Buying a new desktop - what should I buy for Trainz?

[pdwood]

I am planning to buy a new desktop pc - not especially for running trainz (TS12+) - but it would be nice to have enough power and graphics for Trainz. I do not know enough about PCs to know what I should seek?

Could one of you with some savvy give me your recommendation? Maybe a Dell machine?

Thanks in advance.

pdw

 

[SuperFudd]

You would do well with a Dell XPS 8500 such as this one at ~$850 USD.
Not sure about the Windows 8 though.

Processor	3rd Generation Intel® Core™ i5-3350P processor (6M Cache, up to 3.10 GHz)
Operating System	Windows 8, 64-bit, English
Memory[SUP]3[/SUP]	8GB[SUP]4[/SUP] Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1600MHz
Hard Drive	1TB 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drive 6.0 Gb/s
Video Card	NVIDIA GeForce GT 620 1GB DDR3 for Win 8
Monitor	No Monitor
Warranty	1 Year Enhanced Support - America's Best Standard Support

 

[BD1]

placemarker

 

[fran1]

A 3ghz+ quad core cpu, look at graphics cards around the £150 mark to get something reasonable, 8 gb ram. A psu with enough amps on the 20 volt rail to power the gpu (750 or 850 watt total) and a decent motherboard. A box to put it all in.
No need to go over the top buying the most expensive/newest gear there is.

 

[malikrthr]

Doubtful that any low end spec $ 700 desktop would run Trainz, unless it is an @ $ 800+ machine (USD) that is intended for gaming, unless you retrofit a low end PC, or rebuild one.

A good video card, and a fast CPU is the key.

I don't think you need to have an expensive computer to run trainz. You can build one for $400-600 and run trainz pretty good.

 

[kamran]

the graphics card mentioned is not much powerful so i think atleast gtx 650 should suit this system and instead of core i5 you can get core i3 3rd generation and 4 gb ram is enough.so save money by buying these cpu nd ram and buy atleast gtx 650

 

[malikrthr]

How would a GTX 550Ti or a superclocked GTX 550ti be for Trainz.

 

[Gandalf0444]

Wonderful, I use a GTX660 TI Superclocked 2GB and cannot complain, it eats through any game. It helps with trainz but not to much seeing as how trainz is still very CPU dependent. With the newer versions using more graphics card then earlier, but still not perfect.

 

[William0d0]

I have a GTX 560 (2 GB). Works great for Trainz.

 

[tomurban]

May I ask what FPS (Minimum & Maximum) that you are experiencing with the Desktop?

Thanks for your reply.

 

[William0d0]

Running the game 1920 * 1080.

Vertical sync at half rate.

Sliders at:

I get pretty much 30 FPS all around.

Depending on the route I can max out the sliders and still get 30 FPS.

 

[tomurban]

Interesting. I have a first generation i5 running at 3.2 GHz, a MSI GT430 @ 800 MHz, (slightly OC), 7 GB of DDR3 1333 RAM and WIN7 32 bit. My FPS run about the same, mostly 20 to 40 (limited in Trainz Options). My slider settings are similar to yours. All this is running off a standard 7200 RPM HDD and 250W PSU. I would expect that a high end system such as yours would blow mine off the road. Thanks for the info, I guess it is possible to have TRAINZ 12 running smoothly on a fairly modest system.

 

[malikrthr]

My specs are. I have not ran trainz on it yet. I can't wait to see how it runs.

AMD Phenom II X4 965 black edition @ 3.4Ghz
EVGA Superclocked GTX 550Ti with 1GB GDDR5 @ 951MHz
8GB Vengeance DDR3 RAM
Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200RPM hard drive with 64MB cache
Ultra LSP 700W PSU
HannsG monitor with 1600x900 resolution
AMD UD3-970a motherboard

 

[William0d0]

I use the Vertical sync rate = half setting which means a 60hz monitor gives me 30 FPS. Anything over 30 I have no need for.

If I don't use that setting I can get over 120 FPS on some routes in lesser dense areas.

 

[tomurban]

I use the Vertical sync rate = half setting which means a 60hz monitor gives me 30 FPS. Anything over 30 I have no need for.

If I don't use that setting I can get over 120 FPS on some routes in lesser dense areas.

That would help to explain the performance similarities as I am running at full sync. I agree, 30 FPS is more than adequate to enjoy smooth running.

 

[Hz-Lab]

wrong thread oops

 

[shaneturner12]

You will always be limited to some extent by the assets in use, as the game will automatically limit the draw distance to prevent crashes due to inefficient assets.

Shane

EDIT: Posted in response to a post that has now been edited, so may not make much sense.

 

[Hz-Lab]

You will always be limited to some extent by the assets in use, as the game will automatically limit the draw distance to prevent crashes due to inefficient assets.

Shane

EDIT: Posted in response to a post that has now been edited, so may not make much sense.

Thanks to your response to nothing shane...lol.

It surely can not be an asset issue. The 1st route I used was one of my own I copied over from my 3 year old Toshiba Satelite laptop. The laptop could handle draw distances of an estimated 2km's at 30fps. My new computer which handles every other game I own on max settings no problem, will run the exact same route, with same assets at 100fps but with a draw distance no further than about 500m.

The next crazy thing is, I just created a quick route that consisted of nothing but baseboards, not a single asset on there. When I started the session. I was lucky to see 2 baseboards along, set at 5000m draw distance. Soon as I moved, the 2nd baseboard in view would dissapear until the camera was still again. Just seems a little odd.

I just messed with the globalmodule config file too, and set it to 20000, this increased the baseboard view to maybe 4km, but then then only a quarter of my assets were loading up. All this, still running at 100+ frame rates.. just seems odd to me.

 

[pdwood]

I am planning to buy a new desktop pc - not especially for running trainz (TS12+) - but it would be nice to have enough power and graphics for Trainz. I do not know enough about PCs to know what I should seek?

Could one of you with some savvy give me your recommendation? Maybe a Dell machine?

Thanks in advance.

pdw

Thanks all for the advice and comments. Baffling really but what about an Alienware X51™, or an Alienware Aurora™? These seem to be quite new and crafty enough to crunch most games for a while. You can choose the specs for these - what are the most important - prossessor power and graphics? Solid state hard disk? Anything else?

What is the competition to Dell/Alienware?

Thanks for all your suggestions! I am retiring next year so will need something to do!

pdw

 

[JCitron]

Thanks all for the advice and comments. Baffling really but what about an Alienware X51™, or an Alienware Aurora™? These seem to be quite new and crafty enough to crunch most games for a while. You can choose the specs for these - what are the most important - prossessor power and graphics? Solid state hard disk? Anything else?

What is the competition to Dell/Alienware?

Thanks for all your suggestions! I am retiring next year so will need something to do!

pdw

Peter,

The Dell/Alienware machines really don't have competition outside of building the machine yourself. When I was spec'ing out a new machine for myself, I found that I could build a comparable machine for a lot less and still have a better video card and processor. The problem with the prebuilt machines is they find some way to cut back somewhere to save the profit margin, and they usually cut in two places - the video card and power supply.

John