New Gigabyte Video Card GV-R487X2-2GH-B

[R707]

Hi all, I just purchsed a Gigabyte GV-R487X2-2GH-B video card.

This is based on the ATI Radeon series HD4870X2 2GB GDDR5.

This card has the dual GPU included.

I have fired up TS2009, but not noticed much difference in speed. Is there something that I am not doing right? This card is supposed to be close to the best available today. I also bought a new 1200watt power supply, the 620watt failed last week.

If someone has had any difficulty, or can help me optimising this for Trainz, I would be very grateful.

Pete

 

[whitepass]

The speed will depend on your CPU, monitor size, and what your old video card was.

 

[R707]

The speed will depend on your CPU, monitor size, and what your old video card was.

My CPU is: AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+
Socket 939
AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 3800+

My Monitor is: Benq 241W 24 inch

My old video card was: ATI Radeon X1800

 

[Euphod]

After a point a new GPU is going to allow you to use a higher resolution display, with better graphics, but not necessarily give you better frame rates.

 

[R707]

After a point a new GPU is going to allow you to use a higher resolution display, with better graphics, but not necessarily give you better frame rates.

I am running my 24" monitor at the optimum size and refresh rate.

1920 x 1200 60 hertz.

Pete

 

[johnwhelan]

I am running my 24" monitor at the optimum size and refresh rate.

1920 x 1200 60 hertz.

Pete

For that size monitor you are going to have a number of bottle necks. You have 2,304,000 pixels to drive compared to 786,432 pixels for a 1024 by 768 monitor. So to get the same frame rates you need a cpu that is 4 times faster, disk drives that can keep it fed so 10,000 or 15,000 rpm drives would be an idea possibly solid state, you need to keep more items in memory but Trainz only allows access to 2 gigs for the program so up the memory to 2.5 gigs min if you can.

I assume you are running in native mode? If not that might give you a few more frames per second. The content you select will also have an impact on frame rates.

The speed of the system depends on its slowest bit or bottle neck, with that monitor you will probably need every part optimised, and I suspect you cpu is the major bottleneck at the moment. i7 quad with 3 or 6 gign of memory under a 64 bit operating system is probably about the fastest at the moment.

Cheerio John

 

[meatloaf747]

Download & install the latest drivers for the card. XP - http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_catalyst.aspx?p=xp/radeonx-xp
Vista - http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_catalyst.aspx?p=vista32/common-vista32
Note; XP's drivers are different to Vista's, so make sure you download the correct OS version.
Cheers, Mac...

 

[R707]

For that size monitor you are going to have a number of bottle necks. You have 2,304,000 pixels to drive compared to 786,432 pixels for a 1024 by 768 monitor. So to get the same frame rates you need a cpu that is 4 times faster, disk drives that can keep it fed so 10,000 or 15,000 rpm drives would be an idea possibly solid state, you need to keep more items in memory but Trainz only allows access to 2 gigs for the program so up the memory to 2.5 gigs min if you can.

I assume you are running in native mode? If not that might give you a few more frames per second. The content you select will also have an impact on frame rates.

The speed of the system depends on its slowest bit or bottle neck, with that monitor you will probably need every part optimised, and I suspect you cpu is the major bottleneck at the moment. i7 quad with 3 or 6 gign of memory under a 64 bit operating system is probably about the fastest at the moment.

Cheerio John

Thanks John, and all. Your comments make good sense. I suppose you realise that a computer is like a big sponge..........sucking up money for improvements.

Now that I have an excellent video card, it's time for the next step. I have been planning to buy a new Western Digital VelociRaptor 300MB to put my system and program files on. I guess that is the enxt logical step.

John, I am listening, and you know where the next upgrade is gonna be......yes.......the motherboard. I like you suggestion, but maybe you can stress the best just for us again.

You know, my very good friend Eric (EKW) and I have always said for many years, that the best computer to run Trainz on will be the Pentium ten. I am thinking that we are both right.

John, I understand what you said about the lowest common denominator being the bug in the system. Although I do benefit a lot by having the 64 bit system with 4GB of RAM. When running a session, I believe the AI uses one of the dual core processors, leaving me the other. One question John, if the dual core is so friendly, what about the quad core? How does that manipulate Trainz?

Thanks once again so much for your kind comments.

Pete

 

[johnwhelan]

Thanks John, and all. Your comments make good sense. I suppose you realise that a computer is like a big sponge..........sucking up money for improvements.

Now that I have an excellent video card, it's time for the next step. I have been planning to buy a new Western Digital VelociRaptor 300MB to put my system and program files on. I guess that is the enxt logical step.

John, I am listening, and you know where the next upgrade is gonna be......yes.......the motherboard. I like you suggestion, but maybe you can stress the best just for us again.

You know, my very good friend Eric (EKW) and I have always said for many years, that the best computer to run Trainz on will be the Pentium ten. I am thinking that we are both right.

John, I understand what you said about the lowest common denominator being the bug in the system. Although I do benefit a lot by having the 64 bit system with 4GB of RAM. When running a session, I believe the AI uses one of the dual core processors, leaving me the other. One question John, if the dual core is so friendly, what about the quad core? How does that manipulate Trainz?

Thanks once again so much for your kind comments.

Pete

You want the fastest memory access you can get, so dual channel is nice, triple channel on the i7 is nicer.

TRS2009 is set up so that it will use more than 2 cores under some circumstances. Don't forget the operating system is a thread as well so it will tend to sit on one of the underused cores. There are heat envelop considerations on the quad so it runs a little faster when only using one or two cores.

Heat has always been a problem with computers so you want the most graphics card with the least heat. Currently I think ATI have the edge but even within the nVidia ones there are ones made from smaller technology that give off less heat per whatever.

Disk drives if you have the money probably solid state?

Cheerio John

 

[Tiger313]

I am running my 24" monitor at the optimum size and refresh rate.

1920 x 1200 60 hertz.

Pete

Whoa I'm running my 22" screen at 1280x960 @ 85Hz, otherwise I can't even read what's on my screen! :hehe:

 

[johnwhelan]

Whoa I'm running my 22" screen at 1280x960 @ 85Hz, otherwise I can't even read what's on my screen! :hehe:

If its LCD 60Hz is fine and anything faster is a waste of graphic power.

Cheerio John

 

[winjmoore]

have your CPU is really slow today....
But your video card is that start of the new PC your need and likewise the power supply.
But in the mean time
enjoy improved pictures
Rich click on the dastkop
click ATI and scroll dow the list untill you see antisopic filerring etcetc,.... everything in that secting set to max
to to the last section (video) and set that to max... You computer will not be any faster but everything will look better... Most of that improvement in quality comes from your video card so there should be little hit on performance