Hi all, I'm considering a build that will upgrade my screens from a single 24" to three monitors.  My current card is a GTX680.  I'd rather not upgrade my card now if it can be avoided (6 months +).  What size screen should I select if I plan to sit 24" from the monitors?  Can I still run FSX in fullscreen?  Are there any adverse effects to three monitors?  Thanks!

The more monitors you have, the more screen real estate the graphics card needs to fill... especially if you're planning on spanning the three with an out-the-window view. As a former owner of a GTX680, I think you might be pressing that card a bit with that configuration. It will work, but you may need to dial back some of the settings.

 

I run two monitors right now, with the center/primary being my simulator and the sidecar monitor holds client software like ActiveSky, FSEconomy, and detached gauges like the GPS or an FMC.

 

I don't think FSX will run in true fullscreen mode across monitors in that fashion. You would likely need to run one single "window" of FSX and stretch it across all three monitors. This is not the end of the world, as your window borders will be less prevalent due to the spanning. 

 

Good luck!

-Greg

I used to run three monitors in full screen at 5780X1080 with a 580, and it worked fine. It works better now on my 780ti, but it did work on a 580, so I suspect it will work on a 680. I can't guarantee it of course because I didn't have a 680. 

Are there any adverse effects to three monitors?

 

Well those bezels are never going to go away.

 

Can't see any problems with a 680 at least with up to 1920x1200  monitors. I ran three 1920x1200s of a 670 ok.

With nvidia surround you can definitely run a single full screen VC across all three monitors, no mouse stretching required.

 

24" is a fairly close viewing distance so you may not want to go bigger than 24' monitors, at least at 1080p, otherwise you might start seeing the monitor dots.

 

gb.

I run 680gtx 4gig  over 3 monitors (24inch) in full screen mode using NVidia surround don't have any fps issue but I turn FPS counter off now and just don't get hung up on the odd stutter /slow down now and again. (tool me a long time to stop being obsessed with fps!)

 

Couple of things to be mindful of

 

1) Side two monitors will be "stretched view", some people hate this, when looking out at the scenery  but I got used to it, the advantages of being able to see so much more of the cockpit out weight this (in my opinion)

 

2) A lot of aircraft you will get the "spinning cursor" problem unless you edit a few of the views in the panel.cfg.

    Some developers will send you a new panel if you open up a support ticket with them. but there is also another fix

 

I picked this up from another user on avsim  (PWJT8D ) , VERY grateful to him and credit should be given to him

 

, just back up the panel.cfg first  then try changing each view by adding this;

 

find the brackets for the windows such as [Window00], [Window01] and so on.

 

Within each window you'll see a line that says size_mm=1280,960 or whatever that window size may be.

 

All you need to do is add a line right under the size_mm= line that says pixel_size=1280,960. That pixel size line is what will resize the window properly and not cause the spinning cursor.

 

So what ever the resolution size of the size_mm= numbers are, copy those into the new line you add pixel_size=.

 

eg on The Katana 4X  the original panel.cfg had

 

[Window00]
file=
size_mm=1280
window_size_ratio=1.000
position=7
visible=0
no_luminous=1
ident=MAIN_PANEL
window_size= 1.000, 1.000
window_pos= 0.000, 0.000
zorder=0

 

I changed to

 

[Window00]
file=
size_mm=1280
pixel_size=1280
window_size_ratio=1.000
position=7
visible=0
no_luminous=1
ident=MAIN_PANEL
window_size= 1.000, 1.000
window_pos= 0.000, 0.000
zorder=0

 

 

etc for each  [window]   then MOST of the Shift 1,2,3,4 views etc dont give you the spinning cursor

 

 

This has woirked 99% of the time including my A2A planes, best tip I ever found for multi monitors !!!!

 

 

Hope this helps

You can use FSX-Borderless which might help you solve the issue of borders when using windowed mode