Processors

As of now I have an intel motherboard w/P4 1.4 and geoforce ti4200 128meg (built in a shop, not bought at a superstore). What will happen if I go to a P4 2.4. Will I see a great improvement in frame rates. It is not extremely slow now, but a little choppy.

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RE: processors, derekmorton, Apr-24-03, 11:19 PM, (1) RE: processors, MasterChief, Apr-25-03, 00:02 AM, (2) RE: processors, ace6879, Apr-25-03, 02:32 AM, (3) RE: processors, drivertime61, Apr-25-03, 11:06 AM, (4) RE: processors, heffed, Apr-25-03, 07:08 PM, (5) RE: processors, drivertime61, Apr-25-03, 10:29 PM, (6) RE: processors, bha19, Apr-25-03, 10:39 PM, (7) RE: processors, drivertime61, Apr-26-03, 00:12 AM, (8) RE: processors, heffed, Apr-26-03, 01:05 AM, (9)

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I don't think you will see much difference in small trains. Longer trains will get better frame rates.
You are paying the money.Derek

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BHA19,I upgraded from an Athlon 1 Ghz to an Athon 2 Ghz, and have the same video card as you. I got a substantial increase in frame rates, as much as twice or 3 times as many fps in certain areas. But, as has been mentioned, you're paying the money.MC

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GO WITH MORE SPEED AND MORE RAM!!!! The faster and more memory you have the better!! Remember, you need better and more RAM as well. I have come to the conclusion most of MSTS is in the RAM!!!I upgraded from a 1.4 athlon to a 2.1, and am using 500MB DDR3200 RAM, with 256MB of DDR2600 along with it. Even with a 100 car train on the GM&O, I get at least 10-20 FPS, which is good for all of the detail. I intend on getting another stick of the 512mb 3200 speed. OUght to get 25-30FPS then.Good luck!!
Kelley D. Ellison



CSX A-Line Chief lighting engineer
NALW Lighting engineer
Dekosoft Lighting engineer

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I agree with all the other responses, especially about it being more than just processor speed; its the whole package that counts. A year ago I bought this at-that-time maxed out Dell 8200, never dreaming I'd become a rail fan again after 40 years of my Lionels gathering dust. After discovering MSTS and the "I-must've-died-and-gone-to-heaven" trainsim.com file library, I've never been so glad I antied up for a 2.2gig P4, 1 gig of RDR RAM and a 120 gig hard drive. I only have a GF3TI500 video card with 64MB of dedicated RAM, but with this combo I have NEVER seen frame rates below 17. Nearly all the time, on most routes under most conditions, frame rates run 30-45. I routinely have 52 on Marias Pass (default) with freights long enough to require 4 Dash-9's, or long Superliner trains headed up by NALW's beautiful P42DC's. Highest FR I've seen was 65, on rare occasions. Stuttering is minimal or non-existent under most conditions. Low end frame rates seem most prevalent on the NEC (again default)with high speed trains in snow conditions, I guess due to all the gantries, snow, etc. I'd be interested in hearing others' FR experiences with various equipment combos. And there's the added bonus that my computer won't be obsolete for at least another 4.5 minutes! So, I say go for the max you can afford. Sounds like you may know more about computers than my limited knowledge, so you probably already keep your hard drive in tip-top shape, e.g. defrag, disk error checks, blah, blah. Don't know if I added anything meaningful, but best of luck and please post results if you make changes.Al

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>And there's the added bonus that my computer won't be
>obsolete for at least another 4.5 minutes! Wrong! -Jeff

Union Pacific is my drug.

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Jeff: Very observant of you. That should have read, "At least my computer wuzn't obsolete for nearly 4.5 minutes." Also to BHA19 re original post: I forgot to mention, just in case you didn't know: for max. performance, it's best to kill all background apps. when running MSTS, e.g. anti-virus programs, screen savers (even though MSTS does not allow them to activate, still seems to me to work better if I cancel it), etc and etc. Happy driving!

Al

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I have 384 megs of ram. I guess that is not much.bha19

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Hi B.... -Well, as I said before, I'm no computer wiz. But, although I've only been a member here for a couple weeks, I've been evesdropping on other folks' posts for 3 months. Those who have umpteen-multi-mega or giga-RAM, coupled with top end processors and graphics cards seem to complain a lot less about frame rates, stuttering and other performance issues. My own experience confirms this and I get the level of performance I described above with all the MSTS options sliders set to max quality. Of course, ya never know what'll happen. After all that boasting I did earlier, I ran NALW's sweet old Pennsy MP54's for the very first time on the default NEC earlier today. Somewhere around Claymont, my Frame Rate dropped to about "8," the horn turned on and wouldn't turn off, the sim then froze solid and I got a wacky intermittent warning about a missing .dll file. After installing fresh underwear, I rebooted. Everything ran perfectly thereafter and has been fine ever since. Ya never know.I think that your processor and RAM are certainly within the parameters for acceptable performance and your video card is high quality. I assume you have up-to-date drivers for it. A little stuttering will probably happen under certain conditions with nearly all systems. However, it seems MSTS is a glutton for computer power and, to be all it can be, the more power the better. If that $$$ is burning a hole through your wallet, and if you are experiencing performance issues that are truly interfering with your enjoyment of the sim, it couldn't hurt to bump up the computer specs. On the other hand, I'd hate to see you take food out of the mouths of you, the kids, the dog and the parakeet to do it, and then have no clearly identifiable improvement. (This last paragraph is my "Disclaimer.")How do your frame rates and overall performance compare to those mentioned above and in other folks' posts? Regards - Al

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>Jeff: Very observant of you. That should have read, "At
>least my computer wuzn't obsolete for nearly 4.5 minutes." That's more like it! -Jeff

Union Pacific is my drug.

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