All Civ 4 games suddenly slow!

[maajka]

Alright guys, this is the deal, I should not have ANY problems running this game while encoding 25 high definition movies at the same time, simply for the sake of argument, I am not attempting to do this.

About two weeks ago my all my Civ 4 games (Vanilla, Warlords, BTS) run extremely slow when the map is first loaded and is unplayable, menu is flawless, when I deleted my cache and empty it and reinstall even, the game will tell my my system does not meet the minimum requirements, now seriously, where is the bug here?

I run Fallout 3 max settings flawless, I have a customer gaming PC, I have a big problem with this because it seems like nobody on all of the internet is having the same issue.

I am running windows 7 64bit, got 3 gigs of tri Chanel ram, Intel i7, ati 4850 w/ 1g of ddr5, dxdiag attached. Whoever helps to get this resolves will be my official new hero (current hero is Ron Paul and I know you want to take his place)

Some fun facts...

• Tried on both Steam version and non-steam version, same outcome
• Vanilla runs OK but not as good as it should
• Colonization runs flawless
• had BluMarble mod installed, uninstalled it and same prblem
• Re-Installed numerous times without any changes
• Do not have any spy ware, ad aware viruses or anything, this is a bug in game
• I have seen A LOT of questions asked by other people all over forums and NO ONE has been able to answer or resolve this issue so lets get this done
• I've been lurking for about 5 years
• Great forum and community, when's civ 5 coming?

THANK YOU AND I LOVE YOU IF YOU CAN HELP ME NEXT STEP IS RE-INSTALLING WINDOWS, I have not been able to play civ for 1 week now feel my pain??

 

[ori]

is the game patched to date?
with a new operating system having updated drivers is the first thing to do: http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_catalyst.aspx?p=win7/windows-7-64bit (yours are a month older - and with 7's official release since then that might just be the cause).

As for 25 HD movies: you underestimate the memory hogging capabilities of this game tremendously

Welcome to CFC

 

[maajka]

If you are reffering to my gfx card i rolled those back as i was groubleshoting i have the latest oct release and it doesnt change a thing. The only thing that really bugs me is that it suddenly happend. As far as memory intensity i do realize it is but i have a very optimized system run 29 processes when gaming and civ does not go over 1 gig pc usage at any given time, i also play standard size map.

Everything is up to date i take care of my pc never get viruses etc i have somewhat high technic knowledge and like to use logic..something suddenly happening like this is not very logical.

Sorry typing on my iphone hate the auto correct feauture...

 

[ori]

did you install the game with admin rights? i.e. right click on the installer and chose run as admin?

 

[maajka]

First time thru steam no i did not. Second time installed fro
a cd and yes i did tried running as admin as well no solution. Its like all civ engine games are lagging except colonization...which i call the ******** offspring of civ4 sorry...
Also tried compatinility mode vista and xp and same issue...Looked around some more and it appears to be a somewhat common issue without resolution and everyone os reporting it suddenly happening...only other thing i can think of that night have broken it is a windows update but why didnt it break colonization! Dunno..

 

[ori]

colonization uses a different version of the graphics engine - and I suspect that its a graphics issue - did you also run the patches with admin rights?
also try updating directx: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...38-db71-4c1b-bc6a-9b6652cd92a3&DisplayLang=en

 

[maajka]

I did not do that might as well try it...at one point i thougnt My cpu or gfx where overheating too and tha wasnt the case.. Just the while cause and effect bugs me becausw as far as i can tell there was nothing to cause just civ to not work thank you for your help ill try that as soon as i get home. Any other suggestions are welcome

 

[maajka]

Okay I fixed it somehow, I updated the DX like you said and tried it and it was still choppy...I opened up the INI file to see if I can run it in windowed mode instead of fullscreen and changed it to "0" now the game still loads up fullscreen but WOW its back to normal, i have no idea what or how this happend, i'm going to play for a little bit and let you know if anything new develops, thank you for your help!!! You rock.

 

[pocosays]

How and where do I access the INI file?

 

[maajka]

There is a shortcut inside the beyond the sword folder

esit... Been playin for a couple of hours and ITS FLAWLESS thank you for the help you crazy civ fanatics

 

[klutzy]

There is a shortcut inside the beyond the sword folder

esit... Been playin for a couple of hours and ITS FLAWLESS thank you for the help you crazy civ fanatics

CONFIRMED that changing this value fixed this exact problem for me as well. Go to the CivilizationIV.ini file in the "Beyond the Sword" folder and look for this:

; Specify whether to play in fullscreen mode 0/1/ask
FullScreen = 0

Make sure that value is 0. Immediately jumped back up to 60FPS for me from about 11FPS.