Anyone with BRAND NEW computers experiencing problems?

[Bast]

Not new from a year ago. Not new from 6 months ago. Brand new, you just got it now and you installed Civ IV. Any problems?

I read in another post somewhere on this board that someone with a brand new computer with lower specs can work Civ IV but not their friend with an older but higher spec computer.

Can anyone confirm this?

And also, I'm extremely confused as to why some lower spec computers (like mine) can perform better than higher spec computers? I mean I can at least play a game (with no problems) for at least an hour. And my computer is like the crappiest of all time.

I don't understand this?

 

[Bast]

Bump. I just tried the world zoom out view with the clouds moving for the first time. It worked!

 

[Flyguy_1]

what are your specs?

 

[Bast]

what are your specs?

AMD Duron 1.3 Ghz
256 MB RAM
64 MB GeForce 440
Windows XP Pro

 

[Flyguy_1]

you're telling me you can run the game fine on that computer? That barely (I mean barely) meets the minimum requirements of the game and you're saying it works fine??

 

[Bast]

you're telling me you can run the game fine on that computer? That barely (I mean barely) meets the minimum requirements of the game and you're saying it works fine??

YES! NOT large or huge maps and only about 3-4 civs. But at this stage, I'm learning so this is fine.

But I need a new computer because soon I'll want to play on huge maps with many civs and over the internet.

When I got it, my biggest surprise was that everything was fine and the game actually started with no problems. And I have no lags!

 

[CustodianV131]

There might be problems with some of the more advanced shader versions of some cards, since for some people forcing an old shader did improve performance.

This might be why your card has no problems, it simply hasn't an advanced shader version. So for once its better to have an old card then

Also with you playing on small maps you'll less quickly into the memory leak problem. Plus your computer can better handle the stress, because it has to keep up with less stuff. Your running the game the way you should on your system! Way to go!

Good to hear it runs that well on your PC. Might give a few people hope! I got some friends with systems like yours, maybe they'll also be in luck! Might try my version there to see how it runs!

 

[maartena]

AMD Duron 1.3 Ghz
256 MB RAM
64 MB GeForce 440
Windows XP Pro

The AMD Duron 1.3 Ghz was already in production in Jan. 2002, and is a budget CPU. This cannot possibly a Brand New system unless you were ripped off.

256 Mb is not enough to run Civ IV on Windows XP, according to the system requirements you will need at least 512 Mb with Windows XP.

I bought my system 3 years ago in 2002. Granted, it was fairly top of the line back then, but I don't believe that your system is "brand new".

I bought a Intel Pentium 4, 2.5Ghz - 1 Gb RAM (512 first, bought 512 in 2003) - ATI Radeon 9700 Pro

The graphics card was top-of-the-line when I bought it, and it still works great!

But your system? There is NO WAY you bought that system in 2005. Again, unless you were ripped off or really bought the cheapest of the cheapest.

That system works great for Internet, Office applications, and most games up to 2003 or so.....

 

[siouxfallsciv]

Bast is getting a new computer soon. The specs you quoted are Bast's current system specs not the new computer specs.

 

[Bast]

There might be problems with some of the more advanced shader versions of some cards, since for some people forcing an old shader did improve performance.

This might be why your card has no problems, it simply hasn't an advanced shader version. So for once its better to have an old card then

Also with you playing on small maps you'll less quickly into the memory leak problem. Plus your computer can better handle the stress, because it has to keep up with less stuff. Your running the game the way you should on your system! Way to go!

Good to hear it runs that well on your PC. Might give a few people hope! I got some friends with systems like yours, maybe they'll also be in luck! Might try my version there to see how it runs!

Yes, it's just bizarre. When I could run the game on small maps, I was very surprised. I'm definitely sticking with AMD and Nvidia hardware.

 

[Bast]

The AMD Duron 1.3 Ghz was already in production in Jan. 2002, and is a budget CPU. This cannot possibly a Brand New system unless you were ripped off.

256 Mb is not enough to run Civ IV on Windows XP, according to the system requirements you will need at least 512 Mb with Windows XP.

I bought my system 3 years ago in 2002. Granted, it was fairly top of the line back then, but I don't believe that your system is "brand new".

I bought a Intel Pentium 4, 2.5Ghz - 1 Gb RAM (512 first, bought 512 in 2003) - ATI Radeon 9700 Pro

The graphics card was top-of-the-line when I bought it, and it still works great!

But your system? There is NO WAY you bought that system in 2005. Again, unless you were ripped off or really bought the cheapest of the cheapest.

That system works great for Internet, Office applications, and most games up to 2003 or so.....

LOL! See what sioux said.

 

[Old Dood]

My friend and I both have real new Dell systems.(Dim 5100 & Dim 9100). We both can play single games on our own. In fact my friend's is a Dual Core chipset w/3Gb ram where mine is a HT w/2Gb of Ram. He can Alt-Tab out and do anything, where as I can not because my interface disapeared.(I can play it, just that all my interface has disapeared and I am "clicking" blind) for the most part we can play the game on our own.

Well last night we tried a multi-player. My friend is a Security Geek and hooked up VPN client on my system in order to bypass our own firewalls and keep all of our traffic between us. We have done this many times before on other games...even Civ3. It was going all right until a random whatever and I would lock up. His side would say waiting for "me" to reconnect. I had to hard boot to get out of it. That part really infuriates me to no end. We both had Norton OFF. This happened with Teamspeak and Without TeamSpeak.

EDIT: My friend's Dim 9100 has a X600 OEM vid card. My "old" one I got with my Dim 5100. For all the work he has done on my systems/network I always give him what ever I have that I do not need. My whole house is his older network equipment.

We just gave up out of frustration. This game really needs some patches. Not one patch...but many patches.

Here we had both of our wifes OK with the fact we were going to play Civ4 for hours on end and the game puked on us. To have both wifes in-sync in agreement on us both playing a video game is a rare event. So after the crashes I spend time with my wife to her big surprise. Trying to build up some "points" with her for later use.

Here is a word of advice to other married men out there. When building points with your wife you never can get too many. In fact you never get over the 100%. (sometimes it will feel like you did..when you buy a expensive gift for them) You are always striving to break even in "points".
Video games can put you in a deep negitive point total. Especially when the wife wakes up in the middle of the night to do her business and finds that you are still at the keyboard. Not a pretty sight.