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Graphics Card

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jonb

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Hopefully some of you may be able to help me with this! I'm currently running BVE4 and noticed it jumps alot and occasionally freezes for a few seconds especially when running Maybank and Birmingham X City. To give you an example the average FPS on Birmingham X C is 12.2. What i'm looking for is a decent graphics card which can hopefully run BVE4 a lot better than my existing one, are there any out there you would recommend?

Many Thanks
 
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Dennis

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dvn1357 said:
Lack of RAM can also cause stuttering.

I'm guessing you have around 512mb?

Agree with that - bunging some extra RAM in my old desktop not only greatly reduced stuttering in BVE (which seems to happen as it loads up large objects and sounds) but obviously also improved the performance of just about everything else.
 

jonb

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Yeah I think its 512MB - It was installed a while ago so I cannot say for certain.
 

jonb

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Thanks EB - I've apparently got 448MB of RAM, should I upgrade this as well?

Cheers!
 

RJ

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I have 512MB of RAM - same as you. But I have a 256MB nVidia GeForce graphics card-at least 18 months old. For me, BVE 4 has never stuttered, and I usually get 30-40 fps on routes. Find out the size of your graphics card, that may be what you want to upgrade :)
 

jonb

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joea1 said:
I have 512MB of RAM - same as you. But I have a 256MB nVidia GeForce graphics card-at least 18 months old. For me, BVE 4 has never stuttered, and I usually get 30-40 fps on routes. Find out the size of your graphics card, that may be what you want to upgrade :)

Cheers mate just what I was looking for.

Thanks to everyone else for the help!
 

Simming

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I can get 50-60 FPS on X - City, with full draw distance, yet my graphics card is only 128mb and 512 of ram, so surely theres something else that effects it too is there?
 
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jonb, it seems like that you have an onboard graphics card, that shares your system ram. You said that you only have 448mb of RAM, its because that your 64mb is allocated to to the graphics card (64+448=512).

I personally think that you should get a AGP slot graphics card with 128mb ddr minimum (256mb+ recommended) if your computer has a free AGP slot. This way, you can free up 64mb of extra RAM to the system and you have extra RAM on the Graphics card for better performance.

HTH
 

Gareth Hale

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I reccoemnd the nVidia 6600GT AGP x8. It is really good, BVE gets 58FPS here. MSTS gets 58FPS (both on max detail 32-bit) also.


Maybank = 50 - 58FPS
Birmingham X City = 47FPS (Birmingham new street station - 44.4FPS)
 
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You need to consider the processor too. If it's a Celeron or equivalent, you can forget about any kind of improvement im afraid. Unless it's a Pentium or equivalent, you won't get anything above 15-20 fps....
 

eezypeazy

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Well, I've got an Intel(R) Celeron(R) CPU 3.06GHz processor,1 gig memory, with a Radeo X700SE AGP graphics card with 256Mb memory on it, and I get frame rates greater than 30fps, except, of course, at Birmingham New Street!

We've had this discussion elsewhere recently..... the performance of BVE is influenced by processor speed, system memory available, graphics card and its memory; then, the "new generation" BVE 4 trains appear to place greater demands on system performance than "older" trains; BVE itself seems not to use memory efficiently; the construction of the route is then a major factor - face-heavy objects with large bitmap files will slow things down.

On this system, I'm getting frame rates of 37fps on the new sections of Tyne Valley I'm building - but that's because I've learned a lot about route building in the last two years!

eezypeazy
 

Gareth Hale

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lankylancaster said:
You need to consider the processor too. If it's a Celeron or equivalent, you can forget about any kind of improvement im afraid. Unless it's a Pentium or equivalent, you won't get anything above 15-20 fps....
Not 100% true, the Sempron is a celeron equivelent and look at my FPS ;) Just the CPU Speed effects it.
 

Tom B

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Gareth Hale said:
Not 100% true, the Sempron is a celeron equivelent and look at my FPS ;) Just the CPU Speed effects it.

No. That is incorrect. Two processors can have the same clockspeed and yet perform vastly differently.

BVE also depends on HDD access speed, though that will only affect loading times.
 
T

Tom

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Gareth Hale said:
Not 100% true, the Sempron is a celeron equivelent and look at my FPS ;) Just the CPU Speed effects it.
...and you call yourself a computer expert...!

Intel is optimised for database and 3d rendering for models.
AMD is optimised for high powered gaming, this is why Intel refuse to go into any gaming competition with them, as the Intel equivalent to their 2200+ would be a 3.2GHz when testing gaming, but AMD need a fairly high powered processor for database tasks.
 

Gareth Hale

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Cockfosters said:
No. That is incorrect. Two processors can have the same clockspeed and yet perform vastly differently.
Thats because of the Cache and core on the Processor.
Edited (by doublepost prevention system):
tubechallenger said:
...and you call yourself a computer expert...!

Intel is optimised for database and 3d rendering for models.
AMD is optimised for high powered gaming, this is why Intel refuse to go into any gaming competition with them, as the Intel equivalent to their 2200+ would be a 3.2GHz when testing gaming, but AMD need a fairly high powered processor for database tasks.
On Databases it runs perfectly on the Sempron. 2200+ is only 2.2GHz Intel speeds ;). 3200+ is more 3.2GHz ;) Databases are less demanding than games.

Sempron - Internet, E'mail and Office
AthlonXP - Internet, E'mail and Office
Athlon 64 - Games and Internet
Athlon 64 x2 - Heavy Gamer
Athlon FX - Heavy Gamer

Celeron - Internet e'mails and office
Pentium IV - Light games/Heavy games
Pentium IvvI - Games and internet.

I am a computer expert, I just simply was tired and typed out something which confused me earlyer.
 

Dave A

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I think Gareth is trying to justify why he decides to use AMD, when clearly a 3100, is NOT 3.1ghz and will NOT perform the same as a 3.1ghz! :p :rolleyes:
 
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Tom

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Expert, HAH!

Intel processors are DESIGNED for SERVERS and which generally do DATABASE DRIVEN activities! Intel processors are DESIGNED for COMPUTER USERS who do some gaming, but not a lot.

AMD / Intel comparisons are highly unfair as they are always based on heavy gaming, but Intel chips are optimised for database activities.
 
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