Multiple monitors. What to start with?

[skysurfer 76]

Good day all.

I am new in this part of the forum and I am here to just to ask some suggestions because I have no idea what to start with. I have two monitors now and I use one for VC and the second one for my utilities. I am thinking to use 2 monitors for VC (CA and OF sides) and use one of those for utilities at the same time if possible (like switching one monitor between VC and panels or utilities). I may go with 3 monitors to use 3 for VC and one of them for panels or utilities. So I am still guessing. Before I start buying more hardware and software I’d like to know what PC I have to have. I wonder if my current PC is able to handle 2 or 3 monitors and if it doesn’t, what I will need to improve (video card, power supply and stuff like that), so what is recommended basic PC specs to run several monitors. Also do I really need DualHead2Go or TripleHead2Go.  
Thank you.
 

Processor: Intel® Core™ i7-2600 quad-core
Processor Speed 3.8GHz RAM
RAM 10.0 GB
Video card NVIDIA GeForce GTX 550 Ti
Video Memory  1GB DDR5
Operating System Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
 

[curbz 22]

I had the same dilemma and ended up going with 3 monitors for vc and another for panels. I upgraded my gpu to nvidia 670 (1gb version) which is capable of running 4 monitors. my 600w power supply was sufficient so I didn't have to upgrade that. I actually run my instrument panel off a second very cheap gpu (£22) due to a bug in the nvidia drivers. I'm very happy with the setup and get decent fps (25+) in and around Heathrow (uk2000 scenery free version) / London. my cpu is an i5 overclocked to 4.2ghz and have 8gb ram. hope this helps!

 

Sent from my AZ210A using Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

 

[skysurfer 76]

I had the same dilemma and ended up going with 3 monitors for vc and another for panels. I upgraded my gpu to nvidia 670 (1gb version) which is capable of running 4 monitors. my 600w power supply was sufficient so I didn't have to upgrade that. I actually run my instrument panel off a second very cheap gpu (£22) due to a bug in the nvidia drivers. I'm very happy with the setup and get decent fps (25+) in and around Heathrow (uk2000 scenery free version) / London. my cpu is an i5 overclocked to 4.2ghz and have 8gb ram. hope this helps!

 

Sent from my AZ210A using Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

Thank you for the reply. Everything is helpful here. Do you have DualHead2Go or TripleHead2Go?

[cva1077 68]

 

 

Do you have DualHead2Go or TripleHead2Go?

 

I'm pretty sure he wouldn't have a tripleHead2Go as his GPU can already support 4 monitors. When I did some research a while back, I found that it was better if you had a GPU that has native multi monitor support., as opposed to using a TH2G.

 

I believe that the TH2G is an anologue output device, so it is better (nowadays) to use a GPU which supports more monitors (digital output)

[skysurfer 76]

I'm pretty sure he wouldn't have a tripleHead2Go as his GPU can already support 4 monitors. When I did some research a while back, I found that it was better if you had a GPU that has native multi monitor support., as opposed to using a TH2G.

 

I believe that the TH2G is an anologue output device, so it is better (nowadays) to use a GPU which supports more monitors (digital output)

 

OK. Make sense. Thank you for help.

[BartEnder 2]

Edward, if You provide the resolution of Your monitors, it will help a little.

I was using VC view spanned across 3 x 1920x1080@50Hz on GTX280, which was almost enough. Your CPU is fast enough for a nice FSX ride, I am not sure about the graphic card, since I do not know Your model at all. I also noticed, there is no difference between one monitor and three, unless You will set very high nVidia settings (4 x SGSS could be a good example).

 

There is no difference between TH2Go and nVidia Surround. None at all. At least within my rig.

[curbz 22]

yeah I did look at th2g but the cost was almost the same as the nvidia 670 which can run an additional monitor so plumped for nvidia surround instead

 

Sent from my AZ210A using Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

 

[skysurfer 76]

Edward, if You provide the resolution of Your monitors, it will help a little.

I was using VC view spanned across 3 x 1920x1080@50Hz on GTX280, which was almost enough. Your CPU is fast enough for a nice FSX ride, I am not sure about the graphic card, since I do not know Your model at all. I also noticed, there is no difference between one monitor and three, unless You will set very high nVidia settings (4 x SGSS could be a good example).

 

There is no difference between TH2Go and nVidia Surround. None at all. At least within my rig.

 

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 550 Ti

Screen resolution 1920x1080

 

Thx 

[Gregg_Seipp 565]

I've always found these intriguing...

 

http://www.rainman.tv/index_files/Page933.htm

 

Check the bottom of the page.

[N1125Y 22]

...new GPU can already support 4 monitors, but FSX is old, I don't think it's caipable to handel more than 3 monitors ....

[BartEnder 2]

 

 

but FSX is old, I don't think it's caipable to handel more than 3 monitors

That's not a problem - it will be seen by the OS and FSX as one monitor.

 

speedbird144

You should be fine with Your setup, providing, You will use one big view instead of multi-views (left, front, right for example). My PC doesn't handle many views very nice, especially in bad weather near big airports.

[skysurfer 76]

I also read that some people use and suggest 2 videocard at the same time. Some of them say 2 video card needed to be the same but others say one video card could be a powerful one and the second one may be a cheaper. I just wonder why 2 video cards are beneficial? 

 

Thank you. 

[curbz 22]

I believe the cards need to be the same if you want to run them in SLI mode whereby they share the workload. If you don't want SLI but want to add more monitors than a single card can handle due to the number of connections it has then a 2nd card can be a different model to the first. But to my knowledge you can't have a single view spread across monitors that are physically attached to separate cards. I use my second cheap less powerful card to display 2D instrument panels on a single monitor and the faster card to run a view spanning the 3 monitors attached to it.

 

Sent from my AZ210A using Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

 

[N1125Y 22]

..BartEnder

 

... okay BartEnder, so what you telling me is that I can

 

hoop up TH2G to one port (have 3 monitor connected to TH2G) 

hook up 2 more monitors to the 2nd & 3ed ports

for a total of 5 monitors, did I get it right ????

 

Cheers

Yair

[skysurfer 76]

OK. Another silly question. How can I span views between 2 and 3 monitors? I google it and some folks said that option is no longer available in W7 and 3rd party software needed to installed. 

 

Thx again.