Crash on Large Games/Savegames

There have been a few crash threads, but searching around I didn't find any that were specifically like my crash (sorry if I overlooked it!).

Whenever I try to start a game on a map size bigger than "Standard" the game crashes during the Civ startup narration, before the map fully loads. This is 100% repeatable and I haven't been able to start a game larger than Standard size, or a custom game with more than the standard amount of Civs.

Additionally, on two separate games (both Standard sized) I've played up to a certain point, saved and quit, and then the next time I try to load the game, just like before, it crashes on the loading screen just before the map loads. I haven't been able to load those games since.

I would guess its a memory problem... only I have 4 gigs of ram, and a 1 gig ATI Radeon HD card. My processor is an Athlon II, so while my PC isn't top-top of the line, its certainly no slug. Am I the only one having this inability to play/load bigger maps? Or is this a common bug? Has anyone found a way to fix it?

You might need to re-install sounds like a client error rather then a computer issue

First, make sure that your video drivers are current. See my sig for a link to check for newer drivers. If that doesn't help, or if your drivers are already current, try forcing the game to run in DX9 mode (I'm assuming that you're running DX11). We've seen situations like this in which DX9 is more stable than DX11. Please report if this fixes the problem and post your DxDiag file. We can then report this to Firaxis as an issue with DX11. Thanks!

But i would not put any hopes in that.
People have already more than one time reported that the game will crash when it reaches a certain size. Map size, number of civs, number of city states, etc.

My machine, CPU, and video card exceed the recommended, but my OS is XP PRO.
I have to agree that Civ V crashes consistently when it reaches a cerain point in game development. This may, depending on the game situation and your computer, occur under many situations:
-when a certain percentage of the map is uncovered;
-a certain number of units are on the uncovered screen;
-a certain level of tech development has been achieved;
-a map size larger than standard has been chosen, etc., etc.
The APPARENT causes are many, but seem related to memory usage.

However, I have had conversations with my local computer shop owner, who is a wiz at - of course - maintaining computers at peak efficiency.
Since I experienced mid-game crashes regularly, we tested my machine. We upgraded my video card despite that I already EXCEEDED all recommended specs for Civ V.
It did not work,
I still had mid-game crashes that seemed related to memory usage.
However, all was not lost: we are now sure of the core issue...
The experience made it clear what the true problem is:
>>>>the 'purity' of the XP installation, and of XP itself.
I've had XP PRO for several years and have accumulated numerous registry errors, and background programs starting up memory processes that I cannot see.
My friend ran numerous tests to verify this, and to check performance of the new video card. He is convinced that if I re-install XP PRO so that I will have nothing in the background whatsoever, most of the game issues will disappear, and the new video card will perform better than it does now.
Maybe. I may attempt that as an experiment, but I've ordered Win 7. It's been quite a while since I've upgraded my OS, my friend is sure the problem is OS-related and NOT machine issues, so I'll move these two computers (my wife's as well) to the newer OS.
Sooooo, IF your OS is XP/XP PRO,
you meet the recommended specs, but are experiencing:
- mid-game crashes/ screen freeze
- crashes trying to play on maps larger-than-standard size,
or any other crash that would appear to be memory-related
(this includes video memory),
your issue is most likely the condition of your OS.
Stay tuned.
In a week or so I'll be able to give a definitive answer, after I move to Win 7.
Otherwise, save your e-mails and programs, and re-install your OS to guarantee that there are no registry errors or unseen applications starting up in the background.
Admins, please consolidate these various threads by OPERATING SYSTEM.
I think we will see common experiences emerging.

Well its certainly not OS related because I get several crashes a game maybe 4 or 5 crashes I play on Standard size because turns just take so long to process past that point. My OS is Win7

I just installed a few mods and the frequency of crashes just increased dramatically and autosave doesn't work while using mods. Which means mods are pretty much unusable because the fact is that it crashes so often that autosaves are required

I can rule out a number of the suggestions above, as I am running on a fresh reinstall of XP that has nothing else installed on it. And XP only runs DX9, so it can't be a DX11 problem. And my video drivers are 100% up to date.

I haven't tried uninstalling/reinstalling the game yet (yikes! I hate to think that repeatedly uninstalling and having to redownload and reinstall a multiple-gigabyte game has become a legitimate tech solution!) but I will try that now and see what happens whenever I am finally able to play it again (it's going to take a while to do all of that). Sigh...

Well it's a little reassuring I'm not the only one with this problem. I kind of agree with Sykk Puppie that this has to do with game size, whether its number of cities, units, or whatever. Since it only happens for me on larger maps, or smaller maps that have reached a late stage in the game, I can only reason that it has to do with memory and the game size (despite having 4 gigs of RAM). I remember problems like this with Civ III way back in the day.

I certainly hope Firaxis is aware of this problem!

I use Win 7 as well. Far exceed the requirements and have the crashes on saved games as well. Very frustrating and the lack of communication from the makers is poor business. As a business owner I know communication with your customers is vital. They should have ONE person communicating at least weekly on subject even if to say what they have ruled out, we are on coffee breaks, something.

D. Minky said:

Well it's a little reassuring I'm not the only one with this problem. I kind of agree with Sykk Puppie that this has to do with game size, whether its number of cities, units, or whatever. Since it only happens for me on larger maps, or smaller maps that have reached a late stage in the game, I can only reason that it has to do with memory and the game size (despite having 4 gigs of RAM). I remember problems like this with Civ III way back in the day.

I certainly hope Firaxis is aware of this problem!

Click to expand...

I've been thinking it has to do with the number of units and cities that your client is dealing with - early in the game, with few units/cities, the game runs flawlessly for me. But somewhere around turn 300 or so, it starts slowing way down and will eventually freeze up completely, forcing me to "end process" and kill the running game.

I'm in Vista 64-bit, with a brand new NVIDIA gtx460 1GB card, 4GB RAM, all my drivers and Windows updates are up to speed.

I always play on a "Large" map because the problem is even worse on Huge, and I usually knock the number of AI civs and City states down to reduce the processing time.

In my view, any time a game locks up when I'm running 4GB of RAM there is a major problem with memory handling/cleanup somewhere in the code. It's no coincidence that the game runs better after a fresh reboot than after several consecutive play sessions.