What Spec do I need

[ReverendFozz]

I am getting a new computer in the next few weeks, I used to play train sim a while back and look forward to playing it again soon...Couple of questions

1. Would it be better getting a PC or Laptop...
2. If I opted for a PC, are they cheap to get custom built or would be best off checking somewhere like PC World?
2. What Spec is need train sim...I want to be able to play Football Manager as well, so spec needs to quite good

In regards to #1 & 2 I have 4-500 notes to play with...

Any advice is appreciated

 

[Searle]

You'll pretty much always be able to get a PC cheaper than a laptop with the same specs, so if you want to get something just for good specs, then I'd go a PC. Obviously if you're going to be moving it around a lot then get a PC.

Again, in general, building a computer is going to be cheaper than going to PC World and buying one, but obviously you need to know how to build a computer, or know someone who does.

I'm not sure what specs will be optimal, but there are people on reddit (another forum style website) that will be able to help on how to get it the cheapest. I'll let you know more details later if you want.

 

[ReverendFozz]

You'll pretty much always be able to get a PC cheaper than a laptop with the same specs, so if you want to get something just for good specs, then I'd go a PC. Obviously if you're going to be moving it around a lot then get a PC.

Again, in general, building a computer is going to be cheaper than going to PC World and buying one, but obviously you need to know how to build a computer, or know someone who does.

I'm not sure what specs will be optimal, but there are people on reddit (another forum style website) that will be able to help on how to get it the cheapest. I'll let you know more details later if you want.

Thanks mate much appreciated

 

[Crossover]

I'd argue that building your own PC actually wouldn't save you as much as it perhaps used to, but there are places (like CCL in Tong and Overclockers in Stoke that will do custom build)

A desktop is most likely going to be the most appropriate to hack running Train Sim - most laptops don't have the power.

Dedicated graphics is a must really - our PC only has a relatively low end card, so it cannot run at 1080p but will run windowed at full quality (IIRC) without too many issues. The other thing is needs is RAM - 4GB at a minimum (to be honest, I wouldn't recommend buying a PC with less than this anyway) but 8GB would be better. Any semi decent processor should also be fine - ours are Intel i5's (non hyperthreaded quad core)

The most memory sapping routes will need about 2.5GB to run in memory properly - I don't recall seeing the processor getting unduly hammered as the graphics card should do most of the work (hence needing dedicated)

 

[PYROOGOBBO]

Usually for games and that a Desktop would beat out a Laptop in their respective price ranges, plus i found with some games laptops heat up extremely badly and are more than happy to burn the skin off of you.

I'd reccomend building it yourself too , Maximum customization and usually is better than getting a HP or Dell with substandard parts and a inflated price range (one of my friends HP's has a god awful power supply in it, I'm suprised it hasn't Blown up in a big plume of smoke, Or least tried to pretend it's a deltic yet).

But again it all depends on your budget :3, On the cheap side you could get a athlon 760k with a R7 260X and it'll run sim games pretty fine im sure.

 

[robputt796]

Hi ReverendFozz,

I recently built a new PC specifically to run Train Simulator 2015 and a few other games such as Cities Skylines as my old iMac was really struggling with them and it came in at just over the price range of your budget, here is my part list...

- GTX 750 Ti Graphics Card - £115
- Crucial 120GB SSD - £50
- 8GB RAM (2x 4GB sticks) - £50
- Intel Core i5 CPU - £150
- CPU Cooler - £25
- Motherboard - £50
- Case - £30
- Power Supply - £45

Total - £530 without Windows
Total - £580 with Windows 8.1

Runs Train Simulator great at full resolution (1920x1080) and all the highest settings. Stutters slightly on really detailed routes when loading in textures, but this is bearable and only last a second or 2 at select places on the routes, otherwise runs smoothly throughout.

I know it can be a bit daunting building your own PC, but you really get a lot more for your money, and there are some really good how to videos on YouTube especially from a guy called EasyPCbuilder.

Regards,

Rob

 

[PYROOGOBBO]

Hi ReverendFozz,

I recently built a new PC specifically to run Train Simulator 2015 and a few other games such as Cities Skylines as my old iMac was really struggling with them and it came in at just over the price range of your budget, here is my part list...

- GTX 750 Ti Graphics Card - £115
- Crucial 120GB SSD - £50
- 8GB RAM (2x 4GB sticks) - £50
- Intel Core i5 CPU - £150
- CPU Cooler - £25
- Motherboard - £50
- Case - £30
- Power Supply - £45

Total - £530 without Windows
Total - £580 with Windows 8.1

Runs Train Simulator great at full resolution (1920x1080) and all the highest settings. Stutters slightly on really detailed routes when loading in textures, but this is bearable and only last a second or 2 at select places on the routes, otherwise runs smoothly throughout.

I know it can be a bit daunting building your own PC, but you really get a lot more for your money, and there are some really good how to videos on YouTube especially from a guy called EasyPCbuilder.

Regards,

Rob

I wonder if the stuttering is just part of the game since i get huge frame drops even on my 7970 card (higher end).

 

[alex17595]

Mine stutters a bit when I play on my GTX980 (High end card.) I have capped the frame rate to 60fps using Geforce Experience and it runs a lot smoother than it did before.
I am playing in 4k though.

 

[robputt796]

Mine stutters a bit when I play on my GTX980 (High end card.) I have capped the frame rate to 60fps using Geforce Experience and it runs a lot smoother than it did before.
I am playing in 4k though.

Interesting alex17595, I have never really taken a look at the NVidia utilities. If you have optimisation tips maybe you could post a how to guide for us all to take a gander at , as I expect this may also help alleviate the problem slightly even on my lower end card.

 

[alex17595]

Have a read of this http://www.geforce.co.uk/hardware/technology/adaptive-vsync/technology

 

[robputt796]

Have a read of this http://www.geforce.co.uk/hardware/technology/adaptive-vsync/technology

Thanks alex17595 seemed to smoothed it slightly

 

[jon91]

Another thing to remember with TS in its current form is that it doesn't fully utilise multi-core processors, from my experience it would make CPU1 do most of the legwork whilst my other cores would sit there twiddling their thumbs.

Roll on the new game engine...

 

[richardio123]

Doesn't it ? It uses all my cores perfectly on my Macbook Pro with Windows installed on Boot Camp with high settings on

 

[jon91]

It was a bit inconsistent, haven't played much since TS2015 was released so they might have done some tweaking that's completely passed me by.

 

[ReverendFozz]

Hi...

I ended up getting a cheap laptop and have started to save up for a custom PC later this year...

The laptop is alright for now as TS15 is the only thing I play on it...

I needed something at the time and the laptop does what I want it for and gives me time to work out and save fot what I want in a PC

 

[Southwest]

I'd argue that building your own PC actually wouldn't save you as much as it perhaps used to, but there are places (like CCL in Tong and Overclockers in Stoke that will do custom build)

Overclockers built my PC. The build quality was excellent but some of the software left a lot to be desired. When I called them up to discuss it, as soon as I mentioned I had downloaded something from the web, they said that was what was causing my problem.

I'm no computer genius but even I can see that the programmes that were causing all my problems were installed into my PC three days before it was delivered. Once I told them that, it all went very quiet.