9800 PRO + AMD 2000 XP - it is not enough

[Orion66]

I thin 9800 PRO is not best option in Civ4. I like very smooth animation. I play on Highets detalis with 2xAA and I can say that 9800 PRO + 2000 AMD XP + 1024 RAM is not enough. This game has huge req.

So tommorow I am going to buy especially for Civ4 (and more) Nvidia GF 6800

Just wanted to warn every one who has lower spec than me. If you like full smooth animation - upgrade your graphics cards.

Best regards to all civmaniacs

 

[dotshiori]

So tommorow I am going to buy especially for Civ4 (and more) Nvidia GF 6800

Great choice, that is the card I have and Civ4 runs absolutely beautifully.

 

[logical_psycho]

I think a cheaper option is to wait for the next patch, I'm sure the game will be tweaked to match your ATI card better.

 

[Rince]

Hmm. I have EXACTLY the same setup. I think the game runs good enough, but i don't mind if the animations are not ultra-smooth.

Good luck with your new video card though. Upgrading my video card is always one of the more interesting parts in the life of my computers. Trying out all the games to see how super-good they suddenly run ;-)

Rince

 

[VasiaPupkin]

I run it on amd 2.3ghz with ti4200 and have to run it at lowest to get any playable.

Then it starts to mem leak and just dies.

 

[Alistic]

The origional poster is right an 2000xp chip is not enough.

That chip is bottlenecking your video card.

 

[Alistic]

I run it on amd 2.3ghz with ti4200 and have to run it at lowest to get any playable.

Then it starts to mem leak and just dies.

Edit: nevermind

 

[ironduck]

I might need a new computer since my current one is having general issues.. which is better for the money these days, pentium or amd? Are the mainstream pentiums even 64bit yet?

 

[Anima Croatorum]

question: is one of my favourite previous civ game features in? the one that turns off unit animations? theyre interesting the first 15 minutes, but after that they simply slow down the game.

 

[Thumper333]

I might need a new computer since my current one is having general issues.. which is better for the money these days, pentium or amd? Are the mainstream pentiums even 64bit yet?

I think only AMD has a lot of 64-bit choices. Doesn't matter much as there's not a LOT of support for 64bit anyway though.

As to brand, it really depends on what you want to do. If you ONLY play games, an AMD is probably your best bet. If you also multitask your system with programs and the internet and really put your system to work, a Pentium is a better choice.


And remember...minimum requirments mean just that....the bare minimum to have the game function....most games aren't very much fun ran at minimum specs

 

[ironduck]

Thumper, the next version of windows should have 64bit support, so it would make sense to have a 64bit cpu as well. And I don't use it for gaming except for civ, but I haven't heard that AMD processors should be worse at multitasking somehow. I've used them both and they seem equal (running a P4 2600 mhz now).

 

[Brota]

9800pro is fine, change your cpu.

 

[Jh00]

I thin 9800 PRO is not best option in Civ4. I like very smooth animation. I play on Highets detalis with 2xAA and I can say that 9800 PRO + 2000 AMD XP + 1024 RAM is not enough. This game has huge req.

So tommorow I am going to buy especially for Civ4 (and more) Nvidia GF 6800

Just wanted to warn every one who has lower spec than me. If you like full smooth animation - upgrade your graphics cards.

Best regards to all civmaniacs

I have exactly the same configuration here, but I doubt it is a gfx card problem. If I change Civ4 gfx settings to the lowerst, the game still isn't smoothly enough. For some reason, from time to time the frame rate drops to 1 fps, mainly when I'm browsing the world map by the end of the game.

I'm quite sure that the problem is related to CPU / Memory consumption. Just run Civ4 in Windowed mode and take a look at the Resources Manager... Even with 1gb of memory, windows uses 600Mb of the pagefile!!!

This is clearly a memory leak, and I think it will be adressed in the next few patches. But I doubt you get better results by changing your GFX card, if I were you, I will bet on a new processor.

 

[maartena]

I thin 9800 PRO is not best option in Civ4. I like very smooth animation. I play on Highets detalis with 2xAA and I can say that 9800 PRO + 2000 AMD XP + 1024 RAM is not enough. This game has huge req.

I play on a 9700 PRO which is slower then your card. I have a faster CPU though, at 2.53 Ghz - a intel P4.

The game runs perfectly smooth on my machine. I think your problem may be more software related, such as a load of spyware on your computer that eats away your memory.

 

[Hypus]

The origional poster is right an 2000xp chip is not enough.

That chip is bottlenecking your video card.

yep--he'll be scratchin his head for sure when he sees possible drop in performance actually.

 

[Orion66]

I can't agree with all of you who suggests that I changed my CPU. It is not CPU. I can tweak my CPU to almoust 3000+ (2,1Ghz) - it is not a big change for Civ4.
I need better GPU - 6800 would be nice.

Also - 3d Mark 2003. I have on my R9800 - about 6000 points. When I tweak CPU to be faster - I have only 100 points more while people with 6800 have almoust 10.000 points! So - GPU must be changed as first.


ONE MORE THING - I have good drivers and so on. I just LOVE to have super smooth animation and minimum STABLE 30-35 FPS. (use fraps to see how many FPS you have guys!)

Guys - 9800 PRO is a good card but we have to admit - new games are more and more advanced and they need better and better cards.
Civ4 realised me that it is high time for some changes. 6800 or 6600GT are not monsters but good cards that should cope with most advanced games.

 

[Moosebox]

p4 2.4ghz
1mb ram
9800 pro

The game is find up till about 1920 or so...then it really begins to slow down especially when zoomed out.

I loaded up the Earth1000AD map, and it was like a slideshow.

I can't imaging the combination of a Hugh map with a good number of civs late in the game(1900+).

 

[Xink]

I have a 9800pro along with 1GB of RAM and an AMD XP2600 mobile CPU, which is overclocked. So my system is similar to the OP's.

If you have a read of this thread...

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17487487

...it will link to this VERY informative thread regarding the need and benefits from upgrading the CPU or the GPU. It also gives examples of upgrading from 1GB to 2GB of memory...

http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/fear_cpu_performance/

You will notice that there is very little difference from a AMD 3000+ to a 4800+ that can be attributed to the change of the CPU. There is no difference from 1GB to 2GB of memory. Nearly all of the performance differences noted is seen when the graphics card is upgraded, supporting the thoughts of the OP.

However I see the Civ series (but Civ 4 obviously demand more from your graphics card than the earlier ones) a little differently as most, but not all, of the lag noted can be the computation of the AI's turn which surely must require a faster processor rather than a faster GPU...? I can understand that Civ 4 will up the requirements of the GPU and, of course, memory but I would still think that the CPU plays a vital role in the playability of the game over that of a FPS type of game that they are comparing in the second link that I posted and certainly more so than the synthetic benchmarks that you can run, like the 3D benchmarks.

I hope that the OP is able to take some timed benchmarks of how Civ 4 is running doing certain things and IF they can be saved and reproduced when the 6800 is bought to see just what has changed.

In TBS (turn base strategy) types of games I think that the GPU, depending on the graphics, textures. lighting etc etc etc and resolution used, has a part to play but the CPU and memory is more important. Not having got the game yet I might find though that Civ 4 is pushing both demands for a fast GPU and CPU.

I hope that Orion66 keeps us posted on his results, and good luck with your upgrade

EDIT: Just remembered that my friend upgraded his graphics card a while ago for his socket A based rig to an ATI 800 XTPE and his games played absolutely superb and were just as fast as those using a AMD64 rig BUT he only played FPS type of games, like Counter Strike, Far Cry or Half Life 2.

 

[dannyevilcat]

If you ONLY play games, an AMD is probably your best bet. If you also multitask your system with programs and the internet and really put your system to work, a Pentium is a better choice.

Sorry, but that's some FUD. AMD chips performs (at least slightly) better than their Intel equivalents in most things, not just games.

 

[NinjaCool]

Using a Radeon 9700 Pro on a Pentium 4 3.0Ghz with 1GB ram and everything is running smooth with highest settings.
Be sure you have Service Pack 2 installed... this fixed a problem with lacking speed for 1 user here I've read.