Sell it off when the dust settles.
Hence why I called your OLD Garmin 943xsv as "the old one...", being that you just bought a NEW unit to replace it with and you'll be selling the OLD one off here shortly.
Your math is actually slightly off with the screen resolution on the 943xsv where 1,280 x 720 pixels is actually 921,600... not 921,000. If the NEW unit that you bought works for you and you feel that the additional money spent is justified then that's all that matters. I honestly don't need much of anything in the way of chart plotting as I wake up, get out of bed, row the little boat or my kayak from the shore of my beach cabin out to my Grady on a mooring buoy and then start trolling for salmon once I take the boat of the buoy. About the only time that ever changes is if I needed to fill up with fuel, go back to the boat launch or go to a different fishing spot. There's three different fuel docks to choose from, all within about 10-15 miles from my cabin, the other fishing spot that I tend to fish is on the way to one of them and the boat ramp is on the way to another. I've fished and boated these waters for over 30 years and to where I don't even really need a chart plotter for cruising as there are green buoys and you literally just follow the coastline to stay out of the shallow water. The only thing I really need the MFD for is to see where the fish supposedly are and what depth they're at, how deep the water is where I'm trolling as fishing for king salmon you generally want your downrigger ball to be dragging bottom, or within about 10' of the bottom. It's also nice to see your speed and the water temperature, more so just for curiosity sake than anything else. So for my fishing/boating purposes, I can't at all justify spending almost $3k just for an MFD that basically only gives me a clearer image of the chart plotter portion of it, which I rarely ever use and when I bought my 943xsv as well new transducer for $1,700. If I ever wanted to add radar, the Garmin Fantom 18 is on sale at BOE Marine for $1,344... so I could almost buy all three for the same price that you bought just one of your 8610xsv's for, probably less if you paid tax on it. If you feel that the slightly more detailed image of the chart plotter portion of the screen is worth spending double the money of the 943xsv then it's your choice and your money spent. If it was a tv that I was watching for hours at a time then it would be one thing, but for an MFD that I basically only use for sonar or the Fish Eye 3d function? Absolutely no way at all. Good luck.
. Lowrance support was no help, not that I expected them to be helpful.
I'm cheap and already had an iPad, so when I bought my new Garmin 943xsv I was thinking about whether I should buy a second, but instead just bought a suction cup mount for my iPad. I typically mount it near the stern of the boat for use when fishing and just have the iPad mirror my Garmin, especially when fishing for kings as they are typically within the bottom 10' or so of the ocean. Fortunately the area I fish in is rather sandy, so if you do drag bottom for a bit then you'll be fine, but it is nice to have another screen of some kind back there for your depth, speed, where the fish are and so forth.
Depending on the screen size, they don't consume a ton of power. If you have a stereo, it probably uses more power than your MFD
I generally agree and would buy new stuff every time. I have 2007 technology and to be honest I really don't need anything more. If I have updated chart cards, radar overlay and a sounding module fishfinder I'm fine..The problem with marine electronics s that they go 'obsolete' quickly. I have an early model Lowrance HDS and a few years after purchasing it, I ordered a new Navionics chip. The original HDS did not have Navionics data.
The chip worked but was soooo slow to load and refresh as you scrolled in and out. It also occasionally reboots which can be fairly annoying especially in untraveled waters
So if you are looking at older gear, try and verify that it will work well with whatever firmware or chart data you plan on using
When I bought my boat last October it had an older Garmin 7" touchscreen unit on it that IIRC was manufactured around 2012 and it crapped out on me when I did a software update as well as added a new maps card to it. Had it not done so, I probably would've used it for at least a season or two and then gone from there if I wanted to upgrade later on. A 7" touchscreen is pretty small and the Garmin 943xsv that I upgraded to is much nicer, newer and quicker but I'd run what you've got until it goes belly up or you simply can't stand using it anymore.
