Dual Monitors or one Big Monitor ?

Monitor Resolution is one of the important things whenever you plan to upgrade to extra monitor space. Decision of whether to go with dual monitors or just get a one big monitor will depend on number of factors. There are numerous benefits of having dual monitors as compared to having a single monitor, however monitor resolution, monitor size and ofcourse your intended work play an important role in deciding whether to do for a big monitor or get two monitors connected to your laptop or desktop.

Let’s analyze hardware part first for having a single big monitor. A single big monitor can give you good viewing area and can be really useful if you do work with complex applications such as graphics designing, trading software, video editing etc. Before going ahead for buying a big monitor, be sure to check the maximum resolution it supports and also what’s the maximum resolution your graphics card of your laptop or desktop will support. In case the new big monitor will be able to support bigger resolution as compared to that supported by your graphics card, your display will be limited to the maximum resolution supported by your graphics card and you might wish to upgrade your graphics card.

From the usability perspective, a big monitor is needed in case you frequently need to scroll with scrollbars. In case you do not have to scroll and are comfortable with the current monitor, then going for extra monitor might be a good option. However if you do have to scroll frequently, do go ahead and get a bigger monitor after analysing whether it will be supported by your graphics card or not.

For having dual monitors, you would need an extra monitor and probably a new graphics card. In case your desktop or laptop already has an extra port available for connecting the other monitor, then you might not need to buy another graphics card. In case you do go ahead with an extra monitor option, remember that it will be supported technically by your computer and hence would require more efforts by the CPU, memory etc. In case you do plan to buy another graphics card for driving dual monitor, remember that the price range is very much varied depending on the dual monitor graphics card you choose. Do spend some time comparing technical details of the graphics cards, review technical details of your extra monitor and ofcourse the price range as well.

Few of things that you will be able to do with an extra monitor are as enumerated below:

  • Change Display Orientation of any of the monitors independently. (Provided your Graphics Card and Monitor Supports it)
  • Have Dual Wallpapers for Dual Monitors using 3rd party software named as MurGeeMon.
  • Rotate the other Monitor Physically depending on your requirements with probably a dual monitor stand.
  • Let Two Applications run simultaneously in full screen, one on each monitor.
  • Work on One Monitor and let the other monitor display some video in full screen mode.
  • Move Application Windows to any of the Monitors when both monitors are connected in Extended Mode.
  • Display the same content on both Monitors (termed as Clone Mode, supported in Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows 8, etc.)
  • Interchange Primary (The Monitor on which Start menu will be displayed) and Secondary Monitor (Monitor on which no Start menu will be displayed).

In a nutshell, decision of whether to go ahead with dual monitors or one big monitor depends on requirements, available hardware, and many other such related things. Do explore this blog to know more about what all dual monitors can give you. Do understand the concept of dual monitors fully before making any purchase and making any decision.