Modern gaming PCs often include the ability to run multiple monitors. High end video cards such as the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 allow for crazy high frame rates even at 4k resolution. The jury is still out on whether multiple displays make for a better gaming experience. Some people love the additional screen real estate, others are annoyed by the bezels. This is one of the advantages of PC gaming. Gaming on Windows is flexible and customizable
. This is also for some gamers exactly why they prefer console gaming. With consoles things just work. There is no settings needed to be dialed in for best performance. You simply turn it on and start gaming. The latest generation of consoles including the PS5 and Xbox Series X have came a long way to better matching the graphics performance of a mid level gaming PC.
The latest generation of consoles are rated at 10.28 teraflops for the PS5 and 12 teraflops for the Xbox Series X. With the increased graphics power comes better support for 4K and higher frame rates. One feature that a vocal minority was hoping for was multimonitor support.
Unfortunately no, the Xbox Series X does not support multiple monitors or multiple TVs. This is not a complete surprise since it was never a feature in previous generations. It is however disappointing to some gamers who were hoping the increase in graphics processing power would mean support for multiple displays. There were also some early leaked photos showing dual HDMI ports further adding to the speculation that this feature could be coming. The current retail model has only a single HDMI 2.1 and no support for DisplayPort.
The choice to not support a second display most likely came down to cost. When a console is engineered, the goal is always to please the most people at a price that is attractive. Some compromises had to be made to hit the target $499 price tag.
This was the target price based on market research showing the upper limit on what the average gamer would be willing to spend on a next generation console. The high end gaming space has traditionally been dominated by PC gaming. Instead Microsoft chose to target the middle tier market with the Xbox Series X and the lower middle tier market with the Xbox Series S. The amount of graphics power that is packed into the next generation consoles is truly amazing for their price point.
For the vast majority (98 % +) of gamers, support for multiple displays would have gone unused anyways. The most compelling argument for multiple displays would be for offline multiplayer as an alternative for split screen. Offline multiplayer gaming has been declining in popularity and not even an option on many games.
The choice to not support multiple monitors was likely a good choice overall. The extreme tech enthusiast is not part of the target demographics for console gaming. It never has been and probably never will. That is okay, at least the gaming experience on the Xbox Series X is first rate. The use of solid state storage makes games load almost instantly. The faster load times is one of the greatest changes brought forward by the latest generation of consoles. The Xbox Series X is an amazing feet of technology especially at its price point of only $499.