Delta Virtual Airlines Water Cooler

Delta Virtual Airlines Water Cooler | PC Support | New graphics card

DVA8697
Captain, B777-200
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Joined on June 03 2009
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Southeastern United States

1,150 legs, 3,755.1 hours
157 legs, 198.5 hours online
1,144 legs, 3,746.9 hours ACARS
2 legs, 2.8 hours event

Posted onPost created on April 21 2013 16:05 ET by Jason Ontog

I am thinking of getting a new graphics card and the one I am looking at is the gtx 660. I currently have an ati 6950 and what I like is the ability to span my cockpit across three monitors. I was told I couldn't do that in nvidia cards, but now I hear with this one you can. Anyone have any suggestions?

AFV313
Senior Captain, B737-800

Joined on June 11 2010
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Howick, KwaZulu-Natal ZA

2,941 legs, 9,560.6 hours
1,901 legs, 5,926.6 hours online
2,853 legs, 9,199.0 hours ACARS
58 legs, 272.0 hours event
350 legs dispatched, 155.5 hours

Posted onPost created on April 22 2013 05:32 ET by Robert Armstrong

GTX660Ti is a great card!

http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/products/gxm/th2go/displayport/ This will allow you to do that

AFV744
Senior Captain, B747-400
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Wellington, NS Canada

2,468 legs, 10,374.5 hours
752 legs, 1,426.3 hours online
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238 legs, 466.0 hours event
3,528 legs, 15,773.5 hours total

Posted onPost created on April 22 2013 12:00 ET by Bill Gardiner

The gtx 660 has at least 3 outputs on the back, although you might need an adaptor for one of them. They are simple and cheap though. So you might be able to do it without additional hardware, but I'm not sure. Check out the Avsim forums under video cards as there have been a few discussions there about it.

Bill Gardiner

Senior Captain, B747-400

Posted onPost created on April 22 2013 16:29 ET by Jason Ontog

I was hoping to do it without the matrox. I think I have the adapter now tho. Bill, are you referring to the 660 or 660ti

Posted onPost created on April 22 2013 16:49 ET by Bill Gardiner

Jason, I looked on the nvidia website and it looks like both have the same connectors on the back. Not sure what the internal differences are with the cards but the external connectivity looks the same. Don't forget that running 3 monitors is a lot more pixels for your CPU to process as well as your video card. FSX doesn't offload video processing to the GPU very well.

Bill Gardiner

Senior Captain, B747-400

Posted onPost created on April 22 2013 17:12 ET by Jason Ontog

Yeah I'm using three monitors now with an ati 6950. I'm not sure i can ever use less than three monitors again. But apparently nvidia is the way to go. Is matrox worth it?

Posted onPost created on April 22 2013 19:34 ET by Bill Gardiner

I'm not sure if the matrox is worth it. I have read on the avsim forums that the newer nvidia cards and/or new drivers make the matrox obsolete for fsx.

Bill Gardiner

Senior Captain, B747-400

DVA10131
Captain, MD-11
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Joined on August 29 2011
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"If it's not Boeing, I'm not going"
Charleston, SC USA

136 legs, 473.3 hours
123 legs, 428.0 hours online
130 legs, 451.7 hours ACARS
11 legs, 38.5 hours event

Posted onPost created on April 26 2013 11:00 ET by Robbie Johnson

For triple monitor I would go with the 660Ti at least. Also a note for Nvidia surround; you must be using 3 identical monitors. Also make sure the one you buy has outputs for your monitors or you would need to buy an adapter (i.e. HDMI-DVI)

Robbie Johnson (DVA10131)

Posted onPost created on April 26 2013 11:18 ET by Bill Gardiner

You can probably get a 580 on ebay for the same bucks. Then you don't have to worry about whether your graphics card is slowing you down.

Bill Gardiner

Senior Captain, B747-400

Posted onPost created on April 26 2013 12:21 ET by Robbie Johnson

If I'm not mistaken, only the 600 series of Nvidia GPUs can run in surround.

Robbie Johnson (DVA10131)

Posted onPost created on April 27 2013 00:00 ET by Jason Ontog

what is the difference between the 660ti and the 660? i also heard that the 600 series can do surround but didnt know that there has to be three identical monitors....thats a bit of a bummer. i appreciate the responses guys!

DVA9716
First Officer, A330-300

Joined on April 26 2011
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154 legs, 324.0 hours
102 legs, 218.1 hours online
153 legs, 321.7 hours ACARS
4 legs, 8.9 hours event

Posted onPost created on April 27 2013 09:45 ET by Kenneth Dickerson

I just bought the Gforce 660 GTX and it is doing excellent. I had to replace my EVGA 570 after it started showing the red lines of death on the screen. I learned something from its death. That card ran really hot, I even put better heat sink putty on it, added an extra fan to blow directly on it but alas I could not get the temp below 70c when playing war thunder or PS2 and that manually running the card fan at 75%. Then I found an article that talked about FPS and temps. I realized after some experimenting that it was true. I used the program that came with mine called EVGA Precision and did 2 things. First I set up my fan profile, the big thing here is that you want the fan to go max when you hit 60c. The second and most important is FPS. Think of FPS as the gas pedal on your racing machine. If you keep the engine at red line and going as fast as it can go it will eat itself up. I found that by setting my FPS in EVGA Precision at 30, I can run any program now with max settings and the hottest playing War Thunder it has gotten is 50c. That I can live with. Oh and make sure that you set EVGA Precision to start up at boot. Eventually I will play with water cooling my card again but that can sometimes be more of a pain.

Kenneth Dickerson

First Officer, A330-300

Posted onPost created on April 27 2013 14:26 ET by Jason Ontog

That's good info to know Kenneth. I think I will go for the 660. You running three monitors?

Posted onPost created on April 28 2013 13:01 ET by Kenneth Dickerson

I run 2 with my second computer for things like ACARS, Activesky, and on flight pubs for navigation and approach.

Kenneth Dickerson

First Officer, A330-300

Posted onPost created on April 28 2013 13:55 ET by Jason Ontog

I see, well thanks guys, i will try the 660, and see how it goes!!

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