Official System Requirements

I have registered just to post this!! So please read carefully

I managed to not only run CIV 5 but also to play hole games! As You guys may see we are talking about a very old game configuration: P4-C 2.4GHz (FBS 533), 2GB (DDR266 2x1GB Kingston), Sapphire Radeon HD4650 1GB (running only at 4x because it is the mainboard that does not support 8x), EAX 1.0 capable sound card, Win XP SP3 (32bit)!! YES I know that it is a crap machine BUT IF YOU
1) ARE PLAYING WITH EVERYTHING ON LOW SETTINGS
2) PLAY ONLY QUICK GAMES
3) PLAY ON A MAPS NOT BIGGER THAN STANDART
4) BOOST YOUR VIRTUAL MEMORY (the virtual memory page of the Windows lets say at 1024MB min and 2048MB max)
5) defragment the Hard disk before instalation
6) PLAY "AT ONE BREATHE" (from start to end do not save/exit game and reload/play/save/exit and again BECAUSE IT SEEM that after every reload it became slower) - JUST LET YOUR COMPUTER RUNNING WHEN GOING TO SLEEP and as long as it is a quick game --> You should bring'em down for maximum 2 days x 6-8 hour/day playtime (at least for me IT IS ENOUGHT)

A CONFIGURATION THAT LOW OR LOWER MEANS AUTOMATICALLY THAT YOU HAVE TO RUN IT UNDER A 32BIT XP SP3 WITH DX 9.0C !!!!!!!!!!

I have the game on DVD. It is a standart NON-Babylon edition. YES YES... I know. If I intend to play multiplayer or on larger maps I simply wont be able to. YES the graphics are lets say not awful but "they are not great" or at least not as great as if I use DX11 compatible GPU a QUAD CPU and an infinite amount of RAM
SO I CLAIM that those are EVEN NOT THE LOWEST requirments for CIV 5 to be "playable". However I DO AGREE with one guy ho somewhere on one forum has wrote to another guy that "IF YOU DO NOT HAVE A UP-TO-DATE GAME PLATFORM YOU DO NOT HAVE THE RIGHT TO FULLY EXPIRIENCE THE GENUIS BEHIND THE CIV 5".

If you are able to run it on Your computers ENJOY the game. If some of You guys have a P4 (C or D version) аround 2.4GHz or greater on a AGP slot mobo --> you can buy an ATI 4650 1GB based GPU (or analogue; it is the top-end AGP technology as far as I know) and boost the RAM to 2-4 GB at DDR266 and UP (DDR333 or DDR400).

I have another computer that is within the "official requirment" and I enjoy the game. I think that the official requirments are stated to be so high above the real minimum for the producers to be absolutely sure that You will enjoy all the new stuffs and admire the genuis behind the gameplay. I will soon buy a top-end game platform and will be able to get it on MAX but for me even in "MIN mode" its still great because I dont play for watching the graphics BUT TO LEAD MY PEOPLE INTO A GREATER FUTURE.

CIVILIZATION SERIES AND SID MEYER RULES!!!

I have a system over the recomended, but always (in huge territory) about 186 turns (or about 70 cities) freez. Any news about?? Or i have to wait the patch??? (when????)

And what about win7 64bit systens??? will they fix it??? any news????

hi i am robie2142.
i am new and if this is asked a million times i am sorry.

i am thinking of buying the game ( "thinkin" i am going to buy it)
but i first need to buy a video card
the game recommens nvidia geforce 9800
but will a Nvidia GeForce GT 430 work ?

Welcome robie2142.

The GT 430 would be pretty close to the middle of the minimum and recommended cards. You should be fine on medium/low DX11 settings. If you're looking to buy a card there are better alternatives for gaming at it's price point ($79). Such as the Radeon HD 5670.

While indeed the 430 will be able to play the game, it is pretty expensive for the performance it delivers. You can get a superior HD5670 for the same or even a bit lower price. And for ~50% more ($125) you get a GTS450 that is more than twice as fast and comes conveniently with a free upgrade coupon for the digital deluxe version of Civ5.

But if you are strictly looking for a nVidia card below $100, then the 430 is the best choice available. Despite the recommendation, Civ5 does not run very well on a 9800GT

tokala said:

While indeed the 430 will be able to play the game, it is pretty expensive for the performance it delivers. You can get a superior HD5670 for the same or even a bit lower price. And for ~50% more ($125) you get a GTS450 that is more than twice as fast and comes conveniently with a free upgrade coupon for the digital deluxe version of Civ5.

But if you are strictly looking for a nVidia card below $100, then the 430 is the best choice available. Despite the recommendation, Civ5 does not run very well on a 9800GT

Click to expand...

is the Radeon HD5670 better then a nvidia ?

which video vard work good with civ5 and dosn't cost to much($200+)

For a relative performance comparison see this chart. The 430 isn't in there cause it's brand new, but for other games it's on average at ~40% of the fps of a 450.

If you are willing to invest up to $200 in a good card, a GTX460/768MB can be had for less than $150 with rebates. It's also not in the chart, but should be about 10% behind a GTX460/1024MB.

The HD5670, GTS450 and GTX460/768 are the most cost effective cards at their respective pricepoints for Civ5. The GTX460/768 is at the moment the overall card with the best price/performance ratio, not only for Civ5 but for other games as well.

The only caveat: The rest of your system might not be good enough to really take advantage of this, or even work at all with it. CPU, RAM, and power supply specs are all important there.

I were recently looking through the AMD 6850 and 6870 reviews, and found this interesting comparison:



It seems that in single card slutions, AMD's cards are weak with Civ V maxed out, with a 768 Mb GTX 460 performing better than a 6870 and 5870, but in dual card situations, crossfire is scaling better than SLI.

The 768 Mb GTX 460 can be bought for £119, and it makes a very solid choice for playing Civ V at maximum settings.

It rather says SLI is not working at all, and the clustering of the fps values let me suspect that something fishy is going on here. I mean seriously, GTX480=470=460OC=4xxSLI but != 460stock

If you look at the graphs for the other settings, you will find more inconsistant results. Some other site was also testing SLI/XF, they had a weird glitch were SLI was actually working up to the first diplomacy screen, after that the fps plummeted to abysmal values.

The technical aspects of civ5 seem to be a mess, pretty much the only thing one can state with some confidence is that the GTX460 is a good choice for civ5.

thank you for the advies.
the shop didn't have that grafich card yet.
but i couldn't wait and my dad also couldn't wait so we bought a
Nvidia GeForce GT240
is this one goed enough ?
the guy at the store sad its was bettter then the GT480

other qeustion:
my system is vista 32-bit
Nvidia GeForce GT240
Intel Pentium 3.00 GHz
Ram is 4.00 GB

my pc with al those things can run the Civ 5 demo very wel
if i buy the full version will it also work ?
( i just want to be sure it works before i buy it)

Robie2142.

Than the guy at the store has either no clue whatsoever or lied blatantly

The chip the 240 is derived of has given some people problems, and its technology is not up to date anymore, but if you do not run into a bug it should work. Just don't expect it to run perfectly smooth with everything maxed out

If its a pentium 4 or D 3.0GHz you should stay away from "normal" and larger maps, and it might get slow in the later stages anyway.

bhavv said:

I were recently looking through the AMD 6850 and 6870 reviews, and found this interesting comparison:



It seems that in single card slutions, AMD's cards are weak with Civ V maxed out, with a 768 Mb GTX 460 performing better than a 6870 and 5870, but in dual card situations, crossfire is scaling better than SLI.

The 768 Mb GTX 460 can be bought for £119, and it makes a very solid choice for playing Civ V at maximum settings.

Click to expand...

Note that the GTX 470 is doing better than the 480
The only reason the 460 does well is because of tessellation, turn it down and the Radeons look better

robie2142 said:

thank you for the advies.
the shop didn't have that grafich card yet.
but i couldn't wait and my dad also couldn't wait so we bought a
Nvidia GeForce GT240
is this one goed enough ?
the guy at the store sad its was bettter then the GT480

other qeustion:
my system is vista 32-bit
Nvidia GeForce GT240
Intel Pentium 3.00 GHz
Ram is 4.00 GB

my pc with al those things can run the Civ 5 demo very wel
if i buy the full version will it also work ?
( i just want to be sure it works before i buy it)

Robie2142.

Click to expand...

He lied or is incompetent

civ_king said:

Note that the GTX 470 is doing better than the 480

Click to expand...

Seems to be a performance barrier that all cards of the same gen are getting capped to.

Hi all,

Can anyone tell me if the NVIDIA GeForce 230 will be able to cope with Civ 5? The only reason I ask is that while lookong for a new desk-top computer the higher end of the market tend to come with this graphics card included along with higher-end processors.

Thanks!

It's better than integrated graphics, but only barely
It should run, but only with modest graphics settings. Really, any computer that has such a card is not meant for gaming of any kind.

Its very very far from "high-end"

jcl100 said:

Hi all,

Can anyone tell me if the NVIDIA GeForce 230 will be able to cope with Civ 5? The only reason I ask is that while lookong for a new desk-top computer the higher end of the market tend to come with this graphics card included along with higher-end processors.

Thanks!

Click to expand...

If that comes with better computers you are looking in the wrong place, go to
maingear.com
falcon-nw.com/
pugetsystems.com/
Those are good computers

Why does my FPS keeps dropping? I'm getting really pissed off now with this.
I load the game, game runs at 20-25FPS, after a couple of minutes my FPS jumps up to around 60FPS and while scrolling is still slow as hell, at least i can run the game in an acceptable and bearable manner and actually enjoy it.
Then, after a while, i'll do something like dare to enter a diplomacy screen and when i'm out of it, bang, 15-20 FPS and it just stays that way even when not scrolling. Game slows down to a halt.

Usually when i restart my PC and load the game up again the whole circle starts again and i'll be able to play around an hour with my sweet 50 FPS before it dies down again without warning.
It's so bizarre, any ideas on what's the cause?

My system is weak sure.
2GB RAM
AMD X2 4400
HD3850

But it doesn't explain why -

a) I can run the game on very good FPS for a while, then in one second it drops drastically.
b) The performance is exactly the same playing with all settings on Low as on Medium. Haven't tried High.

For me alt-tabbing and playing in windowed mode is producing similiar effects, or even some background program popping up a notification.

Unfortunately with a brand-new in-house game engine, things like that are to be expected, and might take a long time to get ironed out. It could have been worse, as in the Elemental launch desaster.

Re b) With a halfway decent video card like the 3850, on lower graphics settings Civ5 seems to be almost completely CPU limited, and a X2 4400 is indeed a bit on the weak side.

Hi folks,
I Travel pretty often, so I will need a better portable machine, and I'm about to get the alienware m17x with the following config. Could someone share your opinions or share experience with a similar machine... Thanks in advance!

Intel Core i7 840QM Quad Core Processor, 1.86GHz (3.20GHz Turbo Mode, 8M Cache)
8GB Dual Channel Memory (2x 4GB DDR3)
17-inch WideUXGA 1920 x 1200 RGB LED (1200p)
Crossfire 1GB GDDR5 ATI Radeon Mobility HD 5870
256GB SSD - Samsung Solid State Drive
Windows 7 home edition