MP 6,1 2013 Mac Pro and Two Monitors: What Do You Prefer?

[elasticmedia]

I have a 2013 Mac Pro with dual D500 video cards. Right now I use a 24" Apple LED Cinema display (1920x1200) and a 20" Apple Cinema display (1680x1050). I use 2 displays in two ways: to load pallettes in graphic programs on the second monitor, and to have a second monitor run streamed content while I am working if my activity is not mentally demanding. I might do coding with a browser in a second window. What I have wondered is how people have found using a super wide (eg 34" or 38") monitor to display content in a single window. How does it work compared with using multiple monitors? I don't exactly know who my dual video cards factor into the equation if I just use a single video card connection. What I would imagine is that the lack of a border btw the two displays should be very nice. The 24" has a 1-1/8" border and the 20" has a 3/4" border. If you don't use a super wide monitor but use two displays with much thinner borders, how do you like that and what monitors have you liked? The apple monitors, particularly the LED are nice, but their borders are blimpish.

 

[th0masp]

What I have wondered is how people have found using a super wide (eg 34" or 38") monitor to display content in a single window. How does it work compared with using multiple monitors? I don't exactly know who my dual video cards factor into the equation if I just use a single video card connection. What I would imagine is that the lack of a border btw the two displays should be very nice.

Works better for me than using multiple displays. You have no gap there between displays, less cabling to deal with, ultimately the single screen uses up less desk space overall and the display is consistent. With multiple screens I found there are quite often variances even if the monitors are all the same model. I have another machine here with a traditional dual screen setup and I know i'm going to replace those screens with a second ultrawide as soon as it's time to upgrade that workstation.

Your dual GPUs don't factor into it at all - as usual only one of them deals with the output, the other one mainly just takes up space inside the machine.

 

[orph]

I've got one vertical display and one horizontal, vertical is super nice for reading and code.
I can have my website html on the vertical and the site preview on the horizontal display.
Or with video i have my tools mostly on the vertical and viewer and timeline on the horizontal display.
Or working with photos i have my folders/files on the vertical and photos full screen as I work on the horizontal.

Simply my horizontal is my main work display and the vertical is a relay nice complementary display.

The super wide displays look relay nice but i'm not a fan of the thin ones, for me id need a taller wide display

ps i think it helps that both my displays are VA and i keep them calibrated so iv not had a big problem with them not matching apart from when im lazey, relay depends on what you do i think.

iv got my eye out for a 4K display for video work, when i get it ill see how 3 displays look

 

[Rich.Cohen]

I've had 3 monitors on my 2013 Mac Pro since I bought it. My main (center) monitor is now a Philips 43" 4K. On the right is an HP 30" 2560 X 1600. On the left is an HP 23" 1920 X 1080. All three displays have roughly the same number of pixels per inch.

I'm a requirements analyst and data modeler. I use my main display either to show my current entity-relationship diagram or it's metadata tables. Some of these diagrams can have 200+ entities (boxes). I need the 40" display to see as much of the diagram as possible while still being able to read the text. I keep reference material open on the right and my email plus working notes are on the left.

Before getting my Philips display, I went though four other 40" displays that did not work.

 

[edanuff]

I’ve used a pair of Dell P2415Q monitors on the 2013 MP which gave me the right pixel density for retina. I’ve seen newer 4K monitors in this size range from LG that look good but none of them have the other inputs that let me also connect a PC.