Flight sim hardware, advice much appreciated

dnme

I'm thinking of messing around with flightsims as a hobby for the winter. In particular the forthcoming magic DCS A-10c. I envisage taking over spare room and building a simple seat (old car seat maybe) with controls handy etc. I hope to use 3 monitors.

So, I'm starting from scratch with the PC build. Any help or advice or opinion greatly appreciated. What do you think of this to start...

(will pick up monitors second hand and maybe use my LED TV or a projector as centre screen, also I already have a 1TB HDD)

Intel® Core™ i7 950
6 GB [2 GB X3] DDR3-1600 RAM
nVidia GTX 460
ATI Radeon HD 5770 - 1GB GPU
ASUS P6T SE Motherboard
600 Watt -- Standard PSU
24X Dual Format/Double Layer DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Drive

Wonder how far 600 quid would go

Edit: Now remembered that I started another similar thread here. Apologies to mods, please feel free to delete the other thread.

Tea_Bag

why the GTX 460 and the ATI 5770?

is the GTX for the physx?
AFAIK its only ATI that can do 3 monitor with eyefinity, so thats where my money would go.
also, there is just no way you could stretch €600 that far. i7 starts at around £240, and thats before anything else, (triple channel ram is pricey too)

dnme

Thanks Tea Bag,

I understand that most of the high end video cards now have 3 outputs. 2 x DVI and 1 x HDMI. So wouldn't that do me?

Also,I could always get a second video card if needed via SLI, no?

dnme

Just wondering folks, if flight sims are more cpu intensive than gpu, could I down-spec the graphics?

I was thinking og a motherboard with 2xPCIe 16x and then installing 2 of these

ATI Radeon HD4600 or what about 2 of these - EVGA GeForce GTS 450 ?


These would give me 4 DVI outputs and dual processing supported by ATI CrossfireX. I would eventually use all 4 outputs (3 for view, and 1 for cockpit console)

What do ya reckon? good idea or not?

lmimmfn

dnme wrote: »

Thanks Tea Bag,

I understand that most of the high end video cards now have 3 outputs. 2 x DVI and 1 x HDMI. So wouldn't that do me?

Also,I could always get a second video card if needed via SLI, no?

NO, only 2 outputs are possibe at any one time on non eyefinity cards
to run 3 screens you have the following choices
1. ATI card supporting Eyefinity( you need 1 screen to be a display port screen or you need an active adapter, they were expensive but now apparently you can pick them up for about 30-40euro )
2. Nvidias Surround requires 2 Nvidia cards in SLI, the 460's and above support this, i dont think the driver has been updated to allow the old 260's to support this.
3. Use SoftTH, its DX9 only, requires 2 video cards( a cheap one just for the DVI and a decent one which renders all the gfx ), its awkward to configure and a bit hit and miss. I used to use it but moved to eyefinity due to the hassle involved.

dnme wrote: »

Just wondering folks, if flight sims are more cpu intensive than gpu, could I down-spec the graphics?

I was thinking og a motherboard with 2xPCIe 16x and then installing 2 of these

ATI Radeon HD4600 or what about 2 of these - EVGA GeForce GTS 450 ?


These would give me 4 DVI outputs and dual processing supported by ATI CrossfireX. I would eventually use all 4 outputs (3 for view, and 1 for cockpit console)

What do ya reckon? good idea or not?

Well while most sims are cpu intensive having 3 screens with a potential resolution of 3840x1024 or 5760x1080 is going to chew even top end cards unless you run really low settings, but whats the point in 3 screens if you use really low resolution blocky textures with low polygon count models?
I would say no, dont do it , ive a 5850 which runs most things on high/ultra settings at 3840x1024. Also the lower end cheapo cards are limited on mem bus( which is important for high resolutions, i.e. it will bottleneck with 3 screens )

i honestly dont think nvidias surround will work in combination with the phantom monitor fix for the 4th screen on the 4th DVI but i couldnt be sure

dnme

Thanks for that lmimmfn,

I have been advised elsewhere to look at the HD 5850 also, so I am looking at it. It might be a bit costly but it will server well for other games as well as flightsim. PLus it has 4 outputs / eyefinity etc. Best price I can find right now is 259 on pix.

lmimmfn

dnme wrote: »

Thanks for that lmimmfn,

I have been advised elsewhere to look at the HD 5850 also, so I am looking at it. It might be a bit costly but it will server well for other games as well as flightsim. PLus it has 4 outputs / eyefinity etc. Best price I can find right now is 259 on pix.

no probs, no it only has 3 useable outputs, 2 DVI outputs, 1 HDMI and 1 displayport, you cant use all 4 and have different outputs on each screen. If you use the HDMI it will just disable one of the DVI's( otherwise there would have been no need for the DisplayPort and expensive displayport adapter ).

However there is a custom Sapphire 5770 which does have 4 proper outputs - http://www.google.ie/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CBMQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.techpowerup.com%2F128506%2FSapphire_Announces_HD_5770_FleX_Edition_Connect_Four_Displays_in_Eyefinity.html&rct=j&q=sapphire%205770%204%20screen&ei=7AemTOWbI8mE4AaT84WUDQ&usg=AFQjCNE8MXGsZO1CDuxzVLDjL2SATtcVew&sig2=6m04L8kGwXIBORJxnQf8-Q&cad=rja

Another option would be the 6 output ATI cards, but theyre more expensive and its not available in a 5850 form only 5870 or 5970

tazzzZ

the new range of ati 6000 cards are reported due to be released this month. so i would wait for them and then u are looking at a decent price drop on the 5000 series. might even pick urself up a 5870 then. also keep a look on adverts for gfx cards as you could get a bargan. defo stick to ati if ur goin for multi monitor set up.

u need to work out wat u can afford as with 600 quid u may end up with a cpu that will bottleneck the performance of the gfx card. its about getting the right balance with the money u've got.