I sometimes keep 2 or three windows 'tiled' on a 34" monitor, but on anything smaller I tend to use 1 or perhaps 2 windows (like you, often with some overlap).

I sometimes keep 2 or three windows 'tiled' on a 34" monitor, but on anything smaller I tend to use 1 or perhaps 2 windows (like you, often with some overlap). Perhaps eyesight is important here? I'm short sighted but find wearing glasses when reading a monitor gives me eye strain, so just keep a distance from my monitor where I can read without my glasses (about 1m). To tile windows in a way that is useful I'd need to have much smaller fonts, and I wouldn't be able to read.