Graphics Card

Hi

I think this is in the right section. I would like to know if an Nvidia Geforce 9800GT card is suitable for Open Bve.
Comments and/or suggestions welcomed.

Thanks

Dellboy

Most graphics cards are fine for OpenBVE. I had a GeForce 6400 in an older PC which was no trouble. I'm using Radeon now, in laptop and desktop, and no problems with that either. The only thing I have known NOT to work is the built-in motherboard Intel graphics, which is usually not powerful enough.

I'm not a tech expert, someone will correct me if I'm wrong about this, but I believe if the card is stated to have support for OpenGL then I think you can be fairly confident it will be alright.

GeForce 9800GT is cool enough. Consider that I am developing on GeForce 7300... 9800GT would be a Shinkansen compared to that.

I have a GeForce 8400 GS 512MB and even this works fine with openbve. (It's smoother when playing)

Yes it will work with OpenBVE, I used to have a 8400 GS and then upgraded to a GeForce 210 which I currently overclocked, thinking to get a GTX 460 or 590 soon. If you want the maximum FPS you could also try game booster.

At the moment I've got a Hp with a ATI 512mb card and that performs well. However the laptop has a soundcard which causes the occasional stutter which is annoying. I am thinking of getting a Vaio e customised:

Intel® CoreTM i5-2450M, 2.5GHz
with 3 MB Smart Cache
Number of Cores: 2

4gb memory card
500gb data

AMD Radeon(TM) HD 7650M 2GB
AMD Radeon(TM) HD 7650M with dedicated Video Memory of 2 GB

Would that setup at £540 be good for Openbve, I would hope so!

As far as games go, OpenBVE isn't the most demanding. My first machine was only a bog-standard HP pentium office spec jobbie. I upgraded the ram to 2gig and stuck in a 512Mb GeForce 8400 card.

It wasn't the card that was the weakest link, it was the processor. I got a good performance with Ballyfeckin and NWM, but it wasn't up to handling First Brno and might have been challenged if I was using some of the recently available "trains on steroids" which are popular with some.

I'm of the opinion that increasing use of animated objects will demand more powerful processors, though the graphics cards generally in use are adequate.

@ Snowhill - I bought a Medion laptop which came with Radeon graphics and AMD processor. It works fine with BVE and cost me less than 350 euro online with a deal from the Medion shop. Recommend.

i have ;

That's all very impressive and points to the fact that you have a well-high end system. Lucky you.

Is that information provided by the system, or did you use some program used to show it?

The flip side is this, if you are testing your work on such a system then you cannot guarantee that your work is fit for those who have more humble apparatus.

Which was the whole point of starting this discussion, in order to find ways of rating the route\train requirements. The purpose isn't about your own equipment. Unless, of course, you wish to rate your work by stating that, "WARNING: This may not work unless you have Intel Core 2 Quad, 6Gb RAM . . . . . . . etc"

@ Graymac - about Intel onboard: Even that works, Brno is the only nnot working one.

It was ob canyouplayit in a google search some time back. Certain trains run on my lower end laptop no questions asked, others wont.

Its noy high end infacts id say its medium end system, and for 420 it was reasonably priced. I proposed this as we can ask the website where i got mu specs from to add openbve to there database, and then all sites can link to that site for them to check their system first. Just a thought not wanting to come across as bigheaded

@Quork - you're right - Intel on board does work (after a bit of tweaking with the game settings etc), but gents I'm beginning to think we might just be creating a rod for our own back here if, when releasing new material, we try to guestimate what effect it will have on every subscriber's PC or Laptop. It must be nigh on impossible to predict this with any degree of accuracy. Perhaps a "caveat" statement might do, like "Depending on the PC specifications and its age, users may experience varying levels of quality and performance". "Assistance and advice may be found at www.bveworldwide.forumotion.com (or something like this). Any other ideas, gents??

Cheers,

John

Not really, John. It's a bit of a catch-all like saying "May contain nut traces".
I'm afraid that we can't see a way of calculating ratings which would be any more accurate than a "good guess" .
Unless we can do better than that it's just another idea that's fine in theory but isn't going to go mainstream.

Thanks Guys for your input. It's nice to see that my post generated some debate as well

Dellboy

That's OK Dellboy, it's amazing what happens when the bars of the cage are rattled

Always will, Dellboy, particularly if Graymac and I are up and about! By the way, how's brother Rodney doing??

I can say that any display cards that supports OpenGL (which 99.99999% supports) can.

Rodders is doing ok the last time I saw him.

graymac wrote:The only thing I have known NOT to work is the built-in motherboard Intel graphics, which is usually not powerful enough.

Don't seem to be many problems with mine... Getting frames rates in the low 20s in most places. Drops to 17 at the lowest on the approach to Birmingham New Street, and when theres a lot of passing trains close together. But it's high enough for a smooth run...

By the way my specs are:

Intel i3 M350 @2.27 GHz (dual core)

4GB Ram

Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit.