Jump to content

Next Investment?


Recommended Posts

Looking to move back to multi-monitor but not sure what would be best for my next investment.

 

Got the Cougar MFCDs late last year and flew with them attached to a second monitor for a while, but couldn't live with the drop in frame rates (20-25 FPS drop running the second monitor in windowed mode in A-10C) so they've been paper weights since. For all the immersion multi-monitors and MFCDs add, nothing ruins immersion more for me than having the frames go choppy over a battlefield during a critical part of the flight. Even with single monitor I can drop to 20-25 FPS over big cities in multiplayer and that is about the lowest I go before feeling like the immersion is ruined.

 

I have two identical 24" monitors at 1920x1200 plus a third 19" at 1440x900 that I have previously used for the MFCD displays. Right now, I only use the second 24" for teamspeak and such - just running single monitor for the sim itself.

 

Ultimately I would like to get a third 24" 1920x1200 monitor to be able to span my main display over three monitors at 5760x1200, then have the two MFCD monitors on the 19" monitor (or alternatively purchase two 8" LCDs to go behind the cougars rather than have to mount them on the 19").

 

Question is, with my system specs below, where should I invest to be able to support the above set up and keep frame rates above 30-35 fps in all scenarios? What is the best way to run it...SoftTH? Anyone using Nvidia surround? Should I look to upgrade my 460's to a higher end Nvidia card, or should I switch to an AMD card? Would trying to overclock to 4.0 help significantly?

 

Thanks for any suggestions.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Have you tried tweaking your setup at all? I mean, yours is far better than mine (check sig), but I get a solid 45fps even in the largest city with these settings:

 

(MFD's split to second monitor)

["graphics"] =

{

["VSync"] = false,

["multiMonitorSetup"] = "1camera+mfds",

["color"] = "32",

["heatBlr"] = 0,

["scenes"] = "medium",

["water"] = 0,

["fullScreen"] = false,

["visibRange"] = "High",

["treesVisibility"] = 6000,

["aspect"] = 1.6,

["haze"] = 1,

["shadows"] = 1,

["TranspSSAA"] = false,

["effects"] = 3,

["textures"] = 2,

["lights"] = 2,

["MSAA"] = 1,

["height"] = 2130,

["civTraffic"] = "low",

["HDR"] = false,

["clutterMaxDistance"] = 600,

["width"] = 1920,

}, -- end of ["graphics"]

 

In my Nvidia Control panel I create the game profile then leave everything default except these values:

 

- anisotropic filtering: 8x

- Gamma correction anti-aliasing: On

- Anti-aliasing mode: enhance application setting

- Anti-aliasing setting: 2x

- Maximum pre-rendered frames: 1

- Power management: Max performance

- SLI Mode: Alternate Frame Rendering 2

- Anisotropic optimization: On

- Negative LOD Bias: Clamp

- Texture Quality: High performance

- Trilinear optimization: On

- Threaded optimization: On

 

If you get MFD flicker from using Alternate frame rendering 2, use the setting of 512 or 1024 every frame, that gets rid of it.

 

What OS are you using? If you have Vista/Win7, try running in windowed both with the Aero interface turned on and off. Sometimes one performs much better than the other.


Edited by xXstubbifiedXx

[sIGPIC][/sIGPIC]

--------------------------------------------------

Joshua Stubbles, Environment Artist - i5-2400K @ 3.8ghz | Thermaltake Frio CPU cooling | ASUS P8P67 Pro Rev3.1 | 8GB Corsair Dominator @1600mhz | 2x GeForce GTS250 SLI AF2 | 2x WDHDD 500GB RAID 0 | Thermaltake Armor case | Thermaltake Tough Power 850w PSU | Samsung BX2440X | BenQ FP202W | Saitek X52 Pro | Thrustmaster Cougar MFD | TrackIR4 Pro

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Using Windows 7. I had previously spent quite a bit of time optimizing with the second monitor (around the time of the release was the last time). Will try some of these settings and see if I can improve the FPS with the MFD's on the second monitor. Thanks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just know that if you export an MFD to a monitor that is not connected to the vid card that drives your primary display, the FPS-hit will me HUGE, with major stuttering. If you connect the MFD display to the same card that drives the main display, the stuttering goes away.

Abit IN9 32x MAX- Kentsfield QX6700 @3520

1.5 vcore watercooled D-Tek Fuzion/PA-160/MCR120/2x MCP655

2x2GB G-Skill 1066 5-5-5-15 2T@1.9vdimm

2x EVGA 580GTX 1.5GB SLI

2x 74GB Sata Raptor Raid0

2x 320GB Hitachi Sata II

X-FI Elite Pro

Dell U3011

Lian Li V2100B

Corsair HX1000

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks Slammin - yeah, I did notice that when I tried several configurations a few months ago. I did hook my third monitor up tonight and ran 3-screen main display in Nvidia surround mode and got good results FPS wise. The new Nvidia driver let's you run 3 monitors that aren't exact (resolution and refresh) that it wouldn't do last time I tried. That helps...though as a I get a fourth monitor up and export the MFDs I might run into the problem where Nvidia surround wants the third "main" monitor on your primary card, and so does the MFD export frame-wise.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...