Need advice on a graphics card.

[peterhayes]

CASO
If you can afford it a 600/700w may be a better buy.
A 500w psu gives you very little wiggle room if you have other peripherals on your rig. (I only buy silver/gold/platinum rated psu's these days!)
When NVidia say 400 w psu, they may not be taking into account your other peripherals.
Just a thought!
pH

[CASO]

What do you think of this power supply? http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B00IKDE ... 1_2&sr=8-2

[peterhayes]

CASO
Now we are talking!!!
Great psu and it will have all of the correct molex connections as standard.
For the future - I now go for modular psu's - less cables so you get a tidier case and better airflow.
Regards
pH

[_o_OOOO_oo-Kanawha]

When you have a mid-range computer or graphics card, you can balance the system load a little by limiting the FPS of the graphics card. Railworks doesn't make optimum use of the strengths of CPU and GPU, i.e. gives each one the most appropriate tasks. The code base is too old for true multitasking and offloading graphics to the GPU.

I've limited the FPS on my medium powered Railworks rig to 15 FPS and now have the GPU (a AMD Radeon 6900 series with 2GB) running stable. I can run Railworks at 1900x1200 with 2x2SSAA and all settings max at 15 FPS on most routes. GPU load stays well below 100% except for the most dense scenes with lots of traffic.

There is no point in chasing 60 FPS under all circumstances. 30 FPS will do, esp. on a slower LCD screen. Film reel movies are 24 FPS and don't stutter to your eyes.