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Ultrawide Curved Monitor vs. Dual Monitor & refresh rate

EH21
Booster

Getting a new setup. Considering ultrawide curved 49" or dual 27" monitors.

What's your experience? My concern with the ultrawide/curved monitor is that lines would look skewed while drafting, but I see a benefit in being able to stare straight forward in my drafting environment rather than having a gap in the middle. 

 

Also, thoughts on appropriate refresh rate? 

 

ArchiCAD: AC26, Version 4024 USA Full (Apple Silicon)
Computer: 2022 Apple M1 Max, 10-core CPU, 32-core GPU, 64 GB memory
9 REPLIES 9
Barry Kelly
Moderator

Did you see this post? ...

https://community.graphisoft.com/t5/Setup-License-forum/Curved-Gaming-Computer-0-Dual-Monitor-Fake/m...

 

Barry.

One of the forum moderators.
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Lingwisyer
Guru

I have had no issues with AutoCAD on a R1500 ultrawide. You would never really notice anything skewing outside the most extreme cases in where you are very far outside the focal point on a monitor with a radii on the small side, but this is no different from viewing a traditional monitor from the side...

 

In my opinion, trying to have two Primary monitors is a bad idea for both workflow and ergonomics. For dual monitor setups I would go for a larger primary monitor on which you work on, and a second smaller monitor off to the side for emails, reference documents and palettes. If I had a desk space, I would be using my ultrawide in a dual monitor setup...

 

 

Ling.

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mikas
Expert

I am used to 49" 5120x1440 Samsung curved. And I am used to a Dell 5120x2160 curved.

 

Lines are straight, eye+brain does it's thing and you'll not notice a thing.

 

You would want to think about glasses, and your eys. And your working habits. There are variations to all this. A lot of.

 

I like the extreme wide 49" Samsung a lot (5120x1440). But I think I am getting more fond of of the Dell now after some time of use (5120x2160). Former is with MacOS, and the latter with Win10, mostly.

 

All in all, you might be pleased with the extra wide view. Some of us might not, but if you are the one to ask this, you might very well be pleased with it.

 

Please give us your opinion later.

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Lingwisyer
Guru

That is something else to consider. Are you looking at a 21x9 or a 32x9? A wide workspace, or a dual workspace. If you are looking at a 32x9, you should probably look at some snap managers.

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olsen_jolie
Newcomer

The result is obvious. Ultrawide is defeated by dual displays. If you purchase high-end 4K monitors, going dual gives you a more versatile layout that is better for multitasking and packs more pixels than any ultrawide curved monitors currently in use.Thus I'll suggest a dual 27-monitor setup. In learning applications, office work, graphic manipulation, and many other forms of work, this kind of configuration is ideal for boosting productivity.

 

roman19
Contributor

I’m currently using 49-inch Dell U4919DW for about two years.

It is connected to my MacBook Pro laptop, which helps as a second monitor, where I usually have just a calendar open on it.

 

There are no issues with this monitor being curved. You will get used to it so fast, that if you will switch back to straight monitor - it will look strange to you 🙂

 

The problem with this 49-inch monitor in my opinion is that it is too wide and not tall enough. I never use Archicad full screen, because the toolbar & navigator are so far away that it is not comfortable to work on it.

So I just center Archicad window and then put some reference materials on both sides (email on one side, and maybe some PDF drawings on another one).

Therefore I would prefer to switch this proportion 32:9 to something else.

 

I have just checked couple of other options Dell has to offer.

Still didn’t decide what other option would work better.

AC8.1 - AC27
macOS Monterey, version 12.7
Chip Apple M1 Max, 32GB RAM
mikas
Expert

Mac and Win are of different experience on this. With MacOS you have a fixed menu on top of the screen. On WIN you have the menu attached to your Archicad program window. That's a good thing I think.

 

With Mac the widescreen is a problem because menu is always at the very left side of your screen (widescreen). On my Samsung I use PbP (Picture by Picture), so that I have like two screens, both with their own menu bar (2560x1440 by 2560x1440). But there is no gap between the monitors. And the slight curvature feels better than a flat one would be. I do have to use reading glasses nowadays to work (+1,5), maybe that's why curved is better for me.

 

Win works seamlessly (=better) on ultrawides in this regard in my opinion.

 

My specs and others too are a little bit missing above.

 

I've got a

Samsung 49" C49RG9x (5120x1440) R1800. Aspect Ratio 32:9

Dell 40" U4021QW (5120x2160) R2500. Aspect Ratio 21:9

 

I have tried both with either OSes. They are workable with either one, but on Mac I am keen to use the PbP with both of them. Not all monitors necessarily have that capability. Many recent ultrawides do though. And that's a good feature. Dell even has got adjustements of the proportion of divide. Like 50/50, 70/30, 80/20. With Mac I found that a 4K + 1280x2160 was almost perfect. Archicad in 4K, and helper windows in that other, a little bit strange resolution. It's a really really good proportion of a screen or window to work with text documents and/or web browsing.

 

The 4096 by 1024 I found almost as good. A little bizarre proportions for a work environment maybe. But usable.

 

Maybe I'll just switch over with my OSes and monitors again. Just for the sake of change for a while.

 

btw. I have used multi monitor setups for years. One moniotor was just not enough. Even with CRTs I had two or three. Now with ultrawides, and diffrent aspect ratios of those, I do not want to go back to multimonitor desktop anymore. I could live with multi monitors, of course, but for me these UWs feel better.

AC25, Rhino6/7+Grasshopper, TwinMotionMac Pro 6,1 E5-1650v2-3,5GHz/128GB/eGPU:6800XT/11.6.5 • HP Z4/Xeon W-2195/256GB/RX6800XT/W10ProWS
Lingwisyer
Guru

Regarding adaptability of the workspace, with a good snap manager you can get a lot more flexibility without needing to worry about a bezzle.

 

My thought on dual monitor setups is to spend most of your money on a really good main monitor, then what ever is left on a second smaller monitor to be used in portrait.

 

Ling.

Hm... someones post to this thread disappeared...

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Hm... someones post to this thread disappeared...

It was spam.

 

Barry.

One of the forum moderators.
Versions 6.5 to 27
Dell XPS- i7-6700 @ 3.4Ghz, 16GB ram, GeForce GTX 960 (2GB), Windows 10
Lenovo Thinkpad - i7-1270P 2.20 GHz, 32GB RAM, Nvidia T550, Windows 11