldn’t be found with three monitors. Enter
NEC’s spanking-new PA301Ws—professional-grade 30-inch screens
with a price tag to match at $2,300 each. Besides each boasting a
2560x1600 native resolution, the PA301Ws offer the unique ability
among 30-inch monitors to pivot into portrait mode. Set side-by-side
in this fashion, you’re looking at a wall of 4800x2560 unabashedly
color-accurate pixels. True, the PA301Ws lack the Samsung screens’
dainty bezels, but that didn’t prove to be a problem, as the bezels
didn’t cross our primary focal point. As it happens, we could enable
bezel correction with this setup, but we had mixed feelings about the
results. Images appeared less “split” by the bezels, but a great deal
of information was lost in the process.
Either way, the editors unanimously found this setup to be un-
equivocally awesome. Gordon quickly declared it the “best of both
worlds” between the previous six- and three-panel setups, and “a
superior experience.” Alan called his Call of Duty testing “intense,
crazy immersive,” and Need for Speed “freakin’ sick.” Nathan said
of World of Warcraft, “Rad! It’s like I’m peering through a window to
another world.”
All were in favor of the “vertical improvement” over the other
three-panel config and the lack of a horizontal bezel. Gordon was
impressed by the details during his Call of Duty run (although he
was concerned the frame rates wouldn’t hold—see our GPU guide,
"What Videocard Do I Need?" page 48), and he called Need for Speed
“ideal,” stating that the PA301Ws was “in all ways better than the six
panels.”
SO YOU’VE CLEARED OFF a huge swath of desk space, and you
have your multiple large screens arranged just so. Now what? If
you’re using an AMD graphics card, you need to pay a visit to the
Catalyst Control Center. Getting your displays to work in concert
isn’t a totally obvious process. You’ll see all your monitors rep-
resented by icons, but no standard menu option for extending the
desktop. Rather, you need to select one monitor, then use a drop-
down arrow in the upper-right corner of the icon to span a group of
your choosing.
In the Nvidia Control Panel, you might think you can take care
of the job in the “Set up multiple displays” tab, like you would with
two screens. But if you’re using more than one GPU—in either a
single- or double-card config— you actually need to go into the
“Manage 3D settings” tab to get three or more screens working
together.
While gaming can be glorious across three or more large
screens, some games are more adaptable to that format than oth-
ers. In our tests, for example, we found that Call of Duty: Black Ops
assumed an unnatural aspect ratio and field of view when we ran
it on three 1080p LCDs (with a combined resolution of 5760x1080).
But there is a way to compensate for these issues. A free third-
party app called Widescreen Fixer (www.widescreenfixer.org) will
adjust the aspect ratio to suit your screen setup. It requires that you
install a separate plugin for each game you want to adjust—plugins
are available for many popular FPS titles, including the Battlefield
and Call of Duty franchises, BioShock, and Ghost Recon.
Another issue we encountered involved the placement of vari-
ous maps, menus, toolbars, etc., in a massively multiplayer game,
such as World of Warcraft. By default, this information occupies
the far edges of your display, out of the way of the action. But when
using an array of large screens, you find yourself having to crane
your neck from side to side to access that information. Fortunately,
there are a ton of custom interfaces that move those elements to
alternate parts of the display. A multitude of custom UIs for WoW
can be found at Wowinterface.com. –KATHERINE STEVENSON
Three 30-inch Panels
LET’S TRY THIS ONE MORE TIME WITH
FEELING (AND PORTRAIT MODE)!
LESSONS LEARNED
Configuration 3
THERE’S MORE TO USING A MULTISCREEN SETUP THAN JUST PLUGGING IN THE DISPLAYS
With Widescreen Fixer, you can adjust the aspect ratio of select games
for improved playability across multiple screens.
NEC’s PA301W professional-grade
30-inch monitors overshadow a
triad of 23-inch LCDs in resolution,
image quality, and girth.