I installed a 1243xsv in my 24 H and run it side by side with the simrad. The only reason I haven't yanked the simrad trash out yet is that I already installed the Halo20+ & compass- and haven't researched the OEM transducer compatibility with the Garmin unit.
For navigation and ease of use-- it's light years beyond simrad. Hell, even the path traveled breadcrumbs are next to useless on the Simrad. (Not to mention the on screen controls for the Kraken trolling motor being available on Garmin only). I have the Garmin pulling the depth from the OEM transducer via NMEA.
This winter I'll probably yank & sell the Simrad NSX and the Halo setup and go full Garmin. At this point it's only used as a radar display.
In one of my boats, I have three Garmin screens — 1243xsv, 8610xsv, and 723xsv — along with an MSC 10 GPS compass and a Fantom 24x radar.
On my other boat, I have two Simrad screens — NSS12 evo3s and Go12 XSE — along with an HS60 GPS compass and a Halo 20+ radar.
I've never been on a boat with a Simrad NSX unit, so I can't say anything substantial about it beyond what I've read online. But given all the problems that folks here and at THT have pointed out, I have no doubt that the Garmin 1243xsv system is light years ahead of the Simrad NSX.
With that said, you might be surprised if you compare a Simrad evo3s system against the Garmin. IMHO, the evo3s family (despite its "vintage") is light years ahead of Garmin's GPSMap series — especially for navigation.
My #1 use for radar is navigation in low-visibility conditions. Not only is the Garmin Fantom 24x (which I upgraded from a Fantom 18 that came pre-installed on my boat) subpar in all regards to the much lower cost Halo 20+, but Garmin's MARPA implementation is literally unusable. Meanwhile, Simrad's MARPA implementation is intuitive and spot-on. It accurately identities true collision targets, clearly shows the estimated collision paths, and warns you to take evasive action if collision is imminent. Garmin's MARPA, on the other hand, regularly tracks stationary trees miles away on the shoreline as collision targets. Heck, even random waves that appear for one sweep of the radar continue to remain on Garmin's MARPA target list for minutes afterward — no matter what settings you tweak.
Plus, if you have an AIS class B+ receiver (or transceiver) on your boat, the Simrad evo3s can merge AIS targets with MARPA acquisitions to give you even better collision-avoidance data. I have the same Vesper Cortex M1 VHF+AIS radio on both of my boats, and despite Vesper being a Garmin product, Simrad does a much tighter integration.
Even if you'd rather run old-school without MARPA or AIS, the Halo 20+ is a better radar. The Fantom 24x can't image a channel marker that's close to a shoreline. Even in flat, open water, the Fantom 24x can't reliably image a bare wood piling or even a small skiff. In contrast, the Halo 20+ has no problem resolving a swimmer in the water, even close to the shoreline.
For finding diving birds and therefore fish, the Halo 20+ absolutely blows away the Fantom 24x. I can spot a single penguin a mile away on the Halo 20+ (seriously, no exaggeration), while the Fantom 24x has trouble spotting birds at any distance (other than large flocks) no matter the auto/manual radar settings in bird mode (or any other mode for that matter).
Moreover, installing software updates on the Garmin system is always a PITA. You've got two choices: (1) Use the ActiveCaptain app on an iOS or Android device to download the update, and then upload from the app via Garmin's wi-fi to all of the Garmin devices; or (2) Download a huge zip file (from Garmin's
very slow servers), that contains updates to all of Garmin's GPSMAP models, to a computer, unzip the file, then load the unzipped files into a microSD card that you insert into one of your Garmin units. Either method takes a couple hours if you have multiple Garmin devices to update.
Updating the Simrad system? I turn on my Simrad devices, and the evo3s itself connects to my dock's wi-fi and distributes the updates to all of the other Simrad devices. 15 minutes later, I'm done.
Similarly, to synchronize waypoints or tracks on the Garmin system, I have to connect the ActiveCaptain app to the Garmin system's wi-fi. Meanwhile, on my three Simrad/Lowrance/Navico systems (the one boat with evo3s, one fishing kayak with evo3, a second fishing kayak with Lowrance), as soon as I power them on, they sync waypoints and tracks with Navico's cloud.
I could go on and on... but I get the feeling that very few (if any) of the active members here at Jetboaters are using their MFDs for low or zero-vis navigation or have multiple systems to keep synchronized... so I'll conclude my TED Talk now instead of boring everyone to death!!! Let me end by saying that everything I've read on the Simrad NSX series is in line with what
@zackmorris has experienced. NSX is clearly a problem-child for Simrad, and it's not ready for primetime!
Zack, I'm sure you'll be happy to get rid of the NSX. With that said, if you're ever in the Pensacola/Destin area and you want to see a fully integrated evo3s-controlled Simrad Halo 20+ system vs. a Garmin Fantom24x system on the water, back-to-back, give me a holler.