I’ve just got myself a new Dell 27" to use as my main monitor and the other monitor will have Navigraph, Volanta and other apps. Gotta get two monitors to get into it!
Gigabyte AORUS FO48U OLED. I’m ruined. I can never go back to my 43 inch Philips IPS. I deliberately do a ton of FBW night flying now, because of the true blacks and near- infinite contrast ratio. OLED is a sight to behold!
I’d share some screenshots, but unless people here can view the pics with an actual OLED themselves, there really is no point! It won’t come through on an IPS, perhaps a bit better on VA panels, but still. The people who DO have OLED monitors are already in the know.
Also with 49 inches of real estate I can use ultrawide resolutions as well, plus the black bars top and bottom are true black, with no distractions.
Back in the FSX/P3D days, I had 3 LG 22inch monitors using a Matrox Triplehead2go, for a combined resolution of 5040x1050. This was before Nvidia Surround became a thing. I’ve pretty much done it all- triple monitors, 34 inch ultra wides, Oculus Rift, track IR-You name it.
The only thing I’d likely go back to VR with, is the likes of a Varjo Aero HMD, as my Rift CV1 just does not have the ideal resolution to clearly see the aircraft instrumentation without leaning forward. I find that 2000 + USD plus the wait -time to get one is a bit expensive. Yes the Monitor was not cheap, but I find more value in it VS the Varjo right now. Once the technology comes down in price, I’m back in VR I suppose.
TrackIR
Even if I had multi monitors I’d still use it
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I have 4 monitors plus mobile devices (tablets).
3 x monitor side by side, Nvidia surround as 1 wide screen.
1 x monitor below, usually for Little Navmap
2 x tablets for instruments and switches
Plus some additional hardware controls for radios, autopilot, more switches, gear flaps etc.
Yes, I switch between cockpit and outside view and pan around as necessary.
TrackIR doesn’t work for me, don’t like it.
Haven’t tried VR.
Generally, I like hardware controls to interact with.
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Currently I’ve got a single 43" TV as my primary display. I’d like bigger but I don’t have the room where the sim is now. When I need to look sideways I use the hat switch. It’s not at all ideal, and I do have a TrackIR in the drawer but I can’t honestly be bothered to set it up again. I have other monitors for AirManager etc, plus a hardware G1000 solution.
Bear in mind that in my old sim I used to have a 2m 180-degree wraparound projection screen and a warped and blended view so that I could just look left or right and see directly out of that window on base etc. That was with Prepar3d which has true multi-view (and not just ‘multi-monitor’) support and can be made to do that (with lots of effort and expensive software, mind you).
Like @Crunchmeister71 I am a VR early adopter and own several HMDs but I can’t fly sims in VR having had a proper home cockpit setup. No amount of stereoscopic depth can make up for it. That’s just my opinion of course, YMMV. I do get a bit tired of people who insist that ‘VR is the only way’ or vice-versa. Do what works for you.
I want to be able to do what works for me, ie a big wraparound display, but I can’t and it’s the thing that frustrates me the most about this sim. I hope one day I’ll be able to do it. If not… it’s back to P3D or X-Plane for me.
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55" 4k here. I have on the stick 1 hat bound to trim up/down left/right, I have one hat bound view up/down left/right, I have another hat bound in/out shift seat position left /right. And then the thumb hat is bound to freelook. Oh yeah X56 stick I have way to many hats on this thing LOL ;p
@DaintierOcean3 Having the 3 monitors would be like have one large ultrawide monitor wouldn’t it? I’ve been thinking of doing that. I have 3 27in monitors I could do that with but I only have a Nvidia 1080 card, not sure if I would get a hit to performance.
@neilhewitt My dream set up would be the wraparound screen with a whole bunch of tactile inputs to use so I feel like I am in the cockpit. I am currently in the market for a Honeycomb yoke but I need to save up for that.
Thanks everyone else for your recommendations. It’s much appreciated.
If you already have the hardware, you can try it. Doesn’t cost you a thing.
It works fine 1080 and 3 externels in FSX, I would imagine you shouldnt have to much of an issue with this when they enable it. I hope at the very least they make it like FSX where you can turn off the cockpit in the external windows, but with out 2d view any more it seems unlikely…
If it helps inspire you at all, here’s a flavour of what my old cockpit was like…
You can’t see all of it of course and the cockpit itself is dark, but you get the idea on the wraparound display. Ignore the distortion, when you sit in the pilot’s seat the perspective all looks correct.
I miss this setup, and I will build a better one, but not until I can either use MSFS fully on it or I’m willing to give up and go back to P3D. Tick-tock, tick-tock.
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Three monitors is bettter than one large ultrawide monitor imo, more flexibility. Also, I forgot to mention that in addition to three monitors and TrackIR I do have two iPads. iPads are of a real great help in flight simulation.
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@neilhewitt That is a very nice setup indeed! Would be a blast to fly on that for sure. Not sure I could go back to X-Plane or P3D after MSFS though.
@Maki152 Yes! I have 1 ipad but I have RF Cockpit that I plan to use for my gauges. What do you use yours for? I’m thinking about trying the triple monitor set up and run littlenavmap on my surface and connect remotely via wifi like my ipad for the guages.
So I guess your answer to the OP’s question is 7 monitors are better than 1 
My 1440p ultrawide monitor does the job with trackir but quite demanding on my GPU but it’s well worth it.
No interest in switching to vr anytime soon. Never a fan of that heavy thing on my face.
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I only use 1 monitor (34" 3440x1440) to display the sim itself though. The 2 side monitors are for my other things like charting / nav tools, P2A, etc.
The 4 lower touch screens display my Air Manager panels. Those are all completely optional, of course.
Left monitor - VATSpy with vPilot at the top right
Center monitor - MSFS
Right monitor - Charts
Left iPad - Checklists
Right iPad - Reed Timmer
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32" UWQHD Monitor and TrackIR.
Optional but awesome, I am jealous!
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Hold down the right button on the mouse. Move the mouse in any direction. The mouse becomes the pilots eyes.
As per my pic above, I have an Xbox controller afixed to my yoke (using industrial strength adhesive velcro tape). Prior to buying a TrackIR, I would use the analog stick on that as my free look. It worked amazingly well. I still use the Xbox controller for other stuff like drone control and some buttons for other functions, but TrackIR is definitely my “look” option now.