Video card question

Before anyone says that the ATI 6gb is only for triple monitors well think again, because that 6gb retains a lot of memory when it comes to Trainz and its routes.
And remember everyone Trainz dosen't like any kind of SLI, CROSSFIRE , OR Multi GPU,s on the one graphic card ,,,you will waste you money and Trainz will run like crap,
there was only one version of Trainz that did in some ways take advantage of SLI, Trainz 2006 being that one.
steve
 
Trainz runs best with ATI Video cards
Click to expand...

It does?

That’s news to me; I’ve run it on two different gaming setups, one with an AMD 7970 and one with an Nvidia GTX 680 (specs on both below). As with dozen other titles the GTX 680 does a better job all around compared to the 7970 including Trainz especially with image quality and OpenGL support.

Intel Core i7-980X Extreme Edition w/Corsair H100, ASUS Rampage III Extreme,Mushkin Enhanced Redline 12GB DDR3 1600, GeForce GTX 680, Samsung 840 Pro Series 128GB SSD/Windows 7 Ultimate 64/SP1, Samsung 840 Pro Series 256GB – Games/Programs, Corsair AX1200, Corsair 800D

Intel Core i7-975 Extreme Edition w/Corsair H100, ASUS Rampage III Gene, Mushkin Redline Ascent 6GB DDR3 1600, AMD 7970, Samsung 830 Series 128GB SSD/Windows 7 Ultimate 64/SP1, Samsung 830 Series 256GB - Games/Programs, Corsair AX850, Corsair 650D
because that 6gb retains a lot of memory when it comes to Trainz and its routes.
Click to expand...
Since when does Trainz load a route into the video cards RAM like other sims/games that use up to date rendering/game engines?
 
It is to early to argue about video cards however, get an older video card in your computer then on a big route move around your map over a wide area, then totaly go to an unexlored part of your map now go back to where you were first
, now put a new er video card in and notice the difference, i am putting all fanboy stuff to one side here,
what also plays a major part in this is the size of your route
if your route is 30 or 50 base-mats yes any video card will run it but 3 or 4 hundred is a different story all together ,
It would also be good to know what version of drivers were being used, it was a well known fact that Nvidia's drivers work better at first than ATI'S do, but when ATI start bringing out more updates with there drivers the performance soon changes in favorer of ATI in most cases, most every tech site will tell you that ATI 7970 oc 3GB kicks the 680's butt.
if i throught for 1 minute that nvidia were better than ATI at this point in time i would have all my computers running them.
just because the box indorses a make brand of video card dosen't mean thats the best.
i have 6 computers in my house not including the laptop or the ipad, some ASUS so Gigabyte some have ATI some have Nvidia and in my opinion ATI kicks Nvidia's butt.

if onboard ram dosen't remember your map and all its textures then what is the point of the onboard ram any way,

try it 1 gb of ram compaired to 3 gb see the difference

steve
 
steve123 said:
Trainz runs best with ATI Video cards why is this so you ask because of the bandwidth being far greater than Nvidia and the on board ram being much more ATI 3GB, Nvidia 2GB, better with an Intel CPUs 2600k Sandy bridge , don't worry to much about what the box states that the game came in, when it comes to graphic hungury games like Trainz only the best will do,

yes you can get away with smaller components to run the game but don't expaned the game by to much or you graphic card dies a fast death so if you can afford it go the better card even the ATI 7970 6GB

The 3 and 6 gb of ram remember your map far better than 2GB will do, it is like jumping from one part of your route to another the ram remembers it and it dosen't lag or shutter trying to recall the textures,

but at the end of the day it is up to you, good luck

steve
Click to expand...

This is true, I went from 1GB on AMD/ATI 5870 to the GTX 580 that has 3GB of GDDR5. Turn it all up to max, runs great, silky smooth like butter.


Paul
 
That 690 must make Trainz run silky smooth. :D I keep going back and forth with different cards and would like to stay with Nvidia because that is all I have ever ran. I think the GTX 670 will work just fine for what I want. Should be a day and night difference from the GTX 460 I am running now.
 
The 680 does a fair job too with Trainz. It's 1/2 the cost of the 690, or at it was at least when I got mine a few months ago.

John
 
Firefighterdan said:
That 690 must make Trainz run silky smooth. :D I keep going back and forth with different cards and would like to stay with Nvidia because that is all I have ever ran. I think the GTX 670 will work just fine for what I want. Should be a day and night difference from the GTX 460 I am running now.
Click to expand...

To be totally honest I think my previous GPU (AMD 7950) gave better peformance with Trainz since it had 3GB of VRAM on one GPU. The GTX 690 has 4GB of VRAM but it is 2+2GB. There is some stutter now. The Titan will have 6GB on one GPU so it will probably be the ultimate GPU.
In some things like video benchmarks however, it blows the 7950 out of the water. In Uningine Heaven benchmark it achieves 86 FPS as opposed to the 7950's 37 FPS.
 
Last edited:
djt said:
<SNIP>Since when does Trainz load a route into the video cards RAM like other sims/games that use up to date rendering/game engines?
Click to expand...

I did a little testing today.

Running Trainz on a route I'm building, which has lots of assets, video card memory usage hit a high of 532 megs.

I also tried ECML, that hit a high of 302 megs.

With both routes I did a lot of zipping around the map so that many assets would be loaded.

Some games will use a lot more video memory.

I also ran a test using RFactor2 (car sim).

20 cars on a small track (Lime Rock Park), video memory usage hit 1074 megs.

My experience shows me that this game does benefit from a good video card, with the biggest gain coming when you use speed trees instead of the old school cut out ones. But having more then 1 gig of video memory does not seem to do anything for us Trainzers.

I do suspect that maybe Trainz is keeping some stuff in video memory.
 
Probably flogging a dead horse here, but I'd like some advice to make Trainz run better. Currently I'm running the specs below (see my sig), but I think it's time to retire the GTX 260 for something a bit more beastly. I'm willing to spend around $400.00 USD for a beastly card (preferebly cheaper but I'll bite for around that). Already running an ancient mobo) but I think my bottleneck is in the graphics card. Of course, the communities opinion is welcomed. Looking forward to your replies! :D

*edit*

6 core AMD CPU, 256 GB SSDD, 8 GBS XMS RAM, Asus ROG Crossfire IV mobo, GTX 260 vid card, 850W PS, Thermaltake Gandalf Case - Idiot outside
 
Last edited:
SHOPlanB said:
Probably flogging a dead horse here, but I'd like some advice to make Trainz run better. Currently I'm running the specs below (see my sig), but I think it's time to retire the GTX 260 for something a bit more beastly. I'm willing to spend around $400.00 USD for a beastly card (preferebly cheaper but I'll bite for around that). Already running an ancient mobo) but I think my bottleneck is in the graphics card. Of course, the communities opinion is welcomed. Looking forward to your replies! :D

*edit*

6 core AMD CPU, 256 GB SSDD, 8 GBS XMS RAM, Asus ROG Crossfire IV mobo, GTX 260 vid card, 850W PS, Thermaltake Gandalf Case - Idiot outside
Click to expand...

If you have a budget of $400 , this beast will chew Trainz up and spit it out http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150586 though I would shop around a bit for cheaper prices. Or for a bit less you can get its (very slightly) less powerful sibling, still with 3GB of VRAM http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...deId=1&Description=+Radeon+HD+7950+&x=26&y=17
Your mobo is an ROG so it is certainly man enough for any job!
 
Last edited:
lewisner said:
If you have a budget of $400 , this beast will chew Trainz up and spit it out http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150586 though I would shop around a bit for cheaper prices. Or for a bit less you can get its (very slightly) less powerful sibling, still with 3GB of VRAM http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...deId=1&Description=+Radeon+HD+7950+&x=26&y=17
Your mobo is an ROG so it is certainly man enough for any job!
Click to expand...
BOY did I drop the ball here. LOL!! I have a GTX 570, but I ended up buying the Radeon card. I guess I was having a senior moment and didn't recall getting the 570 when I posted. But, I'm looking forward to seeing what the new card can do once it gets here.
 
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