Help please!
I run a 2.4XP athlon and 1024 Ram with G force 4 TI 4200 128MB graphics card, after spending so much money on upgrades over the past1-2 years I find some of the present day freeware CD's, commercial add-ons seem to be testing my system to nearly the limit I feel, vizavis when coming into stations and very graphic intensive environments.
Would it be an investment regarding framerates etc to invest in a more powerful graphics card, I was thinking along the lines of a Radeon 9600 256MB sapphire or Radeon 9800 128MB, can anybody advise me on this particular topic? (I run windows XP professional.)
My motherboard is a KT 400 series, AGP8x/FSB333
Sorry to go on but help would be appreciated.
upgrading graphics card
Moderator: Moderators
This is not a flame, but When I read the spec of your machine I had to laugh! It's way better than mine and I get most things to run even if frame rates get to single figures at "busy" moments (All sliders maxed).
My advice is to search the issue of framerates in this and TrainSim.coms forums. There's a few things that you can do to optimize your sims performance, mainly switching off any programme that's not needed (loads run in the background using resources) and I've found that this helps a bit.
There's so many combinations of kit, software and even how people have M$T$ installed and with what add-ons, it's well nigh impossible to come up with anything other than a "suck it and see" suggestion.
If you're binning a perfectly good GeF4 4200Ti my address is........
Seriously don't be hyped by graphics card reviews. I think that we've established that's not the problem, especially with a card as good as yours. If you don't want to heed my advice then check the forums for tales of woe on drivers for the other main player ATi.
Save yer pennies do some reading in these forums for free.
Geoff
My advice is to search the issue of framerates in this and TrainSim.coms forums. There's a few things that you can do to optimize your sims performance, mainly switching off any programme that's not needed (loads run in the background using resources) and I've found that this helps a bit.
There's so many combinations of kit, software and even how people have M$T$ installed and with what add-ons, it's well nigh impossible to come up with anything other than a "suck it and see" suggestion.
If you're binning a perfectly good GeF4 4200Ti my address is........
Seriously don't be hyped by graphics card reviews. I think that we've established that's not the problem, especially with a card as good as yours. If you don't want to heed my advice then check the forums for tales of woe on drivers for the other main player ATi.
Save yer pennies do some reading in these forums for free.
Geoff
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jbilton
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- Joined: Fri Oct 10, 2003 12:08 pm
- Location: At home ..waiting to go to Work.
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Hi
Certainly the only thing that has been agreed on lately is that the faster the seek time of your hard drive(s)...then the better your frame rates will be.
Therefore the best setup at the moment is to have 2 ultrafast scsi hard drives in a strip RAID....well you did say you had money to spend.
Seriously SATA HDs does seem to be the way forwards at present....and setting a pair of them up in a RAID is very easy.
You'd get a pair of drives and the controller for about £150-£170.
Thats my next upgrade.
My son got himself a new MB the other week ...and its built in SATA and raid....and it was £25 cheaper than the one I bought last year.
Certainly the only thing that has been agreed on lately is that the faster the seek time of your hard drive(s)...then the better your frame rates will be.
Therefore the best setup at the moment is to have 2 ultrafast scsi hard drives in a strip RAID....well you did say you had money to spend.
Seriously SATA HDs does seem to be the way forwards at present....and setting a pair of them up in a RAID is very easy.
You'd get a pair of drives and the controller for about £150-£170.
Thats my next upgrade.
My son got himself a new MB the other week ...and its built in SATA and raid....and it was £25 cheaper than the one I bought last year.
jb
er what? Not laughing at you just laughing at what you suggested
Oh it's just that I like your thinking but...... If my misses saw the hardware "growing" out from the box.......
I'd have to invest in a Kevlar Vest and Combat helmet to play Train Sim....
AND that would be after I'd turned my desk round so that my back was to the wall
Actually she's not that bad. The best I can do is
There's no emoticon to encapsulate a womans sniff or sneer
You're spot on about the technology though. RAID was only for servers a couple of years ago! and then prices all ended in K!
Interested to know if this works. Happy to let you spend the money and report back 
cos I like my tackle where it is if you get my drift 
Geoff
er what? Not laughing at you just laughing at what you suggested
Oh it's just that I like your thinking but...... If my misses saw the hardware "growing" out from the box.......
I'd have to invest in a Kevlar Vest and Combat helmet to play Train Sim....
AND that would be after I'd turned my desk round so that my back was to the wall
Actually she's not that bad. The best I can do is
There's no emoticon to encapsulate a womans sniff or sneer
You're spot on about the technology though. RAID was only for servers a couple of years ago! and then prices all ended in K!
Interested to know if this works. Happy to let you spend the money and report back
cos I like my tackle where it is if you get my drift Geoff
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Iluka
- Very Active Forum Member
- Posts: 2077
- Joined: Tue Jan 13, 2004 12:38 pm
- Location: Western Australia
Hi All
I had a lengthy discussion with my Computer Technician at my Computer Store yesterday and he gave me some very interesting info
Trainsimmers are not orphans when it comes to performance issues and he advised me that many software developers use the highest spec machines to develop and test their software
He also advised that a lot of software being sold today will not even run on Windows 95/98/ME which is good for the Computer Sellers (Upgraders) but bad news for the end users
He said if I was getting reasonable framerates and very few crashes I should not consider upgrading as I would only see a marginal improvement in performance levels and would be dissapointed considering the money I would have spent
He also advised that downloading the latest Video Card Drivers would again only give marginal improvements in framerates at the best and usually only improves the quality of the graphic detail
My Computer Specs are :-
Pentium IV 2.66Ghz CPU
80GB 7200 RPM Hard Drive
P4 Titan 533 Mainboard
Geforce FX5600 128mb Graphics Card
1Gb Ram
I currently have no major problems running any MSTS add ons to-date
Regards
Mike
I had a lengthy discussion with my Computer Technician at my Computer Store yesterday and he gave me some very interesting info
Trainsimmers are not orphans when it comes to performance issues and he advised me that many software developers use the highest spec machines to develop and test their software
He also advised that a lot of software being sold today will not even run on Windows 95/98/ME which is good for the Computer Sellers (Upgraders) but bad news for the end users
He said if I was getting reasonable framerates and very few crashes I should not consider upgrading as I would only see a marginal improvement in performance levels and would be dissapointed considering the money I would have spent
He also advised that downloading the latest Video Card Drivers would again only give marginal improvements in framerates at the best and usually only improves the quality of the graphic detail
My Computer Specs are :-
Pentium IV 2.66Ghz CPU
80GB 7200 RPM Hard Drive
P4 Titan 533 Mainboard
Geforce FX5600 128mb Graphics Card
1Gb Ram
I currently have no major problems running any MSTS add ons to-date
Regards
Mike
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Garthion
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- Joined: Fri Feb 20, 2004 9:42 pm
- Location: Getting bored when not at a railway ;)
- Contact:
Hi ABABAB,
Your computer spec is WAY better than mine, your graphics being about four times better in memory, my computer runs train sim no probs only add on with any trouble is WSR but that is easily overcome by decreasing detail level. My graphics card is a 32MB TNT2 Model 64 and is now ancient, if time team did a dig in my computer they would find a lot of historical artefacts, a 1.3GHz processor for one, a 40GB Hdd for two, 328MB memory (Don't ask how) and my graphics card. My computer was built by me about two and a half years ago when most of this was top spec! It's now ancient.
Your computer spec is WAY better than mine, your graphics being about four times better in memory, my computer runs train sim no probs only add on with any trouble is WSR but that is easily overcome by decreasing detail level. My graphics card is a 32MB TNT2 Model 64 and is now ancient, if time team did a dig in my computer they would find a lot of historical artefacts, a 1.3GHz processor for one, a 40GB Hdd for two, 328MB memory (Don't ask how) and my graphics card. My computer was built by me about two and a half years ago when most of this was top spec! It's now ancient.
Diolch Yn Fawr,
Dale Williams.
Dale Williams.