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[Kuraudo]

40fps is unacceptable.  I know, I know, there are starving dwarves out there who are glad to have 10fps with as few as 80 dwarves, but I am a greedy man and I demand the loftiest of heights this game can offer me.

With that in mind, and I hope this is the correct forum for such queries, what hardware setup will yield the best frame rates currently attainable in this game?

I'm currently using a Turion X2 RM-75 (rated at   2200 MHz) on a notebook.  This system isn't designed to play games, but it does so anyways.  Dwarf Fortress, however, brings it to its knees (especially in adventurer mode for some odd reason).

I remember Toady mentioning in one of the DF talks that he runs a quad core system to program and bug test the game - I want that or better!

Looking at the options available to me, I see the I-7 3.2 ghz machines selling for ridiculous amounts of money.  Since (as far as I know) Dwarf Fortress does not utilize additional cores, should I dust off my old 3.2 pentium 4 in order to achieve the best possible frame rates or should I waste thousands of dollars on an I-7?

If there are any options which are better for DF than using the 3.2 ghz pentium 4 machine but less expensive than the 3.2 I-7, please educate me as soon as possible!

Thanks!

******
As an addendum, are there factors other than the processor which I should look into?  Currently running 4gb of ram and my hard drive  is 7200rpm; pretty sure the graphics card doesn't factor into the matter... I think (may even run better without one!).

[Dekon]

Well keep in mind that just because two cores are both 3.2 Ghz doesn't mean that they're exactly the same speeds.  Also understand that for the past several years, processors have hit a 'cap' at about 3.0 or so, and can't go much higher without overclocking.  Basically, barring a revolutionary transistor technology (memristers?) or a huge advance in quantum computing, DF isn't going to get absurdly faster any time soon.  Processors haven't gotten -that- much better over the years.  Yes, your old pentium 4 is probably better, and I really don't think it healthy to spend thousands of dollars on a new system just to play DF..  Unless you're just crazy rich.  Definitely build your own system, though, and don't buy some crap at a store with massive markups.  Besides, if all you're concerned with is DF, you don't need a crazy video card..  Though again.. thousands of dollars for DF..erm..

Turning off temperature will get you a high boost in speed.  And I mean really high. 
Also, the amount of crap laying about your fortress matters too.  I really don't understand these people who 'buy out' caravans.  Like that's a good thing.  Keep your fortress items under control.  Thousands of stone crafts compared to one high quality serrated disc to sell -affects your framerate-.  Use up your stone, and get rid of what you don't need via atomsmasher (drawbridge). 

From what I've found, the amount of dwarves in my fortress has significantly less to do with my FPS than the amount of crap I have and temperature. 

[TKTom]

Well keep in mind that just because two cores are both 3.2 Ghz doesn't mean that they're exactly the same speeds.  Also understand that for the past several years, processors have hit a 'cap' at about 3.0 or so, and can't go much higher without overclocking.  Basically, barring a revolutionary transistor technology (memristers?) or a huge advance in quantum computing, DF isn't going to get absurdly faster any time soon.  Processors haven't gotten -that- much better over the years.  Yes, your old pentium 4 is probably better, and I really don't think it healthy to spend thousands of dollars on a new system just to play DF..  Unless you're just crazy rich.  Definitely build your own system, though, and don't buy some crap at a store with massive markups.  Besides, if all you're concerned with is DF, you don't need a crazy video card..  Though again.. thousands of dollars for DF..erm..

 The i7 will be far better. This has been gone over before, but the nub of the story is that the i7 can achieve a higher FLOPS rate than an old processor and it has an overcharge ability or something where it can dedicate all its cores into making a single core work as fast as it possibly can, that's ideal for dwarf fortress. I use a Q6600 processor at 3.0Ghz and I worked out that I would get about double the fps if I swapped up to an i7-920 .

 And, as for other hardware making a difference: it mostly doesn't make a difference, but graphics cards do give you a better fps with the new 40d# I believe. (Nvidias are currently better supported than Ati.)

I edited the flops technical mistake, if anyone ninja'ed me.

[Beeskee]

If you already own the one DT, it's worth a try, and it's free to do so. Test it with one of the forts from your notebook and compare the FPS.

[Kuraudo]

The i7 will be far better. This has been gone over before, but the nub of the story is that the i7 can achieve a higher FLOPS rate than an old processor and it has an overcharge ability or something where it can dedicate all its cores into making a single core work as fast as it possibly can, that's ideal for dwarf fortress. I use a Q6600 processor at 3.0Ghz and I worked out that I would get about double the fps if I swapped up to an i7-920 .

That's all I needed to hear; I'll overclock an I-7 920 (only $250 or so!) to 3.6 or higher and see how stable I can get it - double fps is a *big* deal.

Thanks for the information!

From what I've found, the amount of dwarves in my fortress has significantly less to do with my FPS than the amount of crap I have and temperature.

GREAT advice!  Thanks! - I've long suspected the number of dwarves has less to do with my spiraling frame rates than the excess stone from mining operations, but to see it confirmed wipes away all second-guessing;  I'll construct an atom smasher facility immediately!

With regards to temperature, however, will disabling it still allow water to evaporate?  I'm less concerned about fun with magma than I am with getting rid of excess water, although I do have a way to pump it off map via fortifications on the edge.

and I really don't think it healthy to spend thousands of dollars on a new system just to play DF.

Blasphemy! >: D

More to the point, what else would I play?  Crysis?  BAH!  I will however reign in my overspending ways and restrict myself to an I-7 920 for 270 or so. 

[Dekon]

Water still evaporates without temperature.  Basically temperature effects hot maps, cold maps (freezing water), and magma use for destroying things.  If you're not constantly concerned with those three things, you can have it off.

Overclocking..Eh..  I overclock a little on my system, and I have a water cooled processor.  The problem isn't the processor overheating, though - it's my mother board.  I've owned two motherboards on this system, and in both cases its those that limit the overclocking ability greatly.  Processor runs really cool.. its the other stuff..

[tastypaste]

Turning off weather will boost your FPS too. I went from 6fps (yikes!) to 20 just from turning off weather and setting partial print to YES:2.

[Nihilist]

Quick and dirty here,

the 1366 socket i7's are exellent - they support triple channel memory and can overclock very well (I'm running a i7-920 2.66@ 3.5GHZ with a $40 cogage spirit HSU - thats air) but just the CPU and mobo are gonna set you back 500+.

You can get similar performance from the 1156 socket i7's and i5's via overclocking for less, but you miss out on the triple channel memory - however, I am unsure if DF benefits from the extra bandwitdh or not so that may be a moot point.

[BubbaBrown]

I'm currently running Dwarf Fortress 2010 on an Intel Core i7 920 with 6gb RAM, an Intel X25-M 1st Gen Solid State Drive, and a Radeon HD 4890.  I'm getting about 25-30fps with 144 dwarves and a whole bunch of other crap items in the game.  The issue is that the dwarfort.exe process isn't using all the power on the core it is currently running on, but still slows down.  There seems to be something in the code that is causing some issues.  I would guess a bunch of thread deadlocking, really long spinlocks, and too many critical section bottlenecks.  So... at this point... A new macine WILL NOT help your experience.  Dwarf Fortress at this point doesn't have multiprocessor support, so a multicore beast like the Core i7, isn't going to help you much with this game.  Fair warning.

[catsplosion]

Build an atomsmasher and give the rest to Toady if you want more bang for your buck.

[0x517A5D]

From what I've found, the amount of dwarves in my fortress has significantly less to do with my FPS than the amount of crap I have and temperature. 

GREAT advice!  Thanks! - I've long suspected the number of dwarves has less to do with my spiraling frame rates than the excess stone from mining operations, but to see it confirmed wipes away all second-guessing;  I'll construct an atom smasher facility immediately!

This is true.  True true true.  Here's a thread on my experience with item congestion: Lag Solution.

With regards to temperature, however, will disabling it still allow water to evaporate?  I'm less concerned about fun with magma than I am with getting rid of excess water, although I do have a way to pump it off map via fortifications on the edge.

I believe that 1/7 water and magma will still evaporate.  I'm pretty sure of it.  The rapid summertime evaporation that destroys ponds in hot areas, I don't think that happens.

[iwog]

I give you this, excellent guide depending on your price range.  It will help you get the most out the hardware you buy, some thing I learnt the hard way is that not all motherboards are equal and a cheap mobo will easily hold back an expensive CPU whilst a cheap CPU can be overclocked that little bit more in an expensive mobo.  Though you can wait a couple of days for the May addition to see if anything has changed.

[Kuraudo]

Thank you very kindly!  I will study this voraciously in my quest for the best framerates possible!

As a quick update, disabling the weather and temperature, though regrettable for magma Fun, seems to have tripled my fps with 80 dwarves (hovering at 90 now O_o)!

Once my new machine is assembled, might the forbidden fruit of 200 dwarves and 80 fps be within my grasp?!

I can't wait to start the atom smasher up - this fortress might actually last long enough to be destroyed by more conventional means instead of my frustrated hand of god malignantly flooding it for want of more frames in a new fortress!

[Shades]

If there are any options which are better for DF than using the 3.2 ghz pentium 4 machine but less expensive than the 3.2 I-7, please educate me as soon as possible!

I'm expect any of the current desktop CPUs to be faster than your old p4, regardless of the ghz.

[Hyperturtle]

So, does the video card really matter much?  I realize the openGL/SDL port uses higher end features of a card, but I couldn't imagine overclocking my video card would help any.

I did have to take the measure of overclocking my cpu last night and turning off temperature.  I was hitting 33fps regularly, and bumping from 3.2 ghz to 3.5ghz and turning off temps brought me to about 50fps.

I have 109 dwarves and only recently made it to the cavern, which I am timidly exploring.  I was hoping to butcher the serpentmen, and was surprised to see them in a little sorta campsite with various stockpiles.  What else will I find??  Aside from death, I mean.

I initially attempted to explore the cavern by setting up a cage, pulling the lever, and letting the tame grizzly bear out.  And he sat.  And did nothing.  Ever.  So I boldly strode through my carved corridor to the cavern and encountered some carnivores (cutting and killing them, as is the custom). So far, so good.