Help With Starting Civilization 5

D

dandaman25

Chieftain
Joined
Apr 19, 2011
Messages
4
I would like to request some assistance in starting civ. 5. I have downloaded Steam and have installed the game on my computer. However, every time I try to start the game and click on Direct x 9, 10, or 11, I end up with a white screen that says not responding at the top. I would really like some help in order to start playing.
 
Mmhh...sounds like if your computer could not handle the game -> what computer do you have? Can you give us some details about the specs like processor power and graphics card?

Else...wait. Might be, that after some time it finally begins.
 
Intel Core 2 Duo CPU at 2.20GHz
32-bit operating system.
Can't find the graphics card info. Where would that be on a Windows Vista system?
 
Okay....and ouch.

Edit:
Your graphics card is too much under the minimum requirements, at least 2 graphic card generations. It's a Intel(R) GMA 3100 (Mobile Intel 945 Express Chipset), and no one has yet been able to play Civ5 with this card. You have to buy a new one to get it to run :(.

I wrote the striked text below, because i thought you had a Intel(R) XGMA 3100, but not the case :(.
Your graphics card is the main problem. It's an old intel graphics card, which is not supported by Civilization 5 and way under the minimum requirements, and additionally the driver for it is 2.5 years old.
People have reported that they can play with this card, but with graphical problems.

If you don't want to buy a new card, you'll first have to update your drivers. The Intel download center is here, your graphics card is a Intel(R) GMA 3100 (also named Mobile Intel 965 Express Chipset), please download the latest.
You should then be able to start the game in DirectX11 mode, and it will probably come up with garbled text (please check if it does). If this happens, you can find a workaround for it here (CFC thread regarding that problem is here).
 
what kind of card would i need to get and how much would the cost be? also, would civilization 5 be playable on a mac? i ask this because i hope to get one after graduation. sorry if i'm asking too many questions, i'm horrible with computer hardware tech.
 
dandaman25 said:
what kind of card would i need to get and how much would the cost be?
Click to expand...

What kind is a bit unspecific...manufacturer should be ATI/AMD or Nvidia, min. ATI HD3600 or Nvidia Geforce nVidia 9600, better both numbers are higher.
Minimum cost would be around 50-60 €/$ (under the assumption that you are in US or middle europe), better you spend a bit more, 70-80 should nearly always bring something suitable up.

Some explanation on the numbers of the graphics card:
Spoiler :
Simple number explanation for dummies:
- first number is how current the graphic card are. ATI/AMD is at the moment in generation 6 [so numbers are 6xxx], Nvidia is generation 5 (so the numbers are 5xx; they left something out in between i think).
- The second number is the "power class", where 1 is low, 9 is high. There are numbers missing in between.

So a (theoretical) ATI HD 6300 would be a new card, but doesn't have really power.
A (theoretical) Nvidia GeForce GT 290 would be an older card, but with relatively much power.

That explanation is really simple and rough, and doesn't always apply. New card with low power is in most cases worse than an a bit older card with much power. You should in most cases ask before you buy something.
I'm also not a pro in that area. I use this explanation for guessing myself where i have to approximately put a card and would inform myself better if i buy something or would ask one of the real pros here.


dandaman25 said:
also, would civilization 5 be playable on a mac? i ask this because i hope to get one after graduation.
Click to expand...

On the new ones yes, if it's not the lowest price class. In the lowest class they use an Intel graphics card, which should theoretically be supported by the game, but out of whatever unsorted reason it currently doesn't run. The Mac developers are working on that problem.
On Macs without Intel graphic cards it shouldn't be a problem as far as i know.

dandaman25 said:
sorry if i'm asking too many questions, i'm horrible with computer hardware tech.
Click to expand...

The forum is here to answer questions ;).
 
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