What computer specs...

[DELETED-6YZHbwBrrJjnpcj]

Do you all have on your systems? I'm looking into a new one come february. What kind of specs would run Trainz the smoothest? I'm hoping to be able to run TRS 04 and/or TRS 06 without any lag with running bigger and more detailed layouts and rolling stock.

Here's the specs I'm considering:
AMD Dual core 5000
2 gigs RAM
320 Gig HD
256 Meg Radeon or NVidia

Any suggestions or help would be much appreciated!

MarvinMartian

 

[johnwhelan]

http://forums.auran.com/trainz/showthread.php?t=14993&highlight=hardware+benchmarking

might be useful. Intel's new cpus should be out about February.

Cheerio John

 

[robbiehanson]

Main comp(most Trainz stuff):

AMD Athlon X2 4200+, 2.2ghz, Socket AM2
3gb DDR2 RAM
250gb SATA2 Seagate
160gb SATA2 Seagate
Sapphire Radeon X1950PRO 256mb
Acer LCD, 1440x900 resolution.

I can run Trainz at 50-60 FPS on this computer with two Big Boys and 100 cars, with all settings set at maximum.

Secondary computer/media PC(some Trainz when I'm bored):

AMD Sempron 64 2800+(1.6ghz, Socket 754)
MSI K8N Neo-V
1gb DDR RAM
250gb IDE hard drive(2)
Radeon X1600PRO 512mb AGP
HP LCD at 1440x900

This computer will run most routes at 25-30 FPS at medium detail, which is enough for me. Your setup should work great; AMD CPUs are not as fast as Intel currently, but for people on a budget(namely, me), they're fast enough for Trainz. HOWEVER: If I was building a "future" system, one that I could run games on in a few years, I'd go Intel and Core 2 Duo.
Radeon HD 2xxx series cards are useless; buy an 8800 GTS/GT or a Radeon HD 3xxx series if you have to have DirectX 10.


Good luck!

 

[psycho_aussie]

I currently have:

AMD Athlon64 X2 5200+ (2.6Ghz)
Asus M2R32-MVP
4Gb PC3200 DDR2 (800Mhz)
512Mb HIS Radeon HD2600XT
160Gb Western Digital SATA-II
2x 250Gb Western Digital SATA-II
320Gb Western Digital SATA-II
LG L194WT Widescreen LCD
Vista Ultimate x64

This system can run most routes with several steamers on the route, and it holds a steady 25-40 FPS, though I haven't tweaked Vista as mush as I had with XP, and I haven't tried running Trainz under XP on this system yet...

My next system will be either an AMD or Intel Quad with a 512Mb Radeon HD3800.

Chris

 

[Euphod]

System Manufacturer: Euphod Heavy Industries, INC.
Case: ThermalTake Tsunami Dream
Operating System: Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2
System Model: P5K Deluxe
BIOS: BIOS Date: 05/25/07 15:34:29 Ver: 08.00.12
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E6850 @ 3.00GHz (2 CPUs)
Memory: 2048MB RAM
Page File: 360MB used, 5625MB available
Card name: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS
Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Chip type: GeForce 8800 GTS
DAC type: Integrated RAMDAC
Display Memory: 640.0 MB
Current Mode: 1600 x 1200 (32 bit) (60Hz)
Monitor: Samsung SyncMaster 204B
Monitor Max Res: 1600,1200
Sound Device Description: SB X-Fi Audio [EC00]
Disk Drive: C:
Free Space: 184.1 GB
Total Space: 238.5 GB
File System: NTFS
Model: ST3250410AS
Disk Drive: G:
Free Space: 181.6 GB
Total Space: 238.5 GB
File System: NTFS
Model: ST3250410AS
DVD Drive: D:
Model: SONY DVD RW DRU-810A SCSI CdRom Device
CdROM Drive: E:
Model: Memorex 52MAXX 2452AJ SCSI CdRom Device

Ed

 

[DELETED-6YZHbwBrrJjnpcj]

Thanks guys, I really appreciate that! It seems as though I could go with what I thought I could. Now I just have to wait until I have the cash to get it.

My current computer(by the way) is a Pentium 1.7ghz, 1.5 gigs RAM, 128 Radeon 9000, and Trainz doesn't run as smoothly if I run more than one train at a time. I'll have to try and tweak the FPS and see what I can do in the meantime.

MarvinMartian

 

[SuperFudd]

As I see it if your system worked well with UTC 5 years ago, it will work a bit better with TRS2006 or TC. The "problem" is folks with new super computers are making very complex stuff for Trainz these days.
I am still satisfied with my 5 year old system (see below). There have been a few upgrades over the years.
I supose Iwill get a new computer late this year but that is what I keyed a year ago.

 

[DELETED-6YZHbwBrrJjnpcj]

ugh

I still haven't decided on what I'm going to get, and after reading some more of the forum, I'm not sure the 256 meg video card will cut it. Any thoughts?
Incidentally, I've priced out a Dell to my liking save for a better video card (the 256 meg is the highest for this configuration), and apart from that, I think it would work just great.
Here's the specs:
Intel Q6600 Quad Core 2.4Ghz
2 Gigs RAM 667mhz
256 meg Radeon 2600xt
320 GB HD

I think that may be what would work best, any thoughts?

Thanks,
MarvinMartian

 

[Euphod]

any thoughts?

Yes, but you may not like them.

It seems to me as if you are trying to "future proof" your system, and not putting enough thought into what you want to use your system for. My specs run 2006 and TC wonderfully, but even with a graphics card with 640mb of memory, you can still build a route that will cause a slow down in FPS. Are you playing other games? What programs do you use? A Quad core processor is totally un-needed where a Duo Core can do the job....Heck, for Trainz you probably don't even need the Duo Core, but why not since they are cheap now.

If it were me, I would scale back the processor and pump up the Graphics card.

Ed

 

[johnwhelan]

I still haven't decided on what I'm going to get, and after reading some more of the forum, I'm not sure the 256 meg video card will cut it. Any thoughts?
Incidentally, I've priced out a Dell to my liking save for a better video card (the 256 meg is the highest for this configuration), and apart from that, I think it would work just great.
Here's the specs:
Intel Q6600 Quad Core 2.4Ghz
2 Gigs RAM 667mhz
256 meg Radeon 2600xt
320 GB HD

I think that may be what would work best, any thoughts?

Thanks,
MarvinMartian

Quite a reasonable low to mid performance machine. For Trainz dual core is normally better, and have a look at the ATI HD 3870 512 mb video card if you are comfortable with ATI. The new Intel E8500 cpu a 3.16 Ghz part with the new optimized for gaming SSE4 instruction set is retail priced at $266 some $9 cheaper than the quad you are thinking of. The cache on the cpu is bigger as well to give roughly 10% improvement in performance over the same speed part in the 65 nm range.

Cheerio John

 

[Perchpole]

Hi, Chaps -

I'm very interested in some of the stats that have been posted in this thread. However, I notice no-one has yet mentioned shadows...

How many people have shadows switched "on"?



Perchpole

 

[Euphod]

Shadows=Yes.
Ed

 

[DELETED-6YZHbwBrrJjnpcj]

@ Ed, Trainz is the only program and/or game on my current machine that doesn't work as smoothly as I'd like it to. I don't use anything else as "system-sucking" as Trainz. All my other games and apps run just fine on this computer. I'm kinda leaning towards building one at this point.

@ John, I currently have an ATI Radeon 9000, which is a fine graphics card for its day. So, I have no qualms looking into their newer ones.

At least I don't have the cash yet, otherwise, this would be driving me more crazy than it already is! :hehe: Thanks for your help guys, I'm narrowing down my choices as I hoped.

MarvinMartian

 

[lewisner]

I run a Packard Bell 6810 which I obtained a year ago for £750 half price as being "ex display".It has a 600GB RAID hard drive and 2 x 6800 graphics cards in SLI mode (total 512MB) and 2GB RAM. I have all sliders except Fog set to max and Shadows on.Frame rates aren"t fantastic, but thats mainly because I have the lineside crammed with high detail, and a large amount of rolling stock.It handles the Big Boy and other heavy locos without any probs and can run Windows Media Player at the same time.

 

[Perchpole]

Hi, Chaps -

This is interesting information. I've always thought that I have a pretty powerful system - especially where TRS is concerned. However, I also believe my TRS experience is far from perfect. Perhaps I'm just expecting too much?

Here are my specs...

• Windows Vista 32-bit
• Intel Core Duo 6600 @ 2.40GHz
• HD: 400 GB
• Memory: 4 GB
• Readyboost: 4 GB
• nVidia GeForce 8800 GTX (768 MB)

The graphics card alone should make TRS fly but I still experience frequent stutters and jerkiness. Perhaps we need to re-visit the trainzoptions.txt file again.



Perchpole

 

[Euphod]

I really don't think Trainz is a program that you can just throw money at and fix. I feel extremely fortunate to have it running as well as it does. It's probably some combination of the hardware and software and settings and whatnot, but 2006 runs very solid for me, no crashes, and nice frame rates. I think once you have at least a Duo Core, an 8800 series, and two GB of Ram, you've done about as much as you can do hardware wise. Anymore than that may be just overkill.

My humble opinion only.

Ed

 

[johnwhelan]

Hi, Chaps -

I'm very interested in some of the stats that have been posted in this thread. However, I notice no-one has yet mentioned shadows...

How many people have shadows switched "on"?



Perchpole

A few years ago one of the Aussy Trainzers was having performance problems so Auran offered to have a look. They managed to tweak the trainzoptions.txt file so he could get around 23 frames per second, one of the tweaks was to turn shadows on.

In some cases it appears having shadows on does not have a major negative impact. This probably needs retesting with TC. I typically run with shadows on.

Cheerio John

 

[johnwhelan]

@ Ed, Trainz is the only program and/or game on my current machine that doesn't work as smoothly as I'd like it to. I don't use anything else as "system-sucking" as Trainz. All my other games and apps run just fine on this computer. I'm kinda leaning towards building one at this point.

@ John, I currently have an ATI Radeon 9000, which is a fine graphics card for its day. So, I have no qualms looking into their newer ones.

At least I don't have the cash yet, otherwise, this would be driving me more crazy than it already is! :hehe: Thanks for your help guys, I'm narrowing down my choices as I hoped.

MarvinMartian

There are two major problems in computers, the first is heat, the second is getting the information from one bit to the other fast enough. I would recommend you look for a PCI 2.0 express video card and motherboard, PCI 2.0 does offer advantages over PCI express 1.0. The heat problem in crude terms is reduced by reducing the size of the paths. So a 65 nm path is cooler than 90 nm for example. ATI may not be the fastest video cards of the day but they do use the lowest power fabrication so I'd suggest either the ATI 3870 or 3850 if that one is more in your price range. Both are PCI 2.0 the 2600 is not. Personally I'd go 512mb 3870 and cut back on the cpu to a cheaper slower 45 nm one to squeeze in the faster video card.

Cheerio John

 

[lornyk5]

Nice machines everyone, this is my trainz rig,

Windows Vista 32-bit Home Premium
Intel Core 2 Duo E4400 (2.2Ghz)
3GB Ram DDR2 Dual Channel
900GB 2xSata HD's
Dual Layer Multi Burner With Label Flash
15-in-1 Media Reader
Evga 8800 GTS SSC Edition w/
640MB GDDR3 Memory
Sound Blaster X-Fi
Blue LED Case fans

I run Trainz 2006 and TC with good results, but I still have the odd stutter, I also believe (like Ed) that only so much can be done hardware related for Trainz.

I run other titles like Oblivion, Silent Hunter 4, Crysis and FSX most with full sliders, FSX about 3/4. Most of them running hi res texture paks and many other resource draining mods.

No two game engines are created the same, but if you think Crysis and others don't tax a system download the demo and prepare to warm up your computer room using your towers ambient heat


Lorin

 

[SuperFudd]

Definately check out your Trainzoptions.txt and upgrade to XP.:hehe: