ATI, vista and BVE4

[class313]

I was thinking of changing my graphics card on my computer, (currently ATI Radeon 3870), but it has got the worst framerates in the world on MSTS, RS and bve4, no more than about 10fps, and i have allready got the 8.3 catalyst, which is apparently the best one for bve4, or is there a better driver, if not has anyone got any advise for me about buying a new ATI card, it has to be 1gb or more because of other games that require that amount. I was wondering about getting an ATI 4870 x2, has anyone got problems with it. I know quite a few nvidia cards have problems with bve4, but is there any that are any good that are 1gb or more. Thank you very much
John Livett

[AndyUK]

John,

I'm no graphics card expert so I'll steer clear of advising on an upgrade, but I'd have thought that your current card should do better than 10 fps in those sims. I've only got a Radeon X1950 pro and get frame rates 3 to 4 times that in MSTS, RS and BVE4 with the settings turned up. I wonder if either the rest of your PC isn't up to it or if there is a problem with it somewhere. You might find a bigger and better card doesn't have much effect.

Rest of my PC specs:
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 (3 GHz)
2 MB RAM
Windows XP Home with SP3

Andy L

[class313]

It must have a visus then, because it has 8gb ram, AMD Phenom triple core procceser, vista home premeum, and 1gb ati radeon 3870 x2

[emrhd01]

Hi John ,

Try checking that your P/C is capable (powerful enough) of running RS with this EA Games checker:
http://www.eagames.co.uk/news/10732/

[class313]

Hi John ,

Try checking that your P/C is capable (powerful enough) of running RS with this EA Games checker:
http://www.eagames.co.uk/news/10732/

Thanks, i will use it as soon as i get back to my computer.
John L

[class313]

My computer is okay now, it was a virus from either James Galbraith's 1996 stock, or the OS_Ats1.dll file, both of which are known already (i think), luckily, mcafee has removed them all, and i am now getting around 34fps in bve4 and very smooth running in MSTS and RS
John L

[class313]

BVE4 and MSTS are up the creak again, down to about 13fps, checked system and no viruses, what is wrong with it!

[petermakosch]

What else is your computer running in the background?

You can have the strongest processor in the world and a shead load of ram but this won't always change the speed on how things run. How old is your motherboard? If the FSB isn't that high then that'll probably be a first problem.

Try ending all non-important tasks before running anything by pressing CTRL ALT and DEL together. Try also downloading the excellent Start Up Control Panel and uncheck anything that is running at Startup that doesn't need to be (things like Adobe updater!).

What's your Vista score rating?
What speed is yor RAM?
Try downloading the LATEST drivers for your graphics card <-- this is usually the best practice, except in unusual and rare situations.

Do you run BVE in a window or full screen?
Have you tried uninstalling all things BVE, then installing things one by one?

Those two files listed above aren't exactly viruses, and I highly suspect you haven't got one.

[class313]

I have updated my graphics drivers, i get better framerates in railsimulator, but i get boxes around all the moving parts in the cab, which i beleive is a known problem in bve, and the only driver that solves it is 8.3, whick gave me very eratic framrates in rail sim, so i am only going to have to use open bve from now on.

[class313]

I have just have had some advise from a friend, and it seems that my computer was overclocked when it was built, because it has stopped working completely now, and i suspect the graphics card has given up. I am going to send it back to the company and tell them not to overclock it, or get it seen to as soon as i get it back. Mods: Feel free to lock this tread, because it has exausted it self.

[senileus]

I have just installed BVE4 from the Rail Sim Routes website onto my Dell 1737 laptop, which has:
17" widescreen WXGA Monitor.
ATI Radeon HD 3650 Graphics Card

The laptop's display settings are: 1024x768 at 16bits and I have used BVE4_reschanger1-0-1-5 to set the Window mode at the same screen size as on my PC, 1440x900 and Fullscreen mode at 1024x768 +16bit.

Uchibo route (except for a little "flickering" of the overhead power lines) runs perfectly well, but City South route sometimes is ok, but mostly starts with a single colour blanking the view from the cab.

The Northern Line route always opens with colour blanking.

This does suggest that my Graphics Card can only just cope with the highly detailed routes, but could it be that a minor re-setting could overcome the problem?

Any thoughts on this would be most welcome.