Upgrade for a better frame rate - but how??

[woggit]

I am running the following system:
AMD Athlon chip (1.8Ghz running at 1.53Ghz); 512Mb of DDR Ram, NVIDIA GeForce 4200 Video Card (64Mb on board Cache) - Motherboard is MSI MS-6380-E running at 133Mhz.
The frame rate on MSTS was OK - until I installed Severn Valley and London-Brighton routes. These rather show up the slowness of the system - and produce frame rates sometimes into single figures - low single figures!

My query is - what's best to upgrade to produce an improvement? I realise in a perfect world (and money being no object!) - the whole computer system should be upgraded. But given limited funds - where best to start?

Any ideas, suggestions, would be welcome!!

[comrades]

NVIDIA GeForce 4200 Video Card (64Mb on board Cache)

nVidia 4200? do you mean the NV GF4 Ti4200?

if so, id go for a faster processor... if you cant do that (restrictions by MoBo), upgrade your ram. it might help in high scenery routes. the card should be finewith a game like MSTS... and its overclockable.

[kevarc]

DirectX9c

[Lad491]

increasing the video card to 128mb would give a slight improvement, but i think the best overall improvement is obtains by replacing ide hard disks with sata or possibly udma hard disks. However, both your processor and motherboard speeds are quite slow by todays standards and the newest routes require very high levels of spec.

I have a P4 2.6ghz and its still not stutter free. But it will be when i get my amd64 bit 3 ghz shuttle with an sata hard disk and 128gb graphic card.

[ianmacmillan]

You don't say what your operating system is.

If its not XP then that is your best option.

Your setup has a good ballance. It's hard to say what to upgrade first.
I'd go for a new motherboard and build on that.

[Anonymizeruk]

I have an AthlonXP 3200, 1gb DDR400 RAM, GeForce FX5600 Ultra 128mb, and SATA Hard disk, and still get frame rates down to around 15 on detailed areas.

I'd suggest (in order of preference) upgrade CPU, double your RAM, get a quicker hard drive. The GF4 4200 should be fine with MSTS.

[boeing126]

Frame rates have allways been a pain in the backside on m.s.f.s. and m.s.t.s. due to the way both games are coded.I improved things by upgrading from 512 megs of r.a.m. to 1 gig and adding a second hard drive.On the second h.d.d. i only have m.s.f.s and m.s.t.s. installed plus some related programs and it has helped frame rates and it has cut down on m.s.t.s using swop files thus resulting in smoother running of both sims.Long gone are the days when i used to upgrade boards and processors every eighteen months or so.

[comrades]

my current system almost falls apart in high scenery routes, as low as 2fps at times.
Win XP Home
1.8ghz P4
512mb DDR PC3200 Ram
nVidia GF4 MX440/65mb
1x 40gb IDE harddisk, 1x 20gb IDE harddisk (60gb)


my new system should be alright *cough*, ordering in November...
Win XP Home
3.0ghz P4 prescott
1024mb (1gb) DDR PC3200 ram
nVidia 6800GT/256mb
1x 160gb SATA harddisk
480W PSU
and one of those fancy neon cases for the hell of it

[saddletank]

Go for Win XP Pro instead.

[comrades]

is it worth the extra cost? i dont do any fancy networking or anything that needs advanced settings for different users.

[terrycunliffe]

My set up was very similar... now upgraded the chip + motherboard to pentium 4 3.0 Ghz.
Now getting good frame rates in all areas containing intensive scenery.
T

[woggit]

Thanks to all who took the trouble to read my meanderings and replied - all replies are appreciated!! My operating system is XP Home edition. As MSTS just grows and grows... It is installed on an external hard drive - 120Gb - MSTS takes up about 15-20Gb - I have a total hard drive capacity of around 211Gb on the system (I do a lot of music work with PCM files and picture/video work as well). Upgrading the mother board means an expensive re-build for the whole machine. Last resort, I think!! I will try a chip upgrade and memeory upgrade for now!!