Easiest way to use 4 monitors?

[Andayle 47]

Hiya allI have been using 2 monitors for around 3 years now and would never go back to a single monitor for flightsimming. Im now itching to expand to 4 monitors and really dont know the easiest way to do this.I have recently bought the Flight1 ATR-500 and that aircraft has so many pop up panels that it can be quite confusing. Things like not being able to see the gauges for the engines spooling up without actually having to open yet another panel. The setup I would really like would be something along the lines of a 4 monitor system set up as below.Monitor 1 - Main Forward Display without a panel. Im a real sucker for scenery, I have both Ultimate terrain and Flight environment pro and the panel is allways in the way. Im often flicking to the outside view just to check out some of the scenery im flying over.Monitor 2 - Displaying nothing other than the overhead panel.Monitor 3 - Displaying the main panel that would normaly be on monitor 1.Monitor 4 - Displaying just the odd few pop up panels like radios, FMC etc. Also would be the panel that I would put Activesky on, just so I can check the current weather etc. Ivao or vatsim clients would also be parked here.My current system is a Intel Duelcore 6700. 2gigs ram and a ATI X1900 GFX card wich is currently running my 2 19" flat panel displays. Im guessing that this system should easily push 4 monitors? As im only going to be using monitor 1 as a scenery display? The other 3 will be nothing more than ditached panels in dragable windows?I really need some advice on how I would go about setting something like this up.Any suggestions are most welcome.Many thanksDean.

[Kennair 4]

Hi Dean,You'll need to buy a second (probably PCI) video card.My setup uses 3 monitors running off one PC and this is achieved using two video cards. I have an NVidia 6600GT 256Mb AGP card and a 6200 128Mb PCI (the fastest PCI card available). Both have two monitor outputs therefore capable of running 4 monitors, but on my system 4 monitors would grind it to a halt.My system is a much lower spec than yours and I tend to achieve around 10-15 FPS while taxiing on the ground (often with major stutters however!) but once flying it gets up to 18 (where it is locked). Your system should handle it OK, but don't be surprised by the performance drop once you start dragging windows around, regardless of what they are displaying.Unless your PC has two AGP or PCIE ports, I think you will have to buy a similar PCI video card to run the other 2 monitors, and it is advisable to purchase the same platform card, which in your case will be ATI. I'm not sure it's possible to run the NVidia drivers and ATI on the same system.Setup is the same as you have done for the current 2 monitors, plug monitors 3 & 4 into the second video card, setup all the monitors in the ATI Catalyst control panel and undock/drag your required FS windows into the monitors. Once your happy, save your flight so you don't have to go through the process every time you start (you are probably already doing this though!).Happy flying,Ken.http://www.kennair.com"Aviation combines all the elements I love:Science, Freedom, Beauty, Adventure.As a pilot we must be at least proficient in all elements" - Charles Lindbergh.

[Andayle 47]

Hi Ken,Many thanks for the reply. It would seem that a second card is the easiest and cheapest method for a 4 monitor display. Only thing that I'm not sure about is the performance drop I will suffer from haveing 4 monitors active. If its only a few FPS then its not an issue but if its going to start chugging with 3 panels and 1 scenery display then I think I would rather not attempt it.Its not easy to test this either as I would have to go and buy 2 monitors and a new GFX card just to see the results. If anyone on these forums has a similar setup or has attempted this type of setup could you please post your thoughts?Once again many thanks Ken for the info and I love your site and wish you the best with your Project :)ThanksDean

[Guest bowingic]

Hi DeanYes I'm using the setup you have in mind...4 monitors....one dedicated to scenery. My machine is mid level, running LDS767, and I can confirm the performance drop and stutters as mentioned by Ken. A top of the range pc will probably handle it OK...people who have this have confirmed it works OK. Another solution which I experimented with recently is to use Wideview running the scenery on the client and aircraft stuff on the FS server pc. This way all scenery settings can be turned to minimum on the server, and right up on the client. This definitely improved things although slight stuttering was still evident on my system. Another advantage of this method is that you have one less monitor to run on the server. Disadvantage is you need another pc!By the way you can mix Nvidia and ATI drivers. I used a Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB AGP main card and two Nvidia TNT2 32MB PCI cards successfully for quite a few years until one of them died and I replaced them both with a Radeon 9250 Dual output PCI card...there was no noticeable difference in performance with the latter.Hope this helps

[Kennair 4]

Dean,There is no option but to shell out some cash by the looks of it. However you might pick up a second-hand PCI card at a computer salvage? CRT's a pretty cheap these days also.The other option, as Ian mentioned, would be to use a second PC. You would need to use something like WideView to run FS on both PC's, which is payware, but you can download a limited time trial version to evaluate. This option would take the load off you single PC and maintain good frame rates. I run anything I can on the second networked PC in order to free up as much as possible on the main.Ian, thanks for info on running NVidia an ATI together. I wasn't aware that was possible, or at least it would cause problems. That should open up the options for cheap second hand hardware for Dean. BTW, how is Tassie? I'm a Perth boy.Ken.

[Guest Alkit]

Just to make sue, your mother can support two video cards. I think you are using PCI-E. read your motherboard's instruction manual. It may degrade you some speed in the second video card slot. May be as x8 or x4 instead of x16. I am not sure how much the difference is, but sure there is a difference.Alkit

[kunzel4 0]

>Dean,>>There is no option but to shell out some cash by the looks of>it. However you might pick up a second-hand PCI card at a>computer salvage? CRT's a pretty cheap these days also.>>The other option, as Ian mentioned, would be to use a second>PC. You would need to use something like WideView to run FS>on both PC's, which is payware, but you can download a limited>time trial version to evaluate. This option would take the>load off you single PC and maintain good frame rates. I run>anything I can on the second networked PC in order to free up>as much as possible on the main.>>Ian, thanks for info on running NVidia an ATI together. I>wasn't aware that was possible, or at least it would cause>problems. That should open up the options for cheap second>hand hardware for Dean. BTW, how is Tassie? I'm a Perth>boy.>>Ken.>>Hi Dean,Welcome to the club of several monitors guys.My system nowadays have six (6) monitors and one (1) projector with two (2) PCs.Before I had one PC with 4 monitors and 1 projetor , but I had also a lot of stutters , so , I decided to change my configuration.I have one PC ( Intel/dual core/3.4GHZ/2GB RAM/NVIDIA 6200 Turbo 512 MB )connected to this PC I have the projector with the front view , only the scenary , the second PC ( P4 HT/3 GHZ/2GB RAM/ATI 800GTO 256 MB )I have connected the six monitors .For connection between the PCs I use WideView , PC with scenary as Client and PC with six monitors as Server, with this set up I don't have more stutters , everything is very smooth .In the six monitors , I use three for main panel ,one for CDU , one for Radio stack and one for Overhead panel , nowadays I fly DF 737-400 . The best 737-400 we have in our hobby ,everything is simulated .As this 737-400 was originally delivered for FS2002 I use it in my server PC and in the client I use FS2004.The reason for this FS configuration is very simple , I fly normally with scenaries of my country ( Brazil), we have excellent scenaries produced by our people for FS2004 , the DF737-400 for FS 2002 is wonderfull , so to fly this set is really outstanding.My next step is add IOCARDS , as I use a keyboard hacked system ,which work very nice but I thing that with IOCARDS I will improve the system.Any question let me know.RegardsAlberto Kunzel

[Andayle 47]

Many Many thanks guys, Its been a great help posting here and talking to people who actualy understand what im trying to achieve :)I have been browsing and found out that I can buy a cheap pci card for around

[Kennair 4]

Hi Alberto,It sounds like you have a serious system going on. I can highly recommend IOCards to enhance your experience. I know there are other systems equally good out there, but I found the Spanish experience quite simple and very flexible (also quite inexpensive). Once you start using their SIOC programming application you will find that there is nothing beyond your reach as far as recreating the realism. Good luck.Ken.http://www.kennair.comSYSTEM: PC1-AMD Athlon XP 3200, 1Gb RAM,NVidia 6600GT 256Mb AGP & NVidia 6200 128Mb PCI,2x17" LCD's, 1x20" CRT.FS9 & FSX, IOCards, FSUIPC,PC2-AMD Sempron 2400, 512Mb RAM, ATI 9200 256Mb AGP.ASv6.5, RC4.2/4.3, WideFS.

[kunzel4 0]

>Many Many thanks guys, Its been a great help posting here>and talking to people who actualy understand what im trying to>achieve :)>>I have been browsing and found out that I can buy a cheap pci>card for around

[Andayle 47]

Hi Alberto,That sounds like an awsome setup you have there. I have heard of Wideview before but never really looked into it as I have only the one PC. I was wondering how you control the panels on a second pc? Do you have to use the mouse on the second pc to click switches on the panels etc? and fly the plane with a joystick or yoke on the server pc with the scenery?Many thanksDean

[kunzel4 0]

>Hi Alberto,>>It sounds like you have a serious system going on. I can>highly recommend IOCards to enhance your experience. I know>there are other systems equally good out there, but I found>the Spanish experience quite simple and very flexible (also>quite inexpensive). Once you start using their SIOC>programming application you will find that there is nothing>beyond your reach as far as recreating the realism. Good>luck.>>Ken.>>http://www.kennair.com>SYSTEM: PC1-AMD Athlon XP 3200, 1Gb RAM,>NVidia 6600GT 256Mb AGP & NVidia 6200 128Mb PCI,>2x17" LCD's, 1x20" CRT.>FS9 & FSX, IOCards, FSUIPC,>PC2-AMD Sempron 2400, 512Mb RAM, ATI 9200 256Mb AGP.>ASv6.5, RC4.2/4.3, WideFS.Hi Ken ,I already bought some IOCARDS , now I need time to assembly everything , my only problem I feel that I will have is discover the offset for the gauges , as you know DF737-400 is a commercial product from Dreamfleet and there is the possibility that the offsets are not the same from FS default , but I will try.RegardsAlberto Kunzel

[btrjet 0]

Hi Andayle,The guys have more or less said it all so I'll just confirm I have been using 4 monitors in my home cockpit for a few years now with no problems at all.1 monitor for the front view only (no panels just the view) and three additional monitors below for homemade panels/gauges/FSNav, TCAS.Up 'til recently this was on a Socket 939 motherboard so the three additional monitors ran off the second output on the main nVidia 6600GT card and two extra (very) ancient PCI cards. You don't need anything powerful for panels.My newer system is a PCI-Express motherboard with 2 x full PCI_E slots so the main nVidia 7900GT card runs the front view and one panel monitor. For the other two monitors I use another (very) cheapo 7300GS with two outlets. If you're not using SLI the second card doesn't have to be the same as the main card.However, in contrast with some of the other guys here I have never had stutters on either system with 4 monitors.

[kunzel4 0]

>Hi Alberto,>>That sounds like an awsome setup you have there. I have heard>of Wideview before but never really looked into it as I have>only the one PC. I was wondering how you control the panels>on a second pc? Do you have to use the mouse on the second pc>to click switches on the panels etc? and fly the plane with a>joystick or yoke on the server pc with the scenery?>>Many thanks>DeanHi Dean ,The scenery is handled by the client PC and with a projector .The panels are handled by the server PC and with the six (6) monitors ,I control the plane from the server PC with mouse ,keyboard keys , etc. I fly with a yoke on the server PC . The client PC handle only the scenery , this way we can maximise all sliders , and have good fps and no stutters .Wideview is not expensive , it is a great software .RegardsAlberto Kunzel

[Andayle 47]

Hi guys.I managed to get a second GFX card today, Its a ATI Radeon 9250 128mb PCI. I have also Borrowed 2 monitors from a friend so I can test the setup. The card seems to be working fine as I have expanded my desktop to the 4 displays, However I have a slight problem with trying to get fs2004 running. When I try and start fs2004 I get a warning saying that my GFX cards dont have 3d capability and that fs2004 will now run in software mode, but if I turn the 2 displays off that are connected to th second card fs2004 starts fine. Also If I start fs2004 with the second card off load a flight and then turn the 2 extra displays on with the sim running they all work and I can drag panels around to the different monitors.All 4 monitors are the same size, using the same resolution of 1280x1024 and 60hz. I have tried reducing the size of the displays etc and fs2004 still wont start properly.Any help would be most apreciated as I only have a few hours left before I have to reurn these 2 monitors and end my testing for another few weeks. There cant be much wrong as it seems to work if I fire the monitors up after fs has started, but im sure this is not the way most people seem to get it working.Many thanks in advanceDean