Trainz/Hardware Requirements

The following is an attempt at a realistic minimum set of hardware specifications for Trainz.

The aim is to display a high enough number of frames per second so the trains movement looks realistic. Normally 24 fps is used for films so that can be used as a reference.

The forum has some hardware benchmarking threads so different machines can be compared.`

Trainz seems to be very dependant on the video card and the amount of memory on the machine. A 2.4 GHz P4 cpu with 2 gigs of memory and an ATI 850 XT PE video card will give acceptable performance at the low end.

• Processor: With Windows XP 2.6GHz. With Windows Vista probably something roughly twice as powerful. There is considerable debate as to whether or not Trainz makes effective use of multiple cores in dual or quad core processors. One SLI benchmark saw a small increase in performance when a dual core processor had one core disabled, others claim multiple cores are used. Given the basic program was written some time ago and the general feeling amongst programmers that writing code that can make effective use of multiple cores for gaming is difficult it is unlikely that Trainz can make use of more than one core.
• RAM: With Windows XP at least 1GB. With Windows Vista at least 2GB. Adding RAM beyond these figures may or may not improve performance, depending on the layout. More complex layouts can make use of more memory. A major cause of stuttering is memory shortage, Trainz can make use of 2 gigs of memory, XP likes 512mb so 2.5 gigs of memory is the most that Trainz can make use of on a 32 bit version of XP. Running 64 bit Vista with 8 gigs of memory has given satisfactory performance for some users.
• Video board: The program was written using OpenGL on nVidia video cards but runs well on ATI usually running directX. At least an nVidia 7600GT 256MB or equivalent. The power of the video board's processor is of critical importance to the performance of Trainz.
• Hard disk: At least 10GB of free space.

The program may run with a lower spec computer but only with severe stuttering. Even a much more powerful computer will struggle with a complex layout.

Choice of content, both layout objects and rolling stock, also affects performance. Some objects are significantly more visually complex than others. In addition a variety of different types of objects has far more effect on performance than multiple copies of the same type of object. For example, a train with fifteen identical coal wagons will have less impact on performance than a train with fifteen different types of wagons.