Inquiring on OR users Computer specs, getting decent frame rates

[qballbandit]

Vince,
Here is one grab I captured last night. I forgot to set Window's mode first prior to starting the activity, so I'll do that today.
Not sure if I see anything goofy, do you? Not sure what to compare it to as a base?

[CSRX]

Neil,
I get anywhere between 5-20fps. I have a very basic walmart laptop, with only additional RAM added. I have a total of 8GB of ram.
Here is what my stats look like in ORTS.

I have Windows 7.

For settings of ORTS..
Under "General" the only box checked is Large address aware binaries
Under "Video" only Model Instancing, Vertical Sync, and Distant Mountains are checked. with 3000m viewing distance, and 40km viewing distance for distant mountains. Window Size 1920x1080

That's pretty basic. Ended up needing to use ORTS only, as MSTS simply would not work on here. Honestly I prefer ORTS anyways.

[Vince]

Vince,
Here is one grab I captured last night. I forgot to set Window's mode first prior to starting the activity, so I'll do that today.
Not sure if I see anything goofy, do you? Not sure what to compare it to as a base?

Hi Niel,

Thanks for the screen and no, I don't see anything there that is a problem but there is that extra 512MB on Shawn's 5700 card. Intensive scenery has lots of poly's and that must be what helps.

My GTX 650 Memory Specs:
5.0 Gb/ps Memory Clock
1024 MB Standard Memory Config
GDDR5Memory Interface
128-bit GDDR5 Memory Interface Width
80.0Memory Bandwidth (GB/sec)
Gets between 20-90 fps on the LIRR with out v/sync. I normally leave v/sync enabled. Don't much care for more than 60 and why waste draw cycles with something Iyou can't see. I'm happy also with the color rendering of the 650 on my LG monitor.

Anyway, how could a monitor with a 60Hz refresh rate display 90 fps? . It's physically impossible! Answer? It can't! It displays the scene at 60 fps.
Some monitors do have faster refresh rates and v/sync will adjust to what ever the monitor is running.
Seems Open Rails likes big memory on video cards.
IF I had to get a new vid right now I'd go with one that had 2G ram. Newer 3D games using a VR visor are gonna' need it.

regards,

[geepster775]

Sherman Hill, startimg at Borie, 4000m distance, shadows on, no trackside grasses yet, looking down the barrel of the default SLI 'fast 40 fruit train' consist with all those hi poly cars and shadows thrown from every one. easily holds at V-syvc 60 fps and render at 53%





Past Borie Jct, addl track, and grasses has render up to low 60s




Looking away from all those reefer cars has render down to low 40s. Vid card still not breaking a sweat.




Passing add'l scenery items with add'l shadows puts render into low 70s




Down in Cheyenne, render is at the roof and frames are suffering down into mid 40s. At 4000m distance, I'm getting drag from the town center station area ahead now




Passing station, frames have recovered to 60 and Render is down into the 80s. Aided a bit by the curve ahead that pushes the distant scenery off to the right out of camera view




Back at Borie resetting the distance to 2000m has render at 35%. At 4000m this scene was 62%



inside the cab, 2000m, no long train to look down, render at 27%

[qballbandit]

Suffering down into the mid 40's? LOL! That should still be smooth as silk, yes? It may not look as great on the graph, but to the eye it should still be quite acceptable.
Thanks for the screenshots, they do tell the story....that I need a new card.
Better yet, a whole new system!

I guess I have to live with what I have until that purchase can be justified.

I thank all who have responded, it has been most helpful.

[geepster775]

LOL, actually, when you are used to 60, it is suffering to come off that. It is noticeable, but also a factor is my monitor which is 1920 but cheap at $200 instead of a faster version at $600. Monitors at 1920 or 3840 are what the kids all have now.

Going without shadows at Borie improves rendering about 8%. No problem out at Borie jct with a 3-train meet of all SLI hi-poly cars with shadows on, more of a problem in downtown Cheyenne.

No problem with the structures at Dyno Nobel throwing shadows either, because its an industrial island with nothing but grass in 3 miles in every direction. No reason for the city blocks down in Cheyenne to be throwing shadows. The trackside station and the signal apparatus and shop buildings, sure, keep their shadows.

4000m viewing is okay on a 'grassed up' route like Seligman 2 or Scenic 2, but only because the urban scenes are lame compared to 3Dtrains versions. 4000m is useless on urban routes or high density 'scenic upgrades'

My advice is slack off on the scenery update and begin to think about the total package experience

Remind you that today's Reference 1070 has 50% more clock (1600 vs 1050) and double the memory of my Reference 970 (8 gb up from 4). The 1070 is roughly equivalent to the old 980ti while consuming a fraction of the power. Easily gets by on a 500 or 600W OEM power supply. The 750-1000 watters are only needed anymore if you run multiple GPUs. So that saves you some coin. The 1080 is about the equivalent of the Titan in the 700-series years at half the price and a fraction of the power, too.

Stay away from laptops if you want a serious machine capable of running dense routes with multiple hi-poly AI and shadows. The people who go down that compensate-for-battery-draw rabbit hole are in a mess of their own making and I don't wanna hear their troubles.

If you have a very portable copy of 7 Ultimate, the 4th generation i7s (Haswell Rerfesh / Devils Canyon) are more than enough CPU to handle train simming for the next 15-20 years since the workload gets shifted to the GPU with most modern day sims, plus they give you OS flexibility. The 6th generation Skylakes are no better performance-wise, and in some cases are worse https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/t...gaming.215004/ and seems to be part of the daily ruse to lock folks into the Win 10 manhandling by Microsoft.

I have a rather fast HDD system drive with system-specific firmware. Benchmarks fairly fast. Liquid cooling and 8.1 pro came with it for $880 on sale. I added an SSD ($119) for holding the sim content. Added the 970 ($350 in 2015) after purchase, it came with a capable 745 OEM GPU suitable for emergency use.

[peterman]

Hi Niel,

Thanks for the screen and no, I don't see anything there that is a problem but there is that extra 512MB on Shawn's 5700 card. Intensive scenery has lots of poly's and that must be what helps.

My GTX 650 Memory Specs:
5.0 Gb/ps Memory Clock
1024 MB Standard Memory Config
GDDR5Memory Interface
128-bit GDDR5 Memory Interface Width
80.0Memory Bandwidth (GB/sec)
Gets between 20-90 fps on the LIRR with out v/sync. I normally leave v/sync enabled. Don't much care for more than 60 and why waste draw cycles with something Iyou can't see. I'm happy also with the color rendering of the 650 on my LG monitor.

Anyway, how could a monitor with a 60Hz refresh rate display 90 fps? . It's physically impossible! Answer? It can't! It displays the scene at 60 fps.
Some monitors do have faster refresh rates and v/sync will adjust to what ever the monitor is running.
Seems Open Rails likes big memory on video cards.
IF I had to get a new vid right now I'd go with one that had 2G ram. Newer 3D games using a VR visor are gonna' need it.

regards,

Hi Vince,

I have the same video card as you ( GeForce GTX 650 ), my question is... where do you manage your 3D settings, in the Global settings or in the Program settings? Open Rails exe. doesn't show up in my Program settings like MSTS does. BTW... I'm pretty sure the GTX 650 has 2GB of RAM.

Thanks,
Peter

[Vince]

Those specs are lifted from a dxdiag run printout. It is what it is. I note it says 'Standard Memory Config,' Does that imply there is another configuration? Never have seen any info on it. Can you provide a link? Thanks.
I never managed my 3d settings. The card performed fine out of the box.
regards,
vince

[peterman]

Those specs are lifted from a dxdiag run printout. It is what it is. I note it says 'Standard Memory Config,' Does that imply there is another configuration? Never have seen any info on it. Can you provide a link? Thanks.
I never managed my 3d settings. The card performed fine out of the box.
regards,
vince

Sorry Vince.... not able to provide a link. Even a search at GigaBytes.ca makes no mention of the GTX 650 anymore. Anyways'... the reason I asked about the 3D settings was , that on my own route the MSTS FPS are 55 - 60 ( drops down to 25 in high poly areas ) , whereas ORTS runs at 30 - 45 FPS ( climbs to 85 in low poly areas ) on the same activity.... kinda like what is happening to Neil. I was hoping that there was a way to tweak ORTS separately.

Thanks,
Peter

[baldwin]

The Nvidia Control panel will let you make a profile for Open Rails. Just click Add when in Program settings mode and wait for it to populate, then go look for Runactivity.exe or RunactivityLAA.exe and change settings. You will have to experiment because no one combination suits all machines.

[peterman]

The Nvidia Control panel will let you make a profile for Open Rails. Just click Add when in Program settings mode and wait for it to populate, then go look for Runactivity.exe or RunactivityLAA.exe and change settings. You will have to experiment because no one combination suits all machines.

Baldwin.... thanks for the info. I did some experimenting with different configurations with my best results coming from turning off the Anisotropic filtering and anything to do with Antialiasing. FPS went up about 10 on average. This is looking out the front of the loco at an industrial complex ½ mile away. If I look 90º to the right where there are no scenery objects except terrain and clouds the FPS went from 170 to 240.... kind of expected. It looks like the best way to raise the FPS is turn off the Dynamic Shadows in OR itself. The FPS looking out the front went up 30 and up to 820 looking to the right.

My conclusion... if OR is running at 130 FPS or 20 FPS and it's not stuttering.... who cares!!.... run the damn thing.

Peter