Well - so much for upgrading :(

[TheFlier]

So I sacked my 4870 512mb card and bought a 7870 2gb one. i wasn't expecting a huge performance increase as my mobo only has pcie 2.0. However all my games are running great and nearly all now maxed out.

EXCEPT for Train SIm 2012 - which got a measly 8% increase.

using SECML edin-dundee-166 scenario as a marker, sitting on edinburgh platform at the start of the scenario, my FPS increase from around 13 to around 14 FPS.

So it seems to get better FPS from RW3 you need to upgrade the CPU not the gfx card. However, two reasons I'm not going to do that: 1) there's due to be some new mobos and CPUs out soon that're required to use the new PCIE 3.0 technology, so NOW is not the best time to jump ship. 2) WHY CANT RSC GET THEIR GAME TO USE MORE CPU CAPACITY!?!?!?!

Check the pic to see a screenshot of my CPU load while running SECML. Its barely pushign 40%





So if you want a FP boost, either throw caution to the wind and buy a new CPU now despite it having a fairly short useful life due to the new technology coming out soon, or COMPLAIN TO RSC ABOUT THEIR MULTI-THREADING DESIGN.

[eyein12]

So if you want a FP boost, either throw caution to the wind and buy a new CPU now despite it having a fairly short useful life due to the new technology coming out soon, or COMPLAIN TO RSC ABOUT THEIR MULTI-THREADING DESIGN.

the later not being an option for now

[Cardinal51]

So how about setting the options in the graphics menu (pre-game and/or in-game) higher? Doesn't this card enable you to get nicer looking graphics while not loosing any FPS ?

[TheFlier]

So if you want a FP boost, either throw caution to the wind and buy a new CPU now despite it having a fairly short useful life due to the new technology coming out soon, or COMPLAIN TO RSC ABOUT THEIR MULTI-THREADING DESIGN.

the later not being an option for now

Why not?

So how about setting the options in the graphics menu (pre-game and/or in-game) higher? Doesn't this card enable you to get nicer looking graphics while not loosing any FPS ?

yep - I can get 2x3ssaa without losing more than about 2fps which is nice :) Also increase the scenery and object textures in game to max without hardly a flicker of FP loss.

BUT IT DOESN'T HELPO ME TO RUN SCENARIOS ON SECML, WCMLN OR NEC routes any better than my previous card - which was the main reason I upgraded in the first place :( So I'm left with still ploughing through these routes in RE zapping as many assets in them as I can without making it look like a post thermo-nuclear disaster game.

[NickF]

zapping as many assets in them as I can without making it look like a post thermo-nuclear disaster game.

Just pretend you're playing Fallout 3.

[TheFlier]

zapping as many assets in them as I can without making it look like a post thermo-nuclear disaster game.

Just pretend you're playing Fallout 3.

I've been eyeing up the Fallout series for years, but playing STALKER put me off that genre - LOL
And I'm rapidly goin goff the TW series too - Shogun 2 is another game 'designed' to run on a single CPU core which hasn't been improved much by my new card either.

LOL - I seem to be in a very negative frame of mind atm

[arizonachris]

LOL - I seem to be in a very negative frame of mind atm

Not hard to understand, what with PC tech outrunning game engine tech right now. In regards to RW, I still tell folks, upgrade your PC because it's time, not just for RW. I'm glad I upgraded a few months ago, even tho in RW I got modest gains, which depend a lot on the route.

[TheFlier]

LOL - I seem to be in a very negative frame of mind atm

Not hard to understand, what with PC tech outrunning game engine tech right now. In regards to RW, I still tell folks, upgrade your PC because it's time, not just for RW. I'm glad I upgraded a few months ago, even tho in RW I got modest gains, which depend a lot on the route.

yeah - a lot of assets seems to need a lot of CPU power to draw them, which is why I'm so keen to have RSC work that problem out (unless I;m the only one having this problem of having just 40% of it ever getting used...?). Well, either RSC improving their multi-threading, or route builders being a little more careful with the amount of stuff they put in them.

I'm a little happier as I've gone back to using 32bit XP and gained a few extra FPs. How this can be I don't understand, seeing as my new card has 2gb of Vram. I thought that'd mean I'd be left with just 2gb of my 4gb system ram available to work with... but what the heck - if it works, I'm for it :)

[peterhayes]

The Flier
It might be better if RSC vastly improved Multi-Core performance in preference to multi-threading as that would give huge boost.
Regards
PeterH

[PapaXpress]

I noticed that you were using XP x64 which is not a very good gaming platform. Is there any way you can get Win 7 x64?

[railbard]

I upgraded last weekend to Win 7-64 and have nothing but good things to say for how it has affected Railworks.

Of course I was coming from Vista 32, so I immediately could access all 4GB of installed RAM, plus the 1GB on my low level graphics card. Admittedly I cannot max my settings (I run with everything on medium except View Distance on High, Shaders on Low, and Scenery Density at 10, plus procedural flora) and I can only use the lowest level of antialiasing, but I get good results and fps in the 25 to 30 range in most cases.

Of course WCML, SECML and NEC are special cases and I have to lower settings when I run them.

OTOH, one PITA is that now everytime I open RW Steam tries to "repair" .NET Framework 4 Client. Since it doesn't actually need repairing, I just click past it but reinstalling .NET 4, and reinstalling Steam haven't fixed the issue. I suppose it doesn't matter--it certainly doesn't affect playing the sim. [shrugs] If that's the price of the improvement I've seen, I'll pay it.

[Hawk]

OTOH, one PITA is that now everytime I open RW Steam tries to "repair" .NET Framework 4 Client. Since it doesn't actually need repairing, I just click past it but reinstalling .NET 4, and reinstalling Steam haven't fixed the issue. I suppose it doesn't matter--it certainly doesn't affect playing the sim. [shrugs] If that's the price of the improvement I've seen, I'll pay it.

That generally happens when you let Windows update itself automatically, or you intentionally let Windows update Net 4 (which there's no reason to). When Steam sees a different version than what it installed, it thinks it has to repair, which it can't because the version it sees is newer than the one it installed.

[TheFlier]

The Flier
It might be better if RSC vastly improved Multi-Core performance in preference to multi-threading as that would give huge boost.
Regards
PeterH

Is there a difference? I thought multi-threading was the technique apps used to access multi-cores? But that's just guess-work after tweaking some CodeMaster's games. They use a config file to set-up threads for certain program routines, then each thread is allotted a particular core. I did try to improve the way how my cores were utilised by messing with that thread allocation config file with moderate success. Maybe CM have trade-marked that technique so nobody else can use it?

I took part in the beta test of win7 some years ago and loved it, but I have three PCs in the house so upgrading all their OS is an expensive job that I'm leaving as long as poss. But now it's crunch time. WIndows 8 is around the corner. The idea of an android based OS on a PC is an alien idea to me. It's an experiment which could go well or badly for MS, so I need to get win7 NOW while its still available, or get stuck with a whole new way of computing. What to do?

[railbard]

Ahhhhh!!! Thanks Flier! That also explains why I have to keep turning Windows updates back on (to "ask me if I want to download and install")!

Guess I'll just keep clicking through then. :)

[arizonachris]

Seems like Win 7 has about 500 .net updates to go thru. I have Win 7 set to "notify but not install" updates. That way I can filter thru them.

I was also a beta tester for Win 7 and after a few updates was finally in love. MS also gave me Win 7 Ultimate free for all my troubles. Yeah, there were a few troubles at first.

Because of the way the RW graphics engine is coded, it will only use one core. A lot of games still only use one core, but they are optimized better than RW.

I tried out the pre release candidate of Win 8 and I'm not impressed. It's for tablets and mobiles, touch screen and all that. Desktop looks like a Mac. I won't be moving from Win 7 any time soon. Home Premium is cheap at New Egg.