I'm putting together a system for FSX using 4 monitors on a board with two PCI-E x16 slots (ASUS DH Deluxe) split into two 8x with two cards installed. I have two X1950XT 512MB cards on the way from New Egg. Each one will drive 2 monitors, and at least 3 of the monitors will have 3d on them.Here's the question:Does the second card help rendering the graphics on the screen, or are all of the graphics on all 4 screens rendered by the primary card?I don't want to have a high end card in the second slot if it's not doing any of the rendering; that is, if it's just there to add monitor ports.Thanks in advance!

In a non-SLI arrangement, the primary card does it all. The second card just provides a place to plug in more monitors. Even an old PCI (non-"e") card will work. Although a cheapo 7300 PCI-e is probably a good bet (ref, XFX tech support).

I have a second card in my system to run an external monitor with instruments. When I use it and the instrument panel my FPS in FSX goes down from >25 to <10.

What is your second card?>I have a second card in my system to run an external monitor>with instruments. When I use it and the instrument panel my>FPS in FSX goes down from >25 to <10. >

I should trust XFX tech support as your source, but I'm hesitant because I noticed something on my machine last night.I have a cheap-o PCI card and a nicer AGP card in my system. The graphics on the monitors with the cheap card are very obviously different than those coming from the main card.I get my new computer today. I will do some testing with framerates on this.Setup 1: Two PCI-Express X1950XT 512MB cards.Setup 2: One PCE-Express X1950XT 512MB card and one Nvidia PCI 5200.I should see some marked difference in the two if they are rendered seperately. I'll post back on Wednesday or tomorrow.>In a non-SLI arrangement, the primary card does it all. The>second card just provides a place to plug in more monitors.>Even an old PCI (non-"e") card will work. Although a cheapo>7300 PCI-e is probably a good bet (ref, XFX tech support).

http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/06/05/pip...ared/index.htmlThe new Intel P35 boards are out now and we're starting to pickup some good reviews. As I was wandering through this one, I see a major point they discuss is this chipsets ability to provide only 16 PCI-e lanes from the north bridge. There are 6 more lanes available from the south bridge. Some mfgs are putting 2, full legnth, Vcard slots in the board anyway. Tom's describes the second slot will only have 4 (of the 6) south bridge lanes available and will Not be usable in SLI mode. The 68X series still rules here, but Intel's 32 lane X38 is only weeks away. Tom's describes that because SLI is not available, the second PCI-e Vslot can only be used to provide more monitor outputs. They go on to observe the second PCI-e slot sometimes is directly opposite a group of 4 SATA headers and would completely block these headers if a second maga-card was used. That's blocking 4 out of 6 of the board's SATA headers and a VerY big deal. However, they go on to observe this is really not a factor because the 2nd card would provide no additional video processing and they can't imagine why such a massive Vcard would be used in a second slot. They say don't worry about this because the only function the second slot provides in a non-SLI function is additional monitor outputs and a smaller card is the appropriate device for this second slot. I was interested because this is just what I'm looking to do with the P35. So far, I think that Asus is the ticket. I like the wifi and the 3 PCI slots. Sure wish they'd get rid of that headpipe nonsense. Tom's says it's all show anyway and I need to get a big CPU cooler in there. Abit is yet to make a showing. We'll see.

>http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/06/05/pip...ared/index.html>>The new Intel P35 boards are out now and we're starting to>pickup some good reviews. As I was wandering through this one,>I see a major point they discuss is this chipsets ability to>provide only 16 PCI-e lanes from the north bridge. There are 6>more lanes available from the south bridge. >>Some mfgs are putting 2, full legnth, Vcard slots in the board>anyway. Tom's describes the second slot will only have 4 (of>the 6) south bridge lanes available and will Not be usable in>SLI mode. The 68X series still rules here, but Intel's 32 lane>X38 is only weeks away. >>Tom's describes that because SLI is not available, the second>PCI-e Vslot can only be used to provide more monitor outputs.>They go on to observe the second PCI-e slot sometimes is>directly opposite a group of 4 SATA headers and would>completely block these headers if a second maga-card was used.>That's blocking 4 out of 6 of the board's SATA headers and a>VerY big deal. >>However, they go on to observe this is really not a factor>because the 2nd card would provide no additional video>processing and they can't imagine why such a massive Vcard>would be used in a second slot. They say don't worry about>this because the only function the second slot provides in a>non-SLI function is additional monitor outputs and a smaller>card is the appropriate device for this second slot. >>I was interested because this is just what I'm looking to do>with the P35. So far, I think that Asus is the ticket. I like>the wifi and the 3 PCI slots. Sure wish they'd get rid of that>headpipe nonsense. Tom's says it's all show anyway and I need>to get a big CPU cooler in there. Abit is yet to make a>showing. We'll see. Ok. I'm going to take this and run with a matrox Triple Head 2 Go instead then. Which, incidentally, is the same price as the card I'm returning.Thanks, Sam.

I've been struggling to use multi-monitor displays with FSX. It's do-able as FSX provides a view-sync function. I can start a second V-cockpit view, undock, then drag to the second monitor. Then, I can mess around with the view and (basically) align the second view to the primary view. I then initiate FSX's View Sync function and the views move together with the view panning. Theoretically, I could use any number of monitors from several non-SLI'd Vcards. But geeze, what a pain . . . AND the views don't really sync well. I really don't know how else to use a non-SLI'd, multi-monitor setup for FSX. What I theorize Should work is this. I Should be able to just drag a single, windowed FSX display out to the edges of my second (third, forth, multi-) monitor, nOn-SLI'd, nOn-THTG setup. But it just won't doIt. The single windowed FSX V-cockpit window just bangs into the edges of its primary monitor. Oh darn! Can anybody get this to work? So, at this point, the only other solution I can see is to follow your plan. Use a THTG driven off a single (or SLI'd) Vcard. Using a THTG configuration, noW an SLI'd set could make lots of sense. You are driving (essentially) a single, gigantic 3840 X 1080 monitor from a single (or SLI'd) Vcard output. I'm getting dizzy. How about a simpler solution? Just say to heck with multi-monitor displays. Those 42" 1080p LCDs are getting to be below 1000 bucks. A single 42"-er ought to do it for about the same dough as a bunch of little monitors and that THTG unit. Hummm? Dramatic display (why not two!), same bucks, big WoW factor. Just a thought.

Where do you find this view-sync function?gb.

Remember Taildragger? Here's the post."BTW, here's a tidbit you can try that doesn't even require multiple monitors:1. Go to the keyboard assignment dialog and look for "View - link all (toggle)".2. Assign this to a key combo (I use CTRL+SHIFT+/).3. Load a flight.4. Select the VC view.5. Open a new VC view (from the menu: Views | New View | Cockpit | Virtual Cockpit).6. Use your keyboard/hat switch to pan the new view to look right.7. Press the keys you defined in step 2.8. Repeat steps 5. 6 and 7 to create additional views 9. Drag new view over to appropriate monitor. 10. Pan around.You can optionally repeat steps 5 and 6 and pan in different directions. To revert to normal mode press the key combo again.I'll leave it to you to discover what this can be used for.TaildraggerGet the inside scoop of Flight Simulator X:http://blogs.msdn.com/tdragger/"

ok, thanks.gb.