40k GPT 64 GB RAM Test

[cll3]

So I went and lost my mind with my last GTX 1080 graphics card upgrade, by also putting in 64 GB of RAM. And then I decided to christen my new setup with a trade mongering, extreme money grubbing game of Civ 6; spamming trade routes, which are notoriously RAM hungry.

I expected it to have minimal to no slow-down on later turns, but I found even with 64 GB of RAM, it still went quite slow, especially towards the end.

I played 694 turns of Inland Sea. Max civs, max city-states, deity, marathon, rome, rest of the settings default standard. Towards the end it was incredibly slow when dealing with traders. There were near freezes every single time I selected a trader, and again to select destination. So the inefficiency is obviously in the game code, specifically in the trade route pathfinding.

Anyways, in 694 turns I was able to pass 40k gold per turn, which I've never gotten that high in previous games before winning or quitting out of boredom, so that was cool I guess. I sorta just wanted to see how high it would go, but the turn times became unbearably slow, even with a monster setup. I timed how long each turn was taking on "Please Wait" prompt and each turn was taking around 230 seconds... I watched a whole movie (pausing the movie each time to take my turn) over the course of the final 30 turns. When the movie ended I threw my hands in the air and gave up.

Thought somebody might find this interesting/funny heh coolstorybob

 

[Noble Zarkon]

I watched a whole movie (pausing the movie each time to take my turn) over the course of the final 30 turns

Awesome story, admire your dedication!

 

[SirWill90]

So I went and lost my mind with my last GTX 1080 graphics card upgrade, by also putting in 64 GB of RAM. And then I decided to christen my new setup with a trade mongering, extreme money grubbing game of Civ 6; spamming trade routes, which are notoriously RAM hungry.

I expected it to have minimal to no slow-down on later turns, but I found even with 64 GB of RAM, it still went quite slow, especially towards the end.

I played 694 turns of Inland Sea. Max civs, max city-states, deity, marathon, rome, rest of the settings default standard. Towards the end it was incredibly slow when dealing with traders. There were near freezes every single time I selected a trader, and again to select destination. So the inefficiency is obviously in the game code, specifically in the trade route pathfinding.

Anyways, in 694 turns I was able to pass 40k gold per turn, which I've never gotten that high in previous games before winning or quitting out of boredom, so that was cool I guess. I sorta just wanted to see how high it would go, but the turn times became unbearably slow, even with a monster setup. I timed how long each turn was taking on "Please Wait" prompt and each turn was taking around 230 seconds... I watched a whole movie (pausing the movie each time to take my turn) over the course of the final 30 turns. When the movie ended I threw my hands in the air and gave up.

Thought somebody might find this interesting/funny heh coolstorybob

Curious, what is your processor?

 

[mcaswell64]

Interesting. Did you check to see how much RAM you were using at the end?

 

[MadDjinn]

the game isn't a RAM hog, nor will it get greedy when you have that much extra.

So, that's basically wasted RAM. Best bet would be to create a RAM drive to put civvi on, if you don't already have a m.2 connected SSD.

 

[Arent11]

spamming trade routes, which are notoriously RAM hungry. [...] I expected it to have minimal to no slow-down on later turns, but I found even with 64 GB of RAM, it still went quite slow, especially towards the end.

So, you could resolve the whole issue by just abstracting away traders & implementing a "passive" trade, as it was in prior civilizations?

I want to point out that most of my friends feel seriously annoyed by having to select & reassign dozens of trade routes. Furthermore, since the passive trade is gone, an important reason for maintaining peace with others is gone (the other one was tech trade, which was also abolished for no logical reason, since you can simply program the ai in such a way that it doesn't trade with humans on higher difficulties).

So, I simply don't see any reason to keep the traders. Are any trade lovers around that want to defend the current way to implement it or suggest another alternative?

 

[cll3]

Curious, what is your processor?
ryzen 5 1600x

Interesting. Did you check to see how much RAM you were using at the end?
only around 4GB

wasted RAM
yup. no reason for that much for gaming, or anything really (yet, hehe)... I run some gibbs/mcmc stuff on server while i sleep and even by morning it'll never even get past 30%.

Are any trade lovers around that want to defend the current way to implement it or suggest another alternative?
I won't defend it. I liked civ3 the most (no caravans). But each game is different with its own qualities, so if I'm still playing it, then I've accepted it.

 

[Canadian Bluebeer]

I'm going to try and top that on the ludicrous map.
1080 vid, i7-6800k and ayup, 64gb ram.

Already have it set up as no turn limit, it's using over 4gb ram already. (5gb vram)

only 200 turns in (marathon speed)

After a period of very very long turn times near the start, it's back down to less than 30 sec.
(also testing this for 2k support)

 

[MadDjinn]

Curious, what is your processor?
ryzen 5 1600x

should have saved that RAM cost and just gotten an 1800.

either way, that still wouldn't have mattered since even in DX12 mode civ doesn't eat the CPU either, at least for 8 core systems.

 

[Manifold]

CS Carthage = 32 GB RAM

 

[Victoria]

It's a turn based game. Multiple threads work to some degree but they ain't going to ramp up to 8 cores which is why the cpu is not maxed, does not mean speed is pointless.

I cannot parallelise sequential instructions

 

[Disgustipated]

Interesting. Does anyone know if running a browser window in the background degrades performance? I do that often. Any other tricks to improve performance?

40k gold per turn

What could you possibly do with that much money? I know you were testing the limits of RAM usage, but I can't imagine anyone purposely playing that way.

 

[Canadian Bluebeer]

I have a browser open, gpu-z, task manager, firetuner, and it makes no difference.
Game hasn't cracked 6gb yet. Yet.

 

[Noble Zarkon]

Are any trade lovers around that want to defend the current way to implement it or suggest another alternative?

Not the precise way it's implemented but it's certainly much better as an active, interesting decision the player has to make than as a passive background system.

 

[WillowBrook]

So, I simply don't see any reason to keep the traders. Are any trade lovers around that want to defend the current way to implement it or suggest another alternative?

I like the current system. But I don't usually have more than 20 or so trade routes. One of the UI mods has the option to automatically renew a route, which I imagine would help (I don't use the option).

Besides strategy around where the trade routes go for what yields, I also like having them on the map for the pillaging possibility - it adds another little interesting thing to keep an eye on.

It seems that the pathfinding algorithm (or something related to it) needs some optimization, but that affects more than just trade routes. I wouldn't want the trade system to change for a slight performance increase (slight, that is, with my level of trade route use).

 

[Victoria]

There are some things I would like, especially around path finding as mentioned.
Also wether my trade route goes by land or sea
I am now used to how I can quickly work out if I have a trade route to all civs for a CV but it is a little annoying

 

[Photi]

There are some things I would like, especially around path finding as mentioned.
Also wether my trade route goes by land or sea
I am now used to how I can quickly work out if I have a trade route to all civs for a CV but it is a little annoying

how do you quickly do that? is it different from the trade route screen (button for it in the upper right)?

 

[Victoria]

how do you quickly do that? is it different from the trade route screen (button for it in the upper right)?

Nope, I just avoid trading with too many CS so they are all grouped nicely at the bottom with their country symbols.

 

[magha77]

I upgraded my ram to 32gb and didn't notice much of a difference. Then I got a good SSD card and play Civ/Steam from it and the game is markedly faster. The ludicrous maps with tons of CS and Civs still makes it slow, but not prohibitively so.

 

[Victoria]

Yeah there is quite a few files updated each turn, did not think it was synchronous though.