Official System Requirements

Long time member but I haven't posted on this site in many years. I'm in the market to buy a new PC desktop as well. I can't quite tell if buying an i3 or i5 means that I have to pay attention to a separate graphics card spec or not? For example, one possible computer I'm considering is an Asus Essentio with an i5-650 Processor and 8GB RAM and the "product features" printout from Best Buy just says Intel HD Graphics with up to 1759MB in shared video memory.

In the alternative, I could go for an HP Pavilian p6540y with an AMD Phenom II quad core 830, 8 GB RAM, and an ATI Radeon HD 4200 graphics card.

Any opinions on how these two options would would with Civ 5?

Thanks
 
I have vaio laptop.(740qm 1.73)(6gb ram)(GeForce GT 330M 1GB)
Can i run civ5 in high settings?I'm curious about grafic card.Is it enough for high settings or med.?
 
JBearIt said:
Long time member but I haven't posted on this site in many years. I'm in the market to buy a new PC desktop as well. I can't quite tell if buying an i3 or i5 means that I have to pay attention to a separate graphics card spec or not? For example, one possible computer I'm considering is an Asus Essentio with an i5-650 Processor and 8GB RAM and the "product features" printout from Best Buy just says Intel HD Graphics with up to 1759MB in shared video memory.

In the alternative, I could go for an HP Pavilian p6540y with an AMD Phenom II quad core 830, 8 GB RAM, and an ATI Radeon HD 4200 graphics card.

Any opinions on how these two options would would with Civ 5?

Thanks
Click to expand...
Intel HD Graphics = integrated graphics = Crappy video performance .

I pulled this from this CNET review about the hp pavilion -
The good: "Magnesium" gray case is a welcome change from black; includes Wi-Fi; strong multithreaded application performance thanks to quad-core AMD chip.

The bad: Limited expandability due to puny 250-watt power supply; consumes twice as much power as similar PCs in its price range.

The bottom line: HP's uncommonly hued Pavilion p6540y offers a competitive set of features for a midtower desktop. The quad-core AMD chip should power you through light-duty multimedia editing faster than competing Intel-based systems. Upgraders should stay away, and there are faster general-productivity PCs available for less, but we can recommend this PC to those in need of its particular quad-core charms

Check out Maingear.com, or Alienware.com Both have systems available for under $1000 dollars. Maingear is an independent boutique builder and Alienware is owned by Dell. If it were my money I would go with Maingear. I have done a little research and the build quality, performance and upgradeability of Maingear is excellent, according to the reviews I have read. Their entry level model, the Vybe, starts at $775. I would chose a better graphics card for it, though that will push the price up to at least $900. The main thing to keep in mind is that either manufacturer makes computers that are aimed at gamers and are upgradeable. Thats my two cents.
 
JBearIt said:
Long time member but I haven't posted on this site in many years. I'm in the market to buy a new PC desktop as well. I can't quite tell if buying an i3 or i5 means that I have to pay attention to a separate graphics card spec or not? For example, one possible computer I'm considering is an Asus Essentio with an i5-650 Processor and 8GB RAM and the "product features" printout from Best Buy just says Intel HD Graphics with up to 1759MB in shared video memory.

In the alternative, I could go for an HP Pavilian p6540y with an AMD Phenom II quad core 830, 8 GB RAM, and an ATI Radeon HD 4200 graphics card.

Any opinions on how these two options would would with Civ 5?

Thanks
Click to expand...

Unless you add a decent dedicated video card, none of those will make you happy with Civ5.
Do you need 8GB for a specific application? Otherwise 3-4 GB should be more than sufficient for the average user. I would stay away from consumer line products, business line models are usually of much better quality and come with better service in case something is not working as intended.
Examples from the dell online store:
XPS 7100: Athlon X4 2.8GHz Quadcore, 3GB, HD 5670 -- $600
XPS 8100: Core i5-750 2.67 Quadcore, 4GB, HD 5670 -- $900
with HD 5770 +$80

Dedicated gaming machines tend to be either ridiculous overpriced or of shoddy design/build.
Something comparable to the Dell XPS 8100 from the maingear store will seet you back $1100, and the Dell is already a bit on the expensive side.

For a pre-build machine from a big manufacturer the XPS 7100 with the HD5770 looks like pretty good value as a gaming rig.


chris1317 said:
Incase anyone is interested bit tech posted their PC hardware buying guide last month so its prety up to date. It might give you some ideas if you intend a new build for Civ5.

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/buyers-guide/2010/08/09/pc-hardware-buyer-s-guide-august-2010/1
Click to expand...

Just keep in mind that those examples cater to VERY specific needs and are not just "the best gaming machine" at a given price point. The "affordable allrounder" for example pretty much implicates that you will upgrade the CPU within the next year, as the proposed X2 240 is a bit underpowered for a GTX 460 and the socket AM3 will probably come to its end of life within the next 1-2 years.
 
well - i tried that page and came up with the following for my rig. this doesn't look right... can someone pls adv... all the rest figures btw. But i'm WORRIED and CONFUSED nonetheless :crazyeye:

Civilization V
System Requirements Lab Analysis

Sorry, your computer does not meet the minimum specifications required to run this product. Please review the details below for more information.

CPU
Minimum: Intel Core 2 Duo 1.8 GHz or AMD Athlon X2 64 2.0 GHz
You Have: Intel(R) Pentium(R) Dual CPU T3200 @ 2.00GHz
Upgrade Suggested: Unfortunately, your CPU does not meet this requirement.

CPU Speed
Minimum: Intel Core 2 Duo 1.8 GHz or AMD Athlon X2 64 2.0 GHz
You Have: 2.00 GHz
Upgrade Suggested: Unfortunately, your CPU Speed does not meet this requirement.
 
draconman said:
well - i tried that page and came up with the following for my rig. this doesn't look right... can someone pls adv... all the rest figures btw. But i'm WORRIED and CONFUSED nonetheless :crazyeye:

Civilization V
System Requirements Lab Analysis

Sorry, your computer does not meet the minimum specifications required to run this product. Please review the details below for more information.

CPU
Minimum: Intel Core 2 Duo 1.8 GHz or AMD Athlon X2 64 2.0 GHz
You Have: Intel(R) Pentium(R) Dual CPU T3200 @ 2.00GHz
Upgrade Suggested: Unfortunately, your CPU does not meet this requirement.

CPU Speed
Minimum: Intel Core 2 Duo 1.8 GHz or AMD Athlon X2 64 2.0 GHz
You Have: 2.00 GHz
Upgrade Suggested: Unfortunately, your CPU Speed does not meet this requirement.
Click to expand...
...QED

Thanks for proving my point, and welcome to the forums! [party]:band::dance:
Don't worry about it, wait till the demo will come out and then see for yourself :)
 
trevort said:
*snip*
Check out Maingear.com, or Alienware.com Both have systems available for under $1000 dollars. Maingear is an independent boutique builder and Alienware is owned by Dell. If it were my money I would go with Maingear. I have done a little research and the build quality, performance and upgradeability of Maingear is excellent, according to the reviews I have read. Their entry level model, the Vybe, starts at $775. I would chose a better graphics card for it, though that will push the price up to at least $900. The main thing to keep in mind is that either manufacturer makes computers that are aimed at gamers and are upgradeable. Thats my two cents.
Click to expand...
Alienware is made by Dell, Maingear is assembled in USA, Maingear's warranty is insanely awesome
tokala said:
Unless you add a decent dedicated video card, none of those will make you happy with Civ5.
Do you need 8GB for a specific application? Otherwise 3-4 GB should be more than sufficient for the average user. I would stay away from consumer line products, business line models are usually of much better quality and come with better service in case something is not working as intended.
Examples from the dell online store:
XPS 7100: Athlon X4 2.8GHz Quadcore, 3GB, HD 5670 -- $600
XPS 8100: Core i5-750 2.67 Quadcore, 4GB, HD 5670 -- $900
with HD 5770 +$80

Dedicated gaming machines tend to be either ridiculous overpriced or of shoddy design/build.
Something comparable to the Dell XPS 8100 from the maingear store will seet you back $1100, and the Dell is already a bit on the expensive side.

For a pre-build machine from a big manufacturer the XPS 7100 with the HD5770 looks like pretty good value as a gaming rig.




Just keep in mind that those examples cater to VERY specific needs and are not just "the best gaming machine" at a given price point. The "affordable allrounder" for example pretty much implicates that you will upgrade the CPU within the next year, as the proposed X2 240 is a bit underpowered for a GTX 460 and the socket AM3 will probably come to its end of life within the next 1-2 years.
Click to expand...

the Maingear is high quality and the Dell is Dell AKA POS (except the workstations)
 
civ_king said:
Alienware is made by Dell, Maingear is assembled in USA, Maingear's warranty is insanely awesome

the Maingear is high quality and the Dell is Dell AKA POS (except the workstations)
Click to expand...
Most business models will be of high quality, as professional customers tend to be not as tolerant regarding malfunctioning equipment as the average consumer. The consumer/multimedia models on the other hand ...

And if you ever had contact with the service hotlines for end users and business customers of a company, you will come away with the impression that you were talking with people on two different planets :lol:

If the service for maingear computers is as good as they claim, for a non computer-savvy person it might be worth the ~30% price premium, though.
 
Guardian_PL said:
...QED

Thanks for proving my point, and welcome to the forums! [party]:band::dance:
Don't worry about it, wait till the demo will come out and then see for yourself :)
Click to expand...

i therefore concur but only differ from u in your metaphor - it's more a big pile of tiger -sponsored poo-poo, given that it links you to a certain US online retailer in case your machine doesn't "match" the requirements.
 
tokala said:
Most business models will be of high quality, as professional customers tend to be not as tolerant regarding malfunctioning equipment as the average consumer. The consumer/multimedia models on the other hand ...

And if you ever had contact with the service hotlines for end users and business customers of a company, you will come away with the impression that you were talking with people on two different planets :lol:

If the service for maingear computers is as good as they claim, for a non computer-savvy person it might be worth the ~30% price premium, though.
Click to expand...

If you have the money to buy a Maingear you can understand the customer support (assuming you have a high school diploma)
 
Mobile Intel(R) 4 Series Express Chipset Family


This card is getting a PASS on canirunit.

Is that RIGHT?

I mean I did this as a joke and ran that little applet to see what it would say. It says it fails the CPU, 2.2G dual core so I don't think so, and passes the GPU test.


Video Card
Minimum: 256 MB ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT or better, 256 MB NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GS or better, or Core i3 or better integrated graphics
You Have: Mobile Intel(R) 4 Series Express Chipset Family
PASS
Features: Minimum attributes of your Video Card
Required You Have
Video RAM 256 MB 1.3 GB
Hardware T&L Yes Yes
Pixel Shader version 3.0 4.0
Vertex Shader version 3.0 4.0

Can this be right????? :crazyeye:
 
I will point out that with Alienware, you pay extra for their logo, and that's it. You can typically build a rig yourself using the equivalent hardware for half as much.
 
JWideman said:
I will point out that with Alienware, you pay extra for their logo, and that's it. You can typically build a rig yourself using the equivalent hardware for half as much.
Click to expand...

To that effect, Alienware seems to be to computers what Abercrombie and Fitch is to clothing.
 
So if I am building a rig and prefer a more generic case, what kind should I get?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

AW Arcaeca
Civ4 will not launch; crashes to desktop mid-initialization
Replies
8
Views
1K
AW Arcaeca
AW Arcaeca
Blake00
[CTP] Call To Power 2 SDL2 Port for Modern Windows, Linux & MacOS
Replies
0
Views
1K
Blake00
Blake00
The_J
  • Locked
  • Sticky
Official system requirements
Replies
0
Views
1K
The_J
The_J
leif erikson
  • Sticky
Old World System Requirements
Replies
1
Views
3K
Dale
Dale
livinginaz
Details on the Civilization III Macintosh port - versions and OS compatibility table inside
Replies
8
Views
4K
Lord_Hill
L
Top Bottom