Copmpatibility of AMD CPU and Graphics Cards

My experiences with Trainz dates back to the first release way back when. I think I still have a copy of every release.

For the past decade or so, my computer power has just not kept up and I am only now coming back into the Trainz world.

I now wish to build a serious desktop PC and am working with my "Gamer" son to build one for him and one for me.

He recommends AMD offerings today as the most competitive at the moment.

Specifically re recommends the following CPU and GPU components;

• AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor
• MSI Radeon RX 5600 XT 6 GB GAMING MX Video Card
  

I recall way back then that Intel CPU's and Invidia GPU"s were preferred to competitive brands.

Today, are there issues with not using Intel and Invidia for top Trainz performance.

I am looking forward to coming back into the TRAINZ community.

Up to this point in time I personally wouldn't bother with AMD Graphics as they have failed to impress, however the about to be released 6000 series cards are supposed to be equal to Nvidia's current cards, however Nvidia's New cards may restore their lead or they may not.

Nothing wrong with that Ryzen 5 3600 good choice up to now, although maybe look at the newer Ryzen 5000 series which appear to be as good / better than Intel and an improvement on the Ryzen 3000 series

May pay to wait a bit for some real world reviews and pricing of the new AMD hardware and the new RTX3000 series Nvidia cards which seem to have a large increase in performance for similar or cheaper cost than their previous models.

My Ryzen 5 1600 equals my i7 6700K on benchmarks both run TRS19 well with decent Nvidia GPUs.

These may help:

https://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html

https://benchmarks.ul.com/compare/best-gpus

I might spend less on the CPU and more on the GPU.

https://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu_list.php a score of 10,000 is about as low as you'd like to go.

I quite like the RTX 2070 but that is just me. The RTX 3070 has a very nice score by the way.

Nivida used to have strong support so that companies such as N3V could get the best performance out of their cards and N3V probably use nVidia GPUs in house when programming and testing although they will have at least one AMD system.

The case for Intel is their compiler that produces optimised code for their CPUs. I don't know if N3V use it or not. They probably use Microsoft compilers these days. So the issue is to get the most out of the compiler you aim for the highest installed base of CPUs.

So you may have to consider other things than just the benchmark scores.

I tend to run Dell workstations from Dellrefurbished.ca and stick a decent GPU in them but that is a personal approach and you have to watch the height of the graphics card.

Cheerio John

You cannot get a definitive answer to your question. We know that N3V did a recent survey (?) and the majority by far use Intel and Nvidia. So they seem to work.

I may be a Mac user, but that doesn't mean I don't like PCs!

From what I can tell, AMD CPUs have been improved dramatically from a couple years ago - they've advanced more than Intel CPUs. They are cheaper, much more power efficient, and sometimes have better performance, but mostly on par with Intel chips. I would personally recommend a Ryzen 7 5800X, as it sits at a $450 price tag for an 8-core processor that gives you well above average performance. As for the GPU, a Radeon RX 6800 should be more than enough for games like Trainz. (I dunno what other games to mention because while Trainz is on a computer, I'm much more of a console gamer, and would definitely play more Trainz if it could come to something like the Switch). At $649, you're getting something on par with an RTX 3080 GPU, and for $50 less. Personally, those two AMD parts are what I recommend, and for $1098, you're getting a much better deal than from an Intel and NVIDIA combo.

I'm actually curious how Apple Silicon Macs turn out however, as an ARM MBA is faster than a maxed out 2019 MBP 16, so hopefully the eGPU is better, because I'll eventually have to upgrade to that (I just don't really want to have a giant desktop in an office for one purpose, that's why I would just prefer a MacBook - also, it's simplicity is far better for workloads - at least for me)

Like yourself I've been fiddle with Trainz from the early years but have fiddled with computers a lot longer. Over the years I have updated my machines on average about every 5 years, governed by fiance and frequently moving serviceable components onto a second and third computer. As you can imagine it has resulted in quite a mix of components from the major manufacturers but in all that time I've only ever had one Sapphire Radeon graphic card go during the days of TS2010 and in recent years an unbranded PSU with a loud pop followed by a blank screen, sparks and smoke.

While computer manufacturers have come and gone many of the component manufacturers remain which would suggest their products can't be that bad or they likewise would have disappeared by now. Yes there has always been competition between the manufacturers and long may it last which has resulted in, at any one particular time, with perhaps one favouring 'a gamer' in respect of speed or another favouring a business person in respect of power consumption, size and cost. In recent years Intel and Nvidia have had the edge in respect of gaming but that hasn't always been the case and only a few years ago AMD tended to be preferred. As for tomorrow I think its a case of wait and see. AMD 5000 series CPU are looking particularly attractive. Nvidia 3000 series GPU's are attractive as were the 2000 and 1000 series previously howerver AMD 6000 series GPU are still an unknown quantity but we should have a better idea come the New Year.

The money saved purchasing a 6 core processor over an 8 core can save enough money to go up one level of GPU within the same budget unfortunately no one has ever written how many cores Trainz is actually optimised for other than a preferred specification. As for mixing and matching manufacturers, I really wouldn't be concerned, I think in regard to my pocket its bangs for bucks, and in respect of Trainz its a case of balancing the best graphics for acceptable computer performance.

My first machine is close on 5 years old (Intel) and the second machine close on 10 years (AMD), yes its coming up to that time again. It I move the better graphic card between the two machine there is practically no difference in Trainz performance, both machines have 16GB of RAM. The newer machine loads quicker having an SSD over the hard-drive of the older machine. If like me your preference is building over driving then the odd dropped frame becomes quite acceptable, however if driving is your preference I quite understand how such glitches soon become an annoyance. However if you can overcome that mental anguish between what will suffice and you can afford, over what you would like if you could afford it, I'm sure your choice will be perfect. Good luck, Peter

One of the reasons I chose nVidia GPU over the AMD is that for TS19, the TurfFX is supported only by the nVidia series.
My older nVidia GPU died earlier this year, and was replaced by the RTX 2060. That's OK for a standard 1920x1080 display, and using high quality settings will give >30 fps consistently.
If you're looking for a 4k screen, you may want to go up a version! (though TS19 doesn't do 4k resolution).

One point to consider is that motherboards seem to change the CPU socket design every couple of years - so you'll be stuck with your CPU choice, but the GPU socket is pretty much standard (now), so you can always upgrade the GPU.
Colin

I'm pretty sure that the OS and the CPU decides how many cores to use and not the software being used so before replying went off to do some testing, same route same settings.

Ryzen 5 1600 6 cores 12 threads in TRS19 with nothing else running, it's using all 12 threads equally distributed but only 9% CPU total.

This one, i7 6700K 4 cores 8 Threads is using 32% CPU CPU 6 is close on 100% the rest evenly split which kind of signifies to me that AMD and Intel CPUs behave differently.

Shockingly the Ryzen setup which is a first Generation CPU is within a couple of FPS of the I7 rig In TRS19, same routes. It also hammers the i7 on multicore benchmarks fractionally slower on single core and given the new Ryzens are way better, I know what my next upgrade is likely to be using.

I always used AMD CPU's K6 up to the Phenom II, still got a PC with a Phenom II 1080T and a GTX1060 and it runs TRS19 albeit on conservative settings. After the Phenoms AMD really went off the boil until Ryzen, it's good to see that they are back! Sad person that I am I have all the old AMD chips safely stored!

GPUs After some abysmal ATIs, I went 3dfx Voodoo, still got one somewhere and moved to Nvidia when they swallowed up 3dfx.

Thnaks for all of this advice ...............

I am delighted to back in this TRAINZ community and appreciate all of the great advice you folks have given me.

I think I am hearing that Trainz runs fine on either Intel or AMD CPU's and Nvidia or AMD GPU's except perhaps the availability of the mysterious "TurfX".

I am looking forward to using the latest TRAINZ version both for route development and operation.

Over 10 years ago, I led a team of about a half dozen asset and route creators to develop a route called the "Toronto Rail Lands" which taxed the TRAINZ software and hardware mightily but working closely with the TRAINZ developers managed to make the complex yards work well. It was subsequently included in TRS2006 and a few successor versions. Today though it is a pretty low resolution route.

Thanks again for your input.

TurfFX works on AMD as well as Nvidia, it doesn't work on Macs as Apple do not support DirectX which is required for TurfFX

TurFx is realistic grass instead of using splines http://online.ts2009.com/mediaWiki/index.php/Help:TurfFX_Effect_Layer

Sensei_1 said:

I am delighted to back in this TRAINZ community and appreciate all of the great advice you folks have given me.

I think I am hearing that Trainz runs fine on either Intel or AMD CPU's and Nvidia or AMD GPU's except perhaps the availability of the mysterious "TurfX".

I am looking forward to using the latest TRAINZ version both for route development and operation.

Over 10 years ago, I led a team of about a half dozen asset and route creators to develop a route called the "Toronto Rail Lands" which taxed the TRAINZ software and hardware mightily but working closely with the TRAINZ developers managed to make the complex yards work well. It was subsequently included in TRS2006 and a few successor versions. Today though it is a pretty low resolution route.

Thanks again for your input.

Click to expand...

You were one of the people who made Toronto Rail? I didn't play a computer Trainz until TANE SP3 in 2019, but Toronto Rail seemed to be like a tech demo to showcase the future of Trainz. I think that route truly deserves a remake.

Here's my take:

My prebuilt system came with an AMD FX-4300 CPU and Radeon R7-240 graphics. This was top of the line in 2012. Too bad I bought it as new in 2016 (I learned later it was actually a system from 2012-13, but was either unsold or refurb'ed and sold as a new system. It came with a product key for "Windows 10 for refurbished systems", and had a Windows 10 spec sheet slapped on top of a Windows 7 spec sheet on the box). I didn't do my research and was deeply disappointed. It barely ran T:ANE at high-ish settings.

Not long after buying the system, I replaced the R7-240 with an XFX RX480. I was going to go NVidia but I had money burning a hole in my pocket and Best Buy didn't have any good NVidia cards on hand. The RX480 was the best I could find in store. I got it home, installed it in my system, plopped in a higher watt power supply because the dubious-quality 350 watt PSU in there at the time just wasn't going to cut it. It was a vast improvement over the R7, but I still wasn't satisfied. After some poking around on the forums, I learned that NVidia cards are recommended for Trainz. Whoops. And to top it all off, the old FX-4300 was a massive bottleneck.

Fast forward to February 2018. I finally realized that this system wasn't going to cut it, but I doubt Best Buy would accept a return from a year and a half ago, that had been heavily used, had a different graphics card, and a motherboard that was already dying. So time for a near top-down rebuild of the system. New AsRock motherboard, an Intel i7-7700K (this was right after the 8th gen CPU's came out, so 7th gens were cheap), double the RAM, and the creme de la creme, a pre-overclocked PNY GTX 1070 - the 8 GB version. I tell you what, that thing was a screamer then, and it still is now. I can play TRS19 on max settings with this setup (more details in my sig) with very few hiccups.

That being said, it is starting to show it's age with new games coming out this year, and games (especially Trainz) are gobbling up all my available storage, so it may be upgrade (or new build) time again very soon.

As time went on, though, I learned that AMD is greatly pulling ahead of Intel in the CPU game in price, performance per dollar, and technology. There may be a reason Apple recently ditched Intel. And benchmarks continue to prove that a Ryzen 7 can mop the floor with anything Intel. Except maybe a Xeon. My next build will likely be based around a Ryzen, but still use an NVidia GPU. It's clear Trainz was made for NVidia cards, and the TurfFX in TRS19 (something I use generously in my routes) apparently won't function on anything else. EDIT: After reading comments above mine, apparently it does. Whoops.

TL;DR version: AMD CPU, NVidia GPU.

Matt

A far cry from successfully running TS12 on an AMD E1-1200 1.4Ghz, 15.6" laptop with 4 GB RAM and built in graphics. Unfortunately T:ANE was asking a bit much. Peter

wilts747 said:

A far cry from successfully running TS12 on an AMD E1-1200 1.4Ghz, 15.6" laptop with 4 GB RAM and built in graphics. Unfortunately T:ANE was asking a bit much. Peter

Click to expand...

and that's why I think TS12 should still be available for sale.

Cheerio John

This is going to upset the Apple cart RTX3060TI Better than an RTX2080 Super https://www.pcgamer.com/nvidia-rtx-3060-ti-review-benchmarks-performance/

I've read a couple of reviews and they all seem promising. I was eyeing a RTX3070 for a new build next spring but for the 5% alleged difference in performance the TRX3060Ti may be the more prudent buy assuming Trainz isn't going 4K in the foreseeable future. Peter