3 Monitor Setup

[The_Mickmeister]

I'm trying to put together a 3 monitor setup, with front view and two 45 degree views.  Here's the system I'm considering:

 -Gateway media center w/ Pentium D 830 GM

 -1 gig SDRAM

 -250 gb Sata HD

 -Envision monitors

 -A8N-SLI motherboard

 -(2) NVidea GEForce 6600 GT gfx cards (128 mb)


Does this sound like it would give me 3 seperate 3D views with a decent frame rate? What about antialiasing? I'm also wondering why the place that's putting it together said that they can only use 128 mb graphics cards - they can't do 256. It seems odd that with all this other high tech stuff, you would use 128 mb cards.

[legoalex2000]

you would be better off checking in the 'Hardware" forum. there are quite a few people with multiple monitor experience.

Ramos

PS: scroll down

PPS: welcome to SimViation!

[The_Mickmeister]

Thanks...I'll try there.

[MWISimmer]

Welcome to SimV Mickmeister.
Don't be fooled by more RAM equals better performance. It doesn't unless you're talking high end GFX. Put it this way, i'll be upgrading my 9550 256mb card for a 128mb 6600gt any day soon... I'm sure our more knowledgable members (congo, the_autopilot, etc) will/can explain further..  :)
As for your 3 monitor setup goes, i'm sure if you asked in the "HomeBuild cockpits" forum you'd get some ideas..
Enjoy your time at SimV  :D
Rob.

[The_Mickmeister]

Interesting...Thanks.

[ctjoyce]

Basically to do three monitors to my knowladge you need two rigs as every GFX card can only support up to 2 displays. However if I am wrong please correct me.

Oh and dont buy a gateway, build yourself. Will save much time and money

[the_autopilot]

Actually, you can have up to 4 four moniters in an SLI system if you don't run in SLI mode.

One vid card has two dvi ports. You can use 1 port for each monitor.

Using SLI mode, the two cards work together to generate 1 frame, so only 1 card's DVI ports are useful. Without SLI mode, the two cards act seperately and each of the four DVI ports can be used as a seperate display. Be advised that you lose SLI functionality meaning that each card renders seperately, so no fps boost is gained.

Setup for such a system is easy. Just build a normal SLI system and just do not enable SLI is the drivers.

[The_Mickmeister]

Thanks for the info, Autopilot. Do you think the system I'm looking at could drive 3 seperate 3D views?

[ctjoyce]

Well your setting it up for SLI, so yes it will be able to do what the AP explaned.

[the_autopilot]

Yes, I think it should work.

Keep in mind though that a 6600 gt may not be able to render two scenes at once at the highest settings with decent frame rates. I suggest a dual 6800 gt setup at the minimum. Remember, without SLI enabled, the cards work seperately, so its not true SLI, so no fps boost.

[JBaymore]

MickMeister,

AutoPilot's comment above about possible framerate issues is why on your question in the "Homebuild Cockpits Forum" I mentioned that most pit builders experience I have seen have shown that issue when trying to run three exterior views.  

That's why most use FSUIPC and WideView to do that.

best,

.................john