3 Monitor at high settings VS 1 monitor at max settings?

[JamesIceland]

Hi all,

I wanted to gather some opinions on my set up.

I recently bought a new computer (see signature for settings) and have it set up with Eyefinity and 3 monitors at 5896x1080 - now I know that even the best super computers out there would probably struggle with Prepar3d at max settings and with all the add ons. I currently have things running pretty smoothly and I'm happy with the 3 monitors and graphic settings...

BUT I know my set up can handle very high settings, probably max sliders. Despite really loving the 3 monitors I can't help but want to experience Prepar3d at it's maximum potential for my machine and wanted to get some thoughts as to whether I should change to 1 monitor for a while and see what it can do? I have TrackIR so the limited view through 1 screen would be somewhat mitigated.

I guess I'd like to know if I would see much difference if I really tried to push my system through 1 screen and if anyone has tried this and preferred set ups? A bit of a debate really! I know could test things out on the one monitor but don't want to fiddle with settings unless people really think it's worth doing and experiencing. I currently have things like Autogen at Normal and Dense and the only thing I did reduce (to try and reduce OOM errors) was the LOD radius to medium and textures to 2048.

Be good to get some opinions. I'm a serial tweaker hence the topic and always wondering if there is a better way!!

Thanks

James

[Scott Harmes]

Hi. I also have three monitors through a Radeon HD 7970 with eyefinity, although I currently only have one monitor connected due to the need for more room to disassemble my PC on my desk. I am not 100% happy with the visuals of three screens, but I don't think the performance is really affected much at all. Before purchasing my new PC and the three monitors separately, I had researched and the opinion seemed to be that performance would decrease by 20% with three screens compared to one screen. I haven't really crunched numbers, but I would consider this figure to be high compared to my experiences. FPS stay generally the same with one monitor or three. I do usually increase Max LOD from the default highest of 4.5 to 6.5, as I find this helps with blurring, especially towards the outer edges that are distorted with three monitors. Overall I think three monitors does give an increased sense of immersion with the peripheral vision that it provides, as well as offering a more panoramic view of the scenery.

Cheers,

[cabnz]

Hi there,

I agree, I also would stick to 3 monitors as I haven't noticed a big change in FPS either. I'm using Nvidia's 3d surround and 3d surround with 3d Vision (absolutely amazing by the way). FPS do drop a little at dense airports but soon pick up not far away from them. I went back to 1 monitor but I really missed the field of view that 3 monitors gives you.

At the end of the day it does come down to person use.

Cheers

Craig

[Andrew 737]

BUT I know my set up can handle very high settings, probably max sliders. Despite really loving the 3 monitors I can't help but want to experience Prepar3d at it's maximum potential for my machine and wanted to get some thoughts as to whether I should change to 1 monitor for a while and see what it can do? I have TrackIR so the limited view through 1 screen would be somewhat mitigated.

Hi James

A very interesting topic here - one that has had me tinkering for 2 years!

My opinion (based on the fact I actually have a PC set up with TH2Go and another exactly the same running at 1920 by 1080) is that I prefer the 3 screen setup. IMHO A Sims maximum potential is a Sim with wide FOV. In essence I don't beleive a sim that is setup correctly to run at max graphics settings smoothly is a sim that is running at maximum potential; I think a sim that runs smoothly at high graphics settings with a wide FOV is a sim running at its Maximum potential.

I would also suggest (IMHO) that a Track IR is far better if used on a multi screen setup; when I turn my head I prefer to point my eyes to where I have just turned my head! Otherwise with single screen you have to keep your eyes fixed to the one monitor whilst turning your head, I couldn't get on with this in the end.

As far as Perf goes for me, there is no difference between the 2 where the sim can run at 30fps easily, however at say Heathrow using ORBX England and plenty of UT2 the single screen system will perform better all day long - the Perf of the 3 screen sim is still acceptable though.

A different opinion when using multiple PC's...

All that said, in my cockpit (under construction again!), I am going to be using 3 60 inch screens each running off its own computer and a separate PC running FSX as the server. This gives me the opportunity to use more VAS by running the Plane and the scenery separately. This also allows me to run a wide FOV at 'Max' settings smoothly.

For a 1 PC set up I prefer a wide FOV to max settings.

[Maurice_King]

I am running my 3 monitors flat chat and seldom see things below 30 fps and that's rare, PC Specs in Sig

[jaydor]

Hi James

Not sure as to where you are going with your question, as I believe you should see the same in P3D as you do in FSX. Maybe a little better in P3D with the added company tweeks.

I notice that you are running 2 radeons in a crossfire mode, if I remember rightly; FSX will only use one graphic card no matter how many are in the set up. So you will not get any improvement with multible cards, just a card (A). So you would be better disconnecting one of the cards, that will show an improvement as system resources are not being induced to the second card.

As far as maxing out your sliders, just do it; no harm will be done. If you find your system lagging and stuttering just slide back a little at a time..

I use a single radeon and I am maxed out with no problems (a 6970) I enclose a screeny and as you can see there is no distortion at the edges and the colours are captured well.

FSX on a new machine may take a few weeks to settle own, as you have to continually play around with the settings until you are satisfied. I have found that if I do alter a setting, I reboot my system each time as to me this method seems to enhance the setting..

Best of luck on the trials and tribulations and I am sure there are many others who will give you help in the right direction..

PS. If you are getting OOM issues, try increasing your virtual memory.

[Clutch Cargo]

James, I had the same dilemma as you. I solved it by using both ways! What I mean is I have the option with my setup to either run one 27" or three in Nvida Surround using two 580's in SLI. They work great in SLI in P3D (not so good in FSX). So many times I use three across if I am doing scenic flights like through Southern Alaska using Orby's new scenery. If I know I am headed to so heavy-handed airport that is gonna crunch my FPS, I just switch to a single display or I may stay in 3-across but remove the VC from view and just use my real hardware as the cockpit. That alone may save lot's of frames (depends on aircraft). Plus it can be hard to go back to one 27" when I have three - it just feels so small and cramped then, ha!

So I just went with a setup that would provide lot's of options while flying rather than trying to only select one method.

Works for me...

Clutch

[JimmiG]

Running normal resolutions and amounts of FSAA, FSX/P3D is almost entirely CPU limited on anything faster than GeForce 8800GT.

With 3 monitors, the CPU will have to do more work too, simply because you're seeing more with a wider field of view. Narrowing the filed of view, either by zooming in or switching to 1 monitor could also be considered reducing details, since you're seeing less, without actually reducing any sliders.

If the sim is getting bottlenecked by the GPU, I would look into reducing the load of the video card e.g. by switching from Super Samlping AA to FXAA. 8x SSAA at 5896x1080 means an effective resolution of 47,168 x 5,400. Also, clouds are one of the few things that is actually somewhat GPU dependent even with the graphics engine FSX/P3D use.

[JamesIceland]

Hi all,

Thank you for your thoughts and responses - some really interesting comments for me to have a think about.

Jaydor - I wasn't aware actually that FSX cannot make use of the Crossfire set up - is it the same for Prepar3d and is there a way of forcing this to work? A workaround? Also on the virtual memory front I understand this is something restricted in Prepar3d/FSX and the OOM issue in the forums is one of those massive topics that seems to have no solution...does increasing the virtual memory work or really help?

JimmiG - I will have a play with the AA settings, cheers!

Andrew 737 - 3 60 inch screens? Wow! Thanks for your comments - I am leaning to agree with you about FOV, particularly with TrackIR and being able to see what I'm looking at on the other screens.

Scottharmes6 - reducing the LOD was what helped the performance most for me - mine is on medium and I switch to 4.5 once in a while but I have REX textures with Opus weather (best add on ever IMHO) Orbx Scenery and things like FSDT or UK2000 scenery and I can get OOMs unless I fly bloody quickly out of the airport and get high up! Flew around New Zealand yesterday with LOD set at 3.5 and it still looked great...I will tinker though depending on where I fly.

Thanks again all. Any more opinions appreciated!

James

[MarkH]

Thanks again all. Any more opinions appreciated!

Not so much an opinion, but a suggestion - try it out. If you ask ten people these questions you will likely get nine and a half different answers, then spend lots of money and be disappointed because nothing you find agrees with anything anyone else said. You will also find a lot of urban myth masquerading as opinion, especially regarding multi-GPU setups. Again, you have nothing to lose by trying it out. I have good experiences with three monitors (4066x1024) since buying a decent graphics card, but also with two cards in SLI. I don't think it's controversial that bigger resolutions need more CPU power to render, it then becomes a question of how much headroom you have before it starts to bottleneck.

In my experience the comments above regarding AA are the most significant - a poor (i.e. no) understanding of AA is what dragged my setup down for years. More AA headroom is the likely benefit of Crossfire - in other words, you may be able to get the same performance but with a better-looking picture. For a systematic approach my recommendation would be to turn off AA and filtering altogether, compare what your system can do with and without Crossfire. Assuming you find that there's not much difference in performance, you can then begin to add AA and filtering back in and see how far you can push it.

As for single-screen vs multi-screen, you need to think it through. You're trading a real-world aspect ratio for an absurdly wide one, so you will need to compromise and the nature of the compromise you choose will determine the particular issues you have to live with (mostly connected to the zoom setting you choose). You'd be better standing those three monitors on end and keeping a more or less 16:9 ratio.

[jaydor]

Remember I said about crossfire GPU are not recommended. Read the following link in relation to Graphics..

http://www.jetlinesystems.com/performance.php

Hope that help you..

[Guest]

According to my experience, the more FSX uses pixels, the more performances decreases with 1 or 6 monitors (as eyefinity allows) even if your card has big amount of memory. I get very good compromise with 3 small wide 19 inches LCD giving me a resolution of 4500x900

[JamesIceland]

Quick response back on some experimenting I have done. Currently have Prepar3d in my centre monitor with Aivlasoft EFB on the left monitor and other apps on the right monitor - it's the current sweet spot for me as the Prepar3d performance on 1 screen is much better plus I can play with all other apps outside of it. That said I'm starting to itch for the wraparound 3 monitor view again so I can sense this will be an ever changing experiment by me!

 

Will test out crossfire impact and probably will set up another machine to run things like Aivlasoft and weather to maximise the running of my 3 screens. Cheers everyone for your tips!

 

James