Is this the right forum?

[Cactushead]

I've been all over the place to find the right place to ask this question. I hope this is the right forum. Okay, here's what's happening. My old laptop, which did a fair job with TRS04, died a couple of weeks ago, forcing me to purchase a new computer. I decided to go whole hog, so I got an HP Pavilion with an Intel Core2 quad, inVidia graphics card with 251 megs, and 4 gigs machine ram. Instead of running like the wind like I thought it would, TRS04 runs like a lame dog. It's always crashing with a message about an access violation, plus it stutteres worse than on my laptop. Chatting on the TRS04 forums, it seems I'm not alone with this problem. Naturally, the OS is Vista. Then I got to thinking, what about Trainz Classic? So here's the questions. Will Trainz Classics run good on Vista? Can I use my downloads from the DLS for 04 on it? The only other alternative would be the new release of MSTS, and after watching some videos of it, I'm totally underwhelmed by it. Auran TRS is still the best, and I'd like to stay here. But, I've got to have my daily injection of Trainz, or I'll die:hehe: . Would appreciate any feedback.
Thanks
Dano

 

[omber]

An nVidia card with 256MB ram is suggesting something either old or one of the cheap options available now, which unfortunately are terrible at Trainz, on average a decent card these days has 512MB ram, with the top models pushing out 768 or more. In addition - the access violation problem - that can happen for variety of reasons but usually this suggests hard drive problem. If you can return the computer, and buy something from one of the smaller dealers.

 

[johnwhelan]

Have a look here.

http://forums.auran.com/trainz/showthread.php?t=14993 to get some idea of the sort of performance different machines are capable of.

It depends which nVidia card you have the 8800 GTS 320 /640 mb seem to be very good at the moment. Lesser cards will have lower performance. Look at tomshardware.com especially here

http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/10/01/the_best_gaming_graphics_cards_for_the_money/page6.html

You may like to post exactly what you have for a cpu, remember Trainz can only use one core, and four cores are run slower than dual core because of the heat. If the sales person guided you onto quad core after you mentioned Trainz I'd say you have a more than reasonable case for taking it back.

There is a recent Microsoft hot fix for video cards for Vista. Dig it out and apply it. Check your video drivers. 64 bit Vista has different drivers to 32 bit, which version are you running?

Some people have had more success than others with Vista so check the threads to see what the best configuration is.

Cheerio John

 

[ex-railwayman]

Hello Cactushead, I suppose when you booted up your computer first time round you set yourself up as the main administrator on Vista, if not, then that may be one reason for your "access violation" error messages.

Cheerz. ex-railwayman.

 

[Cactushead]

ooopsy, I wasn't watching what I was typing. It is a 512 graphics card. As to what version of Vista, I have no idea. How would I find out? And yes, I did set myself up as main admin. And I just remembered something else. When running TRS04 on my old XP machine, on rare occasions I would get an access violation when trying to attach fixed track to certain downloaded stations with track, or bridges. And even though your suggestions are helpful, it still doesn't answer my questions about Trainz Classic. Being a newer program than 04, I thought maybe it would run better on Vista. Also, where is that hot fix? I can give that a try.
Dano

 

[jdenm8]

Classics has certain WinVista problems. Mainly RAM but you will be fine (4Gb! ARE YOU NUTS!?!?!?!?!?).

Quad core.
BBBBAAAADDDD!!!!
You made an AWFUL decision when you bought that. Dual core is bad enough. Leave quad core alone! They are NO good!
Single core only (2.8Ghz) or Dual core (3.2Ghz) at minimum.
By the way, How powerful is the processor? I don't think we have that model down here and you didn't tell us.

 

[omber]

Classics has certain WinVista problems. Mainly RAM but you will be fine (4Gb! ARE YOU NUTS!?!?!?!?!?).

Quad core.
BBBBAAAADDDD!!!!
You made an AWFUL decision when you bought that. Dual core is bad enough. Leave quad core alone! They are NO good!
Single core only (2.8Ghz) or Dual core (3.2Ghz) at minimum.
By the way, How powerful is the processor? I don't think we have that model down here and you didn't tell us.

What? That's like saying having one horse is better then four. You are incorrect - you can assign which core focuses on which program, force all of Windows stuff to run on one, while for example Trainz runs on the other. Certain software and games (more and more these days - Source (Half Life 2) runs it's audio system on 2nd core for example, I think all Quake 3 based games utilized two cores / processors).

 

[johnwhelan]

Classics has certain WinVista problems. Mainly RAM but you will be fine (4Gb! ARE YOU NUTS!?!?!?!?!?).

Quad core.
BBBBAAAADDDD!!!!
You made an AWFUL decision when you bought that. Dual core is bad enough. Leave quad core alone! They are NO good!
Single core only (2.8Ghz) or Dual core (3.2Ghz) at minimum.
By the way, How powerful is the processor? I don't think we have that model down here and you didn't tell us.

Unfortunately the fastest cpus today are the dual core ones, so I wouldn't call them bad, they are faster than the older single core cpus, the instruction set varies so the speed of the processor is not always an indication of how fast the cpu is. tomshardware.com does have some tables.

Quads are fine, except they are more expensive than duals and in general the extra heat they give out means they are normally run a little slower than the dual. However with the right cooling system they can be run at the same speed.

The model of the graphics card I think is key information here. The 512 MB of memory may well be the key, without the Vista hot fix that will reduce the main memory available by 512 Mbs.

Cheerio John

 

[jdenm8]

Alright. That might be fine for you NORTH AMERICANS but is there an AUSTRALIAN site with products actually available in AUSTRALIA? Inform me when you do because we have a different market over here and they just brought out the new Pentium.
AMD tried the quad core thing and I don't think it went well because I certainly haven't heard any more about it.

And if I were in the market for one I would not pay in excess of $400AU for a processor that I would need an air-conditioning unit for.
Yes, I am extremeley single core biased and I am proud of that. Personal Computers were only intended to do one thing at a time in my opinion. I would rather 2 P4s than a Core2 Duo

 

[johnwhelan]

Alright. That might be fine for you AMERICANS but is there an AUSTRALIAN site with products actually available in AUSTRALIA?

It's probably not tactful to call Canadians Americans. Some of us actually prefer to be called Canadian.

Yes there are dealers in Australia who sell via the Internet. Try Google to locate them.

Cheerio John

 

[jdenm8]

Sorry, I do recognise the difference, but I swear, the location field in your post bar said United States last time I looked. But all the same, those products and prices may not be available in Aus.