Ultrawide vs. Dual Monitor setup | Gaming vs Productivity vs Streaming

for the last few years i've changed up my desk setup a lot i've had dual 4k monitors one vertical one horizontal both horizontal 60 hertz ultra wide 144 hertz ultra wide and i've had experience along the entire spectrum and not just for testing i've fully used each of these setups for months at a time and if you're having a hard time deciding what setup is right for you i think i can give you some pointers [Music] [Music] first let's talk about the reality of the usability of these two different setups obviously having two monitors gives you a distinct ability to separate the context of the work you are doing while having a single ultra wide monitor allows you to use more screen with only one monitor a dual screen setup could be important to you if you prefer having work up on one screen and maybe a full screen video up on the other something you would not be able to do with an ultrawide monitor by default the physical separation of the monitors gives you a very obvious way to multitask without cluttering the single screen too much the only downside being if you want to utilize a single program you're basically wasting half the screen real estate you're paying for since you can't comfortably use a program like excel across two monitors since most dual monitor setups will have a massive bezel in between the two screens typically on a dual monitor setup you're going to have one program open and another program open on the other screen the dual monitor sizes are generally not big enough to have multiple programs open on one screen comfortably so that's something to keep in mind for actual real-world use on the ultra-wide side the trade-offs are almost one-to-one if you want to utilize a full-width program like excel notion or even a software development program like visual studio you can do so quite comfortably and because there's no bezel separating the two sides you get a fully immersive experience that allows you to feel like you can spread out and not be cramped into a single screen if you're someone who does a lot of productivity work like excel notion or documentation this could be a huge potential upside for you because of the amount of screen real estate that you get to work with however it technically makes it harder to multitask with multiple programs for example you can't watch a youtube video in full screen while also working on something in another program because the full screen youtube video takes over the entire screen and it's just one screen this obviously isn't a problem with a dual monitor setup but it can quickly become annoying with a single ultrawide multitasking on an ultrawide is still possible and actually can be quite nice with programs that don't need a full screen to work a setup i do often on my 34 and ultrawide is to set up visual studio code on one side and either my design program or a youtube video in non full screen on the other most operating systems will allow you to designate the size of each window so you can have a dual window setup without that bezel that a dual monitor setup would require it's almost like working on two monitors smooshed together and it looks quite nice when used correctly if you're a creative such as a video editor a photo editor designer or developer you might want to think long and hard about an ultrawide monitor i can't stress how nice it is to have one long timeline to edit videos on or to have all the screen space i would ever want to display all my photoshop tools while still having a full size image to edit when editing youtube videos the timeline of my video stretches the entire length of my 34 inch screen which makes it really easy to view my entire 10 minute video without sacrificing anything i give you all my edits titles sound effects all in one view it makes it a breeze and has actually sped up my creative workflow because of how much room i have to edit my photos and videos it's really important in the remote world we live in now to be able to quickly and effortlessly screen share among peers and it's definitely an easier and more comfortable process on a dual monitor setup dual monitors provide you the ability to share an entire screen while still keeping an entire other dedicated screen for yourself ultra wide monitors don't provide that luxury in fact they make it quite annoying with the limited options to share with with an ultrawide you either have to share your entire screen so nothing is private or share an individual window when you share your entire screen it's also going to share in its native 21x9 resolution which means that any participants are going to see your screen in a super small resolution if you plan to stream or game on the setup you have to take that into consideration too having a full screen game means that you're limited and can't do anything else you have to play the game in bordered mode to be able to access any background programs to stream with on an ultrawide monitor another thing to keep in mind if you're going to stream on an ultrawide monitor is that it will stream in its native 21x9 resolution as well so any viewers will see black bars in your video to compensate for the non-native resolution as for gaming pushing games to an ultrawide monitor can be more intensive on your cpu and gpu as the ultrawide monitor is actually pushing more pixels than a single 1080p monitor about 700 000 more pixels it won't be much of a problem for more normal uses like web browsing documenting or everyday work but when it comes to gaming it's important to keep in mind you might need a more beefy setup to run higher quality settings on an ultrawide monitor now let's chat about everybody's least favorite part of this process the cost i think there's a misconception that ultrawide monitors are more expensive but if you're already planning to buy dual monitors as the alternative the ultrawide might actually be around the same price range however that doesn't mean you're getting the same value out of each for example if you spend three hundred dollars each on two 1080p monitors that's two million seventy three thousand pixels per monitor hundred and or around thousand pixels total now if you compare that to a single 34 inch ultra wide 1080p monitor and i'm using 1080p as a baseline here because it's most entry level and gamer friendly resolution that's about 2 million 000 pixels so ignoring all other considerations just looking at the amount of pixels you get technically the dual monitors provide you with more pixels however that's just one angle to look at the situation ultra wide pixels might actually be worth more than dual monitor pixels because along with them comes ease of use less clutter and potentially a more productive setup now this is more of a preference and if you don't care too much about how your setup looks then this might not be a huge issue but switching to an ultrawide has cleaned up my setup immensely if you have two monitors you now have two hdmi cables two power cables two monitor stands it quickly fills up your space and if you're someone like me who values cleanliness and actually i work better in a clean and minimal space this could be a huge factor for you switching to an ultrawide has cleaned up my setup and made it feel more productive there's less clutter to do the same things i was already doing and physically i have more space to put things like my speakers and some nice plants to make the setup seem more inviting so final thoughts i don't think i found a perfect monitor setup yet none of the options i talked about in this video are the perfect solution in my mind if i had to choose what i would probably do is have a 34 inch ultra wide on the bottom like i do currently but then i would buy an extra tall monitor stand so i could put either 24 or a 27 inch monitor on top in my case i'd probably do a 27 inch 4k just to have that better resolution since i'm not gaming on it it doesn't really matter that it's 4k because it's mostly just gonna be for static content or videos or something like that i'm not gonna be running intensive games on it so it doesn't really matter when i had the dual monitor setup going horizontally i felt like it took up too much space on my desk and i was like compromising a lot of the room that i had to be productive for cable management monitors stands so i don't think i'd build horizontally anymore i think vertically is the way to go and in that case i would do the 34 inch on the bottom and then one likes more static monitor on top but i'm always super curious what are you going to be doing with your setup are you having an ultra wide no ultra wide dual monitors both stacked horizontal let me know in the comments down below other than that i'll see you on the next one piece

Channel: Bryan Caragay

Views: 51,608

Keywords: startup, company, entreprenuer, money, how to, app, Startup, startup vlog, youtube business, starting a company, software, day in the life, austin, texas, austin texas, canon, sony, videography, tutorial, ultrawide, dual monitor, setup

Id: umDxbR7Np4Q

Length: 8min 7sec (487 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 28 2022