PC Is It Worth Upgrading My Pc?

Discussion in 'TSW General Discussion' started by d_stevanov, Mar 16, 2019.

  1. d_stevanov

    d_stevanov Active Member

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    I'm considering upgrading my pc to get some better performance in game.
    I'd like to hear from people who have some more powerful hardware, is the situation any better for them. Right now I have i5 4690 and gtx970, and on ultra settings sometimes i have smooth 60fps, other times it drops below 30. Reducing graphic quality helps very little when fps drops, like when there are more trains around etc.
    So, my question is, can I expect a significant improvement from switching to something like i5 8600, or even some newer i7? What is the performance like for people who already have those cpu's? I doubt my gpu is the bottleneck here, but would like to hear opinions and experiences on that too.
     
  2. SamYeager270

    SamYeager270 Well-Known Member

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    If you're not going below 20fps then what's the problem? I strongly suggest you switch off the fps display and just try playing the game and you probably won't really notice the fps drops. I suspect you're more likely to suffer from stuttering when a train comes into view and I believe even top end systems are not immune to that.
     
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  3. TrainSim-Daniel

    TrainSim-Daniel Active Member

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    Hi,
    If you are running the game from an HDD I'd suggest investing in an SSD. This will improve load times and limit the frame drops which can be caused when textures can't be loaded fast enough. You've also not noted how much RAM you have so you may want to note this down as when RAM is exhausted frame dips can occur.
     
  4. d_stevanov

    d_stevanov Active Member

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    I have an ssd disk and 8 gb of ram, tsw process takes less than 3gb, so none of that is an issue.
    I did some research online, and also testing many different situations myself, and I came to conclusion that the actual problem can not be solved by just upgrading hardware. The biggest problem is occasional stuttering, every 10-20 sec, and this is actually a problem with game code, not the hardware/environment.
    Even if I degrade all settings to low/off, the stuttering still occurs in regular intervals, it just recovers more quickly. For example if I put all settings to ultra the game will freeze for 0,2 sec every 10 seconds, and if I put everything to low it will still freeze every 10 sec, but for a duration of 0,1 sec. (these are not actual numbers, just my an approximation, trying to explain how it feels)
    Basically every other game i have runs flawlessly, it's only tsw that stutters, and between these stutters, even tsw runs ok.
    Stuttering is most noticeable when running hst at full speed, so i used that for testing.
    The other problem is when fps drops and stays low in stations with many trains. This is where a better cpu might help.
     
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  5. Digital Draftsman

    Digital Draftsman Well-Known Member

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    As you have noted the game is poorly coded. It doesn't seem as though DTG have an intention of improving this either. Even when you run TSW on a ultra high spec machine you still get the issues you've described. If you look at the status of the hardware, even when you've got low FPS it's rarely ever running at 100% (GPU, CPU or RAM), so the hardware has excess resources, and that suggests that the way the game is coded means it's not capable of making full use of the those hardware resources. So unfortunately I don't think getting a better hardware will make much of a difference.
     
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  6. zero909

    zero909 Member

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    Absolutely agree with you on this, Sam. I for one really don't care if I have 20 or 60 fps (the latter i never have). My machine is even older than the TOs (i5-3470) but works fine for 95% of the time.
     
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  7. LeadCatcher

    LeadCatcher Well-Known Member

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    I find it rather amusing in about all game forums, this one not in particular, you will find threads about how poorly optimized the code for that game is. Again not just TSW or TS2019, but also in FSX, Prepar3d, X-plane 11, Skyrim, ... about any title really, you will find such a thread.
    Just an observation.
     
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  8. Digital Draftsman

    Digital Draftsman Well-Known Member

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    It's because multi-threaded programming is actually a difficult thing to implement, which is why it's common that games developers make a poor job of it, and why it's common people complain about it.

    Quite a lot of games can get away with sloppy code, but TSW is one which can't. DTG have decided to model the physics in great detail, which is great, but that's a lot of calculations which need to be done, so it's absolutely critical that the code is optimised. This becomes even more critical when you're intending to run the game on consoles. I've also been told by someone in the know that there's a lot of sloppy code left in there from the early days of development which should have been rewritten, but due to time contraints it was left as is and has since had newer code written on top, which means it's even more difficult to rewrite without breaking the newer code. It's basically a mess and the longer DTG leave it the more difficult it will become to put it right.

    As things stand, consoles already run TSW at less than 30fps in many places, so how on Earth can DTG expect to add new features without the game grinding to a halt? It's a problem which needs sorting and it's only going to restrict future development until it is fixed.
     
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  9. Louwe

    Louwe Member

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    Dear d_stevanov. I understand what you mean by a hardware upgrade. When I started playing TSW I had an AMD ryzen 5 1600x six core 3.60 Ghz. A Gforce gpu tx1050 and 2mb. That is a basic machine for FSX and Xplane11. I was satisfied with it despite the fact that you indeed had to reduce some settings, not ultra settings because that is too high for TSW and set the fps to 30. I found that if you set the shadow and effects to low and the screen percentage to 75, you can run the game smoothly.

    I have bought another gpu, a Gforce GTX1070 8mb, because I entered the world of VR. Everything is now on high except the shadow and effects, which consume real power from your system. (Tip, when you change the graphic settings, set your shadow and effect settings back down, because these are automatically set to high again). Nevertheless, you continue to drop fr, especially when large stations arrive, although that does not count for every route. GWE, RT, LIRR, NTP, WSR and NEC, for example, have no problems, but with MSB and RSN al lott.

    What also influences is the weather, with snow it costs much more power from the PC than when you drive in the summer with nice weather. It all depends on what you want and how much money you will pay for it, a fact in the computer world is (and remains): No matter how good you have your system, with half a year you will fall behind the facts again. My advice is, certainly, an upgrade is always good and you will enjoy it a lot, but look in your pouch and decide what you want to spend for it, because if you are disappointed, you feel the most pain there.
     
  10. d_stevanov

    d_stevanov Active Member

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    I don't know if it's just my imagination, but I have a feeling the game is stuttering less often since last patch, especially gwr. Also, night driving looks improved, as there is some light from the stars now, unlike before when everything was just completely black.
    Did anyone else notice these changes?
     
  11. Wolfy

    Wolfy Active Member

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    I have an older PC than the OP ... And it's AMD, which makes things even worse. lol

    AMD FX-8300 (8-core) @ 4.2GHz
    Sapphire R9 380X Nitro (4GB)
    24GB RAM @ 1600MHz
    SeaSonic S-12II Bronze PSU (620W)

    - My CPU1 performance maxes out at 55% on even the busy routes, and overall CPU has never gone above 60% usage.
    - The game seems to hit my GFX card more than the CPU, as it tops-out at 3875 at busy times, but CPU stays pretty low.
    - I have never noticed RAM usage go above 7GB at any time during game play.
    - My FPS drops down to 17FPS at busy places (especially at stations with heavy rain / snow enabled), but otherwise stays at 30FPS.

    This is on a 23" AOC monitor at 1920 x 1080, locked to 30FPS with all settings on ultra, using both TAA and FXAA filtering types.


    Doesn't matter if you buy a £600 PC from a department store, or a £60,000 PC from NASA.... You will always have stuttering, and it won't make the in-game bugs go away either.
     
  12. willemz

    willemz New Member

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  13. d_stevanov

    d_stevanov Active Member

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    Maybe you should consider switching off your pc, so you can't post stupid things on forums any more?
     
  14. LeadCatcher

    LeadCatcher Well-Known Member

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    Actual switching off the FPS counter is a valid argument. The developer of X-plane even has put forth the same suggestion. Some people get so obsessed with the number, they forget to evaluate the experience. Everyone will have their own idea on what is ideal, but I know for me, the counter is not needed for me to evaluate the smoothness of the sim.

    Also in a mature discussion, calling one stupid does nothing for your argument.
     
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  15. Callum B.

    Callum B. Well-Known Member

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    What you're describing is a CPU bottleneck. Get the CPU with the fastest IPC that you can afford with 4 or more cores (this generally means Intel, but AMD is offering better IPC nowadays). This game is severely CPU-bound because of the physics and scenery, so a GPU upgrade shouldn't be necessary unless you really want more VRAM/lower TDP.

    For example: I'm running a GTX 1070 with a Xeon W3680 OC'd to 4GHz, and I can run Assassin's Creed Odyssey at ultra 1080p 60FPS no problem, but I range from anywhere between 30-60 FPS at ultra 1080p in TSW depending on scenery/train density, with GPU usage hovering around the 60-80% usage range. The tight motion blur helps to mask the FPS drops, but it certainly isn't a fix for someone with eyes like mine that are sensitive to these sort of things.
     
  16. d_stevanov

    d_stevanov Active Member

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    So, if anyone cares, today I upgraded my cpu from above mentioned i5 4690 to i7 8700. I kept my old graphics card, gtx 970 for now.
    I did not have much time to play with trains, but what I can immediately tell is that it feels much smoother now. Maximum framerate remains roughly the same, as the gpu is obviously the bottleneck here, but where I see the most improvement is in stations and when there are ai trains around. Framreate drops are less severe, and stuttering is gone.
    I tested lirr in Jamaica where I was getting as low as 17 fps. Now it hardly goes below 30. Also where I see big improvement is when quickly switching between cameras, and quickly moving mouse around with '2' camera. There is absolutely no micro stuttering, camera switches instantly, and it all feels much smoother now.
    It was worth upgrading, imo.
     
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  17. KiwiLE

    KiwiLE Well-Known Member

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    We do care! Sounds great but I do think another 8GB RAM will ensure you don't have bottlenecks for TSW and anything else you may do.
    I run a 970 and find it great, remember, a super "all singing" mega PC will get frame stutter. Take a look at the link for further tweaks and performance boosts which seem to add something to fps also.

    https://www.boredgamer.co.uk/2018/03/20/windows-10-ultimate-gaming-tweak-guide/
     
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  18. d_stevanov

    d_stevanov Active Member

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    I also got 16gb of ram (ddr4 obviously) and switched from win 7 to win 10. I suspect faster ram may have to do something with performance boost.
    As I said, I didn't have much time for testing, but the first impression is that stuttering is almost completely gone. Will test in more depth soon. I'm also curious to see if overclocking ram and tweaking windows 10 will improve performance even further.
     
  19. TrainSim-Daniel

    TrainSim-Daniel Active Member

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    Glad to hear your upgrade has worked out so well for you. I'd be interested in any testing you do with higher ram speeds or tighter timings and how they impact performance.

    Windows 10 has a "Game Mode" which should limit how much system resources are dedicated elsewhere which you may want to test out:
    https://www.windowscentral.com/how-enable-disable-game-mode-windows-10
     

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