You might wonder why I am putting this in off topic - it is because I am not sure the worse performance is caused by the game itself... let me explain Recently I added an external SSD to my system, and by all signs, it is helping - Space Marine 2, for example, has had a drastic decrease in loading times and overall the performance is much better, which is why I am playing it a lot now Also, thanks to that external SSD (even tho bottlenecked by USB 3.0, which is why it does run like half its full speed), the loading times for TSW have decreased significantly (like booting up the game has gone like 30 % or more, and loading up routes is also much faster), moving through menus and working stuff in the cab is all snappier etc But overall performance when playing the routes has gone down... now, I am not sure whether it is: a) an issue with latest graphics driver update (Geforce 1080 8GB) b) Windows 10 issue c) the graphics card overheating or otherwise going bonkers d) signs that maybe the system internal ssd may be getting caught by its age (going strong after 8yrs) or sth else... I am not an IT expert, tho I feel I am somewhat a bit above average user... still no idea why is this... has anyone also experienced some issues with performance compared to the past or pre-patch TSW6? Any advice?
Wow 8 years on the original computer? What parts are upgraded and not upgraded? The 1080 itself is a 2016 card and 78GB is just the minimum these days. The game requirements have gone up considerably and your computer has not. You can try turning off layers or tweaking settings, but at it's heart you have an 8 year old system which is out of date. I'd say you're running roughly half of the comparative performance you were in capability of 8 years ago. Specific to TSW... the newer routes (which I'm guessing you're using since they are new) are a lot more performance intensive than the older ones. A lot of the "nice to haves" (train announcements, etc) add up incrementally to boost system requirements.
The driver update itself forces the game to refill its cache. After replacing the graphics card, I also didn't see much of a boost; the FPS was still terrible in places. But, a few round trips and Frankfurt S Bahn pleases with FPS of at least 50, usually over 80.
the thing is, the performance wasnt too bad just recently... it got slightly better when I added external SSD (as I mentioned, the loading times and general "snapiness" of controls improved etc., but shortly afterwards got worse, I think after graphics card driver update... reinstalled it yesterday, not much improvement (hearing a lot of noise coming from the GPU, maybe overheating?)... I am adding an internal SSD soon, but doubt it will do much stressing again that the performance was fine just a couple days ago... even with layers... just occasional stuttering which is normal at TSW... I wonder if also some recent game patches havent worsened some performance stuff and thing no.2, Space (freakin) Marine 2 runs fine now... Elden Ring loads faster, but also stutters at times, so I am guessing GPU... was acting up like this like 2-3 months ago,then got back to ok... so I turned off my PC, let it rest a bit and see next time I turn it on
That's exactly it. But it's worth monitoring the temperatures of your aging hardware. TSW puts a lot of strain on the graphics card.
around 80-85 degrees (Celsius) I think... will see tho... will give the PC a bit of rest, then boot it up maybe tomorrow or sth... I was thinking of getting a 3070 since those pack some nice performance while not costing a kidney or two, but that would also require getting a more powerful power supply... and putting like 1000 euros into an aging computer isnt worth it IMHO so I opted for upgrading the storage at least, so things load faster and what can be influenced by better loading time and such, that can be sped up this way and I am thus at a threshold - do I save for a like 2k machine, which hopefully stays mostly healthy like this one, but then face this problem again in like 6-7 years, or do I go fugg it and get a handheld PC for gaming and a cheap one for the internet? I mean, if I had a much better earning job, I wouldnt have this kind of dilemma, but then, I dont
Do you clean the components regularly? Dust build up on the fans and heatsinks is gonna drastically reduce the cooling efficiency.
I dusted it a couple months ago, but not super thoroughly... and the thermal paste on GPU and CPU was never changed lol, not that skilled I am afraid ... so yeah could do sth, but then, I suspect it has sth to do with the graphics card driver update... or sth on the GPU just deteriorated beyond some point so... dunno... I am hoping the system SSD isnt going to give up, cos thats basically a game over for this machine then I mean, I have enough to maybe buy an XBOX ROG Ally Extreme, but then, I dont know if TSW is going to perform well on that one... if it would, then sure game on, but unless someone tries and sees it handles the game well, even demanding routes, then I guess I will pass on it
It's also worth keeping an eye on the chip's clock speed and power consumption. Based on my card, I know the normal chip frequency is around 3300 MHz, with a maximum consumption of ~300 watts. If the parameters change, something's wrong. Why buy outdated, five-year-old junk? The RTX 5060 or RX9060 with 16GB of VRAM is a much better buy. It's budget-friendly and doesn't require a power supply upgrade due to its ridiculous power consumption. My recent upgrade to a PX9070 and i5 14600kf cost me about €700. I got €200 back by selling my old processor and graphics card. If you don't want to assemble near-flagship hardware, the cost of a complete kit (motherboard, memory, processor, and graphics card) can be kept to around 600 euros. The case, power supply, and drives don't need to be replaced; they can last for decades before failing.
You can always rollback the driver and see if it helps. You will need to compile the shader cache again though. Running a ssd on the usb hub is gonna cause some performance issues. Your probably gonna get less than half the read/write speed of the SSD. From experience the read/write speeds are all over the place compared to consistent speeds using the sata interface. Also the CPU don't have direct access to the drive on usb.
I have a 500W power supply, and 3070 requires 550 MINIMUM... so I assume 50xx Geforces need even more, so yes, I would need a new power supply as well... 50xx still would cost nearly 1000 euros... yes, it wont go full 1000 MB/s, but it can still go around 500 MB/s which is almost the speed of an internal SATA SSD (also used benchmark utility and the top values were around 440 MB/s, which is still 4x as much as from classic HDD) but yeah will see, I already also got a new internal SATA SSD, just needs to be installed (which I have never done before, last time I added an SSD, a friend of mine helped me with the actual installation, I had done the software part)
It's not hard mate to be honest. Basically just swap it for your original drive that should be on sata. The mb should automatically detect it. Windows installation on a ssd normally takes a few minutes.
I can do the Windows part no problem, but I have never worked the SATA cables... no idea if they should click or snap, or how you can 100% tell they are firmly and ok in place I got 256GB SSD for system and some programs, then 1TB classic HDD for most stuff, and now I have the external 1TB SSD, and soon I will add an internal 1TB SATA SSD (used to have one but that one got dead after 2 years) might install it today after work or tomorrow, will see
The sata cables have a small metal tab that you need to squeeze to release it. When you put the cable back in it will click into place. Like a hdmi or display port basically.
There are often conflicts that arise from older hardware when they're no longer supported. It's just not worth it for them to test for every older configuration and older stuff gets left behind a lot. 8-9 years is pushing it. I think the support life for the 1080 stops this year. They announced it back in January or February. It's been planned for awhile since they have different technology and hardly anyone uses them in the greater GPU market. I wouldn't be surprised if TSW is moving beyond them too given they're not supported by the manufacturer anymore.
I know man, I know... got almost 1k saved up, but for a machine that would stay at least a bit ahead of curve, I would need almost 1k more... which is not sth soon cos of my s..ka.. salary
RTX 5060 It has one 8-pin power connector. That's 150 watts. A 300-watt power supply would be enough. Of course, if you're looking at 70 and 80 series, you'll need a new power supply. The 3070 doesn't make any sense to buy right now because 8GB VRAM, compared to the 5060 with 16GB.
looks like I will either need to upgrade the graphics card + power supply, or buy a new machine altogether... installing internal SSD helped, even compared to the external SSD, but stuttering and such remains... and I decided to leave my case open, but the GPU still is loud long term it might be a good idea to get a new machine, but they are so much more expensive right now... I got mine like 8yrs ago for like 1900€, and it stayed future proof for yrs... now if I wanted to get a similar performance overkill, it would go into maybe even double that... tho also for 2k a nice machine can be obtained... problem is I don't have that kind of money which means I will have to pray this machine survives long enough for my financial ability to increase
A PC isn't a console you buy once and keep forever. It's a premium platform, but it has a major advantage: you can upgrade components and sell old ones to partially recoup the cost of the upgrade.Given the long-term socket support (shout out to AMD and thumbs down to Intel for regularly changing sockets), you can upgrade every other generation without replacing the rest. Replacing a graphics card is even easier. It turns out that It turns out that you always play on up-to-date hardware, and upgrade costs don't hit your pocket as hard, because the hardware isn't completely outdated yet and has a reasonable price on the secondary market.
