Trainz with "I7" CPU

boleyd

Well-known member
For people considering upgrades - I recently bought a new PC (i7 cpu, 4.4mhz) -( RTX 3070). Right now I am running a route on TS2019 and viewing CNN on a separate window. Both working perfectly. No heat issues and no stutters. Very fast loading eic.. Upgrade good investment. and safe.
 
Last edited:
With that spec I would expect it to run Trainz like a dream unfortunately for many in this current financial climate it must remain the aspirations for another day. ENJOY, Peter
 
I previously ran Trainz, and others, on an old PC - i5 overclocked to 4.2ghz, 16mb memory, 1060 video card. Trainz ran at an "acceptable" rate with most graphic settings high or max. I looked at the new stuff but for the price I was happy with the old system. Then it started to cause lockups or other strange behavior. Backed down the clock to 4ghz helped but eventually it became intolerable. So off to Best Buy. I can run with everything at max and no stutters. Response to loading and changing modes is instantaneous. I have most variable graphics setting just below max. No use cooking the golden CPU.

Had the new PC for about 6 months. It has totally locked up a few times. Had to power off/on. Terrifying, but not a panic. Called Best Buy and the Geek Squad says to bring it in. Tried tried to analyze with them but the only words they know are "bring it in". That is an intellectual and functional black hole. All they will do is secretly ship the PC back to their supplier for repair and stall your inquiries.

Bottom line - great Trainz performance is indeed beyond the reach of many. The new features may extend that gap even more. The new Chips In The US Bill will not help the price. It is intended to stabilize the supply chain. So the the very high prices of the past summer should not happen.
Dick
 
My pc still runs an i5 overclocked to 4.2ghz, but now with an RTX 2060. The cpu is water cooled, and the gpu has an enhanced cooling fan profile.
I’ve set the nVidia control panel to max at 60fps - the monitor doesn’t handle more, and it’s been stable for a couple of years…
TS 19 and 22 seem to share the load between cpu and gpu much better than the older versions.

I suspect than many failures are due to under cooling of the cpu, gpu and sufficient airflow in the pc case.
Colin
 
Number 2 PC runs Trainz well, Overclocked i7-6700K @4.4GHz + GTX1080TI, cooling is 5 quiet case fans, Hyper212 EVO on CPU and 3 fans on GPU. stays nice and cool on full load. OS on SSD and 2 x SSDs for Trainz + 1 SSD for Linux + 2 x 7200RPM spinners.
Number 1 PC runs Trainz Better, Ryzen7 3800X @4.05GHz + RTX3070TI, cooling 5 quite Case fans, Akasa AK98 on CPU and 3 fans on GPU actually runs cooler than the i7 rig. Again OS on SSD, 3 SSDs for Trainz + 2 x 7200rpm spinners.

Both have 750 Watt Gold rated PSUs.

I avoid liquid cooling after it destroyed a motherboard a few years ago so stick the largest CPU Air cooler I can fit in the cases.

Userbenchmarks look reasonable to me!

PC01:
UserBenchmarks: Game 163%, Desk 95%, Work 162%
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3800X - 94.7%
GPU: Nvidia RTX 3070-Ti - 174.8%
SSD: PNY CS900 240GB - 72.9%
SSD: Crucial MX500 1TB - 113.7%
SSD: Crucial MX500 1TB - 115.1%
SSD: Crucial MX300 525GB - 96.8%
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 7200.14 2TB - 99.2%
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 2TB (2018) - 120.6%
RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 3000 C15 2x8GB - 83.6%
MBD: Asus PRIME B350-PLUS

PC02:
UserBenchmarks: Game 122%, Desk 93%, Work 102%
CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K - 88.2%
GPU: Nvidia GTX 1080-Ti - 138.8%
SSD: Kingston SSDNow V300 240GB - 82.6%
SSD: Crucial M500 480GB - 99.4%
SSD: Samsung 860 Evo 500GB - 120.5%
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 2TB (2016) - 109.7%
HDD: Toshiba DT01ACA200 2TB - 97.5%
RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 2400 C14 4x4GB - 81.5%
MBD: Asus Z170-P
 
Heh. I am now wondering how a computer could rate 163% for gaming, but only 95% for desk, or 122% for gaming and only 93% for desk and 102% for work. They must assume you are working for Industrial Light and Magic? And doing God only knows what as a desktop!
 
I am running on an i7 with a GTX1080, and for the most part it does fine. Larger routes tend to bog down a bit.
i'm running a 1080ti asus with an i-7 3930 Overclocked. my monitor is a very high quality 27inch with very good color, but only a max of 60 FPS. I'm thinking of getting a 27" with a higher FPS and G-Sync to smooth it, but a lot of people here talking about how a route runs through from 120Fps to, like, 15, makes me think that a constant 60fps on a higher end card might push the lower to the higher fps and, even though it brings down quicker looking it maybe would simply immerse better? and, that's really what i want -- is to feel i'm in the scene.

so, i've just ordered a 4070 ti, and i'll keep it on my i-7 and with my 60fps monitor. I'll maybe upgrade around the 4070 ti next year, with a new mo-bo and cpu and psu and toodle-oo.

live free or upgrade.
 
Mike,

Don't waste your money on G-sync. It's definitely not supported Trainz, and can cause worse stuttering and awful framerates than ever. Tony mentioned this in a post on the old forums. There are also many other games that don't work with it, so that would be a waste of money. If you really like the monitor though, you can always turn it off.

I've run Trainz at 120 Hz and 144 Hz and it's extremely smooth running. I do use the half-sync V-sync lock to keep the framerates consistent and that also smooths out the drawing in of assets on my very large routes.
 
Mike,

Don't waste your money on G-sync. It's definitely not supported Trainz, and can cause worse stuttering and awful framerates than ever. Tony mentioned this in a post on the old forums. There are also many other games that don't work with it, so that would be a waste of money. If you really like the monitor though, you can always turn it off.

I've run Trainz at 120 Hz and 144 Hz and it's extremely smooth running. I do use the half-sync V-sync lock to keep the framerates consistent and that also smooths out the drawing in of assets on my very large routes.
thank you very much, this is good and useful. yes, the v-sync lock, i'd forgotten about that, though i always use it on my 60fps max monitor. you know, i've had trainz from the very first and still feel the effect of running it on some very early cards and CPU's, and your comment makes me realize i'm sort of overreacting to imagined inherent problems in Trainz... i mean, the old frustration of watching a consist jerk across the screen... then, buying a new ATI to get 11fps and still having no real immersion possible. the best being to build a small switching layout and scoot between businesses...

some people here talk about how the times are so bad they can't upgrade. i've always only upgraded for Trainz... you know how it is ... who needs a car?
 
thank you very much, this is good and useful. yes, the v-sync lock, i'd forgotten about that, though i always use it on my 60fps max monitor. you know, i've had trainz from the very first and still feel the effect of running it on some very early cards and CPU's, and your comment makes me realize i'm sort of overreacting to imagined inherent problems in Trainz... i mean, the old frustration of watching a consist jerk across the screen... then, buying a new ATI to get 11fps and still having no real immersion possible. the best being to build a small switching layout and scoot between businesses...

some people here talk about how the times are so bad they can't upgrade. i've always only upgraded for Trainz... you know how it is ... who needs a car?
Only upgraded for Trainz... Oh, that sounds very familiar! Every upgrade or PC replacement has been spec'd out with Trainz operations in mind. Like you, I expected super framerates and totally unfathomable speed, but it never happens. There are still the same stutters but some things do load and run faster. Are these incremental changes worth the money? I need to replace a laptop because my nearly 8-year-old machine is becoming unreliable. The hardware prices are right up there with a used car. Hopefully, if I do go for a high-end machine, I can get another eight years out of that one.
 
just bought a 4070ti OC and then read that my old but nice motherboard will throttle it by forty percent. Return... get to eliminate a long-credit-card payoff. will start researching a new system. hesitant, though, because my 1080ti, with its eleven gigs of DDR 5 RAM, on my P9x79 Pro asus board, with 64 gigs of DDR 3 RAM, is such a nice object in itself. and it's only been, what, 10 years? i think it'll take at least a year to figure out what's what with a new system, and to knock down my credit cards to make it easier to justify it. by that time the new Radeons should be out and the price of the now high end cards should fall. i guess part of my clutching my now system is that it's never given me any problems at all. but, yes, film and even still-photo editing could be way better, and trainz could and should go into the mist in misty mystery with a newer GPU...
 
The 1080Ti is a really nice card. I have one and it still works, although the system it was installed in died last December. For some reason, my USB ports died and that ended the system. I ended up buying a prebuilt machine from Dell which I'm not quite happy with due to the poor cooling but I resolved that by brute force. It turns out, I'm not the only one who had that problem and it appears, as in it figures, Dell has fixed that with the latest cases. I went for the prebuilt because I couldn't afford the new components. As my luck goes always, the old system died at the point where highest prices were at their peak. As soon as I purchased my system, the prices started dropping but not enough for me to afford and by then I was already committed to my received and setup Dell 8950.

I agree, it takes about 1 year to figure out the system and to get the tweaks into place so that the system works the way you want it to. I always thought of this as being like setting up a fish tank. We get the tank set up so the water is balanced and the gravel is no longer dusty, and the fish are happy. A good working system is like that with a happy and balanced environment.

Like you, I try to pay off the balance before I get hit with interest even if it means eating Ramen noodles for months on end (kidding) to make the payments. Given that I usually want to pay off the system early, I look at something I can afford too without going for broke.
 
you know, i'm kind of superficial about computers and specks and mostly buy by recommendations. but, putting my mind to it, and looking at some i-7 3930 youtube appreciations, i'm thinking i should look at a ddr 3 upgrade ---? up to a higher rated stick than i could afford 11 years ago. if it weren't that i do photography and video as art i'd just stick with the system i've got -- maybe, too, upgrading my monitor to a higher fps asus. but, even then, my monitor is a very fine high-resolution and great color monitor and i don't know if i'd find such a good monitor at 27inches in today's upgrade stream. but, well, i'm 77 and need a project and a year long handwringer like 'new system' should keep me off the streets.
 
you know, i'm kind of superficial about computers and specks and mostly buy by recommendations. but, putting my mind to it, and looking at some i-7 3930 youtube appreciations, i'm thinking i should look at a ddr 3 upgrade ---? up to a higher rated stick than i could afford 11 years ago. if it weren't that i do photography and video as art i'd just stick with the system i've got -- maybe, too, upgrading my monitor to a higher fps asus. but, even then, my monitor is a very fine high-resolution and great color monitor and i don't know if i'd find such a good monitor at 27inches in today's upgrade stream. but, well, i'm 77 and need a project and a year long handwringer like 'new system' should keep me off the streets.
If you're still on DDR3, then yeah, I would highly recommend you get up to DDR4 (or DDR5 if possible - although sticks and motherboards that support it are pricey). Of course if you're currently running DDR3 you'll probably need to get yourself a new motherboard to go with it.
 
yes, i've thought this too, but the ddr4 boards were expensive for most of the years i've had this. and, the performance boost -- from reading about it on the net -- just weren't that impressive. even today the 3930 is considered a good cpu, and, with the 1080ti, a good system. Looking at my system, umm, it looks like i did upgrade to fast ddr3 sometime back. So, the upgrade to a modern system seems more a vanity and adventure than a necessity for Trainz or IL-Sturmovik. There is my brilliant career, of course, as art-photographer, but that seems so 19th century and what am i doing doing digital anyway? that's more a self-indulgence, and, if so, i'd rather be building and working a 1950's small route in virtual, and call that virtuous and not bothering anyone in the real world. humm. by the way, your user name i've known for many years now, and what immediately comes to mind is that you've always been for 'railroads' and not 'running choo-choo's', and that you've been for enhancing the actual content in trainz, and not just dropping the old in favor of a Trainz for teens and beer-fans running choo-choo's through pretty scenery. i'm thinking of how excited i was to hear of the first steam engines on Trainz, and how, now, it's hard to get a working roster of 0-8-0's for a small u.s. division. optimizing something as trivial as that is much more important to me than the newest electro-motive on 'the harlem division'... smile. so many content builders made really beautiful content back when, and then to have that nulled.
 
When I purchased my system from Dell, I went for the higher end. It may be high-end today, but give it a number of years and it'll be just the same as the old workhorse i7-5960 system I was using since mid-2015. This may be at the extreme higher end of systems but that doesn't always happen for me either. Generally, I purchase last year's technology, or current technology at the highest end that I can afford at the time of the purchase. Purchases are also made so with the intention of getting the most out of the hardware and I aim for the best ROI I can get. With that said, I have no plans of upgrading anytime soon.

Although many of us base our system performance around Trainz, many of us use our systems for other purposes. Like you, I was perfectly happy using my Intel Extreme i7-5960. I not only use my system for video games, but I also use it for music editing and this is where the new i9-12900k shines. With its performance cores, the processing of the very large audio files is so much quicker. This setup is also great for video editing. Using Pinnacle Software, this system processes the video with little work compared to the 7-year-old i7-5960. Post processing effects take a lot of work to render and there was nary a glitch in the performance. I didn't realize the difference until I saw it myself.

The faster processors are more efficient and quicker when performing functions that require large amounts of data. The memory and the newer PCI bus are faster, allowing for more data to pass through to the RAM. The CPUs have much larger caches, allowing for quicker data fetching, DMA and other technology is far more advanced, making memory and hard drive access, in addition to any peripheral cards installed.

These systems are also more energy efficient while it may not seem that way given the heat that comes out of the cases. The processors such as Intel's i9 series have performance cores and efficiency cores. The performance cores shutdown while we use the system to browse the web and watch YouTube videos, or perform general stuff such as emails and running office-type applications. When we perform higher tasks, the Performance cores kick in along with the Efficiency cores to allow for the most processing power to perform the task. This isn't done through drivers and software written specifically for this like what is done for video cards. This is done within the CPU based on the tasks at hand.
 
i'm using premier and photoshop for a hundred years now, and with several CPU's and graphic cards. SSD's have been maybe the happiest instant improvement. i've slowed way down on video making these last dozen years, but i still shoot several hundred fat canon raw images every six months, and one thing leads to another and adobe bridge is dicking around for some reason. this is probably some access to the card reader, with my new 1DX2 fat cards. single-image photoshop'd is more important. no big thing and i'm not complaining, since i've been assembling desktop systems since sid meier's 1990 railroad tycoon and computing out my first mandelbrot's. then, the gods laughed, cause i started a graphic design studio and my client was kaiser perm, new ventures. double page spreds and publicity photos and some vids. this all on whatever the fastest whatever chip and mobo and graphic card. also, this before PDF's... and had to give the magazine printer something which would print out the colors i thought i'd chosen. i have grey hair. So, all this for the first Trainz too, which was fun... yep. Looking to upgrade now, just because it's been ten years and i'm maybe thinking some smoother trainz, though still only wanting 1440, and better textures and atmosphere... whatever is practical. willing to spend money, cause i can [ as i mentioned, 'who needs a car?'... particularly when i can take a Trainz,] and get something like i'd gotten before, in 2010, which was whatever recommendation i'd researched and trusted. best buy just offered me a fat store card with an offered 9% if payed off in 2 years. a boy and his toys.
 
If you're still on DDR3, then yeah, I would highly recommend you get up to DDR4 (or DDR5 if possible - although sticks and motherboards that support it are pricey). Of course if you're currently running DDR3 you'll probably need to get yourself a new motherboard to go with it.
the last time i upgraded i went modestly all out and got an asus p9x79 pro mobo, a 3930k cpu and 64GB of quality ddr 3, ( i do content developing too. ) and, an asus 1080ti videocard. I've overclocked the DDR3 and the CPU and video card, and they're pretty fine, actually, for running Trainz. i recommend this combo for 60FPS at medium trainz settings.

thanks. yes, ddr3... i'm looking at a complete rebuild for trainz and other game-z. going 65GB ddr5 ( keeping to a safe 5600 clock ) on an asus maximus and an asus 4060 with 16gb memory, thinking i don't need the wider memory bus but do need the 16GB to keep inside the video card and not borrow system memory. CPU will probably be an i7 of some kind, maybe 13700k. does this sound reasonable? ( this isn't that expensive a buy if you don't drink and don't own a car and have no mortgage and are a single 77 year old male who doesn't do 'fine dining' : )

upping to a 144hrz LG nano pix-like monitor with G-Sync, which, i have to admit, does look better than my buick sedan grade fine monitor from several years back...
 
the last time i upgraded i went modestly all out and got an asus p9x79 pro mobo, a 3930k cpu and 64GB of quality ddr 3, ( i do content developing too. ) and, an asus 1080ti videocard. I've overclocked the DDR3 and the CPU and video card, and they're pretty fine, actually, for running Trainz. i recommend this combo for 60FPS at medium trainz settings.

thanks. yes, ddr3... i'm looking at a complete rebuild for trainz and other game-z. going 65GB ddr5 ( keeping to a safe 5600 clock ) on an asus maximus and an asus 4060 with 16gb memory, thinking i don't need the wider memory bus but do need the 16GB to keep inside the video card and not borrow system memory. CPU will probably be an i7 of some kind, maybe 13700k. does this sound reasonable? ( this isn't that expensive a buy if you don't drink and don't own a car and have no mortgage and are a single 77 year old male who doesn't do 'fine dining' : )

upping to a 144hrz LG nano pix-like monitor with G-Sync, which, i have to admit, does look better than my buick sedan grade fine monitor from several years back...
If you build a pc with specs like that it'll tear through Trainz. What will really help is the DDR5 ram, as a big part of Trainz is loading all the separate assets. The one area I would see if you could bump a little is in the GPU to see if you can go from a 4060 to a 4070, but even if you can't that spec will do you quite well.
 
Back
Top