FPS Spikes

[AdvancedApproach]

When operating in Trainz, my FPS hovers around a certain number, let's say for example 30-35. All of a sudden it lags and drops to below 20. I'm able to see what my FPS is due to running Bandicam and having the indicator on my screen. I can't afford to upgrade my CPU or GPU for that matter. I'd like to get 128 GB RAM and 1000 watt power supply as it's at 600 right now. My rig is low end and only has PCIE 4.0 which means a 5th generation GPU won't reach its full potential. My GPU has only 4 GB which is lackluster for Trainz. What can I do to assist in getting higher FPS without the sudden lag and drop off in that department. I wonder if getting a monitor with a higher refresh rate would help. I'm looking at a 240GHz monitor from Staples.

 

[paulper]

If you’re taking about running a session it’s probably script issues that are causing this and I’m not convinced any hardware upgrade will fix it. Happens to me too

 

[pdkoester]

I don't see how a higher refresh rate monitor is going to boost your FPS.
What monitor at Staples you looking to get?
You might find a better deal online or at Best Buy if nearby, maybe even a Microcenter.

 

[autodctr]

A monitor with a higher refresh rate is not going to hep you at all......it is only capable of displaying what the machine sends to it. A bigger power supply is not going to help either. You didn't 128G would be overkill. 64G or even 32G would be plenty.

 

[AdvancedApproach]

If you’re taking about running a session it’s probably script issues that are causing this and I’m not convinced any hardware upgrade will fix it. Happens to me too

So it's caused by older content not meant to be used in newer versions of Trainz? Perhaps that's the issue?

 

[AdvancedApproach]

A monitor with a higher refresh rate is not going to hep you at all......it is only capable of displaying what the machine sends to it. A bigger power supply is not going to help either. You didn't 128G would be overkill. 64G or even 32G would be plenty.

I'm thinking about getting an RTX 5070 12GB and AMD 7-5800XT. I might even get the 7-7700 series or AMD 9 series if that'll help increase performance.

 

[paulper]

So it's caused by older content not meant to be used in newer versions of Trainz? Perhaps that's the issue?

I am perhaps far from the best expert on here, and I appreciate that's a common assumption, but I've found no strong evidence of that, as static assets wouldn't necessarily need a script.

I use a lot of EITs in my session. When lines appear in the logs associated with them, there is a correlation with a drop in FPS. These are all up to date assets with recent version numbers.

 

[autodctr]

The RTX 5070 will help a great deal. You 4G GPU is definitely a problem. What processor are you running? How much RAM do you have?

 

[AdvancedApproach]

The RTX 5070 will help a great deal. You 4G GPU is definitely a problem. What processor are you running? How much RAM do you have?

AMD Ryzen 5 5500 @3.60 GHz)
48.0 GB (47.9 GB usable RAM
AMD Radeon RX 6400 @4GB

 

[coble12]

When operating in Trainz, my FPS hovers around a certain number, let's say for example 30-35. All of a sudden it lags and drops to below 20. I'm able to see what my FPS is due to running Bandicam and having the indicator on my screen. I can't afford to upgrade my CPU or GPU for that matter. I'd like to get 128 GB RAM and 1000 watt power supply as it's at 600 right now. My rig is low end and only has PCIE 4.0 which means a 5th generation GPU won't reach its full potential. My GPU has only 4 GB which is lackluster for Trainz. What can I do to assist in getting higher FPS without the sudden lag and drop off in that department. I wonder if getting a monitor with a higher refresh rate would help. I'm looking at a 240GHz monitor from Staples.

No, a higher refresh monitor won't get you more frames. If you are still with a 4GB GPU that would need to be your starting point, games are using a lot more VRAM these days. Not sure what CPU you have, but you'd probably need a better one as well so it wouldn't bottleneck your card. 128GB of system RAM is (currently) WAY overkill for 99% of anything, as is a 1000W power supply. You would need to splurge on a CPU/GPU, those are what gain FPS. No amount of RAM or wattage will achieve what you are looking for. If you're stuck where you're at then you are left with lowering settings and/or hunting down any assets that may be causing issues.

*Edit* Missed the above posts that mentioned most of this. I'm currently running a 5070, I'd imagine you'd be pleased with it. Then you can look for a fancy monitor to pair with it! However a 5070 wouldn't sniff 240FPS in Trainz, so unless you also play things like competitive fighters or shooting games, paying for that high of a refresh rate isn't necessary. Also keep in mind that we are closing in on the end of 2025 and they still inexcusably haven't returned 4K or anything above back to the sim, hopefully they restore it soon because removing it was one of the dumbest things I've ever seen a developer do, but that's another matter.

 

[JCitron]

High-poly assets and very high-resolution textures can cause framerate drops. One or two are okay in an area but when there are lots of them, asset rendering in real time becomes an issue because the data can't be processed quick enough due to the high-resolution data taking longer to render.

Assets without LOD can also cause a drop in FPS because the rendering system is attempting to render a high-resolution model, which is fine up close, with the same number of polygons many meters away. This technology also causes pop-up buildings and assets. Yes, you will find this with a lot of older assets because LOD wasn't enforced. Today, that's a requirement but many users skirt it by using the same resolution meshes at all levels defeating the purpose of LOD.

If you are seeing this issue in a particular area of your route, copy the route and session and test in that test version so you can "wreck things" until you find the culprits. Hint: open the session and do a save-as and create a new route. This will take that operating session that you spent days or weeks setting up and makes that the default session and keeps everything intact with your new route to play around with.

With your test route and session, drive around and look in different directions. I run Trainz in a window and put the profiler on my second monitor so I can watch the FPS. If I see a drop when I look one way, but it's fine when looking another, this indicates that an asset or two, or maybe a lot of them in that area are causing a lag.

Sometimes, the problem can be caused by a faulty texture or mesh. I ran into this on my relatively smooth operating Gloucester Terminal route. I would look one way while crossing a river and I would get a big, and I mean what seemed like forever, pause before the drive became normal. After that pause, everything was fine until I looked that way again.

After stripping nearly all the assets down, I made a backup of the route first, I found the culprit. A very, very small, and I mean very tiny buoy had something wrong with it. After removing the buoy, everything was fine afterwards.

Since I solved the problem in a test version, I went back and implemented that change in the other version and the problem is no longer there.

 

[johnwhelan]

If you're in the US then at the moment Dell refurbished have a single 5820 floating round. 64 gigs DDR4 but it's quad channel and the CPU is respectable. The GPU is an RTX A4000 16 gigs of memory so 3d score of 19,400 which again is respectable. Power supply is 900 watts and there is room inside for practically any GPU if you want to upgrade sometime.

Cheerio John

 

[autodctr]

Your Ryzen 5 is a weak spot, but your graphics card is what is really hurting you at the moment. That is where I would start. Your RAM is fine.

 

[nugget2225]

For anyone that owns a 40's series nvidia card, You can you dlss with unsupported games now. In trainz, i can get 200fps with it on. Smooth motion doesn't work though. Trainz won't even launch with smooth motion turned on. Just a suggestion for people with the 40 series cards. This might improve performance for some. If i lock the framerate to my monitors refresh rate, Mine stays capped at 75 fps.

 

[nugget2225]

When operating in Trainz, my FPS hovers around a certain number, let's say for example 30-35. All of a sudden it lags and drops to below 20. I'm able to see what my FPS is due to running Bandicam and having the indicator on my screen. I can't afford to upgrade my CPU or GPU for that matter. I'd like to get 128 GB RAM and 1000 watt power supply as it's at 600 right now. My rig is low end and only has PCIE 4.0 which means a 5th generation GPU won't reach its full potential. My GPU has only 4 GB which is lackluster for Trainz. What can I do to assist in getting higher FPS without the sudden lag and drop off in that department. I wonder if getting a monitor with a higher refresh rate would help. I'm looking at a 240GHz monitor from Staples.

I had 96gb of ram for a short while, and could never get trainz to use more than 30gb on the largest routes. 48-64gb is about the max you need unless you are a content creator. What i understand, ddr6 will be out next year, at least with the new intel boards. 128gb of ram would be a waste in my opinion. direct that money towards your psu or other important parts.

 

[AdvancedApproach]

High-poly assets and very high-resolution textures can cause framerate drops. One or two are okay in an area but when there are lots of them, asset rendering in real time becomes an issue because the data can't be processed quick enough due to the high-resolution data taking longer to render.

Assets without LOD can also cause a drop in FPS because the rendering system is attempting to render a high-resolution model, which is fine up close, with the same number of polygons many meters away. This technology also causes pop-up buildings and assets. Yes, you will find this with a lot of older assets because LOD wasn't enforced. Today, that's a requirement but many users skirt it by using the same resolution meshes at all levels defeating the purpose of LOD.

Then N3V needs to put a system in place to ensure resolution meshes are banned or at the very least handicapped so content creators are unable to circumvent LOD requirements.

 

[autodctr]

For anyone that owns a 40's series nvidia card, You can you dlss with unsupported games now. In trainz, i can get 200fps with it on. Smooth motion doesn't work though. Trainz won't even launch with smooth motion turned on. Just a suggestion for people with the 40 series cards. This might improve performance for some. If i lock the framerate to my monitors refresh rate, Mine stays capped at 75 fps.

How do you enable it?

 

[paulper]

For anyone that owns a 40's series nvidia card, You can you dlss with unsupported games now. In trainz, i can get 200fps with it on. Smooth motion doesn't work though. Trainz won't even launch with smooth motion turned on. Just a suggestion for people with the 40 series cards. This might improve performance for some. If i lock the framerate to my monitors refresh rate, Mine stays capped at 75 fps.

I found that Smooth Motion via the Nvidia App did work, but it didn't improve FPS. To have this switched on and get Trainz beyond the splash screen I had to delete the DLL plugins that I have via another thread. As those plugins boosted FPS by around 10% I have now switched off Smooth Motion in favour of keeping the plugins.

I have just tried DLSS (the two options available to 40's series Nvidia cards, the third being limited to 50's series):- setting Model Presets to 'Latest' and Super Resolution mode to Ultra Performance and 33%, I've seen a small, maybe, 5% increase in performance. I'm using SP5.

 

[AdvancedApproach]

If you're in the US then at the moment Dell refurbished have a single 5820 floating round. 64 gigs DDR4 but it's quad channel and the CPU is respectable. The GPU is an RTX A4000 16 gigs of memory so 3d score of 19,400 which again is respectable. Power supply is 900 watts and there is room inside for practically any GPU if you want to upgrade sometime.

Cheerio John

I found that Smooth Motion via the Nvidia App did work, but it didn't improve FPS. To have this switched on and get Trainz beyond the splash screen I had to delete the DLL plugins that I have via another thread. As those plugins boosted FPS by around 10% I have now switched off Smooth Motion in favour of keeping the plugins.

I have just tried DLSS (the two options available to 40's series Nvidia cards, the third being limited to 50's series):- setting Model Presets to 'Latest' and Super Resolution mode to Ultra Performance and 33%, I've seen a small, maybe, 5% increase in performance. I'm using SP5.

Your Ryzen 5 is a weak spot, but your graphics card is what is really hurting you at the moment. That is where I would start. Your RAM is fine.

No, a higher refresh monitor won't get you more frames. If you are still with a 4GB GPU that would need to be your starting point, games are using a lot more VRAM these days. Not sure what CPU you have, but you'd probably need a better one as well so it wouldn't bottleneck your card. 128GB of system RAM is (currently) WAY overkill for 99% of anything, as is a 1000W power supply. You would need to splurge on a CPU/GPU, those are what gain FPS. No amount of RAM or wattage will achieve what you are looking for. If you're stuck where you're at then you are left with lowering settings and/or hunting down any assets that may be causing issues.

*Edit* Missed the above posts that mentioned most of this. I'm currently running a 5070, I'd imagine you'd be pleased with it. Then you can look for a fancy monitor to pair with it! However a 5070 wouldn't sniff 240FPS in Trainz, so unless you also play things like competitive fighters or shooting games, paying for that high of a refresh rate isn't necessary. Also keep in mind that we are closing in on the end of 2025 and they still inexcusably haven't returned 4K or anything above back to the sim, hopefully they restore it soon because removing it was one of the dumbest things I've ever seen a developer do, but that's another matter.

High-poly assets and very high-resolution textures can cause framerate drops. One or two are okay in an area but when there are lots of them, asset rendering in real time becomes an issue because the data can't be processed quick enough due to the high-resolution data taking longer to render.

Assets without LOD can also cause a drop in FPS because the rendering system is attempting to render a high-resolution model, which is fine up close, with the same number of polygons many meters away. This technology also causes pop-up buildings and assets. Yes, you will find this with a lot of older assets because LOD wasn't enforced. Today, that's a requirement but many users skirt it by using the same resolution meshes at all levels defeating the purpose of LOD.

If you are seeing this issue in a particular area of your route, copy the route and session and test in that test version so you can "wreck things" until you find the culprits. Hint: open the session and do a save-as and create a new route. This will take that operating session that you spent days or weeks setting up and makes that the default session and keeps everything intact with your new route to play around with.

With your test route and session, drive around and look in different directions. I run Trainz in a window and put the profiler on my second monitor so I can watch the FPS. If I see a drop when I look one way, but it's fine when looking another, this indicates that an asset or two, or maybe a lot of them in that area are causing a lag.

Sometimes, the problem can be caused by a faulty texture or mesh. I ran into this on my relatively smooth operating Gloucester Terminal route. I would look one way while crossing a river and I would get a big, and I mean what seemed like forever, pause before the drive became normal. After that pause, everything was fine until I looked that way again.

After stripping nearly all the assets down, I made a backup of the route first, I found the culprit. A very, very small, and I mean very tiny buoy had something wrong with it. After removing the buoy, everything was fine afterwards.

Since I solved the problem in a test version, I went back and implemented that change in the other version and the problem is no longer there.

What about an m2 NVME SSD? Wouldn't that also help? I have Western Digital SN850X at 7300/7000 read/write mbps. It can't even reach its full potential given how none of my slots are 4th generation, only 3rd.

 

[johnwhelan]

What about an m2 NVME SSD? Wouldn't that also help? I have Western Digital SN850X at 7300/7000 read/write mbps. It can't even reach its full potential given how none of my slots are 4th generation, only 3rd.

Just drop in an adapter to a PCIe slot that should work fine. In terms for FPS it will make very little difference, maybe .1% but things will load faster. The 5820s often come with a bootable NVME SSD.

Cheerio John