hey, a 4890 ATI card?

[mikemike]

as an example, i have an ATI 4850 card, and i'm running Harlem Line at 63 FPS, with most all maxed options. when i control-del (winXP) out to the desktop, i can Catalyst control the overclock GPU clock from 615 to 665 and Memory clock from 885 to 1035. on the toolbar is the Trainz button, and Trainz toolbutton shows the FPS rate. at the lower rate i get 63FPS... at the overclock i get 83FPS, and Harlem Line's F engine runs with only a little stutter past some of the heavy buildings.

with the new ATI 8490 you can get an overclocked version for around 270USD, and its core is clocked to 900 Hz., that much more Herzing over the 665Hz, without the overclocking-Herzt-me artifacts,and that would seem to be a nice upgrade. But, i wonder if anyone has heard of any direct experience with our kinds of game and this card? i'm never sure if the 3D engine in Trainz is more or less demanding than those listed test games like Crysis? that it might not offer that much advantage because the game might not use the Video Card in the same way as those games?

thanks.

 

[aodgh0st]

short answer, it matters. even with the best gpu, you are going to notice a little stutter, just not as much. went from a x1650 pro to (2) gtx 260's. noticed the difference, but it still stutters depending on details and game options.

 

[mikemike]

short answer, it matters. even with the best gpu, you are going to notice a little stutter, just not as much. went from a x1650 pro to (2) gtx 260's. noticed the difference, but it still stutters depending on details and game options.

thanks for your comment. one good hint at what's possible is that someone reviewed the 4890 on newegg.com and said that, something like, "the memory hog that is Flight-Sim X works without a stutter".

i just added the newest driver for my 4850 yesterday, and the new package has an improved auto-over-clock feature, and i ran it and i'm clocked at 690 -1138, running at 42C, idle. Harlem is just at the edge of no flicker now, and running at 80FPS, so i'm thinking that the 4890 will give the illusion of smooth flow i'm looking for. but, really, and perhaps only for myself, the layouts i build are minimalist in landscape, with no clusters of large structures and no moving cars on the roads. i do like to run on other layouts though.

but, maybe it sounds like you too might be ready for an upgrade again? like, a GTX 285 ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130487 ) might add a booster to your 4-8-4?

 

[Euphod]

It sounds like MikeMike gets a percentage of GPU sales!
So you are saying that you still have "stutter" even running above the optimal 24 FPS (which you must be)? Are you having "rubberbanding" instead? You could try limiting your framerates by a TrainzOptions entry.

 

[mikemike]

that's not a nice thing to write. i've been working with computer pieces of rubbish since the mid eighties, trying to do the impossible, and we're just getting to the point where we can actually seamlessly fall into our games -- where we don't have to save-game all the time, or pray that our 1Gig video file is going to render without a freeze up, or -- and here it is -- that our trainz is going to run through a complicated layout and actually look realistic in motion.

i'm saying exactly what we've all been talking about -- when the object in trainz to be rendered is too big, has too many points to render, the image slows and lurches until the computation completes. that's what we know and what we live with, and we have to live with it somewhat less, now, because of the newer and cheaper video cards coming out. i'm sorry i'm not giving you a nice day, but i don't have any fixed expenses like six-packs or drugs and i'm able to use my extra cash on what's really important to me. hard-drives, cpu's, video cards, LAN fast modum, and RAM. i'm going to be upgrading from a card i spent 200$us last year, and that was from a 500$us card from four years prior. that's how it is and how it goes.

It sounds like MikeMike gets a percentage of GPU sales!
So you are saying that you still have "stutter" even running above the optimal 24 FPS (which you must be)? Are you having "rubberbanding" instead? You could try limiting your framerates by a TrainzOptions entry.