Railworks America

I see lots of posts from those frustrated with low frame rates on the new RW 2012 release. But to get good frame rates with maxed out sliders doesn't require Deep Blue or some super computer - it just needs a pretty decent computer using hardware thats available today. I recently built a computer for RW and am having pretty good success with it so I thought I would share the parts list in hopes that it might help someone who's thinking about doing the same.

I run Railworks 2012 with using TSX with the 'Basic Settings' at High except I increased AA to SSAA 2x2 to improve the appearance.
In the game I have the Master Detail Level set to 'Highest'.

I normally run with the 30FPS Lock 'on' and I've never seen it drop below 30FPS on any route including Horseshoe Curve.

Here are the primary components I used - all totalled under about $1100 for these parts: ( excludes case, hard disks etc which you probably already have )

Graphics Card - EVGA GeForce 580 - Part Number 015-P3-1580-AR
Processor - Intel Core I7-2600K - Part Number BX80623I72600K
RAM - Kingston DDR3-1600 - Part Number KHX1600C9D3/4G
Mother Board - ASUS SKT 1155, Z68 - Part Number P8Z68-V PRO,

This isn't something you'd get at your local Best-Buy. Take the parts list down to you local independant computer shop and they'll build it for you and probably throw in a warranty to boot.

So if you are thinking of investing in a new rig - here's a build that works well.

With an i7-2600K, you're really wasting the processer's potential without overclocking as well. The i7 series overclocks spectacularly and a 2600 should head upwards near 4.4 GHz. I'm running on the prior generation of i7-920 with a stock speed of 2.7 GHz. With just a simple upgraded heatsink I'm running stable at 3.9 GHz. I'm a flight simulator fan as well and in this arena there really is no choice other than an overclocked i7.

This combination of parts overclocks well. I had it at 4.9G for a few days but I've backed it down to 4.4g to leave some margin for the inevitable buildup of dust on the heatsinks.

( PS to moderator - this thread should probably get moved to Geek Speak section )

wacampbell wrote:( PS to moderator - this thread should probably get moved to Geek Speak section )

Done.