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Hey guys,

 

I've done a search but didn't really find what I think is the correct answer.

 

I'm about to do a rebuilt and was tossing up between getting a 680GTX or waiting for the 780. In any event, thats another discussion. What I was trying to get my head around is whats required to run 3 monitors at once, all displaying FSX.

 

Last time I looked into this it required buying a TripleHead2Go. Is this still the case, or does this Nvidia Surround thing I've read some stuff about sort of do that for us? If not, what do I plug my three monitors into on the rear of the card? My 580GTX has 2xDVIs that I current use (although not to stretch the FSX view). Am I able to use the HDMI port at the same time as the two DVIs or does that cause problems?

 

Further, I presume that all three monitors must be the same type?

 

Cheers in advance,


Kael Oswald

7950X3D / 64GB DDR5 6000 @ CL30 / Custom Water Loop / RTX 4090 / 3 x 50" 4K LCD TVs

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1)Am I able to use the HDMI port at the same time as the two DVIs

 

2)Further, I presume that all three monitors must be the same type?

1) yes

 

2) not really, any will work but for best visuals you want the same size/ resolution.

 

...my 1000th post! :D

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Could just buy a another used 580 and run Sli to get NVsurround. I went with identical monitors as I found out the colors can be slightly different using different monitors, which drove me crazy trying to tweak,

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Thanks for the replies guys,

 

So, just to clarify, with the 680 GTX (and presumably the 780 GTX) do you need two cards running in SLI to use NVSurround? Or can I just use the one card and plug 3 displays into the back of it?

 

Ideally I'm wanting to run in full screen (not windowed) and stretch the image in line with 5000x1000 odd pixels.

 

Are the days of TH2G therefore gone if you can infact run three monitors off these new GTX cards?


Kael Oswald

7950X3D / 64GB DDR5 6000 @ CL30 / Custom Water Loop / RTX 4090 / 3 x 50" 4K LCD TVs

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I recently moved from a GTX570 to the GTX680 running 3X27" Asus and was gob smacked at the improvement.

 

My GTX680 already had the video-outs needed - 2X DVI an a HDMI

It was a piece of cake to set up:

I plugged two of my monitors from 'card DVI' to 'monitor DVI' and the last monitor from 'card HDMI' to 'monitor DVI' using a dedicated cable I picked up from Amazon for a couple of quid!

 

This solution cured the colour balance problem ohsirus mentions below - The imbalance seems to be a property of the monitor input rather than the card output. Using all DVI in's sorted this out.

 

Then it's just a matter of firing up Windows, telling it the order of your 3 monitors in 'surround mode' and setting up the bezel correction to take in to account of the plastic space around the monitor. This resulted in a custom resolution of 6072X1080.

 

The last tip is to use a magnification of around 0.80 to avoid the goldfish bowl effect. This as not a problem as you gain so much resolution, you will still have peripheral vision (I use it with TrackIR)

 

Have fun with your new toy KL Oo  !

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Thanks Nick! Thats just what I needed to hear!

 

I've already got 1x27" monitor currently running next to a 23" so the plan is to go and buy another 2x27"s to complete the setup. Don't know what to do with the current 23.... Will also have to go and invest in Track IR...


Kael Oswald

7950X3D / 64GB DDR5 6000 @ CL30 / Custom Water Loop / RTX 4090 / 3 x 50" 4K LCD TVs

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I have a GTX680 and run three monitors. I have 2x Samsung monitors and a Sony Playstation TV as the third. I can run in Surround mode, but I became frustrated because I could not get them to run very well. I had frames, it was the bezel as well as the middle monitor runs at a slightly different resolution (1920X1080 compared to 1920X1200 of the other two). One day I will try and figure it all out. I would recommend using the same monitors all the way around. I got a great deal on the TV (Clearance from $500 to $75) and its a great quality TV that supports 3d. Even though, I would still recommend using the same screens for all.

 

Nick


Nick Hatchel

"Sometimes, flying feels too godlike to be attained by man. Sometimes, the world from above seems too beautiful, too wonderful, too distant for human eyes to see …"
Charles A. Lindbergh, 1953

System: Custom Watercooled--Intel i7-8700k OC: 5.0 Ghz--Gigabyte Z370 Gaming 7--EVGA GTX 1080ti Founders Edition--16GB TridentZ RGB DDR4--240GB SSD--460GB SSD--1TB WD Blue HDD--Windows 10--55" Sony XBR55900E TV--GoFlight VantEdge Yoke--MFG Crosswind Pedals--FSXThrottle Quattro Throttle Quadrant--Thrustmaster Warthog HOTAS--TrackIR 5--VRInsight MCPii Boeing

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One last thought is to check exactly what outputs are available on the GTX680 you will be buying as this may vary per manufacturer or region. Mine was an Asus 2Gig which I’m very happy with. I was flying through ORBX Seattle yesterday with sliders-right and easily got 30 FPS.

 

They are physically huge though! I use a cool master case that is twice the size of a normal desktop and it only just fits in.

 

The other element is the space you need to set up the monitors. I modified a 5X3 foot dining table to take a few controls. The monitors only just fit on the table and are about 6 foot across in total. To comfortably view these, my eye point is around 4.5 foot from the centre monitor. Any closer and it will feel like being on the front row of the cinema  ;-)

 

 

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I set up a three monitor system using GTX670 with NvIdia Surround. 

 

As another poster said you must adjust the bezel (side frames) so that the view aligns across the three screens.  This is not to difficult to do but you must remember to set the screen resolution under Options/Display to the new values - mine are 6003x1920.   Although the panorama which results is impressive there are some drawbacks. 

 

First, any 2D popups on an FSX plane will be grossly stretched and you will get the ghastly spinning cursor.  When this appears you will not be able to fly in the simulation.  The only solution is to go into the panel.cfg file and resize any 2D popup windows (e.g. GPS).  This must be done for each aircraft individually and is a right royal pain in the 'you know where'.  Obviously, you need some knowledge of the panel.cfg and how to change values.

 

Second, the outside view gets stretched out towards the sides of each side screen. Most folks seem to get used to the distortion. I find it very annoying and nausea-inducing. 

 

Third, Nvidia Surround only works for virtual cockpits. 

 

Fourth, all your monitors must be exactly the same - this always means they must have the same native screen resolution, and usually it means the same model number. 

 

Taken all together I find these issues so irritating that I rarely use my triple monitor set up for viewing the cockpit and outside view.  Instead I use the side screens for dragging 2D popups, and any other programs that I am running at the same time e.g. FSCommander. 

 

I've no experience of Track IR but if I were doing it all again I might try it first. 

 

John


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John

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Interesting thoughts John.

 

I've had a look on youtube at various 3 monitor displays and never noticed the stretching you speak of, however I've just gone back and had a look at some more and do indeed see what your talking about. Is this issue negated if you use close to 80-90% zoom?

 

At present I use two monitors, with the smaller 23" being used for exactly as you describe - 2D instruments (FMC, GPS etc) when flying in the VC.I would plan on just placing these items in the lower corner of one of the side monitors. I presume once you've adjusted the size of the guage in the panel.cfg file it stays that way? I can see why this would be a PITA to setup, but if I'm only flying a few different aircraft it shouldn't be too painful.

 

Its good to hear a second opinion of the three monitors - but I'm still tempted to give it a go. I'm going to buy another 2 27" monitors and hope they work fine with my existing one.

 

Any more thoughts would be much appreciated!!


Kael Oswald

7950X3D / 64GB DDR5 6000 @ CL30 / Custom Water Loop / RTX 4090 / 3 x 50" 4K LCD TVs

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Kael Oswald (Hungarian?)

 

There's been a lot of discussion elsewhere on this topic.  I think you will find these posts helpful: 

Ronski
http://www.simforums.com/forums/triple-monitor-2d-cockpit-problem_topic43932.html

GeorgeT93
http://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/showthread.php?200623-Configuring-FSX-With-TripleHead2Go

DB93
http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/showthread.php?24395-TripleHead2Go-2D-Panel-Fix-for-FSX

George Trovato has updated all the panels of the FSX default aircraft so that they can be used in FSX in Nvidia Surround mode.  These can be uploaded from the AVSIM library (fsx-triplewide-panels_defaultac.zip) and also the simouthouse library. 
If you only use a few aircraft regularly it helps and in fact this is what I do.  I fly these in Surround Mode (6003x1900) - for the others I just use the centre monitor (1920x1200) for cockpit and outside views, and drag and drop 2D popups etc to the side monitors.

 

Before you pay out hard-earned cash, I strongly recommend that you make sure your monitors all have the same screen resolutions and are the same screen size. Check that they all have DisplayPort inputs as one of the three outputs on the graphics card will be DisplayPort. 

 

All that I've read (and I've studied this stuff in depth!) tells me that NVIDIA Surround in FSX will not work off the GTX670/680 cards unless the monitors have identical specs. 

 

John


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John

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Thanks for that John - very informative.

 

As I'll have a spare 23" monitor, and also a spare 580 GTX, is there any practical way to run a fourth monitor just for gauges? I realise I'll still need to manually adjust their size in the first instance, but once that's done, how could/would I setup the fourth monitor? Do I even need the 580 or can I just ran it straight off the 680 that has four ports.

 

Just wondering if its worth keeping the 23" monitor and 580 or perhaps selling them.....

 

In addition, how easy/hard is editing some of the panel.cfg files for payware like PMDG aircraft? I've read a couple of reports of people having issues with those 2D panels not displaying correctly even after adjusting the panel size. Any experience?

 

 

Thanks again for the advice guys - I'm glad I asked as its not quite as straight forward as I first thought it would be.

 

Thanks for that John - very informative.<br /><br />As I'll have a spare 23" monitor, and also a spare 580 GTX, is there any practical way to run a fourth monitor just for gauges? I realise I'll still need to manually adjust their size in the first instance, but once that's done, how could/would I setup the fourth monitor? Do I even need the 580 or can I just ran it straight off the 680 that has four ports.<br /><br />Just wondering if its worth keeping the 23" monitor and 580 or perhaps selling them.....<br /><br />In addition, how easy/hard is editing some of the panel.cfg files for payware like PMDG aircraft? I've read a couple of reports of people having issues with those 2D panels not displaying correctly even after adjusting the panel size. Any experience?<br /><br /><br />Thanks again for the advice guys - I'm glad I asked as its not quite as straight forward as I first thought it would be.


Kael Oswald

7950X3D / 64GB DDR5 6000 @ CL30 / Custom Water Loop / RTX 4090 / 3 x 50" 4K LCD TVs

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Kael

 

I've no experience of running four monitors. 

 

Attaching up a fourth monitor for gauges shouldn't be difficult as long as the monitor has a port for your fourth graphics card output (HDMI or DisplayPort).  Bear in mind that the more you load on to your system, the greater the workload for your CPU and the less smooth your simulation might be.  I don't know your system spec but if you are running Windows 7,  with an i-7 chip and plenty of DDR (at least 8GB) then your 680GTX will probably cope. 

 

Regarding the panel cfg tweakings.  These can be awkward to set up with third party aircraft. The principle is not hard to understand but it is a bit hit and miss.  For example, I've never been able to resize the ATC popup panel. Thankfully, this doesn't result in the spinning cursor.  And then there's the question of positioning the popups.  The links I sent you will explain how to do this but you have to remember that with three screens the middle position is either 1 (top of centre screen) or 4 (middle, centre screen) or 7 (bottom, centre screen).  Folks on those other boards will help if you post there - there's a lot more knowledge out there than I have. 

 

Please don't feel I'm trying to talk you out of a three screen set up. If I can set this up anyone can.  But best to go into it with your eyes open.  If you run into problems you can PM me.  I am away quite a lot so might not manage a fast reply, but I will reply. 

 

John


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John

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Dug up my old simpit. 6 monitors on 1 PC.

 

GTX 480.0.0 = TH2GODE (3X24IN VISUALS)

GTX 480.0.1 = VRI CDU2

 

GTX 480.1.0 = 10IN TOUCH SCREEN

GTX 480.1.1 = 10IN TOUCH SCREEN

 

DSC01039.jpg

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Kael, yes, you can use a 4th panel just for gauges (and maps or whatever).

WidevieW allows you to network multiple computers, each running its own display (or displays). Each computer in the network has to have its own copy of FSX, though, and should also have its own copies of whatever addons you are using.

 

I've just started seriously playing with it (in demo mode currently). I've got three identical 23-inch panels running off a single GPU from one computer for a panoramic view. A second, less-powerful computer is running the fourth monitor, a 25-inch, which I am using for gauges and plan to use for maps and other programs when I get around to installing them. I haven't installed addons yet, so not sure how that will go. I'm planning to see whether I can get satisfactory results just installing scenery addons on the computer that's showing the panoramic display, in order to save money.

 

It costs about US$40 if you decide to buy it.

The author stresses that it's not worth using the software for just gauges because displaying gauges doesn't put that much of a strain on a computer's system, but, so far, to me this kind of set up seems to be one of the better options, short of spending another small fortune.


Vic

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