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[Five chickens]

How could you best upgrade your hardware to improve Dwarf Fortress's FPS?  More RAM?  Better hard drive?

[Eagle_eye]

Processor speed is probably the most important thing. I don't think the GPU is used at all, so the main processor(and it is just one) has to do a lot of work.

[darkrider2]

Get a VERY powerful processor.

DF only runs on a single core so the most important thing is the processing power of a single core.

I own a computer built seven years ago, its single processor runs DF faster than my brand new laptop can because the lappy is split into four cores.

[parlor_tricks]

Just that - processor speed.

And not even multi core. DF is single threaded.

So you would want to super cool your single core processor to get the most monstrous speed possible.

A true DF machine would be


Powerful Single thread/core CPU - 1
Cooling system - 1
Overclocked - 1
Slightly larger Cache - 1

GPU - 0
Extra RAM - 0
Larger HDD - 0

[612DwarfAvenue]

DF can't use multiple cores. HOWEVER, you can dedicate a whole core to DF and put everything else on any other cores.

Ergo, a multicore would still be better than a singlecore even in this regard.

[darkrider2]

Yeah, I haven't been able to figure out how to clear an entire core of all its processes except for DF, can anyone help me on that one?

Selecting all the processes from Task Manager is just a pain.

[Iosyn]

I think someone here runs a 4 core i7, shuts down two of the processors and overclocks the other two.

While single core processors are technically better for pure DF two cores nets you stonesense and foobar.

[Telgin]

As has been stated many times already in this thread, the processor is the thing you want to focus on.  The other thing is RAM speed (capacity doesn't matter much, as long as you've got 2GB I believe you've got all DF can utilize).  Memory bandwidth is what limits most applications these days, and I would frankly be surprised if DF was different.

The thing here is that the processor generally defines the chipset used, which generally defines the memory architecture and thus bandwidth.  So in general picking a newer and faster processor will mandate newer and faster RAM too.

[hjd_uk]

How could you best upgrade your hardware to improve Dwarf Fortress's FPS?  More RAM?  Better hard drive?

I would hire the Architects of Magrathea to build me a Computer actually capable of running a fort at 60fps forever. Might cost a bit though, and some idiots would probably come and blow it up to build a bloody bypass.

[Urist_McDrowner]

How could you best upgrade your hardware to improve Dwarf Fortress's FPS?  More RAM?  Better hard drive?

I would hire the Architects of Magrathea to build me a Computer actually capable of running a fort at 60fps forever. Might cost a bit though, and some idiots would probably come and blow it up to build a bloody bypass.

This is how it would ACTUALLY happen.

"Urist McPotashMaker is taken by a fey mood!"

"Urist McPotashMaker has claimed Intel."

"Urist McPotashMaker has begun a mysterious construction."

"Urist McPotashMaker has created "BallCircle", an artifact processor (with pictures of elephants killing dwarves on it of course)!"

[acetech09]

I think someone here runs a 4 core i7, shuts down two of the processors and overclocks the other two.

While single core processors are technically better for pure DF two cores nets you stonesense and foobar.

That's me, and yes. I have one of those i7 Extremes (Thank goodness I had work as an excuse to buy that thing) that has 6 cores 12 threads. I shut down all but two of the cores, giving me 4 threads total. (So I have plenty of room in the background for utilities and background tasks).

You'd be surprised how little heat a typical 'hardcore overclock' speed actually generates when you shut down 3/4 the other cores. With only 2 cores, I can get each core in the +4.5ghz range. I never actually use it anymore though. I've been pretty good about keeping my fort's FPS in check.

[SAFry]

I asked the same question shortly after starting playing DF and somebody told me that low latency RAM might also help. Apparently a lot of the CPU cycles are actually wasted because the info isn't sent from the RAM fast enough and the cycle ends up being unused. This gives the impression of the CPU being maxed out when in fact a lot of it's activity is wasted.

Because DF fetches lots of little bits of info from RAM to the CPU it works better with low latency, fast fetch time RAM. That's what I was told anyway, all 3rd hand anecdotal information now!

[GhostDwemer]

I'm guessing RAM access speeds are the real bottleneck. A faster processor would make a difference, but faster RAM would help more in most cases.

[SAFry]

Just to be clear, it's not faster speed RAM as in MHz it's the CAS latency or the timings. Oddly in the old days of XP we used to have lower latency RAM then you commonly get today which is possibly one of the reasons DF will work better on an old XP PC with a good single core then a modern one.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAS_latency

[Telgin]

Keep in mind that higher CAS with a high clock rate might still have lower access latency than lower CAS with a lower clock rate.  It's measured in clock cycles, so you have to multiply the clock cycles by the memory's clock frequency.

Having lower CAS latency will help, as will having higher memory bandwidth overall.  Just how much is anyone's guess though.