Atomic Systems

Keep them coming folks this is getting interesting.

My pc by the way is 1806, Asus Extreme mk1 Intel Q6700 @2.6 (that a Pentium 4) ! Dual ATI 4870 - 4Mb Ram, HDD's x4 all Quantum's @10,000RPM, frame rates, Well it runs WCML from 15 to 30 along the route, Ive limited it to 30 but on simple routes like Port Road it goes to about 55. Odd.

Cheers for the feedback.

I have been reading this thread with interest.

Generally I try not to get too 'hung up' on performance indicators as to me my PC either does what I ask it to do with some degree of user satisfaction or frustrates when it doesn't. As a piece of software TS2013 does of course both enthral and frustrate in equal measure. However having recently completed a self build exercise it seemed a good idea to run this bench mark and, given the whole subject of the ideal specs to run TS2013 which is constantly debated in these forums, just pass on the benefit of my practical rather than scientific view on performance and recent experience.

What is abundantly clear is that you do need a relatively high spec machine to run TS2013 to the standard which I expect the majority of us would regard as acceptable. My old PC system was a self built six year old Intel Q6600 processor on Asus Maximus Formula motherboard with 4MB Corsair RAM and conventional hard disks. The graphics card was an Nvidia Geforce 560ti fitted about a year ago after the previous GTX8800 blew up. This machine was running Vista 32 bit and although probably in need of a reformat and reinstall to tidy things up performed generally well on all normal PC duties including Photoshop etc.

Railworks/TS however was always a frustrating battle of wits constantly tweaking settings and playing around with such things as Gamebooster (value in my opinion negligible) etc to achieve consistent satisfactory performance. I would struggle with acceptable performance especially on WCMLN. I played around for some time tweaking the 3GB switch - this did significantly reduce the incidents of SBHH but otherwise did not really improve the performance of TS2012/3 in any readily identifiable way. Shadows were a complete no-no and I lowered settings for water quality etc to try and improve frame rates. However there would be quite regular problems with scenery assets disappearing and the infamous passing trains indicated by their bogies and couplings only.

Towards the end of last year I decided to bite the bullet and build a new system. I spent a lot of time reading the forums trying to draw conclusions from the diverse range of opinions on offer. I concluded that that whilst a decent graphics card was desirable a high performance processor was at least as important and perhaps memory less so. There seemed to be various opinions on the merits or otherwise of SSD's but as the computer gets a lot of use in this house (I sometimes have to evict the wife!) I decided that I would also incorporate at least one SSD.

So my new spec is:
i7 3820 3.6 Ghz processor
Asus PX79 Pro motherboard
EVGA Nvidia Geforce GTX670 graphics
Corsair Vengeance 32GB DDR3 1866MHz Quad Channel Kit

I am of course also now running Windows 7 Professional 64 bit which is installed on an SSD and have my TS2013 installation on a separate SSD (both OCZ Vertex 4). The memory provision may seem a bit over the top and probably is as far as TS2013 is concerned but the additional cost of going from 16GB to 32GB did not seem that great in the overall context.

The weaknesses of TS2103 are to some extent still exposed but the improvement in performance on this system compared with what I have been used to is dramatic. I can now run with all settings on maximum including shadows and I do not think I have had a single SBHH so far. Frame rates vary but are generally 40-50 in the more complex areas on WCML, London to Brighton etc and 80 plus elsewhere. The improvement to the experience generally brought about by having shadows enabled etc is substantial. My impression is that having TS2013 installed on an SSD considerably speeds up game and scenario loading times but once running my perception is that the performance increase over a fast conventional hard disk is not that great - we still get definite stutters on certain tile loadings etc and clearly this is never going to be resolved until such time, if ever, that the actual game engine is re-engineered.

It was therefore both with some nervousness and anticipation that I ran the Passmark benchmark test - and my score was 4922.

I have to acknowledge that this was not a particularly cheap system to build but in real terms probably cost no more than the one it replaced for an entirely different level of performance/computing experience. But of course that is the way computer technology consistently goes and in another five years or so I will no doubt be at the bottom of the performance cycle again!

I hope these comments may be of interest to anyone currently contemplating a new PC with TS2013 in mind. The views of other users was of great assistance in planning this self-build project and is acknowledged with thanks.

Regards

Peter

1195.

The joys of a laptop. Still can run AP L-B Scenarios with TSX albeit with no shadows. Gets the job done and my other games run decently enough. Of course, some people would get a heart attack running Skyrim at a paltry 30fps.

Core i5 2410M
Nvidia GT540M 1GB GDDR3
4GB RAM
500GB HDD

Well I just had to give it another go and got an improved 5209.8 this time.

I do run TS2013 locked at 30fps and have most graphical settings at the highest but I must say LB is a fps killer at times on my machine. I also find LB is the worst one for tile load stutter and I use an SSD.

My system scored me 869.8, I play TS2013 at 1680x1050 with TSX and most sliders down the bottom end of things. My system spec is:

Operating System: Windows 8 build 9200 (64-bit)
CPU Type: Intel Core2 Duo E8400 @ 3.00GHz
Number of CPUs: 1
Cores per CPU: 2
Hyperthreading: Not capable
Motherboard: P5Q3
Memory: 1105920GB DDR3 SDRAM (4x1Gb)
Videocard: AMD Radeon HD 4670 512Mb
Hard Drive: Hitachi HDP725050GLA360 (500GB)
Hard Drive: STM3500418AS (500GB)
Hard Drive: Maxtor 6L200P0 (203GB)

Not hard to see the age of my system laid bare there. Interestingly when looking at the CPU Marks in most test I exceeded the average for my CPu by 2-8% but in the Integer Math mine was 45.3% better, and in prime numbers it was 61.5% better - scoring 10.3 against the average of 3.97! My CPU mark was 2490

My graphics card scored a lowly 480.9 overall in 2D and 3D didn't get an overall score due to DX11 incompatibility.

My memory mark was 1087

My disk mark was 476.3

So, I'm guessing my CPU is the best bit followed by the memory and then the Gfx card and disks drag it down. I have the spec I would like for a new build PC, nothing too lavish or expensive, but I still need to get saving for it!

1301. http://www.passmark.com/baselines/V8/di ... 3634229842

Hits the 25 fps limit most of the time, including WCML-N.
TSX on, 1680x1050.
Most graphic options set to max; shadows off; antialiasing at 1x2 SSAA.

Having shadows and more AA would be nice... but I can enjoy it plenty with this rig. If system requirements increase in the future... hello a better CPU cooler and overclocking!