My graphics card and pc are older than you. Advice appreciated.

[Jakal31]

Hello everyone.
I am very new to GSCE and just recently purchased through Steam after playing the Copa demo. Hooked immediately and have a feeling I am quickly becoming addicted to sim racing.

I'm looking for advice from those using older graphics cards and pc's on optimizing my settings so that the sim runs smoother with higher frame rates. I know I can't be the only poor boy out here playing with a dinosaur and in all honesty that is a lot of the reason I chose this game to be my first true sim experience.....it will basically run (albeit not very "nice" looking) on just about anything. Proof of that is in my specs. I'm running an Intel D805 with 2 gb RAM...single channel DDR @ 199mhz (not sure if I need to include that, but will anyways. Not well versed on this stuff yet, so take it easy on me, please. )
GPU is an old 128mb Nvidia Geforce 6200 Turbo cache.....
Windows 7 32 bit OS...

So, now that some of you are done laughing can anyone direct me to a thread or two regarding older graphics cards such as these? Anyone else running something similar? Any advice on optimizing my fps?

I've been through the nvidia control panel and have it set to override in game stuff....the easy stuff.
Have my settings low. The game is obviously playable, I wouldn't really waste time working with it if it wasn't, but I'm generally getting about 25 to 30 fps. AA off...etc etc..(anything that can slow the game down that can be set through the in game display settings).....

I'm just wondering if there is any other ways I can possibly get a higher fps (consistently)....I don't really care much about maxing out the cars on the track and stuff like that. I'm content at this time just logging laps and getting accustomed to sim racing. Steep learning curve (that I LOVE) and I have no problem just throwing 5 or so AI on the track for a "single race" when I do decide to do some racing. I don't even care if the game looks a bit "ugly"....given that I know what a dinosaur this pc and GPU are I'd just like to increase my fps a bit more so it's a bit smoother. Really sucks when you're running a buck eighty into a corner and the fps drops (mostly just on certain courses, certain parts of the course) into the teens and the brakes and steering input lag so much I'm in the wall before it responds.....hehe.

Any advice or direction would be greatly appreciated.

I plan to upgrade fairly soon. Just really cash strapped atm and can't put the money into it at this exact moment, so just fishing around seeing if I get any hits. Thanks in advance everyone.

 

[Slalom823]

I run a pretty modest setup, but it is a little more advanced than yours. I did have a 7800gt two years ago with this sim though. Turn off special effects, turn off shadows, limit visible AI down to a lower amount. 8,12,15 etc. Then turn down track detail, player, and especially opponent detail. It should be somewhat playable.

I would also suggest considering a second hand graphics card upgrade at some point. I got a used gtx460 after playing gsce a few months, and have just recently upgraded to a gtx560ti. The nice thing is you can find older outdated cards for fairly cheap if you look around.

 

[Jakal31]

Thanks for the reply.
I've basically done all the things you mention. In another thread I saw mention of eliminating the race timer as well, so that time of day doesn't change...and potentially eliminating replays (which I could see possibly helping)....in regards to that though, I'm not yet comfortable enough with the configuration files outside of the game to go messing around with them. Still need to do some a bit more reading before I get into that.

A guy I know has a Geforce 9500 which I might get, and from what I've seen in benchmark testing I looked at online, I might be able to play with a bit higher settings there or maybe draw a bit more fps from it.

Again, I'm not really concerned about "looks" as much as I am nice frame rate so that the sim feels nice and smooth. I was just wondering if there was anything (outside what you mentioned and I've already done) that I could do to improve fps (without upgrading, which is going to take me some time)

I am going to keep looking around for an updated gpu though. I'm just concerned that my cpu won't be able to keep up if I go with too much card.....I'm not yet really versed on a lot of these things and only got back into pc gaming and sims in the last 3 months or so, so I'm still learning as I go. I know a lot of the newer cards require their own power source and I don't know how comfortable I am going that route, so I would like to find something a bit more modern that will still operate solely on the PCI-e....

Some of the other online games I play give one the ability "enable console" and configure from there, but I am under the assumption that this must be done in the game folder(s) with this sim, would you happen to know if I am correct on that assumption?
I've got a few other games that many have told me were "unplayable.......won't even load" on my gpu and I run them in the mid 40s and 50s fps every single day......lol......so, I know I have the ability to mess around with the stuff when/if it will work with my current set up, I just don't want to go in guns blazing and mess up something I can't fix without having to completely reinstall the game......

Thanks again.

 

[Slalom823]

I am far from an expert in this area though, so hopefully one of the guys that know about these things a little more in depth will chime in. I totally understand the idea of smooth and performance over graphics though!

 

[Apatride]

2 things you can do for free are trying to upgrade to Windows 10, retrieve the key and do a full clean reinstall of Windows 10. It is supposed to be optimized for gaming with all systems and you should be elligible for a free upgrade. The second thing would be to reinstall your system and only install the strict minimum, this should improve the performance quite a bit.
After that, there is no miracle. A good GPU will definitely give you the best increase in perfs for the money, even if, as you guessed, your CPU will be the next issue and then, if you want to upgrade it, you probably will need to change the motherboard and ram. In other words, almost buying a new PC. Amazon sells "upgrade kits" that tend to be good value.

 

[Jakal31]

Thanks for the response, Apatride. However, I'll pass on the windows 10 update. Trying to avoid it like the plague at the moment (though windows is attempting to force it down our collective throats') and have actually heard from a number of others that after they upgraded to 10 they started having problems with some of their games, basically the opposite of what you are saying. Not saying you're wrong, or it didn't work for you and some others, I've just seen too many with problems and am very weary of it. Not to mention, 10 might kill my old potato....hehe....it's far more resource intensive that the 7 that I'm running right now, from what I've read and gathered (I could be wrong about that though)....

Buying an awesome new rig would be nice but it just isn't going to happen at this time (or anytime soon, it seems).....so, I'm stuck doing a few cheaper, smaller upgrades as I can afford them or find when I find things on the cheap that are worth the money.

 

[Jakal31]

So, I spent a little time messing around with some settings...turned off the race timer so that hours don't progress as I race and as skeptical as I was that it would actually improve frame rate in any way, I was pleasantly surprised to find that it did indeed increase my fps by 3 or 4 frames.....consistently...so, that was a nice bit I found here in the forums that helped a bit. Stopped some of the stuttering at some of the larger tracks.

I still have some of the settings around the "medium" range, so there is room for improvement there if I need it bad enough. Will experiment with it tomorrow a bit and see how well that works vs how ugly it gets...(I'm actually surprised this old gpu is pushing it at medium on most settings, btw....this sim is definitely older pc friendly in a lot of ways)

I'd still like to know if there is some way I can tinker around with the configurations like I can with other games...something like an "enable console" type button where I can manually input data and change it without having to go through the game files to do so.....or, worst case, if there is somewhere I can learn which files serve what functions so I can know exactly what it is I am tinkering with. I noticed in another thread that someone mentioned something about it, and I have, sadly, lost that thread and can't seem to find it right now. Maybe I'll dig around some more tomorrow, just too tired at the moment so not going to bother.

Will check this thread out later and see if anyone else has come along with any hints/tips.....ty in advance everyone.

Happy racing!

ETA: Forgot to mention that I also went back to the "configuration tool" that comes with this sim just to check it because I don't think I set it up when I initially downloaded the game over at Steam....moved my resolution from 800x600 32 bit down to 800x600 16 bit with no noticeable difference in graphics....heck, if anything it improved them a bit....no idea why. But that did seem to add a bit of fps as well. Running around 30 consistently, on the smaller tracks.....and that is while running the Formula Extreme cars, so that's pretty nice.

...the sense of speed is just......unreal in this game. I am in love

 

[Jake Fangio]

So, I spent a little time messing around with some settings...turned off the race timer so that hours don't progress as I race and as skeptical as I was that it would actually improve frame rate in any way, I was pleasantly surprised to find that it did indeed increase my fps by 3 or 4 frames.....consistently...so, that was a nice bit I found here in the forums that helped a bit. Stopped some of the stuttering at some of the larger tracks.

I still have some of the settings around the "medium" range, so there is room for improvement there if I need it bad enough. Will experiment with it tomorrow a bit and see how well that works vs how ugly it gets...(I'm actually surprised this old gpu is pushing it at medium on most settings, btw....this sim is definitely older pc friendly in a lot of ways)

I'd still like to know if there is some way I can tinker around with the configurations like I can with other games...something like an "enable console" type button where I can manually input data and change it without having to go through the game files to do so.....or, worst case, if there is somewhere I can learn which files serve what functions so I can know exactly what it is I am tinkering with. I noticed in another thread that someone mentioned something about it, and I have, sadly, lost that thread and can't seem to find it right now. Maybe I'll dig around some more tomorrow, just too tired at the moment so not going to bother.

Will check this thread out later and see if anyone else has come along with any hints/tips.....ty in advance everyone.

Happy racing!

ETA: Forgot to mention that I also went back to the "configuration tool" that comes with this sim just to check it because I don't think I set it up when I initially downloaded the game over at Steam....moved my resolution from 800x600 32 bit down to 800x600 16 bit with no noticeable difference in graphics....heck, if anything it improved them a bit....no idea why. But that did seem to add a bit of fps as well. Running around 30 consistently, on the smaller tracks.....and that is while running the Formula Extreme cars, so that's pretty nice.

...the sense of speed is just......unreal in this game. I am in love

Welcome to the forum mate.I can't help you with your problem,but I can tell you that AMS is probably the best sim out there.So you don't need to buy those fancy sims with all the pretty graphics.I have some of those other sims,but I always come back to this one and it never fails to disapoint.This is the only sim you'l ever need.

 

[Jakal31]

Welcome to the forum mate.I can't help you with your problem,but I can tell you that AMS is probably the best sim out there.So you don't need to buy those fancy sims with all the pretty graphics.I have some of those other sims,but I always come back to this one and it never fails to disapoint.This is the only sim you'l ever need.

Thanks for the welcome. Glad to see there is a friendly community here. Very refreshing.
I agree about this sim as well. I've played a few over the years but nothing compares to this one. I'm currently running the 2013 v. 1.52 (I think) of GSC which it appears has now become AMS.

I seen on another thread somewhere someone say that AMS is free to those that own GSC but when I venture over to Steam it appears they are charging for it. Can anyone enlighten me on that? Not that I care much, I'm satisfied with GSC and there is a steep learning curve to this sim so it's going to be a long while before I "need" anything beyond the tracks and cars that are default in the game. I've took note of some of the mods and intend to tinker there a bit as well, but right now I am just attempting to even learn the tracks....love the difficulty and the true to life physics of this sim! I'm not really fussy about pretty graphics, half nice (which GSC is more than, in reality) is good enough for me. Like others, I'm here to drive, not look at grass moving on the ground or a tree and whatnot....When I played the demo (Copa Petrobras) I knew I had to have this sim. The devs definitely hooked a customer or two with that freebie. Right away I could just feel how nice it was driving these cars and had to have more. Currently, I'm running some of the Formula Extreme cars.....heck of a lot of fun, and as I said in a previous post, the sense of speed is just insane.

Thanks for your kind response.

 

[Jake Fangio]

Thanks for the welcome. Glad to see there is a friendly community here. Very refreshing.
I agree about this sim as well. I've played a few over the years but nothing compares to this one. I'm currently running the 2013 v. 1.52 (I think) of GSC which it appears has now become AMS.

I seen on another thread somewhere someone say that AMS is free to those that own GSC but when I venture over to Steam it appears they are charging for it. Can anyone enlighten me on that? Not that I care much, I'm satisfied with GSC and there is a steep learning curve to this sim so it's going to be a long while before I "need" anything beyond the tracks and cars that are default in the game. I've took note of some of the mods and intend to tinker there a bit as well, but right now I am just attempting to even learn the tracks....love the difficulty and the true to life physics of this sim! I'm not really fussy about pretty graphics, half nice (which GSC is more than, in reality) is good enough for me. Like others, I'm here to drive, not look at grass moving on the ground or a tree and whatnot....When I played the demo (Copa Petrobras) I knew I had to have this sim. The devs definitely hooked a customer or two with that freebie. Right away I could just feel how nice it was driving these cars and had to have more. Currently, I'm running some of the Formula Extreme cars.....heck of a lot of fun, and as I said in a previous post, the sense of speed is just insane.

Thanks for your kind response.

You had to own SCE before the 5th of January to get AMS for free.But no worries SCE is still an immense sim.

 

[Jakal31]

You had to own SCE before the 5th of January to get AMS for free.But no worries SCE is still an immense sim.

Dang, missed it by a few months, but I thought that was the case after reading around here...thanks for the clarification though. Meh, oh well. Not a problem for me, I'm happy with SCE...
It is indeed an immense sim. I've been racing for about 2 weeks now and still haven't put laps down on all the default tracks, nor have I even ran all the cars. I'm a bit of a perfectionist, so running clean laps and learning the tracks is priority at this time.

With all the mods available for more tracks and cars, I can see being on this one for a LONG time.
I think AMS requires a bit more "punch" and I don't think my old potato would run it as nicely as it does SCE....I'm pushing it even getting the game to run smoothly right now, so until I upgrade some stuff I'll just have to keep tinkering.

I'm very satisfied with this sim so I'm not even thinking about any others at this time. Like I said, STEEP learning curve for those of us not so used to sim racing (been many years, and there have been many advancements since I messed around with a racing sim)

....Still wondering if someone can point me in the direction of learning about the game files so I can tinker around with some stuff there for better performance. Lots of threads on the forum and maybe I'll eventually find it with enough leg work, but would be nice to find a link.

 

[roby13]

turn down shadows, disable AA, disable mirrors, turn down visible cars, turn down opponents detail

 

[Jakal31]

turn down shadows, disable AA, disable mirrors, turn down visible cars, turn down opponents detail

Did all that.
What I'm looking for is more detailed information, like how to tweak inside the game files themselves. Turning off the saving of replays, limiting them...etc etc.

Thanks for the response...