Thinking about getting a laptop for TRS19.

Hi,

I was considering getting a laptop so that I could upgrade to TRS19. The reason is because the computer I am currently using was not designed for gaming, and on low graphics I get about 10 fps, with sudden times where the game will stop, from 10 seconds to 5 minutes. A laptop I've been considering is a used HP 15-dk0051wm Pavilion, because it looks like it will run it better than what I had. Thoughts?

Laptops usually aren't powerful enough, going to depend partly on how good the video card is which will be built in. The GPU is one of the most essential factors.

The video card of the laptop is a GeForce GTX 1050. The video card of what I had previous was an Intel HD Graphics 4400. I don't mind if I have to play on lower graphics settings, as long as it's better than what I had.

Middleton for laptops was designed to run on Intel HD Graphics 4000 and should give frame rates of over 20 fps, so content matters. the score of a 4000 is 331, the 4400 is 525

The new 11th gen intel chips have Intel Iris Xe and the integrated graphics score (2,918) is much higher.

The gtx 1050 mobile comes in at 4,461.

https://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu_list.php

Generally speaking a score of 10,000 is reasonable.

Would I buy a secondhand computer from ebay? Dunno that's your call, but a new G5 gaming laptop from Dell is $680 this evening with an 256GB M.2 PCIe NVMe. An i7 with a GTX 1050 TI is $120 extra.
256 GB isn't that big by the way and that is the size on both the HP on ebay and the Dell machines.

You'll almost certainly need to have the power cord plugged when running trainz by the way.

A G5 desktop with a GTX 1660 SUPER score 12,675 comes in around the $1,000 mark. The nice thing about desktops is normally they can be upgraded with a new video card or additional memory.

Hope that helps.

Cheerio John

Hi,
Don't forget that TS19 will drive the graphics card hard. With a laptop you could easily run into heat problems, unless you go for a gaming laptop design...

I have 2 laptops that I run Trainz on and I am very happy with them.

One is a Dell with a GTX 960M and it runs okay, but you do get stuttering on the video even on medium settings. If you edit routes, leveling terrain will bug you as the system will take time to catch up with the brush. The GTX 1050 will have similar performance (just marginally better), but still very useable.

The other one is an Alienware with a RTX 2070 Max-Q, and it runs flawlessly on ultra settings. Many PC manufactures have laptops with the RTX 2070 in them now for around $1200 to $1400 brand new.

Unless your trying to make bitcoins where you need a multi-GPU server setup, a laptop is fine for Trainz, just make sure you get the best GPU you can afford.

The biggest thing to watch out for with a laptop is heat. Heat is bad for computers and laptops in particular because there's little space to remove the heat from the components. If you do go this route, I highly recommend a machine that is considered a "gaming" laptop that is capable of handling the graphics load and the heat dissipation.

My gaming laptop, a "Dell Inspiron 7000 Gaming" which is now about 3 yrs old, is streets ahead of my (now defunct) desktop in terms of speed and graphics performance. The desktop was not a slouch but I can have the Trainz performance sliders and settings maxed out on the laptop which I could never do on the desktop.

The heating problem is an issue but the laptop has dual exhaust fans that are temperature controlled. In addition I have the laptop sitting on a USB powered cooling pad with dual fans. When running TRS19 the internal fans often (but not always) switch on and on colder days I usually do not need to have the cooling pad turned on.

I have a 2 year old 'Dell Inspiron 15 7000 Gaming' laptop with GTX 1050ti. It runs TRS2019 quite well on medium settings. However, one thing that annoys me about running Trainz on it as compared with my Desktop is that the fans are noisy.

FootplatePhil said:

It runs TRS2019 quite well on medium settings. However, one thing that annoys me about running Trainz on it as compared with my Desktop is that the fans are noisy.

Click to expand...

Yes, they are noisy but it doesn't bother me - perhaps that's why my partner keeps telling me that I just don't listen to her :hehe:

FootplatePhil said:

I have a 2 year old 'Dell Inspiron 15 7000 Gaming' laptop with GTX 1050ti. It runs TRS2019 quite well on medium settings. However, one thing that annoys me about running Trainz on it as compared with my Desktop is that the fans are noisy.

Click to expand...

Which is only to be expected. Heat has always been a limiting factor with computers, some laptops will slow down if they get too hot. Desktops are bigger so more easily cooled.

Cheerio John

johnwhelan said:

Which is only to be expected. Heat has always been a limiting factor with computers, some laptops will slow down if they get too hot. Desktops are bigger so more easily cooled.

Cheerio John

Click to expand...

Yes.

The point I was trying to make is that laptops are noisy. No doubt some (the expensive ones) are better than others. However, noise issues are often not mentioned when someone is considering purchasing a gaming laptop.

FootplatePhil said:

Yes.

The point I was trying to make is that laptops are noisy. No doubt some (the expensive ones) are better than others. However, noise issues are often not mentioned when someone is considering purchasing a gaming laptop.

Click to expand...

Nah. Expensive ones can get noisy too. My Alienware can sound like a 747 when it gets going.

I do run Trainz on a laptop - but it is a gaming laptop with a beefy cooling mechanism. Bear in mind that though you may not be a "gamer" and to many of us Trainz isn't just a "video game" per se, but it is a video game and a rather graphically intensive one at that. I would not attempt to play any newer versions of Trainz on a laptop not designed for gaming.

Expect to spend at least $700 for a cheaper one. You could try to go secondhand, but if you have the cash for a new one, I wouldn't. Spending $300 on a secondhand laptop only two have to get a new (old) one in two years works out to be around the same price as buying a new one that will last you at least five or six, and you'll get better results out of a new computer.

The fan is fairly noisy but that is par for the course with gaming laptops - you do get used to it though.

My graphics card is an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650, seems to run basically any route on high-medium settings, not the absolute maximum though.

My processor is an Intel i7-9750H with 2.60GHz of processing speed and I have 8GB of RAM - both of these seem to be more than adequate.

One thing I do recommend is a big hard drive. I have two drives in my laptop, with nearly 1.5TB of space between them. My secondary drive, 512GB, is dedicated solely to Trainz because if you download a lot of assets, the installation size becomes huge. Everything else goes on my main HD.

There are game laptops that have the rtx 2060 like msi okthey cost 1.500 euro but you can run anything, provided you have at least 16gb and a good ssd (internal for windows and external for trainz).
That is how i do it.

I'd second the use of a second (or dedicated) SSD for Trainz - I added a small SSD to my PC (came as a freebie with a 2Tb Disc) and use it only for Trainz.
The difference in loading speed is really worth it.

Colin

Alikiwi said:

Laptops usually aren't powerful enough, going to depend partly on how good the video card is which will be built in. The GPU is one of the most essential factors.

Click to expand...

That may have been the case a few years ago, but you buy a decent latptop with nVidea video cards now days. I have an Acer V17 nitro that runs TRS19 just fine. It also runs Call of Duty on high settings, but that's for a different group.

This is all very sad to read. I just got TRS19 a week ago--my first Trainz product--and I've been running it on a sub-$500 laptop. It has definitely not looked its best, but I've had some fun with it anyway (appreciation to Philskene for Port Loleta and as of last night, IntenCity). Now I'm seeing that to get the program running properly, I need to go out and spend a grand plus! Now that's an idea that takes some getting used to. I know, if we want good stuff, we have to be ready to sacrifice...

I've run trainz on laptops for years now and learned if you want trainz to run decent you'll looking at a grand or two for a good machine. I run on ASUS or Dell laptops. TRS19 is currently on a ASUS GU502GV-BI7 Laptop with no problem. I also like trainz on a laptop so I can take it anywhere.

You don't need to get the latest and greatest, meaning the most expensive right now, either. Last year's models work well and they are on sale right now to make room for the newer ones coming out. One of the places to check too is PC Mag's Tech Deals. They have links to Dell, HP, Asus and others with current hardware sales. Some of the laptops offered by Dell, for example, have an I7-something, 16 GB RAM, and a GTX1660. This isn't a bad little system and being a DELL, the RAM is easily updated. I can't remember what the hard drive size is offhand though, otherwise I would have mentioned it, but I think one of the drives is at least 1TB.