I have a 320MB GeForce 8800 GTS and 250 US$

[Cardinal51]

Don't forget the power needed by your other hardware. Motherboard, hard drive(s), RAM, fans, etc.

The 600Watt was recommended by the local store. So I assume it is ok.

But unfortunately I have big problems now. Yesterday morning while waking up the PC from sleep mode I had a bluescreen, but I rebooted and all was ok. As off yesterday evening Win7 does not start anymore, it stalls and displays the frozen-animated Win7 logo.

This morning I managed the boot in safe mode.

What next ? What can / should I do ?

[arizonachris]

Gonna have to try and do a repair of Win 7. That blue screen should not have happened with a simple video card and PSU swap. Before trying to repair the software, shut down Windows and do a "wiggle" test. Make sure every wire, connector and component inside the PC is nice and tightly connected, including the RAM sticks. That big 24 pin power plug may not be in all the way.

OK, try it again. See if Win 7 will boot normally. If not, press the reset switch on front of the PC and start tapping the F8 key. Once you see the text screen with all the options, choose to repair Windows. You can also do this using the original Windows install CD. It will take a while, but will not damage any of your files and folders. Hope that fixes things.

[Cardinal51]

Gonna have to try and do a repair of Win 7. That blue screen should not have happened with a simple video card and PSU swap.

Did that this morning and Win7 said, after being buzy for eons, that it could not be fixed.

Before trying to repair the software, shut down Windows and do a "wiggle" test. Make sure every wire, connector and component inside the PC is nice and tightly connected, including the RAM sticks. That big 24 pin power plug may not be in all the way.

Also did the wiggle test this morning, mainly shaking the case and focussing on and checking all stuff on the mothyerboard

what I DID NOT do was checking the power connectors to PSU and HDs, did that after you adviced me to do so

And . . . . . tadaa . . . . the power connector of the second hard drive was loose. When I pressed it in properly I also remembered that during those failed boot ups that harddisk had not been listed by the BIOS anymore. Dang, so I was pretty sure that was the problem, and I, I mean you, where right. During reboot all was ok !

Chris.jpg

Thanks a lot Chris !

[arizonachris]

Glad it's up and running. It is really amazing what can get knocked loose when you work "inside the box" so to speak. Then you find a screw floating around (noticed you said you did the wiggle and shake tests)

[Cardinal51]

I have been testing the new card for a couple of days now. And I like it Thank you all for all your opinions and advice

Still trying to find out what the best setting in TS2012 are.

Current settings:
TSX = ticked
Resolution = 1920x1080
Full Screen = ticked
Texture Filtering = Ansiotropic x 8
Anti-Aliasing = MSAAx8
Partical Density = medium
Passenger Density = medium
Shader Quality = high
View Distance = highest
Terrain Texture = highest
Water Quality = very high
Object Texture = highest
Scenery Detail = 10
Shadow Quality = highest
Low Detasil Shadows = unticked
Procedural Flora = ticked
Addaptive bloom = ticked
Depth Of Field = ticked

It runs perfectly on the scenarios I tried (mainly C&O Alleghany and San Bernadino). But I think in busy scenario with lots of Art.Intel. stuff in it I might need to tune it down a bit.

Do you guys and gals change settings when switching scenarios / routes ?

Only yesterday I started experimenting with the AA setting. Did not try anything over MSAAx8. Does this setting rely on the Gpu or the Cpu ?

[arizonachris]

Only thing I do with the settings (both load screen and in game screen) is put them on high. Then I leave them alone. Nothing custom. Those last four items unchecked, they will kill frame rates big time. TSX on. 1920x1080. I get decent frame rates. Decent depends on the route of course.

Trying that beta driver you found in a little while. No, I don't change things between routes. If I have to go to that much trouble, I won't run it. Same with any other video game. no seperate profiles. With 150 games thru Steam alone, that would be a real nightmare to make seperate profiles in the Nvidia Control Panel. Pffffftttttt.