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[Melzer]

I've been playing DF for a while on my laptop, and it's been working good.
But not great. Since I'm planning on getting a new computer (desktop) I'd like to know what is important if you want high frame rate in DF.
What should I focus on to get high frame rate?

[BoredVirulence]

From what I understand, the most important thing would be a fast processor. DF isn't multi-threaded, so the difference between a 4.0 GHz dual core and a 4.0 GHz 8 core processor is practically none. DF also accesses memory very often, so faster RAM might make a difference. Maybe.

I think that's one of the bigger problems. The game itself is very inefficient, so very few improvements make a difference.

The most you can do is to try and optimize the way you play, such as small embarks, pathing tips, atom-smashing clutter, etc, which I assume you are aware of. If not, consult the wiki, I don't do a lot of optimization because I don't suffer from frame-rate issues. Mostly because I get bored easily, so forts don't last long enough for FPS death.

[Melzer]

Thanks for the information, but what do you mean 'faster RAM'?

[lordcooper]

Thanks for the information, but what do you mean 'faster RAM'?

RAM that is faster.

[BoredVirulence]

Thanks for the information, but what do you mean 'faster RAM'?

Different ram can operate at different frequencies, basically meaning they can run faster. In my experience, its a waste of money. And the BUS might not be able to operate at higher frequencies depending on the motherboard (shouldn't typically be an issue though), and in order to take advantage of that higher speed you need to have all of your RAM at that speed (or greater) because the BUS will operate at the frequency of the slowest RAM you have.

If you don't know what I'm talking about, don't worry about it. Its really just a waste of money in my opinion.

However, you may see a difference between DDR2 and DDR3 in performance, but any computer manufactured recently uses DDR3, and if you're building a computer you will undoubtedly end up purchasing a motherboard that supports DDR3 not DDR2 so that point is moot.

[daveralph1234]

The most important hardware factors are processor speed, cache size, memory frequency and CAS latency. Ideally you want a processor with a high clock speed and as large a cache as possible, the kind of processing DF does is similar to intense mathematical calculation, making heavy use of the ALU, so benchmarks using superPI are a good reference. Dwarf Fortress won't use more than 2 threads so many core processors yield little advantage (in fact they can even detract from it slightly due to sharing the cache, although this is usually negligible in modern systems). As for RAM, you want high frequency DDR3 with the lowest CAS latency possible, you also want to make sure that the RAM chips are 'paired' as the system will only run at the frequency of the slowest RAM in your system.

The wiki also has many optimisation tips for boosting framerate you might want to look into here.

[Trickman]

If you don't know what I'm talking about, don't worry about it. Its really just a waste of money in my opinion.

If he doesn't know what you're talking about, he'd better stick to buying a full computer instead of one piece-by-piece.

Boring, technical stuff ahead for those interested:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

With that said, RAM speed IS a pretty frigging big deal, and nowadays it's actually MORE important than its space capacity. You should spend some money in a motherboard which allows for faster RAM to be inserted and run at its full speed. It makes quite a big difference. Then again, if your motherboard only supports up to 1300 MHz RAM memory, it IS a waste to get one that runs at 1800 MHz.

In programs like DF, this would help enormously with the FPS, since the main bottlenecks are the processor and mapping what's going on in the game into the memory. When you get catsplosions, blood stains, etc, less and less of your game fits into your processor's small cache memory (ultra fast memory), so it must start using and trading with your -actual- memory more and more. Having a faster memory can prevent this from causing FPS death too soon.

And by the way, processor speed is not the only factor to take into account here. A processor from a 2-core from 2008 running at 3GHz is MUCH slower than a processor from a 3GHz quad core made in 2012. Quality over quantity applies GREATLY in processors.

My advice: If you have the money to spend and you're not into computers, ask a friend for some recommendations and buy a full-fledged PC. It will undoubtedly be fast and run DF better than your current computer does. Don't be picky with details and spare yourself a lot of time and effort, or even extra money if you happen to buy a piece of hardware that doesn't go with the motherboard you have.

[sirdave79]

Everything I've read on these forums until this post says CPU clock speed is the single biggest boost u can give to DF. My experience such as it is would support this. Notion. Now I'm sure if u could get a 4 ghz Pentium 1 it would be slower than an I series at 4 ghz, but I would expect a 3 ghz quad core to beat a 2:5 ghz I series.

I have a 2.83 ghz quad core desktop and a 2.5 ghz I5 laptop and my quadcore runs DR slightly better despite slower ram, although a desktop will usually beat a laptop pound for pound.

With regard to ram, it has traditionally been the case that faster bus speeds for ram mostly increase system performance only when matched with a corresponding CPU bus frequency. So let's say your CPU has an can of 100, if you buy 133 ram you will get very little. If you have a 133 bus on your chip, matched ram will give you the best performance. As mentioned already the "ram bus" will be the speed of the slowest ram, so if u had 100 ram, buying 133 ram will achieve nothing as the 133 ram will run at 100.

The way I think about that is the CPU fsb says how much it can accept in one cycle and the ram says how much can be supplied per cycle. When they are the same, CPU cycle potential is not lost. When its not matched either the ram cannot supply enough data and some potential computation is not done that cycle due to lack of data to operate on or the ram supplies more data that the CPU can process in one cycle and holds some data until the next cycle. This will add up over long enough to whole cycles used up by data in cache meaning the e extra ram speed results in a cycle where the CPU won't take data because its cache is full and its working at 100%.

 RAS, CAS and RAS to CAS latencies offer little system performance increases, especially for the price but will make your ram slightly quicker.

 So I would say get the highest frequency chip you can afford whilst keeping in mind the bang for buck (price divided by performance - which is usually about the middle of the available range.

[BoredVirulence]

Everything I've read on these forums until this post says CPU clock speed is the single biggest boost u can give to DF...

We're saying that too, we're just mentioning other possibilities. Faster RAM, when utilized properly should make a decent different for DF, because its constantly checking memory, but cache size may render that unimportant. I personally think its never worth the increase in price.

I think we've all been careful to mention that multiple processors really makes no difference. Any benefit you get from having other processes run on a separate core is diminished by sharing caches, and even then the theoretical benefit is minimal anyway.

[Putnam]

Clock speed has been useless for a good 12 years now. I wouldn't recommend using it as a measure of performance in any respect.

[Sigulbard]

u gotta download more RAM!