GTX 690 testing saga - Joy or sorrow?

[Maurice]

After eagerly anticipating the arrival of my new GTX 690, I finally received it a couple of days ago. I must say the packaging and the look of the card was quite impressive. The card looks like a beautiful piece of engineering.

So I carefully installed it in my FSX PC and powered it on. I immediately had a minor coronary because after Windows booted up, the card could only detect 2 projectors. I did not panic yet as I expected this was just a configuration issue. And it was; after about one hour and some weird message about needing to use the display port for one of the projectors instead of a dvi-d port, I managed to have the 3 projectors recognized while all plugged in to their respective dvi-d port. Not sure exactly what I changed but it worked.

I then proceeded to first test it as a direct replacement for the TripleHead, in other words as one wide display at 3840x800 resolution. I loaded one of my saved flights and to my amazement & immense relief, it worked at least as well as the TripleHead. So I did a few short test flights to see how it compared to the previous GTX 480.

First disappointment:

No improvement at all over the 480 ... same frame rates and same occasional artefacts like white flashes despite the increased speed and increased memory of the 690.

I then proceeded to check the card's performance with MSI Afterburner. The GPU utilization for both cores never exceeded 51% each and the memory utilization for both cores never exceeded 588 MB on each core (from a 2 GB total on each core).  My old 480 card consistently showed GPU 100% utilization under the same conditions which was the main reason I thought the 690 should help. But it didn't.

So, I concluded that the artefacts and white flashes have nothing to do with this graphic card or my old one for that matter. At this stage, it isn't looking good but I am not finished with my testing as I also wanted to try it as 3 separate outputs running at 1280x800 instead of one wide output at 3840x800. FSX running at 1280x800 should run slightly faster and some earlier tests did show a slight frame rate increase.

Second disappointment:

When I switched from wide display to 3 separate displays, I discovered that in that configuration, the card can only use one of the two GPU cores which is unacceptable. This I believe has something to do with the first message about needing to use the display port for one of the projectors. If using the display port, I believe it will be able to use the 2 processors but yet to be tested. Unfortunately, they did not supply a mini display port to dvi-d adapter, so I could not proceed any further until I get one of these adapters.

Third MAJOR disappointment:

Until I receive the display port adapter, I switched back to one wide display and continued testing. All was working fine but on my last very short flight, the 3 projectors blacked out with a no input message. The FSX PC was still powered on, but no video at all. I still do not know for sure if the video card was the culprit or whether my motherboard/CPU or something else was at fault since I could not get any response from keyboard or mouse.

I tried to access the FSX PC remotely via TeamViewer but it could not connect, indicating that Windows had crashed as well. I haven't had any such crashes since I replaced the CPU a few weeks ago, so the only change has been the new video card.

So, what is wrong now? Was this just a fluke or the precursor to more crashes. I guess I won't know for a while yet but this is beginning to look like a colossal waste or time & money to me.

More to come,

Maurice

[jackpilot]

you are brave...or fool, but in any case thank you for paving the way!!!
lol   
Jack

[Maurice]

you are brave...or fool, but in any case thank you for paving the way!!!
lol   
Jack

Definitely a fool but hoping to learn someday not to f..k with something that is working, even with some imperfections 

Maurice

[sluyt050]

Why not go 1 step back: GTX 690 + TH2go? (Next year I plan to switch from AMD Eyefinity to a GTX 680 + TH2go for driving 3 HDMI projectors + 2 DLP panel displays).

[nicd]

It's ok Maurice .. the Wright brothers were probably labelled "fools" at some stage as well!    such are the risks of trying something new

Thanks for the report mate - these things really help.

Don't suppose you'd have FS9 on that PC and could give it a try with the 690?  rhetorical question me thinks 

[Maurice]

Why not go 1 step back: GTX 690 + TH2go?

I really don't see the point of doing that. It kind of defeats the purpose of having a card with 3 outputs.

Maurice

[Maurice]

Don't suppose you'd have FS9 on that PC and could give it a try with the 690?  rhetorical question me thinks 

FS9?? What is that? 

Maurice

[Garys]

FS9?? What is that? 

I believe I saw a FS9 exibit at the royal tyrell museum in drumheller.    http://www.tyrrellmuseum.com/exhibits.htm

Gary

[Maurice]

FS9?? What is that? 

I believe I saw a FS9 exibit at the royal tyrell museum in drumheller.    http://www.tyrrellmuseum.com/exhibits.htm

Gary

Maurice

[jackpilot]

Well, no one talks anymore about FS9 because FS9 users have no problems!
No hot flashes (or white or black) smooth stutter free taxiing at loaded airports and all scenery add ons at max sliders.  hé hé hé

Just jokin...but true!

[Kennair]

Getting back on topic, I would be taking the card back.  Sounds dodgy to me however I might add that many enthusiasts are hanging back waiting for the release of the nvidia 700 series cards due to the fact that the 600 cards had issues.  Nick over at Simforums isn't a fan of the 600's for his unknown but technically obscure reasons.  Don't know if it relates to your problems though Maurice.

Ken.

[Maurice]

Getting back on topic, I would be taking the card back.  Sounds dodgy to me however I might add that many enthusiasts are hanging back waiting for the release of the nvidia 700 series cards due to the fact that the 600 cards had issues.  Nick over at Simforums isn't a fan of the 600's for his unknown but technically obscure reasons.  Don't know if it relates to your problems though Maurice.

Ken.

For sure the card will be going back for an exchange if using the Display port does not 'fix' the disappearing display. That has happened 3 times so far although once, the display blanked out but then came back immediately and FSX was still running. So this is conclusively inconclusive so far 

Maurice