Will the game run any better if I up my RAM to 256 or 512 from 128?

[steve dave]

In the later years I find that I am waiting for longer and longer periods of time for my PC to work through the other players turns. I already have 1.5 Gig processor so I was hoping the RAM upgrade might help. Or is this just how the game is and no amount of RAM or processor speed will make it run faster in the later years?

[Exile_Ian]

I suspect you'd see some improvement with 256 but not a lot more with 512. I'm running a P4 1.8 512 Mb Ram - but I've monitored memory usage while the game is in its 'deep thought' pauses and it rarely if ever exceeds 256 Mb used.

I've abandoned playing Huge maps with 16 Civs - but Large maps with 12 Civs works fine (doesn't exceed maybe 2 minutes per turn even in latter stages).

[Capitalist]

Heck, I played on a large map, with only 5 AI players, and it was like 30 to 40 seconds before I got my next turn. In computer terms this is *forever*. Unfortunately theres not much I can do but turn down the amount of AI's to about 3, this seems to make the game run properly.

Sys config:
Windows XP
328 MB ram
32MB Hercules Prophet IIMX video card
56x cdrw drive.
PIII 600MHz.


It's a shame, though I think I understand that there is a *lot* going on in the game that takes this amount of time.

[bst1]

Originally posted by Capitalist
Heck, I played on a large map, with only 5 AI players, and it was like 30 to 40 seconds before I got my next turn. In computer terms this is *forever*. Unfortunately theres not much I can do but turn down the amount of AI's to about 3, this seems to make the game run properly.

Sys config:
Windows XP
328 MB ram
32MB Hercules Prophet IIMX video card
56x cdrw drive.
PIII 600MHz.


It's a shame, though I think I understand that there is a *lot* going on in the game that takes this amount of time.

Must be a RTS'er.

[Capitalist]

I dont know that Im an RTS'er but I was never a TBS'er until Civ III.

[MrBiggBoy]

Originally posted by bst1



Must be a RTS'er.

lol, good one bst1!!!!!

[the_travis_s]

If you have Win XP (or 2000) upping it to 512 would probably be a good idea and to 256 is a must!

If you have any 9X version, don't bother going beyond 128. Windows simply doesn't know what to do with that much memory, and I can pretty much guarantee you will see no difference.

[tgs81]

you might see some improvement but not much im guessing. im running on a athlon 1900 geforce 2 with over a gig of memory. i still get some serious slowdown later in the game. looking at my computer resources in win xp while waiting for my turn i can see that the cpu is at 100% usage while a very large portion of the memory is still free.

[JustListenen]

Go to the preferences screen and TURN OFF animations for other CIVS. The animation is what takes most of the time.

[Exsanguination]

Originally posted by JustListenen
Go to the preferences screen and TURN OFF animations for other CIVS. The animation is what takes most of the time.

didn't make a difference for me, maybe a few secs (and i turned off ALL animations)

[damunzy]

I would say very little improvement going to 512 over 256....but going from 256 from 128 should help....it also depends on the other programs you are running.

I am playing on huge 16 civ map and it is still in the first age...and about 30 secs to 1 minute wait for turns.

XP Pro
32 Meg G400 Max Oced 10%
512Meg SDRAM
7200 RPM ATA66 HDD
Duron 750 Oced to 950

The processor is what helps you the most with the memory coming in sec (of course if you have a 1.9G processor and 64Megs of memory the memory is what you need to worry about).