After trying the GTX 560Ti, (thanks to the folks at Jetline Systems), I was in a position to try the GTX 660.
The 600 series cards have gained a lot of coverage due to their ability to provide video surround without the need for a Matrox TH2Go appliance. The 660 for example likes a space shuttle and and its cooling fan has the appearance of the turbine blades on a 737 engine! I think this makes it even more apt for the flight sim hobby.
The 660 is a GDDR5 device and comes with 4 ports. The one I had came with 2GB of video RAM. Three video devices can (in my case projectors) can directly plug into the card without needing the Matrox device. In any case, this was the plan.
However, upon opening the box, I discovered that the 4 ports were all of a different type. There was one of each of the following – DVI-D, DVI-I, HDMI and DisplayPort.
Here is where I hit the first snag – each of these, with the exception of the DVI-I port, I needed adapters that would convert to DVI-I or directly to VGA – because VGA connectors are the only ones that the XGA projectors have.
Amazon to the rescue, ordered those connectors. They took thier own time to show up. One arrived but didn’t work, another came with the wrong part being sent and the third came all right but wouldnt was too wide in its moulding that it wouldnt fit.
Anyway, a week later, had all the right parts. Plug them all in.
two work, the other two wouldnt. I only need three so I could manage with DVI-I to VGA, DisplayPort to VGA. I needed one more. The one that never came to be.
I tried different adapters. The projector wouldnt light up even though the 660 detected the third device. Back to Google for more research and reading. While I dont have a conclusive answer as to why, I am now sure that while there are adapters to convert DVI-D to DVI-I or VGA, HDMI to DVI-I – they wont work. So my limited knowledge on the subject, it is clear that there is no passive method to converting an Analog RGB video signal to a Digital RGB signal. It requires an active converter. So please watch for this. If you dont have a video output devices with digital ports on them, the 660 wont work for you.
With the native ports not going to do it for me, I was back to plugging the Matrox Th2GO device into the DVI-D port on the 660. That worked okay however it nullified the primary need for the 660 – i.e. to eliminate the need for a Matrox device in the ecosystem.
Will describe the results in my next post…
