Openrails and low fps

[csx8851]

I dont know why, but for some odd reason, im getting low fps running the lastest developmental and experimental versions.

My computer specs:

ATI Raedon 2400 HD Pro 256 MB graphics card
Intel Core 2 Duo 2.53 Ghz 2 Cpus
4 GM RAM
120 GB HDD
Vista 32 bit


On MSTS, the same route would give me 40-50 fps but on openrails its 10-15, I can't even reach 20 fps

[baldwin]

MSTS uses the CPU for processing the game code. Open Rails uses the CPU and the GPU. Looks like your Graphics card is the slow item. Use the F5 hud to look at the processes, Shift+F5 until you get the right screen. That will show you the various processes and how much load there is on each of them.

[csx8851]

The GPU section says 15 fps, so I'm guessing its the GPU?

[lindsayts]

I think the amount of memory the Graphics card is not enough, 256k these dasy is quite small. ! gig though works fine, ie its not required (for OR anyway) to go above 1 gig.

Also OR does definitely benefit from a 4 core system, its not to difficult on some routes (the freeware Berninan Bahn and also the SOB) to get a total cpu load as indicated by the F5 hud at well over 200 percent.

[derekmorton]

>ATI Raedon 2400 HD Pro 256 MB graphics card

This is not a very powerful card, not good enough for Open Rails.

[rdamurphy]

Realistically, the RAM isn't really the problem.

What you want to look for is shader capability. Your card supports 40 shaders. A Radeon 7790, for instance, supports 896.

To understand shaders, see:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shader

In OR, all of what you see drawn on the screen is done by your GPU's shader units.

Which is why some older video cards and some low-end laptop video chips don't work with OR.

I could give you some recommendations, but you didn't include your MB in your specs, but assuming PCI Express X16 from the 2400, I'd say check out this page:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107.html

Robert

[csx8851]

It is a PCI Express X16. I'm not upgrading my card at the moment. What were the recommendations you wanted to give me?

[rdamurphy]

Pretty much the ones in the link. I had a Radeon 6670 in my old Core2 Duo compute, and I can assure you that it runs OR and MSTS both well. And I'm usually running OR along with Visual Studio.net, and I used three monitors with it.

I also used a 4770 before that with good results. Presently using a an HD7790 in my i7.

I tend to be an ATI fan, though.

Robert

[lindsayts]

I run OR on a number of systems, one does not need a high end card. I currently have 3 systems on my (Linux) network that will run OR all machines have quad core or better cpu's. The GPU's are a Radeon 5870, an NVidia GTX570 and an NVidia GTX 680 4gig card. All of these run OR at relatively similiar frame rates.

There appears to be little difference between AMD and NVidia cards, there is a sugestion that the NVidia cards give a slightly smoother performance.

From my experience OR's frame is currently limited by the render thread.

[rdamurphy]

There aren't any limits in the code, and, in fact, I get FPS in the 140's, occasionally dropping into the 100's with a lot going on.

Robert