New Electronics

[Bob Meola]

My Furuno Navnet of 19 years just went bad. Looking to upgrade to Garmin. Any suggestions would like to go with dual screens. Thanks

 

[Hookup1]

A little more info from you would be helpful. Which boat model. Where are you? What kind of fishing do you do? Serious fishing or easy stuff? Inshore/offshore/lake/river. Photo of helm and overhead electronics box if you have one.

I'm a all Garmin boat. 8610xsv, 8612xsv, GT51TH sideVu/downVu/CHIRP transducer, Fathom GMR18 radar, GPS 24xd puck, Fusion radio and amp. Had a 1243xsv before upgrading to 8612xsv.

 

[SkunkBoat]

plenty of info here for your 265
https://www.greatgrady.com/threads/265-x-flat-panel-dash.31837/

12" screens will involve cutting the fiberglass helm box opening. You can get two 12s in there but with no room for anything else. I opted to put my engine gauges up on the flat instead of another MFD.
IMO get at least one 12 for your main screen. A 12" is much more usable in split screen than the smaller models.
Radar is actually usable on a 12" screen in bumpy seas, in the dark..

I have one 12 and an old 8" in the upper box. I prefer having one up there as the sonar can be seen easily while fishing.
I only use the upper one for a second sonar but it is a capable backup Chartplotter.

The 8612 has more resolution than a 1243 but the screen format is not as tall. The 8612 is "BETTER" in many respects, but If you need two, 1243 is much more affordable and handles the latest charts well.

There are old "brand new" 1242s with knobs being sold at a big discount. I would avoid them.
FYI, Garmin distributors are only allowed to discount older models.

 

[Mustang65fbk]

It depends on the size of the MFD that you want to go with as well as your budget. I think one of the routes that would be on the less expensive side would be to go with twin Garmin 943xsv's. Though you could likely go with 10's or even a combination of 12's and 10's, or 12's and 9's. If it was me, I had an unlimited budget and the space to go with twin 12" units, I'd probably go with two Garmin 8612xsv's. Not sure if twin 12" units will fit, though you could likely get twin 10's or maybe even a 12"/10" combination. If you aren't able to fit twin 12's and still had an unlimited budget, I'd do an 8612xsv/8610xsv, though a 1243xsv is also another option that is less money as well. If you do go with Garmin touchscreen's and want sonar, make sure you get the "xsv" versions, as the non xsv versions don't support sonar compatibility without a black box.

 

[Hookup1]

The 943/1243 chart plotters are great units at a great price. The 86xx chart plotters are best-in-class units but are more expensive. I replaced my
943xsv with a 8610xsv mainly because I got a new old stock deal on the 8610 ($1,000). Garmin doesn't allow distributors to discount the units so you will see them everywhere at the same price. Only way I have found to get a "discount" is West Marine rewards program. Several times throughout the year they have a 5X points weekend. That amounts to a 20% discount coming back as West Certificates. Previously I bought 8612 and GMR18 Fathom - great deal on items that are not discounted online.

Screen resolution mostly affects what you can see at a given scale on your maps. Noticeable when you are running when you need to see bottom detail but also need to see the big picture to see where you are headed. You could run two chartplotters - one zoomed in and one zoomed out.

The 943/1243 displays are 1,280x720. The 86xx series of displays are generally 1,920x1,080 with a few models that are slightly different. Both series of displays offer larger screen sizes but the resolution remains the same.

4210 800 x 600 = 480,000 pixels.
943 1,280 x 720 = 921,000 pixels. This unit has 92% more pixels than the 4210.
1243 1,280 x 720 = 921,000 pixels. This unit has 92% more pixels than the 4210.
8610 1,920 x 1,200 = 2,304,000. This unit has 150% more pixels than the 943/1243.
8612 1,920 x 1,080 = 2,073,600. This unit has 125% more pixels than the 943 and 11% less than the 8610.

Baltimore canyon 3nm scale.


It you zoom out one click to 5 nm scale you cross the line where detail is dropped to display a larger area.


Go back the other way and zoom in to 0.5nm scale.


As you can see your field of view is substantially different between the units for a given scale. For chart plotting resolution matters. No so much with radar and sonar - but I haven't compared - to hard to do side-by-side comparison.

You get the same data from either unit but its harder to see what is around you or up the beach.

So as not to confuse anyone the 8610 had my NJ waypoint set loaded. The 943 did not. Does't affect the results.