you know whats annoying?

[RRSignal]

I'm not an AMD guy, so maybe one can contribute something here, though I highly doubt Trainz would take advantage of any extra capabilities of any specific brand of card. Trainz doesn't even support SLi or Crossfire.

That said, I'd have to know what kind of video card is in there now as well as what size power supply you have in Watts, but as soon as I saw 512mb in your earlier post, I had a feeling you probably had an under-powered graphics card (there are some exceptions, but not many.)

 

[danielpalfrey]

I'm not an AMD guy, so maybe one can contribute something here, though I highly doubt Trainz would take advantage of any extra capabilities of any specific brand of card. Trainz doesn't even support SLi or Crossfire.

That said, I'd have to know what kind of video card is in there now as well as what size power supply you have in Watts, but as soon as I saw 512mb in your earlier post, I had a feeling you probably had an under-powered graphics card (there are some exceptions, but not many.)

nividia geforce7025 is the graphics. alls I can tell you right now about the power supply right now but it was either a 300 or 320watt psu

 

[RRSignal]

Hmm, that's integrated graphics, so that's the source of your troubles, but I'm curious to know how he upgraded this...did he replace the whole motherboard, or is there another graphics card actually in there, and perhaps either not hooked up, or may just a way-underpowered one...

In any case, the power supply does not have a margin to use a powerful videocard. If I were upgrading that system, I might pop a GT210 in there, at 30W card, but that's about it. If you feel lucky, you could try to get away with a GT430, which uses about 50W.

 

[danielpalfrey]

Hmm, that's integrated graphics, so that's the source of your troubles, but I'm curious to know how he upgraded this...did he replace the whole motherboard, or is there another graphics card actually in there, and perhaps either not hooked up, or may just a way-underpowered one...

In any case, the power supply does not have a margin to use a powerful videocard. If I were upgrading that system, I might pop a GT210 in there, at 30W card, but that's about it. If you feel lucky, you could try to get away with a GT430, which uses about 50W.

New motherboard, new ram and a new proccesor, didn't feel there was need for graphics card at the time. Now realising the mistake. I was thinking about getting this card: http://www.ebuyer.com/322129-sapphire-hd-6770-1gb-dvi-vga-hdmi-pci-e-graphics-card-11189-10-20g

Any advice or feedback here?

Thanks for all the help

 

[sniper297]

"Minimum specs according to the game case is a 3ghz prossesor or any dual core" it's in teenytinytype but looking at the specs on mine, it says 3.4, not 3.0.

http://www.auran.com/shop/display_product.php?PID=198

Bottom of that page agrees. In any event, it DOES run on the following specs;

OS: Windows XP Media Edition (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 2

Model: Dell DXP051
CPU: Intel(R) Pentium(R) D CPU 2.80GHz (2 CPUs)
Memory: 2046MB RAM
Video: NVIDIA GeForce 8400 GS 512 MB
Hard Drive: Maxtor 6L160M0 147.8 GB

In OpenGL, all sliders to minimum, 1024x768 16 bit it doesn't run very well, but it does run even tho the CPU is below the minimum specs. However, if I want smoothness I would definitely need to beat the recommended specs by a lot.

 

[JCitron]

New motherboard, new ram and a new proccesor, didn't feel there was need for graphics card at the time. Now realising the mistake. I was thinking about getting this card: http://www.ebuyer.com/322129-sapphire-hd-6770-1gb-dvi-vga-hdmi-pci-e-graphics-card-11189-10-20g

Any advice or feedback here?

Thanks for all the help

That's a fairly decent card, Dan.

I went with this one here and have had good results with it.

http://www.ebuyer.com/257136-powerc...i-displayport-pci-e-graphics-ax6950-1gbd5-2dh

John

 

[clam1952]

Probably you son increased the shared memory used by the graphics card which would take it from the memory used by the OS and the game so probably cancelling out any gains.

 

[RRSignal]

I doubt your power supply will be able to handle that. It requires a minimum 450W as per the manufacturer, and that's cutting it close, not to mention it needs it's own power hookup, which many OEM/low-powered supplies lack. If you want that card, plan on putting in a 600W or better supply in. Also, if you do switch brands, you have to be sure to fully clean out any nVidia drivers.

FYI, AMD cards tend to be a bit better power-wise than nVidia but in this case, there's no avoiding a PSU upgrade if you want a powerhouse card. And the AMD Vision stuff is just marketing hype, nor is there any advantage to using an ATI card with your AMD setup.

 

[danielpalfrey]

"Minimum specs according to the game case is a 3ghz prossesor or any dual core" it's in teenytinytype but looking at the specs on mine, it says 3.4, not 3.0.

http://www.auran.com/shop/display_product.php?PID=198

Bottom of that page agrees. In any event, it DOES run on the following specs;

OS: Windows XP Media Edition (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 2

Model: Dell DXP051
CPU: Intel(R) Pentium(R) D CPU 2.80GHz (2 CPUs)
Memory: 2046MB RAM
Video: NVIDIA GeForce 8400 GS 512 MB
Hard Drive: Maxtor 6L160M0 147.8 GB

In OpenGL, all sliders to minimum, 1024x768 16 bit it doesn't run very well, but it does run even tho the CPU is below the minimum specs. However, if I want smoothness I would definitely need to beat the recommended specs by a lot.

Just checked and I oh you an appology, it does say 3.4ghz or any dual core. even so I have 3.0ghs each core. so thats surley is enough to run the game (with the right graphics card) at a decent display setting

 

[danielpalfrey]

I doubt your power supply will be able to handle that. It requires a minimum 450W as per the manufacturer, and that's cutting it close, not to mention it needs it's own power hookup, which many OEM/low-powered supplies lack. If you want that card, plan on putting in a 600W or better supply in. Also, if you do switch brands, you have to be sure to fully clean out any nVidia drivers.

FYI, AMD cards tend to be a bit better power-wise than nVidia but in this case, there's no avoiding a PSU upgrade if you want a powerhouse card. And the AMD Vision stuff is just marketing hype, nor is there any advantage to using an ATI card with your AMD setup.

I have just spoken to my son and he has informed me that when he first built this system he built it with upgrades in mind and so would have fitted a minimum of a 450watt power pack, but he'll check tomorow so we can know for sure.
And on a read up there is a 4 pin molex plug to 6 pin plug converter included, I know i have a few spare molex cables in there. just need to know the power rating.

 

[RRSignal]

Just checked and I oh you an appology, it does say 3.4ghz or any dual core. even so I have 3.0ghs each core. so thats surley is enough to run the game (with the right graphics card) at a decent display setting

Yeah, don't worry too much about the raw CPU speed. I'm guessing you upgraded to a Phenom - that's a good chip. Of course, ideally you want the fastest CPU but don't sweat that, I'd take a 3.0 Phenom over a 3.4 Pentium D any day.

 

[danielpalfrey]

Yeah, don't worry too much about the raw CPU speed. I'm guessing you upgraded to a Phenom - that's a good chip. Of course, ideally you want the fastest CPU but don't sweat that, I'd take a 3.0 Phenom over a 3.4 Pentium D any day.

My son swears by AMD proccessors. Havent actually got a clue what he put in it. I think it was an athlon 2 but dont hold me to that

 

[danielpalfrey]

My son swears by AMD proccessors. Havent actually got a clue what he put in it. I think it was an athlon 2 but dont hold me to that

Just a little more info. It's a 520watt PSU in my computer

 

[American_Connections]

The stuff on the DLS

Your grievance has been voiced in these forums a number of times. The download station is not a freebie and someone has to pay for it. And you should bear in mind that the stuff on the DLS is made by individuals in their spare time without pay and they are making it available to fellow Trainzers free of charge. I am quite happy to pay a reasonable charge for this service.

But not to pay those that acually made them?

 

[RRSignal]

Just a little more info. It's a 520watt PSU in my computer

What brand of power supply, can you find out? You can safely add the video card you mentioned, though I wouldn't add in a lot of extra drives or whatnot. Even 520W isn't really that much in this day and age and if it's an iffy brand

 

[danielpalfrey]

What brand of power supply, can you find out? You can safely add the video card you mentioned, though I wouldn't add in a lot of extra drives or whatnot. Even 520W isn't really that much in this day and age and if it's an iffy brand

The brand is currently unknown, the manufactures sticker is wearing thin and the brand isn't visible

 

[danielpalfrey]

Ok, well, I have a new graphics card on the way, It should be here later. I went with the one I posted earlier. 1GB with high bus speeds and it has imaculate feedback for high performance games, that was the cherry on the topping on the cake for me. good reviews from hardcore gamers playing hardcore games that require more than what I need

 

[RRSignal]

Sweet. Just remember that thing I mentioned about cleaning out the drivers. I mean use a program like CCleaner if you need to...seems a lot of people get tripped up on the driver issues. And don't be surprised if the game runs a lot better in DirectX versus OpenGL. Good luck and let us know how the new card works with Trainz.

 

[BLACKWATCH]

I mean use a program like CCleaner if you need to

Using that program can be a minefield, it will cough up loads of files that it thinks are deletable, but unless you are a computer program genius, you could well delete files that you need for other stuff on your machine, using ccleaner means that you have to KNOW which files you DON'T need.

 

[danielpalfrey]

Sweet. Just remember that thing I mentioned about cleaning out the drivers. I mean use a program like CCleaner if you need to...seems a lot of people get tripped up on the driver issues. And don't be surprised if the game runs a lot better in DirectX versus OpenGL. Good luck and let us know how the new card works with Trainz.

Drivers are uninstalled, my sons extinsive knowledge meant he did everything manually without use of a program. The new card works wonders. Graphics set to highest settings and no a single sign of jumps. The son set it up to run with directX as it was. We noticed that in 2004 we got better results using directX and assumed the same would happen here.

Thanks for all the help