Atomic Systems

I have two computers, a desktop (built to order for MSTS some nine years ago, it was then state of the art and is now a museum candidate!) and a laptop about two years old.

The specification of my desktop is:

CPU Pentium 4 670 3.8GHz LGA FSB800 2MB
Memory 2GB 533MHz DDR2
Graphics GC 512MB DDR3 PCI-EXPRESS DVI
Hard Drive 400GB 8.5ms 7200rpm SATA Seagate
System Windows XP Pro

The specification is:

CPU i7-2670QM
Memory 6GB DDR SDRAM
Graphics NVDIA GeForce GT 540M
Hard drive 7200rpm 640GB Serial ATA
System Windows 7 Home Premium

I have been happily running MSTS on my desktop but have now “discovered” OpenRails and TS2014. OpenRails works fine but I cannot get TS2014 to run at all. I tried TS2014 on my laptop and although I can get it to run I get loads of errors. I have tried to get help from Railsimulator who state that they do not support laptops!

I am now considering getting another desktop built specifically for train and flight simulation. My priorities are:

1. MSTS and OpenRails
2. TS2014
3. FSX
I would appreciate any advice on a specification that will allow me to fully utilise all the capabilities of OpenRails and TS2014 and not give me problems with MSTS. Money is not a major problem unless it gets too ridiculous!

Best wishes

Peter

I can only help you with MSTS and Openrails, quite a number of people have reported serious problems in running MSTS on Windows 8 so it would probably be a good idea to use a previous version of Windows. The main requirement for Openrails is at least a 4 core cpu. You may wish to aviod a 6 core cpu as these are very expoensive. If considering an X79 main board take care to check the distance between the top graphics card slot and the chosen CPU heatsink as on some board and heatsink conbinations leave no room to get at th e catch that holds the grphics card in. The ASUS P9X79 pro and Sabertooth X79 both have good clearance. I am currently using a Gigabyte X79 ud5 this is being swapped to a Sabertooth X79 due to problems in the MB (Linux 64 bit crashes when the X server starts when using any GPU).
Using a Noctua NH-C14 cooler with the Gigabyte MB one could not get at the clip holding the GPU in, there being less tha 2 mm clearance between the cooler and the graphics card.


High end graphics cards currently are of no use for Openrails as the frame rate is limited by the program only using a single Render thread. An NVidia 4 gig GTX 680 showing no frame rate improvement over an NVidia GTX 560 super overclocked card.

My "fast" system, not overclocked, currently is..... (the 6 core cpu was supplied by mistake, I ordered an i7 3820 and did not check on installing the cpu)

MB Gigabyte X79 ud5
CPU Intel i7 3830 6 core
Memory 4x 4gig modules
GPU NVidia GTX 680 4 gig of memory

Lindsay

Hi Lindsay

Thank you for your reply. You’ve given me a lot to think about. Checking the catalogue of the local firm who have supplied me with custom computers for the last twenty years I have come up with this which I believe is similar to yours.

CPU P9X79 i7-4820K 3.7GHz 10MB cache 4 core
Memory 16GB 1600MHz DDR3 ECC CL11
Graphics Sapphire 2GB Radeon R9 290X GDDR5
Hard drive Intel solid state DC S3700 series 100GB
System Windows 7 Home Premium

Those items alone will cost me about £1,200. Could you please tell what frame rates you get with your system in OR? I have Greater Eastern, Mid East Plus, Dorset Coast and LSE. Do you have any of these so I can compare with my existing system? Will it sort out the stuttering?
Sorry about all the questions but I want to make sure I get real benefit before spending the money.
Many thanks once again

Best wishes

Peter

I do not have any of the routes mentioned (I do have Dorset Coast buts its not installed). I am unsure what you mean about stuttering, I find OR is smooth down to 30fps except it has a slight tendence to have small hestitations while the scene is panning. This happens though on all systems (I have 3 differing systems) on both NVidia and AMD Radeon cards. I do not regard it as serious.

THe two toughest routes as regards to frame rates would be the SOB and the freeware Berninan Bahn, both a very object dense routes The latter with distant mountains turned on viewing distance to 3000 metres. LODs to maximum viewing distance turned off will produce a frame rate range of around 40 fps up to over 180. Animation being generally smooth this is good going.

Now as I stated the only game I run on Windows is OR (my normal operating system being Linux) so have no experience beyond OR on windows. Now OR will run quite satisfactory on a cheaper system than the one mentioned in your post. I particularly consider the Radeon R9 290X to be a considerable overkill, an R9 270x will produce almost identical frame rates on OR and in Australia these cards are a 1/3rd of the price of the R9 290x ($250 as compared to $800).
Another thing that may come into consideration is the system mentioned should be good for at least 4 years.

The motherboard, CPU and memory mentioned comes to around $900 (slightly under 500 pounds) in Australia a cheaper system will probably only save one $100 in these parts

As stated I have no experience with TS2014 but the word going around the traps is that FSX is a real resource hog and the new system MAY give this a big boast. Ask on the FSX forums for any idea though.

Lindsay

Hi Lindsay

Thank you for your helpful reply. I have taken your advice concerning the 270 - that saves me £200! The three other items you mentioned will cost me about £600 so not a big difference from Australia. I have e-mailed TS2014 support to check that I will get good performance with TS2014 from my proposed new system. Concerning FSX I find I get good performance from my museum piece so goodness knows what I will get from the new one!!

Once again many thanks for your help.

Best wishes

Peter

zlindku wrote:I can only help you with MSTS and Openrails, quite a number of people have reported serious problems in running MSTS on Windows 8 so it would probably be a good idea to use a previous version of Windows. The main requirement for Openrails is at least a 4 core cpu. You may wish to aviod a 6 core cpu as these are very expoensive. If considering an X79 main board take care to check the distance between the top graphics card slot and the chosen CPU heatsink as on some board and heatsink conbinations leave no room to get at th e catch that holds the grphics card in. The ASUS P9X79 pro and Sabertooth X79 both have good clearance. I am currently using a Gigabyte X79 ud5 this is being swapped to a Sabertooth X79 due to problems in the MB (Linux 64 bit crashes when the X server starts when using any GPU).
Using a Noctua NH-C14 cooler with the Gigabyte MB one could not get at the clip holding the GPU in, there being less tha 2 mm clearance between the cooler and the graphics card.


High end graphics cards currently are of no use for Openrails as the frame rate is limited by the program only using a single Render thread. An NVidia 4 gig GTX 680 showing no frame rate improvement over an NVidia GTX 560 super overclocked card.

My "fast" system, not overclocked, currently is..... (the 6 core cpu was supplied by mistake, I ordered an i7 3820 and did not check on installing the cpu)

MB Gigabyte X79 ud5
CPU Intel i7 3830 6 core
Memory 4x 4gig modules
GPU NVidia GTX 680 4 gig of memory

Lindsay

I have made an error in this post the low end card the GTX 680 was compared to was a GTX570 super over clocked, this is a MUCh faster card than the 560

I have jst done a direct comparison between two systems,

System 1.
MB Gigabyte X79 ud5
cpu intel i7 3830 6 core
memory 4 channel x 4 gig, total 16gig
GPU NVidia GTX 680 4 gig

System 2
MB ASUS P6X58 Pro
CPU Intel i7 960
memory 3 channel x 4 gig total 12 gig
GPU NVidia GTX 560Ti

Openrails v2050 on the X79 v1915 on the X58
Route Berninabahn freeware
OR setup LODs not set to maximum viewing distance
Viewing distance 4000 metres
Distant mountains enabled
Distant mountain viewing distance 20 klometres

The X79 produce lowest frame rates of bewteen 35 to 45 fps animation was smooth the X58 minimum frame rates were around 20 to 25 fps animation was VERY jerky. Had to decrease the viewing distance to 2000 metres to get anything like a smooth animation even then the minimum frame rate was 25 to 30fps.

I was genuinely surprised at the improvement of the X79 although I will say the X58 used is stangled by the GTX 560, I do have anoter that has a GTX570 super overclocked in it it puts upa much beter performance. Its currently out of action theough with a failed SSD.

Lindsay