1080p Widescreen Selection

[Guest sunbear]

Anybody care to recommend what size widescreen 1080P monitor would work with FS9? My computer specs are as follows:Dual core 3.16ghz processorAsus P5B-E motherboard4 gig of DDR2-800 ramInvidia 8800GT 512 meg. graphics card21" widescreen gateway (currently)250 gig H.D.Windows XPWould like to know what size would work best since I fly mostly using the PMDG software..I'm getting approx 25-30 fps with most sliders maxed out except clouds.Any ideas on what size screen would work with my spec's ?Regards,jack

[McCrash 3]

http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/forum/index.php

[january 19]

Anybody care to recommend what size widescreen 1080P monitor would work with FS9? --------jackJack- I've seen forum posts that a few simmers are using 1920x1080 screens up to 40+". But I suspect that over 40" you may have to sit back a fair distance or pay the price of graininess. And being several feet away from panel and windscreen wouldn't be very realistic compared with the real thing.Another option would be to consider multiple/triple monitors to give a wrap around, 140

[Reset XPDR 1,271]

Anybody care to recommend what size widescreen 1080P monitor would work with FS9? My computer specs are as follows:Dual core 3.16ghz processorAsus P5B-E motherboard4 gig of DDR2-800 ramInvidia 8800GT 512 meg. graphics card21" widescreen gateway (currently)250 gig H.D.Windows XPWould like to know what size would work best since I fly mostly using the PMDG software..I'm getting approx 25-30 fps with most sliders maxed out except clouds.Any ideas on what size screen would work with my spec's ?Regards,jack

By definition, all 1080P screens run at the same resolution of 1920x1080, so it doesn't really matter what physical size you get from a performance perspective. I would however recommend an LCD screen over a plasma one as the image will be sharper for a computer's output. I've run FS on my 47" 1080P LCD TV, sitting about 1 metre from the screen, and it was a very pleasant experience.Gary

[Guest sunbear]

Thanks guys for your inputs. That's quite a setup Alex. What kind of frame rates do you get and what graphic cards do you run?Regards,jack

[Guest sunbear]

By definition, all 1080P screens run at the same resolution of 1920x1080, so it doesn't really matter what physical size you get from a performance perspective. I would however recommend an LCD screen over a plasma one as the image will be sharper for a computer's output. I've run FS on my 47" 1080P LCD TV, sitting about 1 metre from the screen, and it was a very pleasant experience.Gary

Gary,Is their a 40" LCD that you would recommend? I don't know about the vizio's and the westinghouse brands!! I wonder what is important when considering a LCD for PMDG products! Should I be looking at contrast levels, brightness, etc? I'm not too familiar with the various models out there to make any kind of a decision on what to buy etc. Any help?Regards,jack

[Guest D17S]

I ran the budget Westinghouse 42" LCD for a year. It was great. The thing sits in the corner of an L-shaped desk with the joy sticks against the stand. Two 19s sit on one side for a CDU, jep charts, browsers and email. For serious flying, I'll scoot around into the corner and sit 6 inches to 1 foot from the 40' monitor. I run a DVI output from the Vcard to the TV's HDMI port and the pic is completely clean. With my nose 6 inches from the screen, the peripheral view ("immersion factor") is quite good. It had some problems and BB swapped it out to a Samsung LTN 4081f. This was the $3K top of the line, but it is now last year's model. It's noticeably better. For ~ $1,200, this is the one to get right now. I actually had 2 of the 4081 sammys sitting side by side driven off a single 9800GTX. FSX won't span the virtual cockpit, but it was fun having giant Jep charts up on the second. The Samsung 9 series replaced it, but made virtually no changes. Like the 4081 did last year, the 9 goes for $3K+. If you can still find it, the 4081 really is the one to get.

[january 19]

Thanks guys for your inputs. That's quite a setup Alex. What kind of frame rates do you get and what graphic cards do you run?Regards,jack

Jack- on the contrary, mine is a pretty basic setup !! The 'puter is over 5 yrs old- AMD XP2200, 1.8 Ghz & 2GB RAM with a GeForce FX5200 AGP video card and a same type PCI card. Two monitors are 8 yrs old, 19" CRTs plus a more recent 17" LCD. (it's pretty simple to mix & match monitors, correcting for whatever bezel separations you end up with.)With this "Smithsonian" class 'puter, I turn off Autogen, Scenery Display is midpoint, AI @30 and Clouds@Simple. I run Ultimate Terrain and Ground Environment full blast to compensate for retarded FS9 settings. This results in FPS in the 30-60 range unlocked with SINGLE monitor/view.Because the secondary views are partial screen height with popups below simulating the panel, the total pixel load for triple views is only about twice that of a single view setup. That is, triple view FPS are about 15-30, depending on aircraft, location,time of day etc. That's computer productivity- 3 times the view @ only a 50% drop in FPS !!An odd quirk is that in a really heavy duty situation such as landing at KLAX at night, frame rates may briefly drop well below 15- BUT the plane remains completely flyable right down to about 7FPS. The only effect is that nearby objects such as runway lights flashing past wingtips will exhibit a chatter or flicker but objects futher away continue smoothly. There are no pauses or stutters at these low FPS.This suggests to me that frame rates do not tell the whole story. My guess is that each view is updated sequentially- after all there is only one CPU. This means that 2/3 of the whole (synchronized) view is always unchanging while the other 1/3 is being updated. Maybe we just don't notice small changes to the whole. Perhaps the same phenomenon as when we fail to notice a Breaking News trailer at the bottom of an interesting TV movie!Hope this whets your interest in multiple views.Alex Reid

[Guest sunbear]

Thanks everyone for the overviews. Very interesting material to consider. Great setups...I'm jealous:)Happy Holidays to all.Regards,jack