Laptop performance with OR v360

[conrail1]

Here is an example of OpenRails v360 performance on an almost 4 year old Dell M1710 laptop.

The laptop uses an Intel Core 2 Duo (T7600G) CPU, 4GB of RAM, Nvidia Go7950 GTX, Sigma Tel on-board sound and a 160GB 7200 RPM hard drive.

I was running Windows 7 64-bit on it but decided to give Windows XP/SP3 a try since I haven't done much testing with it recently.

The hard drive received a fresh reformat along with the latest Windows updates and drivers. The DirectX update redistributable (June 2010) was installed followed by the web installer to pick up any updates not included in the redistributable.

The latest drivers on Nvidia's website for the Go 7950 GTX are dated back to February 11, 2009 (179.48) and didn't like OR's dynamic shadows (screen shot example below) so I used the 258.96 drivers with the INF mod from LaptopVideo2go which almost completely elevated the shadow issues.

All of the screens were originally taken at the laptops native display resolution of 1920x1200, 4x multi-sample AA/16xAF.

The laptop as expected didn't set the world on fire but I didn't experience any trouble installing OR or running it (with the exception of the shadows issue). In addition the on-board Sigma Tel sound didn't have any problem with OR or any of the other games I've had installed on this machine.



27 fps -




38 fps -



47 fps -




31 fps -




37 fps -


34 fps -




25 fps -




Here is Oroville yard with and without dynamic shadows -

25 fps -



33 fps -






Here is what the dynamic shadows looked like with the 179.48 drivers -

[conrail1]

Here's a little update to the laptop test to show how resolution effects OpenRails performance. These three screen shots can be compared to the first screen shot posted above which was taken at 1920x1200 4xAA and produced 27 fps.

I ran the test three times at 1600x1200 4xAA and initially lowering the resolution down from 1920x1200 yielded no performance increase at all. I then rebooted between tests and gained 4 fps from the lower resolution. Despite the Go 7950 GTX being a relatively weak GPU it wasn't impacted very much with the resolution changes.



OpenRails v360 1600x1200 resolution 4xAA (31 fps) -





OpenRails v360 1280x1024 resolution 4xAA (31 fps) -






OpenRails v360 1920x1200 resolution 2xAA (31 fps) -

[Redcoat_1812]

I'm pissed off now Dan.

That laptop makes a better job of OR than this heap of crud.

Mike.

[conrail1]

I'm pissed off now Dan.

That laptop makes a better job of OR than this heap of crud.

Mike.

With the Core 2 and 8800 GTX I wouldn't be pissed off at all.

First off I'd look closely at every memory module you have and make sure that they are running at the exact same speed and timings. If only two of them are the same (identical) then I would only use 4GB (2x2GB) in channel A&B. I would also take a close look in BIOS to see if it is set up optimally for your hardware configuration as well as checking to see if the BIOS revision is up to date.

Secondly for OpenRails I'd ditch one of the 8800 GTX's and use only one GPU.

Thirdly a fresh OS install with Windows updates and the latest drivers for your hardware will go a long way in improving the performance.

You might also consider boosting the clock speed up a bit on that 2.7GHz Core 2.


Lol, I'd have those specs running like you've never seen before with games.

[Redcoat_1812]

I have more problems now mate, the pc lock up's i thought were due to OS\HW conflicts.

Well it just locked up on me this morning running the new Vista install.

In regards the drivers Dan, i always keep them bang up to date.

Plus we are basically looking at a machine, that has the OS installed, TS2010 and now OR\MSTS and not much of anything else.

No bloatware or crud.

Hey Dan, how much to hire a row boat i can't afford a plane ticket for you.

regards,
Mike.

[conrail1]

I have more problems now mate, the pc lock up's i thought were due to OS\HW conflicts.

Well it just locked up on me this morning running the new Vista install.

In regards the drivers Dan, i always keep them bang up to date.

Plus we are basically looking at a machine, that has the OS installed, TS2010 and now OR\MSTS and not much of anything else.

No bloatware or crud.

Hey Dan, how much to hire a row boat i can't afford a plane ticket for you.

regards,
Mike.

Mike send me a PM with the exact specs on that machine, (motherboard brand&model, RAM (brand, speed/timings), I might be able to talk you through gaining some performance with that setup.

I'm testing Linux on that Core 2 Q9650/8800 GTX setup I mentioned in another thread but when I get done I'll wipe the drive with Windows 7 64 and see what kind of performance I get with it compared to what you are experiencing.

[norbertdx]

Would you say these specs or good, bad or just enough? I get 20-25 on OR and sometimes a good 10-15 with MSTS.

Win 7 Home Prem
Processor: AMD Athlon 64x2 Dual-Core Processor TK-53 1.70 GHZ
Installed mem: 4.00 GB (2.69 GB usable)
System type: 32-bit Op System