Dell has this weird new monitor in the works…

Its called the U2913WM and if you’re familiar at all with product names, means that this could be the world’s first 29-inch desktop monitor. Equipped with a IPS panel, four USB 2.0 ports, D-Sub, DVI and HDMI along with a Displayport connector, this looks set to be another wise choice for the professional or even the discerning gamer who likes to pay for quality. Except there’s that totally weird 2560 x 1080 resolution in a 21:9 aspect ratio. I can see you scratching your head there – why would you want that?

Still need that question answered? Hit the jump for what I think could be the reason. 

Its all got to do with this:

Three monitors is the default configuration to be able to enjoy multi-monitor gaming. With a resolution of 1920 x 1080 for each monitor, that stretches up to 5760 x 1080, a very skewed aspect ratio that doesn’t work with a lot of games and apps that aren’t configured for Eyefinity or multi-monitor gaming. Now imaging having one ultra-wide monitor in the middle with a longer horizontal figure with a 21:9 aspect ratio. Its not going to be perfect either but some Eyefinity/Surround adopters have noticed that their extra screens don’t always display useful stuff or display the game world to the correct  aspect ratio because the image is stretched with some game engines.

With another example, have a look at how DiRT 3 renders the world in a triple-monitor configuration:

Notice how everything on the side monitors is a little too stretched to be nice to look at. In fact, taking the whole view into account, it looks and feels like you’re driving one of those funny cars that appear on drag strips, with wide rears and a nose that tapers towards the middle, like some aerodynamic triangular dildo shoving aside air and entering the furthest limits of the laws of physics. Now imagine if the middle monitor was longer and took most of the cockpit in and left only what you can see out the windows in their correct aspect ratio, while also showing all your dials and stuff in the middle because of the extra available real estate.

Its a pipedream for myself at this stage because no game developer has ever mentioned this problem when it comes to multi-monitor setups. In a lot of titles the world does stretch and expand accordingly if multi-monitor has been on the dev team’s checklist since day one. I do hope 21:9 screens become the next de facto standard because we can’t keep expecting our monitors to grow bigger and bigger in both directions – you have to sit further away to be able to see everything properly, even in the vertical plane. A screen of the same height but a longer width would be a lot more comfortable.

As a third option, you can always just run one of these on its own. I mean, it looks gorgeous already and it might be able to show the original resolution that films were shot at without cropping or matting down the image. And I hate it when I know I’m not viewing the film as it was intended.

Source: TechpowerUp!

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