What computer hardware specs should I upgrade to run the game better?

I'm tuning up my computer and I want to know what will make the game run more quickly. What things should I work on improving to make it run better?

See here: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=12804418&postcount=8

You don't need more than 4GB if ram because Civ IV is a 32-bit game. Improving the CPU helps a lot more

Pepo said:

You don't need more than 4GB if ram because Civ IV is a 32-bit game. Improving the CPU helps a lot more

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While this is true of BtS only needing up to 4GB, having 8GB of ram helps (not the game) but the computer. Especially if you are using Win 10. And you have apps running in the background like most ppl do. And having a paging file set with at least 2048MB in size helps too, under the Performance settings.

JosEPh

1 strong CPU core is worth much more than 6 weak CPU cores as the game is mostly not multithreaded. In other words, get a CPU with as much GHz clock speed as possible. 4-5 GHz recomended; cheaper models can get there on overclocking. A good dual core can give you more performance for your money with this mod than an adequate CPU with more than two cores can.

1600 MHz ≤ RAM speed

SSD or hybrid HDD

Hybrid HDD, or a single SSD and a Reg HDD (more expensive)... Max out your memory or upgrade incrementally, with Max sticks in each slot, over time.... (say max is 4x4GB for 16GB, put 2 of the 4's in now and the other two later). Win 10 Pro...

E_T said:

Hybrid HDD, or a single SSD and a Reg HDD (more expensive)... Max out your memory or upgrade incrementally, with Max sticks in each slot, over time.... (say max is 4x4GB for 16GB, put 2 of the 4's in now and the other two later). Win 10 Pro...

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As civ 4 is a 32 bit program, anything over 4-5 GB memory will not be used.

As Joseph stated in #4, this is not the only reason to have additional RAM. Windows uses the additional RAM, leaving more to Civ.

Plus if u have a newer computer it DEFINITELY helps to have the graphics card to have at least a 3GB GDDR5 (higher is better of course), meaning the graphics card will use IT's stored RAM before using the PC's, which it alot better that way, but always and i mean always get a PC that has a SSD of at least 128 GB, that is a must and have the game on THAT SSD also. at least IMPO ..

Ok, some false information in this thread so lets get a bit more into details. Civ 4 BTS is a 32 bit program. Originally, 32 bit programs were hardcoded to only use a max of 2 GB of memory, and a 32 bit computer can address a max of 4 GB of memory (including system software) because of math. A binary number consisting of 32 bits means you can address 2 ^ 32 numbers or bytes = 4 294 967 296 bytes = 4 GB.

As windows doesn't use all that much memory, for example, my current Windows 10 uses 149,5 MB of memory according to my Task Manager ( "system and compressed memory" ) plus a few services each using between almost nothing and up to 60 MB each it means that if you only use windows and 1 program, and you have 4 GB memory, a part of your memory will not be used.

So microsoft developed the 3 GB switch for 32 bit programs. This allowed programs to use up to 3 GB of memory instead of 2. To enable this, 2 things must be done:

1) the program must have set the 3 GB flag.
2) the 3 GB switch must be turned on in the Operating System (OS).

Ad 1: To settle a long standing dispute on this forum: CIV 4 BTS ALREADY HAS THE 3GB SWITCH FLAG SET. No need to do it manually. Vanilla Civ 4 did not have this flag set, but BTS does. Check out this link:

http://insertwittylinkhere.blogspot.nl/2010/07/large-address-aware-and-games.html

Civ 4 BTS is named as one of the games that has the 3 GB switch set to ON.

Ad 2: Modern 64 bit OSes (windows 7 and further) have the 3GB switch on by default. However, on older 32 bit OSes like Windows XP or Vista, you need to manually change the startup parameters in order to turn on the 3GB switch. How to do that depends on which OS you use so use google to find instructions. Note that video memory plays a role and you can use your harddisk as additional memory (swapfile) to store away parts of the program that are not used much so you may benefit from the 3 GB switch even if you only have 2 GB of physical memory. However using a swap file on disk may slow down the program significantly. Note that putting a swap file on an SSD is not recommended as SSD disk space tends to deteriorate after a few thousand writes. Use your SSD for software you need to load fast, but use regular harddisks for repeated writes.

Turning the 3 GB switch on on an older computer (pre win 7 64 bit) means you can play Caveman2Cosmos and have it swell to up to 3 GB of memory use before it crashes with a MAF (memory allocation fault). Which should only happen on the largest maps and late in the game. Civ 4 BTS is known to have a few small memory leaks so if you play long enough, the game will crash anyway due to MAF, but if you set your autosave to frequent and restart C2C after the crash, the leaked memory will be recovered so you can continue.

However if you play such a big game of C2C on such an old computer that you need to use more than 2 GB and manually turn on the 3GB switch in the OS, what you really should do is buy a more modern computer instead of waiting for your slow hardware to finish turns.

So how much physical memory do you need for optimal performance? You need max. 3 GB for C2C, a few hundred MB for Windows and perhaps some more for additional programs running in the background (like Steam). So you need 4 GB perhaps 5 GB. Anything else will not be used. A 64 bit OS is recommended as it can store non-game processes to a place in memory where it doesn't compete with C2C.

For processor, you need at least a dual core (as they are much more efficient than single core processors) and get as much clock speed on a single core as you can.

I'm not sure about graphics cards.

@Noriad: While this is mostly right, you are confusing the 3GB switch for XP / Vista (http://dwf.blogs.com/beyond_the_paper/2009/04/enabling-3gb-switch-on-windows-vista.html) with the 4GB patch which you can use for single programs (http://www.ntcore.com/4gb_patch.php). These are two different things.

Plus, if you use several different programs at the same time as Civ4 (a bit insane, to be sure), you can really use a few additional GB of RAM.

tmv said:

@Noriad: While this is mostly right, you are confusing the 3GB switch for XP / Vista (http://dwf.blogs.com/beyond_the_paper/2009/04/enabling-3gb-switch-on-windows-vista.html) with the 4GB patch which you can use for single programs (http://www.ntcore.com/4gb_patch.php). These are two different things.

Plus, if you use several different programs at the same time as Civ4 (a bit insane, to be sure), you can really use a few additional GB of RAM.

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Hi TMV, thank you for your reply.

However are you SURE that the 3gb-switch and the 4GB patch are different things? After some searching the internet, I came to the conclusion that both consist of setting the LARGEADDRESSAWARE flag to YES. If you are on a 32 bit version of windows this flag means the 3gb switch and on a 64 bit version of windows that means the 4GB patch. As the 3GB flag is already set on Civ 4:BTS, this means that the 4GB patch you linked is not necessary.

quotes from
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee418798(VS.85).aspx#Porting_to_64bit

- 32-bit applications on 32-bit platforms can address up to 2 GB.

- 32-bit applications built with the /LARGEADDRESSAWARE:YES linker flag on 32-bit Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 with the special /3gb boot option can address up to 3 GB. This constrains the kernel to only 1 GB which may cause some drivers and/or services to fail.

- 32-bit applications built with the /LARGEADDRESSAWARE:YES linker flag on the 32-bit editions of Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, and Windows 7 can address memory up to the number specified by the boot configuration data (BCD) element IncreaseUserVa. IncreaseUserVa can have a value ranging from 2048, the default, to 3072 (which matches the amount of memory configured by the /3gb boot option on Windows XP). The remainder of 4 GB is allocated to the kernel and can result in failing driver and service configurations.

-32-bit applications on 64-bit platforms can address up to 2 GB, or up to 4 GB with the /LARGEADDRESSAWARE:YES linker flag.

(end quote)

Note that the virtual 3 GB / 4 GB memory available to applications includes some memory from the graphics card. Given that windows + drivers + kernel may use more than 1 gigabyte (lets say 2 GB), I think that with a 64 bit windows, only running C2C, you'd use a maximum of 4 gb (C2C) + 2 gb? (kernel + drivers + windows) = 6 gb of memory. Add some other software running in the background and you'd be all set with 8 gb. Of course there may be many reasons to get more than 8 gb memory but C2C isn't one of them.

Noriad2 said:

32-bit Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 with the special /3gb boot option can address up to 3 GB. This constrains the kernel to only 1 GB which may cause some drivers and/or services to fail.

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This is AFAIK what is usually called the 3gb switch, whereas the 4gb patch is per program. It is also required for 32bit Vista (see the link I posted), but the procedure is a bit different.

And if you still only have windows vista/7 (and Internet Explorer 9), like I do, there is no need to "update". PC "updating" is far less "needed" now than 10 years ago (ie, update every 18 months). Androids and IOS (and game consoles) have eliminated that. Thank God...sorry PC "master race", but there is no need anymore to update PCs. I still have the same 4GB/2GhZ laptop I bought in 2009.
Only the interface* (for certain apps/games) are better on PC vs other media; and yes, in this case, Civ4 is better on PC. But you do not need an "updated" PC. I RARELY use my PC to access the forums; I find it FAR easier to use my Android Tablet (unless like today My PC is in front of me...). Having said that, I hate mobile versions of websites...but that is a new post.

*and editing message board posts... speaking of which this board still remembered my login after years of not posting here...I was afraid I would have to look up my password (all my internet logins are random names/passwords).

Yeah, Microsoft* really, really, really wants you to believe Windows 10 is "needed" but it ain't.

*this applies to apple and google apps as well

Thanks for the advice. I'm hoping to upgrade to a newer PC this Fall. I wasn't sure about the graphics card. Currently I have a one GB model, and it runs V37 just fine, but slowly at time. Huge maps just crash. XP-Pro with 4GB of RAM.

So, I'm looking at a refurbished HP model with 12 GB of RAM, Win 7, and I'll need a newer video card. (hee, ok back in the day they were called video cards

I'd also thought about Linux, but wasn't sure how well C2C would port over. Then a friend just happened to send me this link. I get no money for this plug, but it looked interesting. Not meaning to Spam either. Anyone tried it out?

https://stacksocial.com/sales/crossover-for-linux-free-phone-support

Mods USUALLY don't work on Linux or Mac. Someone came along and adapted a dll a while back that could but they'd have to have kept up on that with all the many dll changes that came afterwards. Thus, MAC and Linux are NOT advised.

Thunderbrd said:

Mods USUALLY don't work on Linux or Mac. Someone came along and adapted a dll a while back that could but they'd have to have kept up on that with all the many dll changes that came afterwards. Thus, MAC and Linux are NOT advised.

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Good to know, thanks