Multi videocard setup help- newbie

Hi!

I'm brand new to the cockpit building world, and somewhat new to flight sims in general- I've got a few questions, which will probably spawn more questions... hoped to get some advice from you guys!

I'm looking to build a dedicated simulator in my basement, and I've got a box with a Geforce 9800 GTX video card installed. I've only used it with one monitor, but it has the dual DVI inputs. I also know that the motherboard has 2 free PCIe 2.0 slots, so here comes my question.

If I get 2 more Geforce 9800 GTX's (to avoid compatability issues), will I be able to run 6 monitors? 3 for scenery, 1 for panels, 1 for GPS and maybe 1 for map (lets call it a STBML, screen to be named later)? If the three scenery monitors are 22", can the instrument monitors be smaller or will I be able to set resolution size independantly?

Looking for some info before I get my feet wet, I appreciate your knowledge and input. I'm sure someone will comment on the graphics card of choice; to you... I'm not all that interested in your input.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kevinbergin

If I get 2 more Geforce 9800 GTX's (to avoid compatability issues), will I be able to run 6 monitors? 3 for scenery, 1 for panels, 1 for GPS and maybe 1 for map (lets call it a STBML, screen to be named later)?

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Yes.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kevinbergin

If the three scenery monitors are 22", can the instrument monitors be smaller or will I be able to set resolution size independantly?

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Yes and yes.

nVidia drivers come with an app (which will appear in your control panel when you install) which will detect all your monitors on all your cards and to set the resolution, refresh rate and rotation of each independently.

In Theory, but when you undock all those views, your computer will slow to a crawl. Keep that in mind.

My Suggestion is Buy a second card, (and try it) if you like it buy the third, But I think especially if you are running FSX, you will not be satisfied with the result. Generally most of us simulator builders run some applications across a network using WideFs.

In My simulator the Main Flight Simulator computer only is for the outside views (3 Projectors)


Trev

I personally run 4 monitors using FSX, but three of the 4 are used to display the Level-D gauges. FSX is very demanding when it comes to rendering scenery,so I think running 6 monitors ( three with scenery) is probably unrealistic.

You could run one monitor for scenery, another three for gauges and then buy a 2nd computer and run additional scenery using a network setup and WideView ( not to be confused with widefs).

I have also noticed big framrate hits when I have different = individual resolutions set on different monitors . My system seems to run best when everything is set at 32 colors, and 1024 x 768 resolution. Also, make sure if you run in windows mode that your individual windows do not span across another monitor, as this will also have a big framerate hit.



~Polmer

I've built a simulator that runs 3 monitors for the forward view from a Matrox Triplehead2Go, one monitor for the right hand view, and two more monitors displaying gauges. It doesn't run FSX flat out but I'm happy with the performance. I'm using two 9800GTX video cards with a quad core 2.66 Ghz processor. I agree with Polmer on using different resolutions on different monitors. It would be preferable to use all the same screen resolutions but it's even more important to use the highest resolution your screen can manage, this is the native resolution of the monitor and I've found a noticeable difference using anything but the native resolution in 3D applications. This is a real long video so don't try and watch it to the end :) it will give you an idea what can be done with a single computer.

http://www.vimeo.com/4538323