Upgrade?

stormbreaker · 10 Apr 2016 at 19:27

It's been a while since I did an upgrade to my system. I've been using my laptop mainly but have returned to my PC.

Is it worth me doing a motherboard bundle upgrade as I'm happy with my case? All system details are in my signature.

I do all my work on my laptop so it's purely for gaming; specifically Train Simulator 2016.

Kind regards,

mickyflinn · 10 Apr 2016 at 19:38

Does your system run train Simulator 2016 well ? whats the most demanding games you play or likely to play and at what resoloution ?

stormbreaker · 10 Apr 2016 at 19:44

It does struggle on some routes. This is probably the most demanding game. 1220x1080.

stormbreaker · 10 Apr 2016 at 19:45

Sometimes I think the sound processing slows it down a fair bit. I'd also like to be able to use SSAA settings, but this makes the game juddery.

Gabbatek · 10 Apr 2016 at 19:47

Buy a better cooler and overclock the crap out of the cpu

or buy a new gpu

or buy a whole new mobo/cpu/gpu combo

stormbreaker · 10 Apr 2016 at 19:57

Is the GPU that bad?

mickyflinn · 10 Apr 2016 at 21:37

stormbreaker said:
Is the GPU that bad?

Nope the 750ti is fine especially at that res its probably your cpu, a decent overclock would help.

Do you have a budget for upgrades ?

stormbreaker · 10 Apr 2016 at 23:04

Well I guess a maximum of £200 but I could go further if I were to do a motherboard bundle.

pastymuncher · 11 Apr 2016 at 11:29

For TS2016 I would say a better gpu would help a lot along with overclocking the cpu. Having Steam on a ssd makes it smoother as well. My pc can run TS2016 just about maxxed out at 1920x1200 and it's nice and smooth. I still get the same micro judder that everyone else gets every now and then but that's down to the game engine not pc components. Hopefully they will fix that when they move to the new game engine.

stormbreaker · 11 Apr 2016 at 23:02

I thought the GPU was fairly good? How does it compare to a Radeon 6870?

What sort of FPS were you getting?

pastymuncher · 12 Apr 2016 at 09:29

Your gpu is what I would call the higher end of the low end cards and TS2016 can be very demanding depending on the route. I can't say that I have ever checked the fps but it's silky smooth with the settings turned all the way up and looks fantastic which is good enough for me. I will check for you in a couple of days when I get my main pc back up and running. I have over 600 hours on TS2016 and have most of the UK stock and routes available and the only one that makes my pc break a sweat is Just Trains Western Mainlines due to the amount of vegetation they used. Going by posts over at UKTrainsim they will be releasing a patch for that at some point.

6870 vs 750ti comparison here.

stormbreaker · 13 Apr 2016 at 20:13

Would it be wise to change my CPU? I thought the game was more CPU intensive rather than GPU?

What GPU would you recommend?

If I over clocked would I need to change the cooler?

pastymuncher · 15 Apr 2016 at 20:50

I have just had a run on WCML over Shap with the class 70 and was getting a solid 70fps with all details set to max, FXAA + 8x MSAA and Anisotropic at 8x at 1920x1200. Are there any routes you would particularly like me to report my fps on for you?

If you are using the stock cooler then yes you will need a better one to overclock.

If you change your cpu you need a new motherboard and ram as well if going for Skylake and that's going to be expensive.

crapler8 · 17 Apr 2016 at 15:45

depends on how demanding you are on gaming

stormbreaker · 22 Apr 2016 at 12:52

South London Network and London to Faversham please. If I can get away without changing CPU for the time being then so much the better.

I guess I'm demanding when it comes to gaming because I would like the best experience possible.

pastymuncher · 22 Apr 2016 at 13:16

Don't have South London Network as I am fed up with DTG giving us small routes with basically the same stock. I have London-Faversham though so I will have a blast on that and report back.

pastymuncher · 22 Apr 2016 at 14:03

Just did the first of the standard scenario's for London-Faversham, Training: Class 395 TVM Signalling and fps was fluctuating between the mid 50's to mid 60's with a momentary drop to 45 at a couple of points and a max of 72fps. Settings are as stated above, all details set to max, FXAA + 8x MSAA and Anisotropic at 8x at 1920x1200.

stormbreaker · 22 Apr 2016 at 20:14

Mmm, that's interesting. Thank you.

On London to Faversham I'm lucky to get 20fps especially at St Pancras end of the route and my settings are not as high.

pastymuncher · 23 Apr 2016 at 13:14

My gpu is much more powerful than your one. As a rule, upgrading the gpu gives the biggest fps gain. I no longer have any hdd's in my system either and Steam being on a SSD helps with TS2016.

pastymuncher · 23 Apr 2016 at 13:30

OK, looking at a comparison between our cpu's on Anandtech bench my cpu is leagues ahead of yours and that's at stock speed although there are no gaming results in it. Mine has another 1Ghz overclock on that as well. On top of that TS2016 seems to favour Intel cpu's over AMD ones. Maybe a new cpu/mobo/ram will help you with TS2016 but a 6600k is still going to be held back a lot by your 750ti in this game. Whichever way you look at it that gpu of yours needs upgrading to get the best out of the game and I would rather advise you to upgrade the gpu first to see if things improve much before spending several hundreds of pounds on a new mobo/cpu/ram to go with your 750ti and see little improvement for the money you have spent.