How few PCs can I get away with?
I have a JetMax 737 NG and 3 monitors. The PC is an I7 2770 with 32GB Ram and 2 GTX 680 cards with 2 GB vram.
The PC I have is long in the tooth and not fast enough to do everything. It will run instruments fine, but the visuals are struggling.
I've now got the budget to upgrade to 3x34 inch Acer Predator Curved displays and to build either an extreme gaming machine or several. I'm not certain which will work best.
The plan is to use the old machine to run the avionics and inside instruments (The jetmax panel) and to use the new build to run the visuals on the 3 curved displays (one day I'd like to go to 5x34 curved Acers with the G-synch).
digital storm has a nice Aventum II build with an I-7 5960X on an ASUS X99 RAMPAGE V, this can pack on 4 graphics cards, and I'm thinking of packing on 4 GTX-980 ti cards with the cooling package.
Can I get away with just 2 pcs, one middle of the road build to run the inside stuff and extreme gaming rig to run the 3 (or 5) 34 Acer Predator XR341CK monitors?
My Son is probably going to use the new gaming rig to play other games, but I want a really smooth stable high frame rate 737 simulator with a big realistic field of view. I've got the budget to custom order the extreme rig, but if its a waste of money and I'd be better off buying 2 lower end pcs I'll go that route. I've already spent over $10K on the jetmax and saitek stuff, and with the new gaming rig and monitors, its looking like another $16K, which is okay as long as we arent wasting it and then still need to buy more PCs.
The questions is this - is it better to try to pack all the processing for visuals into one machine packed with video cards (and cooling), or is it better to spread it across more machines. Intuitively, it seems like the fewer machines the simpler managing this will be.
Any insight is appreciated.
-Marc
New Build - more machines or or one high end machine
I ran a 2600k at 4.4ghz with two gtx 680's. Three 2560x1600, 30 inch monitors and a fourth and fifth 1980x1080 touch screens for the instrument panels. It ran pretty smooth at medium settings. you should be in good shape. Make sure, if possible, that the 5960x overclocks to at least 4.5ghz. You need all the horsepower you can get to push those four gpu's.
