Graphic Card advice needed

My pc isn't exactly state of the art but despite the spec being better (on paper) than my old pc it doesn't run GTL as well.

This is the spec;

Processor: Intel(R) Xeon(R)  CPU W3520 @2.67GHZ 4 Core

Ram: 12GB

System: Windows 10 Pro 64 bit, x64 based processor

Now i don't know if that's good or bad for a pc but GTL stutters if i select TV cam to watch a race. I think the problem is that the Graphics Adapter is inbuilt on the motherboard whereas my old pc had a separate card i installed. I even used the 4 GB patch and it seemed to make things worse.

So i'm thinking of getting a graphics card but wondered which one would be most suitable? I don't want some mega-tech thing that costs more than most of the cars i've owned, just something that will run GTL/GTR2 smoothly on the machine i have.

Any suggestions welcome

Well, I have an old grafic card model,but it works to perfection with both games. It's not easy to get one new, because is a very old model, but if you find one, buy it immediately.
It's a NVidia GeForce 9800 GT. And it's the third time I have this model.
I have an average of 100/180 fps, using maximun options in game.
Good luck, my dear Mel.

BTW: you're not going to have a good result with a inbuilt grafic card on the motherboard.
I only use mine in emergencies, with an awful result in game, almost impossible.

Cheers Ney. I'll have a look around, there's probably some second hand on Evilbay which'll suit my needs. 
And budget... 

Are you considering a new one, a second hand one is risky as the fans bearings may be worn.

What ever you do get Get an Nvidea do not go near an AMD.

I only use Nvidea they have  lower power consumption plus they do not get so hot.

https://www.novatech.co.uk/products/palit-geforce-gtx-1050ti-stormx-4gb-gddr5-graphics-card/ne5105t018g1-1070f.html

Better

https://www.novatech.co.uk/products/asus-nvidia-geforce-gtx-1650-super-pheonix-oc-4gb-gddr6-graphics-card/90yv0e40-m0na00.html

Graphics cards are expensive now £140 upwards is the price new

Mel have you installed directx on your machine, if not download the redisributable package" directx 9.0c" from microsoft and install it
it it may fix your issues.

I can send it, if you cannot find it.

Second hand card minimum spec Nvidea GTX 750 Ti I have two PC's using them for GTR2 about £70 ish on fleabay.

Before spending out on a card Zee you may do well to check the interweb for GTL-Win 10 problems and fixes,  until recently (6 months or so) I had a decent low/mid machine with a mid/low card (GTX660) and running GTR2 and GTL without a problem...fast and full of mods (thought it did take a few minutes to start GTR2 because of the quantity of data)

Now a New PC and a better card and Windows 10 sees me all to often looking at my desktop wondering where the car I was driving has gone. (and it's not just GTR2, it's other games/programs too)

Windows 10 will not allow me to install GTL from my disc and when it did it simply didn't allow me acess to my PC afterwards (I had to start in safe mode and remove GTL)

To put it simply, Win 10 is a problem that won't go away...

So it might pay to check out compatability and DX versions and stuff first...

I don't think Windows 10 is your problem Pete, I've been running it with GTL and GTR2 since 10 came out.

Did you install GTL/GTR2 using the Troubleshoot compatibility and some say using Run as Administrator?

Hi Pete! I changed my old Windows for the Win 10 some months ago, (with Captain GeeDee help, of course!), and I have no problems at all. I have 3 GTL installs, 1 GTR2, 1 P&G and 1 EuroTrucks 2, with zero tricks.
Good luck for you!

Thanks for the advice gentlemen!

Sadly, a new card is out of the question at the moment  That'll have to wait while the finances recover, money's tighter than a ducks backside ride now

I installed Direct X on there after i changed from Windows 7 and haven't had any trouble running GTL in Windows 10. It's just in TV mode when there's even a couple of cars on screen it stutters badly as the framerate drops way down. I'm convinced the (lack of a) card must be causing the 'bottleneck' as the rest of the spec is way better than my old machine which would run up to 30 cars before i noticed any slow-down.

I did find a used Nvidea GEforce 9800 GT for the hefty sum of £21 delivered so i figured that's worth a punt. Hopefully it'll improve the performance so i can at least enjoy watching the odd race or two. I'll know later in the week when i've installed it    

Now, where did i put my hammer?

hi Zee, nice "oldschool" graphic card, easy to run 50 cars (not forza models of course)

well, as you use a Xeon I suppose you have a good power supply (400w?)...also suggest you to monitor the temperature ever, just to prevent catastrofic cooler fan failure.. good luck man

Reinstall directx if the game runs fine its odd the tv replay does not work.

Zee wrote:

Thanks for the advice gentlemen!

Sadly, a new card is out of the question at the moment  That'll have to wait while the finances recover, money's tighter than a ducks backside ride now

I installed Direct X on there after i changed from Windows 7 and haven't had any trouble running GTL in Windows 10. It's just in TV mode when there's even a couple of cars on screen it stutters badly as the framerate drops way down. I'm convinced the (lack of a) card must be causing the 'bottleneck' as the rest of the spec is way better than my old machine which would run up to 30 cars before i noticed any slow-down.

I did find a used Nvidea GEforce 9800 GT for the hefty sum of £21 delivered so i figured that's worth a punt. Hopefully it'll improve the performance so i can at least enjoy watching the odd race or two. I'll know later in the week when i've installed it    

Now, where did i put my hammer?

Did you try the trick of being able to access all cores on your PC for GTL, which only runs on one, unless you tell it otherwise?

https://trackaholics.forumotion.com/t5936-simple-cpu-tool-for-more-fps

Good luck chuck!

I've finally recieved the 'new' Nvidea 9800 GT graphics card today and installed it. I downloaded the latest drivers for it and there's a definate improvement but i think there's more to come...

To answer a couple of questions;

Freeracer: the psu is 470w so should be up to the job.

Gee: i've installed that core access thing and that brought more improvement as did ticking the Fullscreen Anti Aliasing box in config. It offers 6 levels, which should i use?

Dougie: I installed DirectX 9C as you suggested and that helped a lot too but there's still a bit of 'judder' with a lot (up to 36 in GTL) of cars on screen.

What would be a good framerate? I used Ctrl F to see what it was and at Oulton Island with 36 cars it went between 40fps with a lot of cars on screen to 400+fps with just 1 or 2 on screen.

Can anyone think of anything else that could be causing the jerkiness on TV cam? There's a massive improvement from yesterday but i'd like to know i can run a full grid smothly if possible.

Thanks for the help guys, it's much appreciated.

Your PSU is fine I only use 450w on 5 pc's
The more cars there are bigger the load on the graphics card
Your framerate is fine your card is not super powerful especially on bigger screens
shadows set to medium you may have to drop down the other values too
Download latest graphics drivers from Nvidea don't just update.
Go on their site download the complete package and do a manual installation reboot PC.

Go into the PC BIOS and disable the onboard graphics reboot pc.
Tv cams issue is odd, can you try a vanilla install of GTL just to test if it still does it.
Its done it with your onboard and your new graphics card, if it still does it you can at least rule out your install of GTL & its summit else I will ponder on it.

Report back.

Also make sure you have the latest version of Java installed I think that may help.

fatguts wrote:

can you try a vanilla install of GTL just to test if it still does it.
Its done it with your onboard and your new graphics card, if it still does it you can at least rule out your install of GTL & its summit else I will ponder on it.

Report back.

I finally had chance to install a clean version of GTL and it runs that fine with the original cars. I even installed Oulton Island where it was noticably jerky on TV cam and it's smooth with a good framerate using maximum cars on the circuit (34 iirc).

The settings were on full apart from shadows which were at medium. Setting those to full did drop the framerate but not to the point where it became too noticable. I think the lowest was about 60fps with full shadows and around 110 with them on medium.

It seems the problem is more to do with the cars added to it. I've all sorts of stuff floating about the 'modding' install so i'll try and do some testing of individual mods in the vanilla GTL and see what i can find...

Well that proves its not your card or a windows issue its with your original install of GTL somewhere ?

I can see a massive new install happening lol wish I had a £1 for every time I have had to do it lol.

Thats why I use ssd drives they don't corrupt so easily no bad sectors and all that.
(never had one play up yet fingers crossed).

I read somewhere that you could make the PC use multiple cores for GTL and GTR2 but I can't remember when or where I read it...
My PC is really laggy with 'instant replays' near the end of long (3 hour) races! is that normal?

(Rizen5, 1050 card, 16gDDR4, 1tb SSD. not the best but should be good enough)

Well good enough GTL\GTR2 is designed to run on a single core never had any luck using these multi core programs made no difference if you have a decent PC you don't need them.

Pete Conway wrote:

I read somewhere that you could make the PC use multiple cores for GTL and GTR2 but I can't remember when or where I read it...
My PC is really laggy with 'instant replays' near the end of long (3 hour) races! is that normal?

(Rizen5, 1050 card, 16gDDR4, 1tb SSD. not the best but should be good enough)

https://trackaholics.forumotion.com/t5936-simple-cpu-tool-for-more-fps

It does work, contrary to what fatguts says. I tried with and without with noticeable better frame rates

I will test it to within an inch of its life. I don't think I have used this particular one though

Conclusion: This one actually works used it on my PC with my worst graphics card Nvidea GTX 750Ti
increased the framerate by about 25% running grids of over 25 cars, track hat files rebuilt more reliably
No stuttering on the graphics game ran more smoothly

Definitely give it a try.