need advice on prossors/hardware

[brakemen]

helloto everyone:

need some advice on processors and hardware. I do not know if vrtural memory comes into play with trs06 game. fcan someone explaine to me what is a L2 cache

I have for a processor intel core2 duo 8400; 3.0ghz 45nm 6m, L2 cache;
memory 3gb,
motherboard gigabyte ep45ds3l, 1333, 45nm;
graphics card is nvidia 9800gt ddr3

want to upgrade to intel core 2 quad 9650, 12mb L2 cache, 45nm, 3.0ghz,1333mhz. unless theres a better quad cpu outthere yu might know of that just the duo core 8400

I do not know if the 45nm has something to do with the trs06 game. if someone can explain this to me please ( theres also a 65 nm out )

now I know if the graphics card is stronger than the processor the game will have some issues.

I also know that all three players (graphic scard, processor, and motherboard) has to run together for the game to function properly.

brakemen

 

[fran1]

looking at your comp specs it should run trainz fine. Another gig of RAM maybe.

 

[johnwhelan]

Looks like you are aiming at a fairly expensive high end system. In Trainz the objective is get get 24 fps on the screen. The size of your monitor will have an impact on performance.

TRS2006 is only capable of using a single core cpu so dual or quad are essentially a waste of time. It also uses the cpu heavily so anything above a mid range graphics card is into diminishing returns. It is also limited to using a maximum of 2 gigs of memory.

Upgrading to TS2009 or TS2010 would allow all four cores of a quad processor to be used and under a 64 bit operating system allow 4 gigs of memory to be used by Trainz. In fact just a software upgrade to TS2009 / TS2010 would get you some performance improvement.

The i7 cpu has some nice features so my favourite this week would be the i7 920, however tomshardware may have a different idea. I think your cpu of choice is a slightly older model usually used for upgrading older motherboards. 45 nm is nice to have but may not be available on nVidia graphic cards.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/balanced-gaming-pc,2477-3.html note they are using ASUS motherboards.

So assuming a 1440 by 900 or 1920x1080 monitor I personally would be looking for something like 6 gigs of DDR3 memory, i7 920, probably an inexpensive nVidia card since the directx 11 cards aren't available from them yet.

I'd be looking for something like a 300 gig 10,000 or 15,000 rpm drive, raptor perhaps or Hitchai if I was rich, with a slower 1 terabyte drive for storage.

Cheerio John

 

[SuperFudd]

About the 45nm vs 65nm. The lower number the better. the 45 can run faster or, if same clock speed, will use less power than the 65.

 

[epicmek]

"nm" refers to nanometers and is the width of the tracks on the processors die. Smaller width, less power at least that's the theory but sizes are getting so small now you are entering the world of particle physics and then all sorts of new problems occur.

 

[alpha11]

Delete.......

 

[johnwhelan]

"nm" refers to nanometers and is the width of the tracks on the processors die. Smaller width, less power at least that's the theory but sizes are getting so small now you are entering the world of particle physics and then all sorts of new problems occur.

And nVidia haven't managed to sort out their problems yet on the smaller track widths. Also remember that its a sort of photocopy process so the production costs are much the same for the different sizes however your can get more of the smaller parts off the same size silicon big chip and that reduces the cost per part. ie the smaller narrow ones are both faster and cheaper.

Cheerio John

 

[brakemen]

reply to members responses& increase fps

thanks for the responses:

thanks for the replies to this post. just one question my layout is running at 19 fps how do I increase the fps. I did all you asked ( well I thought I did anyway). would system tray has anything to do with fps and so how would I get rid of icons?.I did dics clean up, defrag, shut prorams that are running in background. I'm I missing something here? seems like all the other members are running 24 fps and I wouild like to have some input from them as to see why they can get 24 fps and I cannot what I'm I doing wrong? ( I do not know). theres something I'm, not doing that they are. is it has to do something to do with trs06 file folder? or maybe my registry which I was not to touch the registry. would theregistry has something to do it (I dooo not know). hope someone could help please.

 

[johnwhelan]

thanks for the responses:

thanks for the replies to this post. just one question my layout is running at 19 fps how do I increase the fps. I did all you asked ( well I thought I did anyway). would system tray has anything to do with fps and so how would I get rid of icons?.I did dics clean up, defrag, shut prorams that are running in background. I'm I missing something here? seems like all the other members are running 24 fps and I wouild like to have some input from them as to see why they can get 24 fps and I cannot what I'm I doing wrong? ( I do not know). theres something I'm, not doing that they are. is it has to do something to do with trs06 file folder? or maybe my registry which I was not to touch the registry. would theregistry has something to do it (I dooo not know). hope someone could help please.

Your current machine probably has the power to do this but is being held back by TRS2006. TRS2006 does much of the work on the cpu so your 9800 graphics card is probably not doing very much, the cpu is the bottleneck, not only that but one of your dual cores is essentially idle. What you need to do is spread the work out better and get the data into the cpu and out again faster.TRS2006 is limited to a maximum of 2 gigs of memory by the way. I get the impression you are running 32 bit XP.

One way to do this is to upgrade to Win 7 64 bit, your cpu has the 64 bit instruction set to do this. Upgrade the memory to either 4 or 6 gigs your motherboard will support up to 16 gigs of dual channel by the way. This will allow TS2009 / TS2010 to use 4 gigs of memory. It will also give you the latest drivers on the graphics card. You can now use both cores. The DXT texture compression of TS2009 and TS2010 basically quadruples your graphic card memory. That may get you to the magic fps figure. Running fraps to measure it will impact your fps slightly by the way. The next thing to do is to move as much work as possible onto the graphics card. This means going native mode in TS2009 / TS2010. You may need to replace some trees but there is a search and replace feature in TS2009/10. Also in TS2009/10 there is a way to identify items that put a heavy performance demand on your machine so identifying them and replacing them with lower impact scenery items will also help.

If you are still not quite there on performance then drop in a Raptor hard drive 10,000 rpm will help keep the cpu fed as will the extra memory. Hitchai have a very nice 15,000 rpm drive by the way even better.

This approach should be cheaper than buying a new PC although TS2009/10 can make use of a quad processor but for the moment I don't think you need it, the dual should do quite nicely.

Cheerio John

 

[SuperFudd]

I wish I could get 19fps. (see below)

 

[johnwhelan]

I wish I could get 19fps. (see below)

It's easy, just dump all the scenery objects, run one simple diesel with one type of wagon and no visible loads. Oh and chose a low poly track.

Cheerio John

 

[titaniclover]

From what I have read lately here I see the following major requirements for a high gaming system.

• Fast HDD. Minimum of 15,000 rpm, an SSD also seems to be a good option if you have the money. Even a combo of both is very good
• Quad/Dual core CPU. Not too much I have noticed yet for specifics
• High end graphics card. ATI HD series really good
• 64 bit OS due to 4 gigs for Trainz
• Lots of RAM, but no more than 16 Gig or so.

That is what I have read to a extent on these forums for a high end gaming system. Really changed by point of view for gaming system specs.
Please anyone correct me if I am wrong or need additions/changes.

Cheers,
Adam

 

[saintjimmy]

To me, a perfect Trainz system would be:

Intel Core i7 at over 3.5 GHz OC'd
6 GB of DDR3 1600 MHz (Or higher) Memory
ATI Radeon HD 5870 with a special cooler to allow the core to go 1 GHz+ like the 4890
256 GB SSD (Yes, they are unbelievably expensive)
Windows 7 Home Premium or Ultimate 64 bit (Depending on a person's other non-Trainz needs)

To me that seems to be the best you can get for Trainz at the moment. Mind you said system would likely cost $2000+ for the components, so you would need REALLY deep pockets to afford a costly system even every 4 or 5 years. I'll stick to a normal high-end system thank you very much!

 

[SuperFudd]

6G of RAM should be plenty.
Why Win7 Ulimate? What Ultimate gets you over Home Premium is "Windows XP mode" (if you hardware suports it), Easy connect to "company networks", automatic backup to your network, Bitlocker to protect your data against loss or theft, and you can chose any of 35 languages.
How does any of that help with Trainz? Just be sure it is 64 bit.

 

[johnwhelan]

From what I have read lately here I see the following major requirements for a high gaming system.

• Fast HDD. Minimum of 15,000 rpm, an SSD also seems to be a good option if you have the money. Even a combo of both is very good
• Quad/Dual core CPU. Not too much I have noticed yet for specifics
• High end graphics card. ATI HD series really good
• 64 bit OS due to 4 gigs for Trainz
• Lots of RAM, but no more than 16 Gig or so.

That is what I have read to a extent on these forums for a high end gaming system. Really changed by point of view for gaming system specs.
Please anyone correct me if I am wrong or need additions/changes.

Cheers,
Adam

For Trainz specifically TS2009/10 quad core is better than dual, this week ATI cards have an issue with speedtree, 6 gigs of memory is enough, very few programs can make use of more than 6 gigs of memory at the moment.

Cheerio John

 

[Paulsw2]

To me, a perfect Trainz system would be:

Intel Core i7 at over 3.5 GHz OC'd
6 GB of DDR3 1600 MHz (Or higher) Memory
ATI Radeon HD 5870 with a special cooler to allow the core to go 1 GHz+ like the 4890
256 GB SSD (Yes, they are unbelievably expensive)
Windows 7 Home Premium or Ultimate 64 bit (Depending on a person's other non-Trainz needs)

Hmm, I'm ticking a few of these boxes: Core i7 860 Oc'd at 3.6GHz, 8 GB of DDR3 1600 MHz, HD 5870 (but not OC'd), not an SSD drive, but a 300GB 'raptor 10,000rpm (for Trainz, but not the O/S). Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit. Other bits and pieces. £1800 (inc. VAT). Hmmm.

 

[johnwhelan]

Step one If your monitor is 1440 by 900 and set your monitor to 1440 by 900, strangely enough this may improve your performance by itself. Check the refresh rate is set to 60 hz, check your aa settings are midway too high and they may impact performance. Are your performance sliders in the default position or cranked over to the right? crank them down slightly. Each hardware is slightly different so experiment with yours to see which has the greatest impact.

Then:

To sum up the options if you wish to stay with TRS2006 then you need to get a faster processor, faster graphics card, faster hard drive. You pays your money and hope. Basically throw hardware at the problem, remembering that you want the fastest possible cpu core as it will all be going on one core. The alternative would be to be more selective in the assets you use and how you group them. ie stay with fewer varieties of wagons, houses etc but repeat them. Some splines eat resources so watch out for fences and certain types of grass. If money is no object and you want to stay with TRS2006 then that is the way to go. How much faster a processor or graphics card do you need I'm not certain. Would a faster hard drive help the existing system dunno I'm in two minds about how much impact a faster drive has once the game is running. perfmon didn't identify the drive as being especially critical and I don't have the resources to set up a test lab. That's one problem you'll have it's difficult to predict if changing one or two things will have a enough impact and you could end up spending a fair chunk of money only to find the results aren't that satisfactory.

If you are trying to get better performance from your existing hardware then go with TS2010. It maybe enough by itself. The fall backs are faster disk drive, more memory under a 64 bit operating system such as Vista 64 or Win 7 64 bit both of which will run on your machine. Unless you go to TS2009/10 under a 64 bit operating system adding memory will do no good whatso ever. The TS2010 route is the route I would take.

Cheerio John