One topic I haven't seen here in FS-land is any discussion of nVidia's Surround for multi-monitor use. A pair or triplet of 200-series or higher cards can drive a single virtual wide panoramic view on 3 monitors. I know a few guys using it for gaming, but nobody using it on a flight simulator.I do find myself wondering how a pair of GTX580s running three 16:9 monitors in surround mode on a 5760 x 1050 triple-monitor array would work.Anybody tried it yet?CheersBob ScottColonel, USAF (ret)ATP IMEL Gulfstream II-III-IV-VColorado Springs, CO

One topic I haven't seen here in FS-land is any discussion of nVidia's Surround for multi-monitor use. A pair or triplet of 200-series or higher cards can drive a single virtual wide panoramic view on 3 monitors. I know a few guys using it for gaming, but nobody using it on a flight simulator.I do find myself wondering how a pair of GTX580s running three 16:9 monitors in surround mode on a 5760 x 1050 triple-monitor array would work.Anybody tried it yet?CheersBob ScottColonel, USAF (ret)ATP IMEL Gulfstream II-III-IV-VColorado Springs, CO

I am also interested in hearing any responses to regarding this.I have heard from quite a few people that the GTX 580 (and all other Nvidia cards for that matter) seem to have issues in triple screen resolutions when 4xFSAA or higher is used (in addition to other settings) due to the ram limitaion on the card (1.5 gb). Having said that, the only flight sim I have seen tested with the GTX 580 at a very high mulit-monitor res. was DCS : A-10 (3x 30") and once FSAA was set to 4x the game crashed due to a lack of ram on the video card.Of course, FSX/FS9 are CPU focused so I am not sure how the lack (relative term, lol) of video ram woild affectthe game. There are quite a few Eyefinity videos on Youtube with FS, but NV Surround seems to be another story.I have read about a few Eyefinity issues with regards to screen tearing so I would prefer to go Nvidia, but I am not sure if that is an viable option (since I like at least 4x FSAA + Super-Sampling).If only the GTX 580 had 2gb of ram....if only......

I'm not sure what it is you want to know but there are a few threads about nvidia surround mode if you search the forums a bit.I've used it (not with gtx580 though) but settled with Eyefinity for various reasons.

Hi Bob,I'm running a triple monitor (3 Samsung SyncMaster T260HD Monitors (5760x1200x32) setup with two GTX 480 (2 ASUS ENGTX480) Video boards. I have it setup via Nvidia's control panel as span displays with surround.I run a triple screen resolution of 5760x1200x32 with no problems, I think it looks great.

Hi Bob,I'm running a triple monitor (3 Samsung SyncMaster T260HD Monitors (5760x1200x32) setup with two GTX 480 (2 ASUS ENGTX480) Video boards. I have it setup via Nvidia's control panel as span displays with surround.I run a triple screen resolution of 5760x1200x32 with no problems, I think it looks great.

Thanks Mike...I have a couple questions, if you wouldn't mind giving me a data dump. 1. Do you have the two GTX480 cards SLIed, or just two video cards running side-by-side? 2. Which nVidia driver are you using? 3. What level of AA do you use?4. What sorts of frame rates do you get driving all three monitors in various FS scenarios (wx, complex acft/scenery add-ons)? I spent several hours yesterday perusing the nVidia forums, and there's a sh*tstorm of hate and discontent over there about nVidia drivers not working with 3DVS.CheersBob ScottColonel, USAF (ret)ATP IMEL Gulfstream II-III-IV-VColorado Springs, CO

Hi Bob, 1. Do you have the two GTX480 cards SLIed, or just two video cards running side-by-side? A. The cards are SLI.2. Which nVidia driver are you using? A. I'm using the 266.35 Beta drivers.3. What level of AA do you use?A. nvidia control panel Anisotropic Filtering: 16X Power Management: Prefer Maximum Performance Texture Filtering - Negative LOD Bias: Clamp Texture Filtering - Quality: High Quality nvidia inspector Antialiasing - Behavior Flags: AA_BEHAVIOR_FLAGS_NONE Antialiasing - Mode Selector: AA_MODE_SELECTOR_ENHANCE Antialiasing - Setting: AA_MODE_METHOD_MIXEDSAMPLE_8X4. What sorts of frame rates do you get driving all three monitors in various FS scenarios (wx, complex acft/scenery add-ons)? A. Using FSdreamteam, Flytampa, Blueprint, Aerosoft, Cloud 9, Imagine Simulation, Orbx, Ultimate Airport Environment, REX, GEX, Ultimate Terrain, FSGenesis and others I don't remember off the top off my head while using activesky evolution, I see on average 20+ FPS while using the Level-D 767 aircraft. My system specs are shown below.I'm using FPS Limiter set at 30 and EVGA Precision to run the fan speed at 100%, these cards run Hot,Hot,Hot...Hope this helps answer some of your questions, if you need anything else just let me know.BTW: One thing to keep in mind, the nvidia drivers are fussy, at least on my system. I actually have to completely uninstall previous drivers while upgrading before I am able to get surround working. If I do not do a complete uninstall/new install, all I get is a black screen and when I reboot the system, the resolution sets itself to 640x480x32. My monitor's native resolution of 1920x1200 is not on the list of selectable resolutions.

Thanks Mike...very interesting.I do have a few more follow-up questions:1. Are you overclocking the 480s at all? 2. What sorts of temps do you see on the 480s, and with what kind of ambient temp in the room?3. Are the proper monitor resolutions apparent/available after uninstalling/clean-installing the new drivers? 4. At what refresh rate are you running the cards/monitors when in triple-span surround mode?5. What OS are you using?6. Have you tried running FS9 in surround mode?7. What's your experience been with other software (games and other) in this configuration?CheersBob ScottColonel, USAF (ret)ATP IMEL Gulfstream II-III-IV-VColorado Springs, CO

Hi Bob,1. Are you overclocking the 480s at all? A. I haven't touched the video boards as far as overclocking. When running FSX the temps are high, don't want to push them without water cooling.2. What sorts of temps do you see on the 480s, and with what kind of ambient temp in the room?A. The board temps are in the 80s Celsius, room temp 72 degrees.3. Are the proper monitor resolutions apparent/available after uninstalling/clean-installing the new drivers? A. Yes, I'm given the option of 1920x12004. At what refresh rate are you running the cards/monitors when in triple-span surround mode?A. I'm able to run the monitors at 1920x1200 @ 60Hz.5. What OS are you using?A. Windows 7 64bit.6. Have you tried running FS9 in surround mode?A. Nope, I only run FSX at the moment.7. What's your experience been with other software (games and other) in this configuration?A. This computer is dedicated for FSX flight simulation, no other software is installed.Hope this helps, need any other info just ask.

Hi Bob,1. Are you overclocking the 480s at all? A. I haven't touched the video boards as far as overclocking. When running FSX the temps are high, don't want to push them without water cooling.2. What sorts of temps do you see on the 480s, and with what kind of ambient temp in the room?A. The board temps are in the 80s Celsius, room temp 72 degrees.3. Are the proper monitor resolutions apparent/available after uninstalling/clean-installing the new drivers? A. Yes, I'm given the option of 1920x12004. At what refresh rate are you running the cards/monitors when in triple-span surround mode?A. I'm able to run the monitors at 1920x1200 @ 60Hz.5. What OS are you using?A. Windows 7 64bit.6. Have you tried running FS9 in surround mode?A. Nope, I only run FSX at the moment.7. What's your experience been with other software (games and other) in this configuration?A. This computer is dedicated for FSX flight simulation, no other software is installed.Hope this helps, need any other info just ask.

Thanks again Mike. Yes, temps in the 80s are on the hot side. I use a single 480 driving a single T260 now, overclocked to 800 MHz, and on FSX it runs in the low 60s at highest load on ground at a complex airport with lots of AI...but my ambient temp is 65 deg F. I keep the fan at 70%.I'm still sitting on the fence w/r/t surround. I sure wouldn't want to go there if it meant losing FS9.Another one of those things that makes me go "hmmmmmmmmmmmmm"CheersBob ScottColonel, USAF (ret)ATP IMEL Gulfstream II-III-IV-VColorado Springs, CO

Hey Bob,You can still disable 2 monitors if you want to use FS9 on a single screen.

Hey Bob,You can still disable 2 monitors if you want to use FS9 on a single screen.

Yeah, I know, but I still do probably half my simming on FS9, so it wouldn't make sense to incur the expense and then have all that stuff sitting dormant while I'm in FS9.I think I'm going to wait on surround until the 3DVS drivers mature (or die a horrible lingering death), and maybe for the next step up when LGA2011, 6GB SATA, and PCIe 3.0 are available to be leveraged. I'm frankly pretty happy being able to get into KJFK or EDDF at 25-30 fps stutter-free...don't want to overreach and be back in tweaker's Hell!CheersBob ScottColonel, USAF (ret)ATP IMEL Gulfstream II-III-IV-VColorado Springs, CO