Laptops For Trainz

P

ptrainman

Future NS Conductor
I may possible be getting a new laptop in the next few months (depends on how the money goes) and I want to know you guys opinion on the 2 possibles.

Dell XPS 15:
Intel Core i7-2760QM (2.40 GHZ with boost up to 3.50)
8GB Shared Dual Channel DDR3 RAM
1TB Hard Drive
Nvidia GeForce GT 540M 2GB Graphics Card
Windows 7 Home

Dell XPS 17:
Intel Core i7-2760QM
8GB Shared Dual Channel DDR3 RAM
750GB Hard Drive
Nvidia GeForce GT 555M 3GB Graphics Card
Windows 7 Home

My question is, will the 3GB graphics do any better for Trainz than the 2GB? Everything else will be the same between the two.

My current system is a 4 year old Dell Vostro 1500:
Intel Core 2 Duo T7500 (2.20GHZ)
4GB RAM
250GB Hard Drive
Nvidia GeForce 8600M GT 512MB (I think, but not sure)
Windows XP Pro

I know either one will be better than the one I have now, but do I need the 3GB graphics or is the 2GB enough? In all the reviews I have read the XPS 17 with 3GB graphics gets very hot and it is also very heavy. The options are 1GB and 3GB on the XPS 17 and 1GB and 2GB on the XPS 15.

Paul
 
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A laptop in a Bigbox store will run you $800-$1000.

A $1000 one will have 2Gb Dedicated Graphics Video Card.

Integrated Graphics is not good for framerates at all.

Most Laptops are not for Trainz nor for gaming, especially $500-$800 models.

You can have an I7 - 8GB RAM Laptop, with a 1TB Hard drive ... but if it does not have 1GB to 2GB Dedicated graphics, or a Nvidia Video Card, it will display poor framerates.

Trainz only uses 2GB RAM

When buying a PC, the most important thing is CPU Ghz ... and a great video card ... RAM means virtually nothing
 
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I think that's one of those things that would probably need some actual testing to reveal, but my attitude with laptops is, you need all the help you can get. Laptops use greatly inferior components, in terms of performance, to their desktop counterparts. Further, they tend to cost considerably more and are, as you are aware, not upgradeable. Passmark gives a 50% increase in performance for the 555M over the 540M, although I'm sure the real-world results are quite a bit less.
 
What are your expectations? I've noticed that many users who purchase or are about to purchase a new PC have unrealistic expectations related to Trainz performance.
Unless you are blessed with unlimited funds, and perhaps EVEN IF YOU ARE, you will find that Trainz can still under perform your expectations on the best of PCs, and on a laptop in particular.

I use Trainz 2006 and 12 on a lesser laptop than you are considering, but I have to make allowances for the amount of content in a route, and the type of content as well.

Having said all that, as RRSignal has pointed out, you would do better with the XPS 17. Just don't psyche yourself up for flawless performance in all situations.
 
I too have an XPS 17.

i7 2720QM Stock
8GB
nvidia GTX 555M w/ Optimus
900*1600 window

I run 2004 and it is flawless!:udrool: But it is true the 555M gets hot. Very hot! Left hand fried hot!:'( Ouch!

The thing I really like is what I think is called the OPTIMUS software. basically, you can tell the video card to always turn on for a given program. IE right click icon for appropriate app->run with video card->choose default->High Perfomance Nvidea Card. I love that little feature!

Issue: Everything defaults to run exclusively on integrated card. So if you don't change it, you're wasting your money. But that card sucks juice on battery power, so you'll be lucky to get 2 hours on it while on Power Saver mode.

Opinion? I don't know weather or not the extra gig will do much, the guy at Best Buy said the issue with the 555M is getting that data out to the screen ie not enough channels. But hey, I'm set for now.
 
Good post, kws. Hope you answer more Parts and Labour questions because some of us aren't big laptop guys. :) Never toyed with Optimus, though nearly every laptop I've owned or worked on has been a business/work machine.
 
Thanks for the replys guys. It will be a little while before I can get it, just going through my options. I may also build a desktop instead, Ill just lose the portability.


Paul
 
The desktop will probably be cheaper and much more powerful, even with the same components. Laptop parts are derated heavily to save power and reduce heat. Keep in mind, also, that any OEM likes to add crappy software, anti-virus, and whatnot, so even the best laptop is at a disadvantage, just like an OEM desktop would be.
 
ptrainman said:
Thanks for the replys guys. It will be a little while before I can get it, just going through my options. I may also build a desktop instead, Ill just lose the portability.


Paul
Click to expand...
You could probably both build a very good desktop and get a cheap netbook for less than the cost of a laptop good enough for gaming.

Thing about gaming laptops is this year it may cope, next year it may not and you can't upgrade much on them other than ram and drives and unless you have cash to throw away, it's going to cost a lot replacing it every couple of years.
 
First of i'm new here, and second would this laptop run Trainz 2012.

The laptop in question is a sony f series laptop vcpf13m8e with

intel i7-740QM processor
500GB memory
NVidia GeForce GT 425M graphics card
4GB memory size
1.73 GHz with turbo boost of 2.93GHz
quad core
and 1GB of video ram
would this run Trainz 2012 without any problems

much appreciate reply
 
The speed of the CPU may be a bit of an issue. Turboboost only kicks the CPU to the "turbo" speed running 1 core. Trainz normally runs two, so it'll probably run at 1.7GHz. That's really abysmal. You actually might do much better with an i5-2540M, which runs about a 1GHz faster even without Turboboost enabled. Don't get me wrong: The lappie you are looking at should run Trainz decently, but you'd do much better with a faster processor.
 
kws4000 said:
I too have an XPS 17.

i7 2720QM Stock
8GB
nvidia GTX 555M w/ Optimus
900*1600 window

I run 2004 and it is flawless!:udrool: But it is true the 555M gets hot. Very hot! Left hand fried hot!:'( Ouch!

The thing I really like is what I think is called the OPTIMUS software. basically, you can tell the video card to always turn on for a given program. IE right click icon for appropriate app->run with video card->choose default->High Perfomance Nvidea Card. I love that little feature!

Issue: Everything defaults to run exclusively on integrated card. So if you don't change it, you're wasting your money. But that card sucks juice on battery power, so you'll be lucky to get 2 hours on it while on Power Saver mode.

Opinion? I don't know weather or not the extra gig will do much, the guy at Best Buy said the issue with the 555M is getting that data out to the screen ie not enough channels. But hey, I'm set for now.
Click to expand...


The spec for this laptop are very close to the Alienware equivalent, which runs about $1500-2000 more. I got the Alienware 17m last year with the ATI 6870 in it. The GForce video wasn't available yet. The problem with this beat, and the true maybe with yours as well, the unit weighs almost as much as a desktop! I swear if I carried it around too much, I'd end up with a hernia! The unit gets really hot, and it's worth picking up one of those cooling bases at BestBuy (around $19.00 or so) to put under the machine.

I recommend all the memory the machine can handle. My machine has 8GB, which is the most it will handle and runs W7 very smoothly as well as Trainz quite nicely.

John
 
I purchased last week a samsung RC 530 Laptop i7 2630 cpu with 8 gb ddr3 750 hhd an Nvidia 540 2 gig of ram and it runs TS12 without a problem cost $960.00 au
the hole laptop runs so well i was really suprised very good frame rates with Trainz 12 on the Sydney to Gosford route which is not a small route
sorry for double posting this
steve
 
One last thing would Trainz 2010 engineers edition run on my laptop without any problems. Its windows 7 laptop

The laptop in question is a sony f series laptop vcpf13m8e with
(that cost £1000 but was on sale for less)
intel i7-740QM processor
500GB memory
NVidia GeForce GT 425M graphics card
4GB memory size
1.73 GHz with turbo boost of 2.93GHz
quad core
and 1GB of video ram
 
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JCitron said:
The spec for this laptop are very close to the Alienware equivalent, which runs about $1500-2000 more. I got the Alienware 17m last year with the ATI 6870 in it. The GForce video wasn't available yet. The problem with this beat, and the true maybe with yours as well, the unit weighs almost as much as a desktop! I swear if I carried it around too much, I'd end up with a hernia! The unit gets really hot, and it's worth picking up one of those cooling bases at BestBuy (around $19.00 or so) to put under the machine.

I recommend all the memory the machine can handle. My machine has 8GB, which is the most it will handle and runs W7 very smoothly as well as Trainz quite nicely.

John
Click to expand...

Yes Alienware is very expensive. Mine ran about $4,000 US. I still feel it was worth it for me.
 
Everybody always goes on about not enough memory etc...below is my system spec for a samsung R780 which i have had for a few years,ugrading the ram to 8gb shortly thats what it maxes out at and no more,if your lookling for a good laptop,and it has Nvidia Graphics,always look at the numbers I.E: 540(the middle number is what counts the 4) anything below that is considered mediocre,not good for gaming.

On a more serious note you'll will notice from my spec below i run an i-3 and this does serve its purpose, i can run Trainz TS12 no problem...also out of interest if you want to build up your own laptop then there are a few on the net which do it,can't remember the links now,but expect to pay in the region of around £1000 minimum up to about £4000,not cheap but it's got to be reliable for that sort of money...

Derek(Trainz001)

Summary
Operating System
MS Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit SP1
CPU
Intel Core i3 350M @ 2.27GHz 41 °C
Arrandale 32nm Technology
RAM
4.00 GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 532MHz (7-7-7-20)
Motherboard
SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD. R780/R778 (CPU 1) 45 °C
Graphics
Generic PnP Monitor (1600x900@60Hz)
512MB GeForce 310M (Samsung) 41 °C
Hard Drives
488GB SAMSUNG SAMSUNG HM500JI ATA Device (SATA) 26 °C
Optical Drives
HUAWEI Mass Storage USB Device
TEAC DV-W28S-V ATA Device
Audio
High Definition Audio Device
Operating System
MS Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit SP1

Peak Memory Usage 11 MB
wlidsvcm.exe
Process ID 2500
User SYSTEM
Domain NT AUTHORITY
Path C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Windows Live\WLIDSvcM.exe
Memory Usage 3.37 MB
Peak Memory Usage 3.43 MB
wmiapsrv.exe
Process ID 1288
User SYSTEM
Domain NT AUTHORITY
Path C:\Windows\system32\wbem\WmiApSrv.exe
Memory Usage 5.91 MB
Peak Memory Usage 5.91 MB
wmiprvse.exe
Process ID 3852
User NETWORK SERVICE
Domain NT AUTHORITY
Path C:\Windows\system32\wbem\wmiprvse.exe
Memory Usage 14 MB
Peak Memory Usage 14 MB
wmiprvse.exe
Process ID 3544
User SYSTEM
Domain NT AUTHORITY
Path C:\Windows\system32\wbem\wmiprvse.exe
Memory Usage 23 MB
Peak Memory Usage 23 MB
wmpnetwk.exe
Process ID 4416
User NETWORK SERVICE
Domain NT AUTHORITY
Path C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player\wmpnetwk.exe
Memory Usage 1.39 MB
Peak Memory Usage 12 MB
wudfhost.exe
Process ID 3244
User LOCAL SERVICE
Domain NT AUTHORITY
Path C:\Windows\system32\WUDFHost.exe
Memory Usage 5.93 MB
Peak Memory Usage 5.96 MB
 
JCitron said:
The problem with this beat, and the true maybe with yours as well, the unit weighs almost as much as a desktop! I swear if I carried it around too much, I'd end up with a hernia!

John
Click to expand...

There's nothing like "Trainz to go!," even if it weighs 10 pounds and heats the room you are in.

You can get a wheeled briefcase with an extension handle for those long trips. The price of this portability is high, one needs a high end laptop to make Trainz run comfortably, the types offered with CPU and GPU changeability..

Maybe the IPad version will chnage all this...

I am going away on business for a week and am so glad Trainz will be in my hotel room in the evening.
 
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I am thinking of upgradeing myself with the xps 15, just because of the 1tb hard drive i look at both and i think it would be the for me, i drive truck so laptop is the only way i can go. I was wondering if he got the xps for himself yet. Any feedback would be great. Thanks
 
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