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2nd Graphics Card or a new one?


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Hi,

Using the guidance here (thanks PeterP) Ive just got SoftTH working on my PC with a 2nd monitor.

 

My primary is a 1920/1080 LCD and the 2nd is a 1440/900 which was my last monitor.

Using PeterP's guidance to run the graphics test (once at Low setting, once at High using FRAPS to give me an average FPS count for both) it seems that my PC is not surprisingly Graphics Limited not CPU limited.

 

My current Graphics card that both screens are attached to is an Nvidia GTX460 1GB OC Edition and I was wondering if I should add a 2nd card to run the 2nd monitor (probably a cheap GTX260 from the local Computer Exchange) or buy a new 6 series Nvidia card?

 

Does anyone have experience of which would be best? Obviously the GTX260 will be cheaper, the 6 series quite expensive given current costs.

 

The rest of my PC I believe will support it, I have a new 800W PSU so that should cover the new or the addition of the 2nd so all I need guidance on is 2nd or new graphics.

Thanks in advance,

J.

Rig: Home Built, water cooled,i5 2500K @ 4.3Ghz, ASUS P8P67Pro Mobo, 8GB Patriot Viper 2 Sector 5 RAM, MSI Nvidia GTX970 4GB Gaming OC, 120GB OCZ Vertex 2e SSD Boot, 120GB OCZ Vertex 2e SSD Games (BS & WH), Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB other,

Samsung UE37D5000 37" LED TV,EloTouch 1600x1200 secondary, Thrustmaster Warthog No.467, Thrustmaster MFD, Saitek Pro Pedals, Track IR4 with Track Clip Pro.

 

Ex RAF Aircrew, Real Life Pilot, proud Geek and father of one :)

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From everything I have read, having everything on one card is going to be better.

ASUS ROG Maximus VIII Hero, i7-6700K, Noctua NH-D14 Cooler, Crucial 32GB DDR4 2133, Samsung 950 Pro NVMe 256GB, Samsung EVO 250GB & 500GB SSD, 2TB Caviar Black, Zotac GTX 1080 AMP! Extreme 8GB, Corsair HX1000i, Phillips BDM4065UC 40" 4k monitor, VX2258 TouchScreen, TIR 5 w/ProClip, TM Warthog, VKB Gladiator Pro, Saitek X56, et. al., MFG Crosswind Pedals #1199, VolairSim Pit, Rift CV1 :thumbup:

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I went from 2 460's running 4 monitors to 1 670gtx 4GB running the same 4 monitors and got a huge improvement. Was definately worth the money.

Airdog

| Asus ROG Strix Z370-E Mobo | i7 8700K @ 4.7 | 32 GB DDR4@3200mhz | Gigabyte 2080Ti OC 11GB| Samsung M.2 960 Evo 250Gb and 500Gb | Win10 Pro | Hotas Warthog #02743 | Track IR 5 | Toshiba 47" 120hz LED | Acer 23" Touchscreen | HELIOS |Oculus Rift-S|

 

http://www.blackknightssquadron.com/

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Thanks guys. Kind of what I expected but good to get confirmation.

What sort of FPS you get with 670 Air dog?

J.

Rig: Home Built, water cooled,i5 2500K @ 4.3Ghz, ASUS P8P67Pro Mobo, 8GB Patriot Viper 2 Sector 5 RAM, MSI Nvidia GTX970 4GB Gaming OC, 120GB OCZ Vertex 2e SSD Boot, 120GB OCZ Vertex 2e SSD Games (BS & WH), Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB other,

Samsung UE37D5000 37" LED TV,EloTouch 1600x1200 secondary, Thrustmaster Warthog No.467, Thrustmaster MFD, Saitek Pro Pedals, Track IR4 with Track Clip Pro.

 

Ex RAF Aircrew, Real Life Pilot, proud Geek and father of one :)

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Should also be mentioned that a 1GB 460 suffers memory problems - the controller in there is made for 768, so what they did is dump double the cell density on one channel. (And having an assymetric memory architecture is just... dirty.)

 

So yes, I'd also recommend selecting a new card with plenty of memory that's designed for the job.

[sIGPIC][/sIGPIC]

Daniel "EtherealN" Agorander | Даниэль "эфирныйн" Агорандер

Intel i7 2600K @ 4.4GHz, ASUS Sabertooth P67, 8GB Corsair Vengeance @ 1600MHz, ASUS GTX 560Ti DirectCU II 1GB, Samsung 830series 512GB SSD, Corsair AX850w, two BENQ screens and TM HOTAS Warthog

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Thanks guys. Kind of what I expected but good to get confirmation.

What sort of FPS you get with 670 Air dog?

J.

I get between 30-60 fps depending what is happening on screen. I run with Vsync on so 60 will always be the max. It does drop to the teens when a Cbu87 or CBU103 is dropped but other than that its smooth as butter. I run a resolution of 4080x2160 and export about 10 items to 3 of my screens.

Here is a quick video of my setup. You can see at the beginning and end the smoothness of the main view.

Airdog

| Asus ROG Strix Z370-E Mobo | i7 8700K @ 4.7 | 32 GB DDR4@3200mhz | Gigabyte 2080Ti OC 11GB| Samsung M.2 960 Evo 250Gb and 500Gb | Win10 Pro | Hotas Warthog #02743 | Track IR 5 | Toshiba 47" 120hz LED | Acer 23" Touchscreen | HELIOS |Oculus Rift-S|

 

http://www.blackknightssquadron.com/

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Impressive setup. THAT's a Glass cockpit!!! :thumbup:

DCS Wish: Turbulences affecting surrounding aircraft...

[sIGPIC] [/sIGPIC]

Gigabyte GA-Z170-HD3P - Intel Core i5 6600K - 16Gb RAM DDR4-2133 - Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1080 G1 Gaming - 8 Go - 2 x SSD Crucial MX300 - 750 Go RAID0 - Screens: HP OMEN 32'' 2560x1440 + Oculus Rift CV1 - Win 10 - 64bits - TM WARTHOG #889 - Saitek Pro Rudder.

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Airdog,

Thanks for that. very impressive set-up.

 

Cedaway,

Thanks for the 460 Info too. I wasn't aware of that. Its always been pretty good to me but I don't do many games and I have only just gone to a 2 screen set-up so I guess its now that I'm noticing the memory issues.

 

It looks like a GTX670 is best, but a bit pricey (£379 for a 4GB on Overclockers here in the UK). As I'm not going to be going beyond 2 screens for the next at least 18 months would it be prudent to get a GTX 5 series? I notice from others here (Cichlifan I'm primarily thinking of) that a 5 series is good enough for a 2 screen setup?

 

What sort of frame rates do you get Cichlidfan?

Thanks again,

J.

Rig: Home Built, water cooled,i5 2500K @ 4.3Ghz, ASUS P8P67Pro Mobo, 8GB Patriot Viper 2 Sector 5 RAM, MSI Nvidia GTX970 4GB Gaming OC, 120GB OCZ Vertex 2e SSD Boot, 120GB OCZ Vertex 2e SSD Games (BS & WH), Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB other,

Samsung UE37D5000 37" LED TV,EloTouch 1600x1200 secondary, Thrustmaster Warthog No.467, Thrustmaster MFD, Saitek Pro Pedals, Track IR4 with Track Clip Pro.

 

Ex RAF Aircrew, Real Life Pilot, proud Geek and father of one :)

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