Help Re: Graphics Cards....

[Spoceto1003]

I am about to buy a PC for my Flight Sim, I plan to run FS2004, with 3 monitors, 1 outside view and 2 for the cockpit.
Am I right in thinking that if I bought a PC that I could have an extra graphics card installed and have 2 ouputs on the new card and 1 output off of the original graphics card.
Does this sound right.... as I have heard that when you install an extra graphics card the original does not function.
I have seen on you tube people setting up 2 monitors but never 3
Any help please...

[Steve A]

It all depends on your motherboard really. Some have built in onboard graphics which, when an aftermarket card is installed, the onboard graphics is disabled automatically. Some other mobo's can have 2 3 or even 4 graphics cards.
My advise would be to try and get a mobo with 2 pcie 16x on, that way you can get 2 cards no problem. Bare in mind though some motherboards split the bandwidth down from 16x to 8x shared across both cards.
I have 3 tft screens and a projector running off 2 different nvidia cards in my system with both running at 16x. But it was quite an expensive one.
Also check the psu can cope with 2 graphics cards as some can be quite power hungry ;)

[Spoceto1003]

Thanks for the reply, I will check out the motherboard....

[Spoceto1003]

The PC I am looking at buying has a 512MB Geforce 7 onboard 7025M graphics card and has a PCI Express x16 and a PCI Express x1 with 2 PCI slots,
My question is...If the onboard card was not used but I put in 2 PCI Express cards a x16 and a x1 what would the outcome be...

would the x16 card give good graphics and the x1 give poor?

I don't know enough about this, at the moment.

This is just a small hobby sim I am planning, so the way I see it, the x16 could do the outside view, while the poorer x1 could do the MIP display...

[tomenglish2000]

A Graphics card will not fit in a x1 PCI Express socket.

This shows a x16 slot and a x1 slot next to each other.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pci_express

Graphics cars will only fit in x16, so you need to buy a motherboard that has 2 (or more) of them to use 2 graphics cards. If a motherboard is labelled as supporting "SLI" or "Crossfire" then it is capable of supporting 2 graphics cards.

In the case of NVidia Graphics cards you need a motherboard that supports "SLI".
In the case of ATI Graphics cards you need a motherboard that supports "CrossFire".

SLI and CrossFire are systems on the motherboard that will allow 2 graphics cards to work together. They will, however, not collaborate with an on board graphics card.

For the purposes of gaming I personally try and avoid on board graphics cards anyway.

I am not sure, but most motherboards do indeed disable the on board card when a normal one is in use.

Tom.

[Spoceto1003]

Thanks Tom, I am begining to understand a bit more...
I knew this system worked..

[P1IC]

The PC I am looking at buying has a 512MB Geforce 7 onboard 7025M graphics card and has a PCI Express x16 and a PCI Express x1 with 2 PCI slots,
My question is...If the onboard card was not used but I put in 2 PCI Express cards a x16 and a x1 what would the outcome be...

would the x16 card give good graphics and the x1 give poor?

I don't know enough about this, at the moment.

This is just a small hobby sim I am planning, so the way I see it, the x16 could do the outside view, while the poorer x1 could do the MIP display...

Sounds like you have exactly the same MB as me. I have the XFX nForce 630i MB and I added a GeForce 9500GT in the PCIx slot (which unfortunately knocks out one of the PCI slots because it's so big, but there you go!). The processor is a P4.

I have three monitors running quite happily with this setup, all showing 3D outside views, one of which also shows the 2D MIP. And I'm pretty sure I could add a PCI graphics card for the MIP, giving me five monitors. Performance may well suffer, of course :roll:

[Spoceto1003]

I think I am going to bite the bullet and buy this PC.... Arbico Intel Pentium Dual Core Multi-Display PC, it has 2 Nvidia 9400Gt 512 MB cards already installed, but its costs £430, but it has to be done, unless anyone knows of a similiar spec PC for less?

[ran56]

Before you go and buy,
I would suggest to list the hw here for the experts to give
their OK :)

Some of the mid high end MOBOs has the capability of utilizing to X16 PCIe slots.
My mobo has 4 PCIe X16 slots for VGA cards and all work at X16.
I would not take a mobo with VGA already onboard for Flight Sim PC.
You're sim will need VGA power and 9400GT are not the ones you need.
Also from experience, some times mixing VGA cards, can cause the PCIe bus
to slow down to X8.

I know, it's confusing, but better have a good research before spending the $
on hw that will not give the expected result.

Cheers,
Ran.

[Spoceto1003]

This is getting more difficult by the minute....I thought I could buy a PC, run three monitors and enjoy FS2004 on it, but life just isn't that simple it appears.

Can anyone suggest a PC that I can buy that has 2 PCI x16 cards that I can install or any other PC option so I can achieve my simple dream...

One other option was a Triplehead2go, what sort of PC would I need to run one of these? as I understand they are quite CPU hungry.

Many thanks

[Michael Carter]

You can and it's not that difficult.

Buy a computer with a PCIe x16 slot and a couple of regular PCI slots. Buy a high-end card for the PCIe x16 slot and a decent card for the PCI slot.

Run the outside and one MIP view from the good card and run the other MIP view from the other PCI card.

Instrument displays don't require that much processing power. Ask anyone running PM. Some are running PII's and PIII's for MIP displays.

I'm running two instrument displays and an outside view on two cards with a 2.0Ghz Core 2 Duo machine and it runs perfect. :D

[Spoceto1003]

I am quite keen to go down the Triplehead2Go route, that way I can upgrade my Pc at a later stage or the card within the Pc, Are the TH2G difficult to setup, or are they pretty much plug in and go!

[ran56]

As far as I recal the T2G is quite easy to install, it comes with a CD and software which is next next and resolution setting and some
other settings.

p.s.
Unofficial word from Matrox support, you can run two T2G on one pc ;-)
So 2 high end VGAs + 2 T2G = 6 screens.

Ran.

[Spoceto1003]

Your advice is greatly recieved.... I think the TH2G way is for me, as I feel more comfortable with the setup as I am not a great Pc tec person,

Thanks again:)