GTX 400 series in SLI

[Guest morpheous]

Hello,I'm currently in the market for a new video card(s) that will allow me to run my 3 22" dell widescreen monitors in one 5040X1040 display. Does anyone have the GTX 460 or above running in SLI mode with the latest surround vision (not 3D) enabled?I've seen benchmarks in the past that show that FSX runs slower with two nvidia cards in SLI rather than just 1 card. So I'm not sure if I should be getting two GTX 460 cards or 1 card and a matrox triple head2go.Anyone have any experience using both? I'd love to hear about the performance and display quality comparison.thanksJim VVancouverI'm currently running:i7 920 @3.8gigabyte EX58 mb6gb DDR3 ram9800GTX 512mb TrackIR 5

[Guest veeray]

1 card is plenty for FSX...

[Guest morpheous]

1 card is plenty for FSX...

Does 1 GTX 460 power up 3 22" monitors?Jim v

[joergalv 6]

Does 1 GTX 460 power up 3 22" monitors?Jim v

if you don't require 16x AA and all FSX sliders maxed out, yes.GTX 460 with 1GB serves my 4 monitors 3x19" @ 3840x1024 (TH2GO) + 24" @1920x1080 VERY well.Be sure to get a card with 1GB.

[Guest morpheous]

if you don't require 16x AA and all FSX sliders maxed out, yes.GTX 460 with 1GB serves my 4 monitors 3x19" @ 3840x1024 (TH2GO) + 24" @1920x1080 VERY well.Be sure to get a card with 1GB.

Thanks for the info, sounds like I should place my order in. But I don't have TH2GO and comparing costs the TH2GO costs more then if I buy a second GTX 460 and run them in SLI with the latest drivers supporting surround vision. So I was wondering if anyone had or has both and could comment on the pros and cons.Jim V.

[PingPong 60]

Thanks for the info, sounds like I should place my order in. But I don't have TH2GO and comparing costs the TH2GO costs more then if I buy a second GTX 460 and run them in SLI with the latest drivers supporting surround vision. So I was wondering if anyone had or has both and could comment on the pros and cons.Jim V.

I have two 480s in SLI running a triple widescreen display and they are amazing, absolutely amazing. The 460 overclocked is a very nice card so I would suspect you would get a very nice result running two SLI, overclocked, with a triple head display.

[Guest morpheous]

I have two 480s in SLI running a triple widescreen display and they are amazing, absolutely amazing. The 460 overclocked is a very nice card so I would suspect you would get a very nice result running two SLI, overclocked, with a triple head display.

Thanks for the response, that is exactly what I was looking for. I hear that the 480's are quite power hungry and noisey? Has that been your experience, also do you run FSX with sliders maxed?thanksJim V

[PingPong 60]

Thanks for the response, that is exactly what I was looking for. I hear that the 480's are quite power hungry and noisey? Has that been your experience, also do you run FSX with sliders maxed?thanksJim V

Yes they are power-hungry, I have a 1200W power supply, as for noisy, that's a judgement call, it doesn't bother me as there is usually the sound of an airplane engine coming out of the speakers.They used to make alot of heat out of the back of the machine, but I installed the new high air flow back plates and that problem has been taken care of, their temps are just fine now peaking in the mid 70s.I run all sliders right with Bufferpools = 0 tweaks except autogen. I can run all sliders right over default terrain, Megascenery, Switzerland pro, Tongass Fjords, most other scenery, but over Orbx PNW stuff I take the autogen back one notch(Orbx has tons more autogen than most). I get 30fps at 5040 x 1050 over the orbx airports, it drops to mid - low 20s over cities. In truth I could probably run autogen at extremely dense in rural areas and drop to high teens over big cities with Orbx stuff, but I like to keep my settings at a "no worries" point so I don't have to change them when I fly (which is immersion breaking).I can say definitely that I am very happy with the purchase and would recommend it, when the new 485/495s come out I will look at upgrading to see if it's worth it.

[Guest morpheous]

Yes they are power-hungry, I have a 1200W power supply, as for noisy, that's a judgement call, it doesn't bother me as there is usually the sound of an airplane engine coming out of the speakers.They used to make alot of heat out of the back of the machine, but I installed the new high air flow back plates and that problem has been taken care of, their temps are just fine now peaking in the mid 70s.I run all sliders right with Bufferpools = 0 tweaks except autogen. I can run all sliders right over default terrain, Megascenery, Switzerland pro, Tongass Fjords, most other scenery, but over Orbx PNW stuff I take the autogen back one notch(Orbx has tons more autogen than most). I get 30fps at 5040 x 1050 over the orbx airports, it drops to mid - low 20s over cities. In truth I could probably run autogen at extremely dense in rural areas and drop to high teens over big cities with Orbx stuff, but I like to keep my settings at a "no worries" point so I don't have to change them when I fly (which is immersion breaking).I can say definitely that I am very happy with the purchase and would recommend it, when the new 485/495s come out I will look at upgrading to see if it's worth it.

Thanks, so running the cards in SLI has a performance gain over one card? I've heard that FSX doesn't like SLI but I know it's the only way to get their surround vision to work. Have you compared one card using your TH2go vs two cards in SLI? FPS?Thanks, JimV

[Guest veeray]

Well if you want the extra video outputs than SLIing the 460 is just fine, it won't slow down your system or speed it up having 2 cards. FSX recognizes both just doesn't scale in the rendering speed.

[Arklight1 140]

Buy 2 GTX 460's, preferably the new 2GB model when it comes out, and run NV Surround.TH2Go will allow you to run triple monitors with little to no FSAA and it won't do a darn bit of good for your performance. Where as SLI will not only open up NV Surround for Multi-monitor gaming, it will increase your performance in just about every other game outside of FSX....which it won't hurt the performance of anyways. My .02c.

[PingPong 60]

Thanks, so running the cards in SLI has a performance gain over one card? I've heard that FSX doesn't like SLI but I know it's the only way to get their surround vision to work. Have you compared one card using your TH2go vs two cards in SLI? FPS?Thanks, JimV

I have not made that direct comparison, but I had triple head 2 go with other cards before. I use MSI afterburner with my current setup and it shows both cards being used equally. Remeber I use the BP=0 tweak too, that kind of uses SLI.Either way, if you get the two cards, I think you'll be very happy as I am.