OT - Video Card Question(s)

Jay,

I may be able to stop in on Saturday. Otherwise, I'll have to drop by
and convince the staff to let me see the simulator. Sounds like you are
going to town on upgrading it already...

Eric

Jay Honeck wrote:
I may have to find time to drop in this week and see the Kiwi. I'll be
in the Iowa City area visiting relatives for the holiday. Sadly the
Pilatus will have to stay home as we're driving from Ohio. Are there
times that are better or worse to drop by on Tuesday or Wednesday?

Hi Eric --

Mary and I are taking Wed/Thu/Fri off, so if you stop by Wednesday,
you'll get to meet my small-but-dedicated staff!

And what's this "driving from Ohio" stuff all about?

;-)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Jay Honeck wrote:
I want to add a second monitor (dedicated for the panel), and use the
104" projection screen for the "out-the-window-world-view" only. This
means that I need a video card with two video outputs.

Not necessary to have a dual video card.

An option is to use WideFs and a cast-off laptop/desktop for the
instrument display portion. There are free and not-so-free standalone
instrument panels, that use widefs to communicate over a net with the
core MSFS machine.

All you need is an extra cheap machine and a router.

For non-free example, see the GA IFR panel under Software at the
Project Magenta site:

http://www.projectmagenta.com/

Regards, Kev

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
ups.com...
Okay, this thread isn't totally off-topic, as my questions are related
to making the piloting experience more real in the sim. It's time to
upgrade the Kiwi!

(See it he http://alexisparkinn.com/the_kiwi_is_born.htm ).

I want to add a second monitor (dedicated for the panel), and use the
104" projection screen for the "out-the-window-world-view" only. This
means that I need a video card with two video outputs. "Lesser" models
seem to have a single DVI output and a single VGA (AKA: D-Sub) output,
while "better" models have two DVI outputs.
snip

I do not disagree with the many other suggestions you have received here and
as usual I am impressed by the diversity and depth of knowledge and
competence of this group. My simple contribution will no doubt reflect my
lack of experience with the 'bleeding edge' of technology and reflects my
techno strategy of 'using last years best'.

I have been using multiple monitors since W98 (and maybe even W95?) and have
found it to provide great usability and functionality and has allowed me to
have lots of screen real estate without the need to purchase huge monitors.
IIRC, Using multiple monitors with W9x did require a bit of tweaking but the
I have found the process to be straightforward and painless with WXPpro.

I currently have a couple of machines with dual head cards made by ATI and
Matrox. I have purchased these cards both new and from surplus jobbers and
have never paid $90. New Matrox AGP dual head cards are available locally
for ~$22, and higher end ATI dual head AGP cards run ~$50-75.

I have made it a practice to collect any reasonably priced PCI video cards
that I find available and I find these cards very serviceable for running
secondary monitors with my admittedly less demanding mainly 'office type'
applications. Real gamers will have higher requirements but I have had good
results with MSFS but have not run the newest versions so they may be more
demanding of hardware performance. I have always intuitively felt that
using video cards from one mfgr would limit compatibility problems but have
read many reports of people who solved these problems by using cards from
different mfgr. I have not had any compatibility problems either way.

Your power supply does seem a little on the small side but I have
successfully run multiple monitors with similar power supplies.

I would suggest that you find some simple PCI cards and try it out, you have
little to lose and you probably have some of these cards available if you
look. There is no reason to limit yourself to two monitors as you are only
limited by the number of PCI slots in your box (and the size of your power
supply). Extra fans are always a good idea, don't be afraid to cut a hole
in the side of your box to mount a big fan pointed directly at your cards,
MB and memory. I bet that there is a local tech jobber who has lots of both
cards and power supplies either NOS or 'gently' used and for very low cost.
The current local cost for PCI video cards is $10-35. I bet your teenagers
or their friends know lots of bargain tech sources for slightly out of date
(non bleeding edge) equipment. The net is full of them but a local guy can
be a great source of both gear and advice and will be easier to find if the
gear is faulty or does not work. The local guy will also be a good source
for bargain memory which will benefit any setup. I have also had no
problems with using primary single output AGP cards and one or more low end
PCI cards also with single output.

I will admit that most of my usage of MSFS has been as an IFR and NAV-aid
simulator and I was not really looking to maximize the out the window
experience.

I suspect that when you discover how easy it is to have two monitors that
you will also want this functionality in your 'office' machine as you will
find it really nice to have a spreadsheet or a letter you are answering on
one monitor while you are writing another letter on the second monitor. I
find two small monitors to be much more functional than one larger monitor,
YMMV.

Good luck.

On Sun, 19 Nov 2006, Jay Honeck wrote:

I want to add a second monitor (dedicated for the panel), and use the
104" projection screen for the "out-the-window-world-view" only. This
means that I need a video card with two video outputs.

Our flight sim PC is a Dell Optiplex GX260, Pentium 4, with a gig of
RAM -- but only an AGP slot for video card upgrade. The current card
is a Radeon 7000, with just 32 mb of on-board memory, and a single VGA
port.

If your software will do it, any old cheapie PCI video card should do just
fine for the panel. I wouldn't think it would care about super high frame
rate, resolution, etc. A computer store will probably give you someone's
old cast-off 4MB PCI card for the panel, and keep your existing AGP card
for the main screen.

Of course, it all depends on what the software will do.

-Dan