Greetings, I am a friend of an avid Train guy who loves the sim. He has been constructing cities and yards and has created some very large files. Several months ago, he asked for assistance in upgrading his video card. He had an ATI Radeon 256, I helped him upgrade to a NVIDIA 8800 GTS, 512 MB. The purpose was to speed his machine up as when he "flys" around the yard/city, the program "stutters" loading all the graphics. He said the upgrade helped a little...but he wants it smoother. He has asked me to help him upgrade the motherboad. Before he spends any more $$$, I thought I would ask this community. His current specs:
GA-K8N Pro SLI (Gigabyte)
AMD Athlon 64 X2
4 GB ram (pc 2700 333)
250 GB SATA HD
NVIDIA 8800 GTS 512
Page file size is XP default I think....
He runs both 2004 and 2006 sim...prefers 2004.
I assumed the video card upgrade would have done the trick but he is not happy.
He is wanting to replace the MB with an Intel board (Core 2 Duo, P4 around 3.0). I know this is a faster board but since he has these huge files (he is recreating New Orleans including downtown and all rail yards) would he see and improvement on his "stutters" so he can fly smoothly around the map or is it plausible that the files are so large and upgrade might not improve his situation.
I don't know his frame rates (I know nothing of the simulator...I'm a FPS gamer myself) but don't want him to spend any money if it will not help his situation.
Also, would another 8800 GTS and set up SLI help more than a new MB?
Is this just hopeless with such large files.....?
Thanking anyone in advance....a train sim n00b!
Tim
GA-K8N Pro SLI (Gigabyte)
AMD Athlon 64 X2
4 GB ram (pc 2700 333)
250 GB SATA HD
NVIDIA 8800 GTS 512
Page file size is XP default I think....
He runs both 2004 and 2006 sim...prefers 2004.
I assumed the video card upgrade would have done the trick but he is not happy.
He is wanting to replace the MB with an Intel board (Core 2 Duo, P4 around 3.0). I know this is a faster board but since he has these huge files (he is recreating New Orleans including downtown and all rail yards) would he see and improvement on his "stutters" so he can fly smoothly around the map or is it plausible that the files are so large and upgrade might not improve his situation.
I don't know his frame rates (I know nothing of the simulator...I'm a FPS gamer myself) but don't want him to spend any money if it will not help his situation.
Also, would another 8800 GTS and set up SLI help more than a new MB?
Is this just hopeless with such large files.....?
Thanking anyone in advance....a train sim n00b!
Tim