FSX vs the latest PC hardware

[mfraser]

Hi all,

I am planning on building a new PC in the coming months, with a goal of running FSX on 3x 23" widescreen LCD monitors via the new ATI Eyefinity technology, as seen on the Radeon HD5000 series graphics cards. At this stage, I'm weighing up the benefits of a single HD5870 versus 3x HD5770's in CrossfireX.

My question is whether anyone on the forum has any experience with Crossfire or CrossfireX in FSX. I've read enough to know that I'm going to need a LOT of grunt to be able to run it in 6144x1152 (3x 2048x1152). The three cards will offer a lot of raw rendering power but I haven't found any useful or up-to-date information on the net on whether Crossfire(X) will give any benefit for FSX. There is a lot of conflicting information so I'm looking for anyone with firsthand experience with it.......

Any help or thoughts on Crossfire(X) would be appreciated and is there anyone else out there running Eyefinity or Triplehead2Go rigs??

Thanks everyone,
Mat

PS - For those that are wondering, CPU will be an AMD Phenom II 1090T, 8GB RAM, CrossfireX Motherboard with 4x PCIe slots at x16 and a 128GB SSD partitioned for OS (Win7) and FSX....

[pilot.masman]

only eyefinity exp ive had is through course and we dont run FSX on it so i cant help you with the FSX side. although i will say it runs other games brilliantly in trip screen with hardly any setup at all.

probably best PC ive seen someone getting in a while though good on ya. you do any other gaming appart from FSX/simming?

[NZ255]

FSX doesn't support SLI type setups, as in you will get lower FPS with 3 cards than with one. I imagine it's the same with crossfire.

But other than that, I can't say

[mfraser]

Thanks for the info mas....... its good to hear its not hard to set up Eyefinity....... do you know what graphics cards they're using??

Because I have a home simpit (Pictured) I have always dedicated a machine solely for flight simming........ I do often think its a waste of a machine though, just to sit there and not be used until I have time to go 'flying' - but its a time consuming process plugging and unplugging all the hardware related to the simpit. If I could come up with an easy way to manage it then I would definitely be widescreen gaming with the other games I like - Call of Duty, Company of Heroes and Battlefield...... whenever I upgrade to a new PC, the old FS machine becomes my 'everyday' computer to play those games.

As for this upgrade, I'm 7 weeks out from finishing my Oceanic Radar training and will be using my new found income to treat myself to the 'mega-upgrade'......... the wife isn't happy about it and is making me sell all my other 'toys' that I never play with (PS2, Buzz, Guitar Hero etc). Isn't marriage grand!! Plus waiting til training is over will stop me getting distracted and putting aircraft head to head at the same levels!!

The photo is of how much desktop real estate the 23" monitors will take up......... the dotted lines represent 22" widescreen monitors although I won't be going for that option......... like Mitre10.......... big is good!!

Thanks again mas............

[mfraser]

QUOTE (NZ255 @ May 26 2010, 10:45 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

FSX doesn't support SLI type setups, as in you will get lower FPS with 3 cards than with one. I imagine it's the same with crossfire.

But other than that, I can't say

Thanks Nick......... I have read the exact same thing on other forums which is what concerns me, but it always seems to relate to single widescreen gaming and not Eyefinity. There's a few posts floating around that dual GPU setups don't start working until ultra high resolutions are being used..... its a good theory but I want some hard evidence before I sink a $1000 alone into the graphics setup!!

Keep me posted if you hear anything.......

[pilot.masman]

QUOTE (mfraser @ May 26 2010, 10:53 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thanks for the info mas....... its good to hear its not hard to set up Eyefinity....... do you know what graphics cards they're using??

the 5870 card, dont think it would be justified spending more on the 900 becuase they are really just using it as a proof of concept/project for us although for home use i would probably prefer the 5970, dear as it is

nice current setup there, have to say i wouldnt be to different if i wasnt a student without a properly paying job

[jastheace]

from what i underdstand you can have three cards in the pc runnings sepratly, adn you won't get a performance hit, but if you crossfire/sli them then you get decreases, i am going to be putting another card in mine soon, so i can run the two g1000's off it.

oh and as far as a dedicated pc, i have mine dedicated to fsx only, makes a big difference when you don't have anything else on there, i have it connected to te internet, but do not have email, virus checker or anything not needed for FSX. i do all my downloading onto the laptop or the desktop (old FSX machine) have never had any problems with viruses or spyware.

and yes marrige is grand you just need to aclimatise here to your spending needs!!! neh requirments ;P

[Grumble]

Serious q here. I run FSX on an 512mb 8800GT on Windows 7 ultimate. Under XP Pro. this setup used to run FSX on 2 x 22-inch displays without issue. However, NVIDIA no longer offers a span mode in Windows 7, so I'm stuck with the single screen. Don't know if this is an issue for ATI cards, but might be something you want to look into?

[pilot.masman]

eye finity was designed for windows 7 primarily ( released on it anyway.) so there wont be any issue with the multi display through that. didnt know untill you just said that they had taken out spanning displays. i wonder what my friends use. ill ask them tomorrow and get back to you. im sure its still possible

[Ian Warren]

I would like to do a setup like this , it would need to be networked to lotta stuff , adding a to a network with all the app,s and constant chopping and changing , this would have to be a complete no non-sence fly only ... plugging into three monitors ? dose the 3go handle spilt screen maybe design model on one AFCAD on the other with primary forward view ?

[mfraser]

QUOTE (jastheace @ May 28 2010, 02:01 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

from what i underdstand you can have three cards in the pc runnings sepratly, adn you won't get a performance hit, but if you crossfire/sli them then you get decreases, i am going to be putting another card in mine soon, so i can run the two g1000's off it.

oh and as far as a dedicated pc, i have mine dedicated to fsx only, makes a big difference when you don't have anything else on there, i have it connected to te internet, but do not have email, virus checker or anything not needed for FSX. i do all my downloading onto the laptop or the desktop (old FSX machine) have never had any problems with viruses or spyware.

and yes marrige is grand you just need to aclimatise her to your spending needs!!! neh requirments ;P

Well I'm glad I'm not the only one then!! I'm slowly whittling her down to my way of thinking!! Thanks for the 3 card info...... I'm going to investigate that some more...... let us know how you get on with the second card.....

QUOTE (Ian Warren @ May 28 2010, 06:33 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I would like to do a setup like this , it would need to be networked to lotta stuff , adding a to a network with all the app,s and constant chopping and changing , this would have to be a complete no non-sence fly only ... plugging into three monitors ? dose the 3go handle spilt screen maybe design model on one AFCAD on the other with primary forward view ?

The TH2GO 'fools' the computer into seeing one giant monitor, so FSX would be spanned across the whole screen unless you run it in windowed mode which would let you run apps alongside it. Mas can probably elaborate more as he has access to the new ATI cards, but from what I understand, because each monitor has a separate input from the graphics card, you can decide which ones are joined for gaming and which are left to run apps. Don't quote me as I'm still learning about it all myself!!

[s0cks]

The GTX480 is currently the best card for FSX due to its huge buffer streams. But it will only support 2 monitors on a single card, and SLI in FSX is a no go. It can half your framerate. I'm not sure if the 5970 has the same effect (as it has two GPU's), but if does then the 5870 is your only real option. You pretty much have no other choice.

[mfraser]

QUOTE (s0cks @ May 29 2010, 01:04 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The GTX480 is currently the best card for FSX due to its huge buffer streams. But it will only support 2 monitors on a single card, and SLI in FSX is a no go. It can half your framerate. I'm not sure if the 5970 has the same effect (as it has two GPU's), but if does then the 5870 is your only real option. You pretty much have no other choice.

Yeah, that's the conclusion I've come to as well. I've decided to go for a HD5870 for the outside views and a HD5770 for the instrument panel. I'll be picking up a second GeForce 9800GT soon to try this out on my existing system before going to the bank to ask for a second mortgage!!