Dula Monitor rumor on GTX 260

[Dondo 0]

I've been having lots of problem with my new quad core/GTX 260, Vista 64 setup. Long story short, the computer guys that built my system told me that the new generation of Nividia cards (260/280) do not handle dual monitor setups very well anymore. Particularly two different monitors with two different resolutions. Any truth to this? My experience so far has been miserable on my new gaming rig.My old system, P4, 2 gig ram, Nvidia 9600 512, ran dual monitors just fine. I have a 24" LCD and a 17" LCD. The smaller monitor is not DVI, just a standard VGA connection. The 24" can do both. I ran the 24" at 1600x1200 and the 17" at 1024x768, using the smaller monitor for my radio stack and GPS. Large monitor was "cockpit" view. The setup worked great. Never had a problem. This was with FS9.The computer guys told me you can't do that with new hardware. (they also asked me why I would want too, that ticked me off some, but that is another story).They also said MS has some hotfix's that should help the stability of FSX in Vista 64. They believe that is has something to do with virtual memory (they also said that I had 32 bit vidcard drivers installed for my 260, which was a load of hogwash. I know the difference between 32 and 64)Anyone running two different monitors on a new video card, running different resolutions?

[Guest firehawk44]

I've been having lots of problem with my new quad core/GTX 260, Vista 64 setup. Long story short, the computer guys that built my system told me that the new generation of Nividia cards (260/280) do not handle dual monitor setups very well anymore. Particularly two different monitors with two different resolutions. Any truth to this? My experience so far has been miserable on my new gaming rig.My old system, P4, 2 gig ram, Nvidia 9600 512, ran dual monitors just fine. I have a 24" LCD and a 17" LCD. The smaller monitor is not DVI, just a standard VGA connection. The 24" can do both. I ran the 24" at 1600x1200 and the 17" at 1024x768, using the smaller monitor for my radio stack and GPS. Large monitor was "cockpit" view. The setup worked great. Never had a problem. This was with FS9.The computer guys told me you can't do that with new hardware. (they also asked me why I would want too, that ticked me off some, but that is another story).They also said MS has some hotfix's that should help the stability of FSX in Vista 64. They believe that is has something to do with virtual memory (they also said that I had 32 bit vidcard drivers installed for my 260, which was a load of hogwash. I know the difference between 32 and 64)Anyone running two different monitors on a new video card, running different resolutions?

For fear of getting feedback like you gave those poor computer techs, I'll see if I can help you or try to put you in the right direction(s). First, there were several hotfixes released by MS that helped the stability of Vista 32/64 and thus helped FSX too. At the time, the ACES Team developers and Nvidia techs recommended everyone download and install the hotfixes. Nvidia had these hotfixes listed on their website at one time but they are no longer there as all hotfixes were incorporated into updates to Vista 32/64. So, if you have been updating your Vista OS, you have them installed. Many people were receiving out of memory errors running FSX. These were caused by improper management of virtual memory and the fact the original FSX w/SP1 did not allow the application to "see" more than 2 GB of memory. SP2 provided a new FSX.exe which was modified to allow FSX to see more than 2 GB of memory. With FSX/SP2 and updates to your 64 bit OS, no additional actions are required on your part (except you still can't have all the sliders set to max like you did in FS9). For people using the 32 bit OS in XP/Vista, they need to add the /3GB switch or increaseuserva bcdedit. It's all detailed by Nick N in a recent post in the FSX Forum where he provided excellent advice on setting up FSX and fixing OOM errors. Or you can find the info he provided at this link: http://www.simforums.com/forums/forum_posts.asp?TID=29041.The computer guys who built your system were partially right regarding the new generation of Nvidia cards that do not handle dual monitor setups very well. Nvidia recently released the 180/181 series of video card drivers which provides multi-monitor setups in SLI mode for the first time. You can get more info on that technology in their SLI community page. I do not have dual monitors but have been doing some research because I intend to setup dual monitors w/my dual 8800GTX's in the near future. Here's a link to a multi-monitor forum that might answer most of your questions: http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/forum...2b5d143b1512ed0. Hope this helps.Jim

[Guest D17S]

I had the GTX260 driving a 40 at 19x10 and a 19 at 12x10. That worked fine. However the 260 would not allow my 2nd Vcard to be recognized. The 88 it replaced had no issues with a 2nd Vcard, but the 260 left my 3rd monitor black. Also, the 260 did not support Vista's sleep function. Since it provided No improvement to FS (with a Q at 3.6) it went back.

[Dondo 0]

Thanks for the info. I plugged everything in (both monitors, running different res) and so far everything seems to be running fine. I tried this set up when I first got the computer and was getting constant crashes. The computer techs told me it was the dual monitor setup, so I ran 1 monitor for several months and while I didn't get as many Vista/FSX crashes, it still happened. After taking the PC (along with everything else, controllers, monitors, even the keyboard/mouse) and letting them tinker with it for a week, the computer guys said that they couldn't find a problem with anything and that they charged me $20 to install 64 bit video card drivers. They told me I only had 32 bit installed. (Wrong, I showed them which drivers I installed as I saved them to Downloads and they matched the exact drivers they downloaded). Regardless, I have both monitor running and FSX actually worked for more than an hour without crashing.Thanks for the replies. I'll check out that website.Dondo