Got A New Dell Laptop

[UPSD70ACe]

Hi all I just got me a new Dell Laptop I am sure lovin it very cool Laptop.Here are the specs for it I am sure it is good enough for TS2014.

Dell Notebook Inspiron M731R (5735) i5735-322sLV . AMD Quad Core A8-5545 accelerated processor (4M cache, 1.7GHz). Windows 8.1. 8GB Memory (DDR3, 1333MHz, 2 DIMM). AMD Radeon HD 8510G graphics. 1TB hard drive (5400RPM). DVD+/-RW drive. 8-in-1 media card reader. Bluetooth. 17.3" HD (1600x900) display w/ webcam. Wireless-N. Waves MaxxAudio. Non-backlit keyboard, numberic keypad, touch pad. 6-cell lithium ion battery. HDMI, 2-USB 3.0, 2-USB2.0. 16-1/4"W x 10-3/5" x 1-1/4"H. 10.20LBS

Question I plan to install TS2014 on Laptop soon,Then I need to transfer all the 3rd party Routes rolling stock etc from my desktop PC.So what do you guys recommend I use?

[GSkid]

Well I'm curious as to the performance you get with it. Some people say you can't really play the sim on a laptop very well, but that's just not the case. Maybe in comparison to a desktop. Your CPU is quad as opposed to my dual-core, but more cores does little to help Railworks at this time.

I looked at your 8510G (384 cores) to compare to my built-in 7520G (192 cores) ... (NOT my dedicated 1GB 7670M card...see my specs in my sig). On Notebookcheck.net, they have your GPU listed, but they haven't benched it yet. They figured your GPU chip is roughly the same computing power as a 6550M dedicated card, so I'll use that to give a ball park of performance.

So I'll say 6550M vs. 7520G using their default tests (they have others) High numbers are better......

993 vs. 559 --- 3DMark11 P GPU
3152.5 vs. 1814 --- 3DM Vant. P GPU
7143 vs. 4332 --- 3DMark06

I tested Railworks with my CPU in base 2.7GHz speed to somewhat match your CPU's Turbo Core speed. I suppose I could have lowered my clock speed to your 1.7GHz, but I'll just go with this for now. I have no idea what my 7520G's performance is in 3.2GHz turbo core mode because it switches over to my 7670M dedicated card when you do that. I'd have to take the card out to see and I'm not gonna bother. So this test doesn't account for the clock speed increase YOUR GPU would also encounter in turbo core mode.

Here's my test at 2.7GHz....

The settings I did NOT alter for this test.... Scenery Quality - Highest / Scenery Density - 10 / View Distance - Highest / Water Quality - Highest / Procedural Flora - OFF / Adaptive Bloom - OFF / Depth of Field - OFF / Headlight Flares - OFF

I chose Donner Pass and the standard scenario #1 "Donner Pass" with the GP9 on point for this test. The first figure is the framerate when you boot up into outside view and the second is in cab view. No lighting on. Never moved the train.

RESULTS...

1600x900 / Anti-Aliasing - FXAA+8 x MSAA / Texture Filtering - Anisotropic x 8 / Shadow Quality - Highest --- (10fps outside/14fps in-cab)
1600x900 / Anti-Aliasing - FXAA+8 x MSAA / Texture Filtering - Anisotropic x 8 / Shadow Quality - OFF --- (13fps outside/20fps in-cab)
1600x900 / Anti-Aliasing - OFF / Texture Filtering - Linear / Shadow Quality - Highest --- (13fps outside/16fps in-cab)
1600x900 / Anti-Aliasing - OFF / Texture Filtering - Linear / Shadow Quality - OFF --- (20fps outside/23fps in-cab)

I get much better frame rates with my 1GB dedicated card BTW.

I would suggest you drop the resolution in-game from 1600x900 down to 1280x768 on your laptop display.... and from 1920x1080 down to 1360x768 if you output through HDMI to a 1080p television. Doing so increases your frame rate.... while keeping the aspect ratio correct and maintaining a sufficiently high resolution. Trust me here... the increase in frame rate is well worth it vs. the resolution lost. Especially in the case of televisions. 1920x1080 is just gonna butcher your frame rate on your laptop in this sim.

Don't forget to turn up your CPU to turbo speed!

[UPSD70ACe]

How do I turn up my CPU Turbo Speed?Also I am sure it will take all day tom download install TS2014 on my new laptop.

[GSkid]

How do I turn up my CPU Turbo Speed?Also I am sure it will take all day tom download install TS2014 on my new laptop.

There is a thing called AMD Switchable Graphics. It's for the purpose of saving battery life and to a lessor extent, power consumption from your outlet once plugged in. In my laptop's case, it allows you to individually assign programs a power mode. For programs like 3D games, you can assign them to run in turbo core mode (called "High Performance"...in my case that's 3.2GHz) so they run at maximum performance. But you can assign a non-3d graphics intensive program (like a word processor or internet browser) a "Power Saving" mode...2.7GHz default or lower.

Usually it auto-detects that it's a graphically intensive program and loads it up in turbo mode automatically. But I assign them anyways just to be safe. What it does allow you to do is to purposely slow down the clock speed of programs if you want to (as I did in the case of my benchmarks I made for you at 2.7GHz). In my case I can lower my clock speed all the way down to 1.4GHz.

Here's a picture of what the individual program settings look like in Catalyst Control Center......

[UPSD70ACe]

Stared downloading this morning at 8:15 am still going as I type.

[UPSD70ACe]

done running great finished downloading at 9:40 am.Okay now what will be the easiest way to transfer the?3rd pat Routes Rolling Stock & Etc?I still have TS2014 on my Desktop PC hope ya can give me help soon.

[arizonachris]

Two ways you can transfer files, Tim. One is to use a USB Pen Drive, copy the files from your PC onto that little drive, then paste them onto the new laptop. (Always copy/ paste so you keep the original files on the PC, just in case.)

Or, using a USB cable, hook the laptop to the PC direct. Use Windows Explorer, from the laptop, to find the files on the PC. Again, copy/ paste the files over. Don't just drag and drop files, the originals on the PC will be gone.

[Chacal]

Or, using a USB cable, hook the laptop to the PC direct. Use Windows Explorer, from the laptop, to find the files on the PC.

What?

Not with just any USB cable.
Last time I looked, you needed a special transfer cable and software.
Something like this:
http://www.usbgear.com/USBG-NODRV.html

[arizonachris]

Pretty sure I've done it before with just a regular USB cable, but I could be wrong. I know I've done it over LAN with just an ethernet cable.

[Chacal]

I often work with colleagues at the same table, our laptops are 3 feet apart, and the easiest way to transfer files is via Google Drive. So the files travel a few thousand miles and end up three feet apart.

It boggles the mind that we don't have a simple built-in technology, based maybe on bluetooth, to transfer between computers without installing software, cables, etc.

[arizonachris]

Interesting. Sad, but I guess it makes sense.

Probably the best thing for Tim to do, then, is use a USB "flash" drive. Has to be large enough to hold all the files he wants to transfer.

[Chacal]

Or connect the two computers to the same network and share a drive.

[arizonachris]

Tim told me in Steam Chat Saturday afternoon he was using Google Drive, as you suggested, Chacal. Guess he'll post on how it turned out. Maybe.

[Chacal]

That's a huge volume of data to send on the net