My current favorite for "productive work machines" vs. games/movies is 3 portrait-mode 1200x1920 monitors. These need to be thin-bezel, and IPS panel, so they have decent vertical (now horizontal) viewing angles -- Dell U2410 work great. I could deal with higher resolution, but that physical angle works great at arms length, keeping everything in the mostly-focus area. I usually keep a laptop off to the side for non-work communications tasks, out of my direct view, and ideally have another screen or two some distance away for alerts/uptime/etc. or external news.

I still use a single 30" Dell when I am using a laptop which can only drive one monitor, and a single 1920x1200 dispay (or even a 1080p display, like a 55" LCD) when the primary output is video/gaming.