Low FPS: Settings advice, or hardware change?

[BoostedFridge]

Hi Guys,

I'm a hardware novice, so bear with me.

I've had my PC since 2011, and upgraded the video card and PSU last Christmas. Even after upgrading the video card my FPS on some routes is pretty lacking. I run on 'High' video settings in TS. I'm not sure of the 'anti-aliasing' setting though.

Stevens Pass is the route that really seems to tax the system. When entering Everett yard and nearing all of the idling locos the system slows down to about 10fps. The rest of the route varies between 16-20 fps. Other routes like Marias, or Donner run about 35fps.

Is there much fps to be picked up in the graphics settings without sacrificing too much detail? In particular I hate it when the 'draw distance' is low and distant mountains are bare. I can overclock my card, but only noticed a 1-2fps gain when I did.

I'm a little disappointed that my 'new' video card isn't cutting the mustard so soon, but I'm unsure if its the card or maybe the rest of my system holding the card back. Can you guys look over my combo and see if there is anything I address first before looking at a better video card, or if there is anything in my combo that would hold back a new faster card? The R9 290X and GTX780 OC are on sale at my local computer shop and I'm on the fence whether its time to upgrade, or stop funneling money into an old machine.

Current Specs:

AMD Phenom II x6 1055ti @ 2.8ghz
Gigabyte 880 Motherboard
750w Power Supply
MSI Radeon R9 270X Video Card
16GB DDR3 RAM
120GB SSD (windows)
1TB HD (railworks / steam on here)

Any help or feedback is appreciated.

[GSkid]

I used to be firmly in the camp that this sim was more GPU dependent than CPU dependent. But over the last year or two, I'm coming over to the CPU camp.

I have a friend that inherited a Dell XPS desktop from a few years ago. It has a i7-920 2.67 GHz if memory serves me right, which would be one of the 1st gen launch i7 processors. It has an older Nvidia card (GeForce 200 series.....I think a GT 220). It has more cache and 4 cores compared to my 2 core mobile AMD CPU (see my sig for my specs). Mine is a laptop.

Now I've gone on benchmark sites to compare my AMD A6-4400M 2.7GHz/3.2GHz vs. her i7-920 2.67 GHz and my 1GB Radeon HD 7670M card vs. her GT 220 card. They showed my GPU had better benchmarks, but that her CPU had the better marks than mine.

And who had the higher frame rates in TS2015? Her computer WON that contest even though her CPU is clocked lower, the GPU is less powerful and has slower DDR3-1066 memory (mine is DDR3-1600).

It is for that reason that I believe the CPU has a bigger impact (clock speed and/or better architecture) . That's not to say that a better GPU doesn't help cuz it's clearly helped others. Your card isn't that old so I'm guessing the CPU needs a clock increase or put that card into a newer CPUed computer. Maybe others can chime in.

Can you turbo boost your CPU to a higher clock rate? If your processor has it, try it and tell us the frame rate results.

[Ericmopar]

It's both CPU and GPU.
They put Phys-X on the CPU in Train Simulator. If they would put it on the GPU, it would do us good to have a cheapo dedicated Phys-X card.
A good GPU helps with higher AA settings and texture filtering.
A fast CPU helps with pre-rendered frames, which is why a strong CPU helps more in a asset heavy area.
Intel processors run most games better, because multi-threading games are practically non existent and Intel processors have more powerful cores than AMD CPUs.
Think IPS, Instructions Per Second, per core.
All those 6 and 8 core processors with things like multi-threading are virtually useless in gaming. That applies to AMD and Intel both.

[jwtheiv]

Your CPU is bottlenecking the GPU at this point (I'm running an intel i5 with a R7 260x at high with no issues, and the R9 270x is a better card).

[BoostedFridge]

Thanks for the feedback guys! I might try overclocking my cpu, but will hold off on a hardware upgrade, and save for the next system.

Is there much fps to be picked up in the anti aliasing setting?

[buzz456]

Yes, I would play around with that if I were you.

[arizonachris]

My system has a Phenom II 970 Quad @ 3.5Ghz, an EVGA GTX670 2Gb card and 8Gb of DDR3 1600 RAM; in Stevens Pass I get just a little better frame rates than you do. Overall so far, TS2015 seems to give better frame rates than 2014, keeping in mind that I went into Settings and "fixed" all the stuff the update changed. Most settings on High with the exception of water quality and shadows, FXAA + 2x2 SSAA. Nvidia settings mostly at application controlled.

Got tired of fiddling after an hour or so with minimal changes in frame rates so I just left it for now. May do some more fiddling later, maybe not. with loading times, etc., I just wanna drive some trains. And I'm not planning on spending $400 to get a new card only to have the same performance as this GTX670. It's been a rock solid performer for several years now. I am, however, looking at the FX4350 quad (@ 4.2Ghz) just to see what effect CPU Ghz has.

[GSkid]

Stevens Pass is my worst overall frame rate killer. I don't own the NY-New Haven route yet but I've read it's pretty taxing. As for TS2015? I get a couple frames higher on some routes compared to TS2014. But some are the same. For some odd reason my rates got a little worse on Cajon Pass than before.

My advice: If boosting the CPU clock doesn't increase the frame rate to your satisfaction, then get or build a new computer. But... install your current graphics card in it.

[BoostedFridge]

Thanks guys!

AZ Chris; have you used the AMD 'Turbo Core' built in overclocking?

[Ericmopar]

http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Core-i5-4 ... MD-FX-4350

http://www.cpu-world.com/Compare/440/AM ... 3570K.html

[arizonachris]

AZ Chris; have you used the AMD 'Turbo Core' built in overclocking?

The board I have, a Gigabyte GA-990XA-UD3, has it's "MB Intelligent Tweaker" section in the BIOS. That has Core Performance Boost, (default: enabled) not sure if that's the same as Turbo Core? There's also "CPB Ratio" (default: auto) and Turbo CPB (default: disabled). And of course the obligatory two pages of settings that simply boggle my better-than-some, not-as-good-as-others brain.

So I really don't like messing with overclocking stuff, but I could try CPB for the heck of it. I have a nice Cooler Master Hyper 212 heatsink/ fan so a modest O/C shouldn't be too much of a heat issue. And this Phenom II 970 Black Edition has an unlocked multiplier, so CPB should work?

As for benchmarks and those comparisons, but, . All that stuff is subjective, IMHO (as always)

[GSkid]

I haven't used a recent AMD desktop, so I don't know how they do things on new ones. My older NON-black edition AMD Phenom 4-core mini tower (circa 2007 before the Phenom II-line) doesn't turbo core that I know of. My current laptop CPU (APU as they call it cuz of the GPU on die) turbo cores to 3.2GHz by it either detecting a 3D game/program being run OR by specifying the programs you want turbo cored in their catalyst program profiles.

I just looked up both the 125W and 95W versions of your chip on AMD's site and neither has a speed listed in the boost speed box of the specs. It appears you will need to upgrade to a better CPU and maybe a better motherboard too.

[cor726]

I upgraded my desktops graphics to a GTX680 and bumped up to 16gb RAM - but still had poor performance. I had a AMD Phenom that ran at 2.6 ghz. Someone on her recommended changing the CPU. I went with a AMD Phenom II Black 3.40ghz and that really helped my frame rates. I probably could have bought an even better CPU but I didn't want to change my motherboard so I went with the fasted one I could find that would fit the current board I had.


My next desktop will be Intel based again.

[OpenRailer90]

To run TS2015 smoothly at 40+ FPS on HIGH, which graphics cards are best?

[buzz456]

Why do you think you need 40fps?