new hardware alternative to Matrox TH2GO

[litebkt]

Can you tell us exactly what happens when you run the 3 monitors together? do you have them grouped in the ATI control panel? It sound like you might be missing the grouping part.
Also do you have the right display resolution set on FSX? it should match your desktop resolutions.

I finally did get FSX to sort of run today by shutting down ALL other background processes on the machine with a two monitor Eyfinity group. X-Plane runs fine with all background processes and a 3 monitor Eyefinity group. But in FSX, instead of giving you the additional physical space to the left and right, it simply expands what you would see on one screen and chops off the top and bottom with horribly low resolution. So, a single guage is something like 8 inches tall and you can't keep some of the cockpit on screen and see any sky. I'm sure that with the three monitors enabled, it would be even worse, so I didn't even try it. This is the furthest I got with an Eyefinity group and FSX. Before I disabled my machine for any other use, FSX would start up, show the outside view and the lower half of the screens were black (the cockpit bitmaps I suspect) and FSX would freeze with the mouse shaking, quivering, and going back and forth betwween a cursor and the little wait symbol.

I had tried running split monitors before as well and FSX would eventually crash with any scenario you care to think of. But now, with the machine devoted to it, I can run separate undocked windows (left, center, and right) smoothly (at least with two 30 minute tests of just flying around). If I save the flight and resume, the undocked windows will go to the correct monitor but they all need to be resized. I suppose I can deal with that.

In researching this problem, I read from the ATI site that this is a problem related to Microsoft's implementation of DirectX and ATI will not address it. Microsoft says that it is an ATI driver problem and Microsoft will not address it. I suspect that there is also a problem in the FSX software itself that no one owns anymore.

And get this.... from what I've been able to read on the ATI site, you can't run two cards in your machine for extra monitors. Three is the limit. If I'm wrong on this, they need to fire their writing staff, because they are not clear in their description.

So, my advice to anyone reading this thread.... don't buy ATI cards if you are running FSX.

I'm still going to start with FSX, because I have purchased training books and some add ons and just bite the bullet with the inconveniences. But as soon as I get through the training materials, I'll be going to X-Plane. I'll need to play the multiple computer network games with both programs though. And there isn't all that much in the way of add on guages for my glass cockpit screens for X-Plane. I can't afford to go to an Nvidia setup at this point. I've spent my wad

Such is life when you break the norm and go with "cutting edge" technology, no? I read so many great things on the web about this eyefinity thing and figured that I could not go wrong. And so, I built my machine to support an Eyefinity set up..... it's a nice beefy machine but it won't handle three Nvidia cards (not enough PCIe slots and too much power required). I think that it turns out, those talking about eyefinity had never really tried an eyefinity set up. Even the game that comes with the card (Dirt2) only runs on one monitor! Fortunately, I have no interest in playing stupid games like that.

Do I ramble or what? Thanks guys for all your comments and help. I can't tell you how much I've learned in reading this forum. Hopefully, I'll get to "know" a few of you somewhat better.

Michelle

[twisted8]

I have an ATI 5850 and a 4670 working together with FSX (6 monitors) it is possible. Are you using directX 10? I get a lot problems with directx 10 enabled so make sure it's not on. Also do you have the wide view mode enabled in your config file? that might help too. What windows version are you running?

[litebkt]

I have an ATI 5850 and a 4670 working together with FSX (6 monitors) it is possible. Are you using directX? I get a lot problems with directX enabled so make sure it's not on. Also do you have the wide view mode enabled in your config file? that might help too. What windows version are you running?

Wow Twisted8, now I'm getting somewhere..... you actually are running it! I have DirectX11 running with Vista (soon to be upgraded to Windows7). I thought that FSX required DirectX, silly me. How do you disable it?

I have a 3Ghx dual core Intel with 8Gb of memory. I might have to throw a larger power supply in there if this will work. Currently, I'm running a 600 watt Cooler Master PSU. How many watts does your PSU support?

And wideview (the third party package, I assume?) in the config file? Nope. So far I'm only running one machine. I haven't hooked up the additional two monitors for the glass cockpit views yet. I've got an ATI Radeon 4550 that I'd love to throw in the single machine and that would really save me a lot of hassle (it is not eyefinity capable but does have two useable ports). I did install it initially but the Catylist drivers didn't seem to see it. While browsing through the ATI site I read "the use of an additional PCI card is not supported". Now, that can be read several ways, ya know? Perhaps I should give that another try. In your configuration, do you use Wideview on a single machine?

Thanks for all of your help. Really.... I sincerely appreciate it.

Michelle

[twisted8]

Not a problem!
The wideview I'm reffering to is not the software that you are thinking of. Just a setting in the cfg file.
Sorry i meant disable directX10, not directX, but I think you got what I meant. Check these two things:
1. Under the display settings in FSX make sure DirectX 10 preview mode is NOTchecked, that'll disable it!
2. in your FSX.cfg file (usually in C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Application Data\Microsoft\FSX) set WideViewAspect=True
Makes sure you backup you cfg file first!
Are you running 32bit or 64bit? I'm run windows 7 64bit

[litebkt]

Hey, I found the setting for using DirectX 10 and it was indeed disabled. I've heard lots of negatives about DirectX, so I never thought about setting it up before. I enabled it to see if it would work. And it does. But a single control guage in the virtual cockpit fills one entire 25.5" screen! The outside views look pretty good though and that is what I really want out of these three monitors.

Now, I just need to figure out these Wideview and two card issues on the machine.

Michelle

[litebkt]

Twisted,

you are the bomb! Thanks for help with the Wideview setting. That indeed did work with the virtual cockpit. The 2d cockpit doesn't work but that's fine. I'll not need it. I still get a quivering mouse, but perhaps I'll lower some of the graphics settings to see if that can resolve that problem.

Can you tell me how big your computer's power supply is? I might take a look at the specs of your second video card and see if that might work for me.

Michelle

[twisted8]

glad that helped!! my PSU is 850W, I had a 500W PSU and it the PC would randomnly shut down. This problem was solved with the 850W PSU. I think ATI recommends at least 650W, specially when running 2 cards. You should look into that too! check out my temp site for all my specs.

[litebkt]

I have an ATI 5850 and a 4670 working together with FSX (6 monitors) it is possible. Are you using directX? I get a lot problems with directX enabled so make sure it's not on. Also do you have the wide view mode enabled in your config file? that might help too. What windows version are you running?

Okay, yours is working, so I'll give it a go. I just need a bit more juice so a larger power supply is in order. I like the idea of using a cheaper card for the smaller two monitors.

I do have a question for you though. Do you manage all of your monitors in the Catilylist manager? I really want to make sure that there is some way to push that little mouse pointer to every monitor and that I can it all working together.

I really do appreciate your help.

Michelle

[twisted8]

Not a problem, glad to be able to help!
Yeah I use Catilylist manager and you can set up all your monitors in any layout you want and you can get to all of them with your mouse, that won't be a problem!

[litebkt]

You know.... I look at your avatar pic and I swear that my set up looks darned close to what you've done. Do you have any pictures available on line of it?

I meassured the total current draw of my current set up with 3 25.5" monitors and the computer with the ATI 485 last night. It was only 2.75 amps. Without the monitors running, it was 1.75 amps. I might be able to get by with my 600 watt power supply with the ATI 4670 card in there as well. I have to keep everything on that circuit under 15 amps. The silly nits that built this house (in 2001) only ran 14 gauge wire. I wish I would have known that was what they had planned and I'd have made them run 10 gauge! I know it is overkill, but.... well... you understandd

Michelle

Michelle