Best computer for civ4?

While I don't have an exact answer, my advice is to focus your new system around your hobbies/livelihood?....Civ IV is such an old game that it will run fine on most newer systems with reasonable specs. With that said, any newer gaming system that is 64-bit, has decent graphics card, processor, and 16+ gigs of run should be fine. Gaming systems tend to have higher end specs so should more than meet your needs for multimedia and development. Next comes price range and ..well..that is up to you. HP, Lenovo, and Asus all make good gaming laptops at reasonable price points.

Also, I recommend an SSD. 500 gig or more depending on what you want you need. Far less expensive to buy one yourself and install it..not hard at all.

I have a Lenovo Y700 that is about a year old. Has an nvidia 960GTX graphics card and intel i7 processor. Works great. You can probably find the same model out there still at a good price. HP and Asus have comparable systems. Generally around 1000 to 1100 bucks, but you may find good deals or clearance sales.

I tend to want the best processor out there, but I hear i5s are more than adequate, and will save you some dough over i7s.

Alternatively, while not a MAC person, there is Civ IV for MAC, and MACs are always good for multimedia...not sure on app development, but would assume so.

Lastly, Civ IV has always had issues with memory and there is really no solution to it. Regardless of how great a system you have, IV will always slow down after a couple of hours or so playing. Moving to 64-bit some years ago made the biggest difference to the game in pretty much eliminating the memory errors that were frequent on 32-bit.
 
I have a Lenovo Y700 that is about a year old. Has an nvidia 960GTX graphics card and intel i7 processor. Works great. You can probably find the same model out there still at a good price. HP and Asus have comparable systems. Generally around 1000 to 1100 bucks, but you may find good deals or clearance sales.

Probably a tad overkill :D
But if you've got the money to spend you won't go wrong.

The SSD, while a luxury, makes a big difference and I also highly recommend it. Especially if you play mods.
I just got a new I7 with 32 gig of ram, and a 500 gig ssd. One of the mods I play with colonization that used to take a few minutes to load, now does in about 15 seconds. Heaven.
 
I was under the impression that civ iv:bts from steam is not compatible with new Mac os, was I wrong?
Otherwise yeah, I would just get another Mac heh.
I thought that I needed windows for civ iv bts and I thought for some reason windows would be more handy for learning development on android but maybe it makes no difference.
My impression of lenovo, assus and HP is they are cheap and will crap out on you in a couple years. Am I just brainwashed from being a lifetime Mac user? Are there any higher quality windows platforms? (For playing civ, of course! That's why I'm here ;))
 
No clue really on the MAC stuff. PM AlanH if you want expertise on that decision.

I've used lenovo and asus gaming laptops for years and no issues... Same with HP, although not a true gaming rig. I have an older Asus gaming laptop that I'm using write now to type this that is over 5 years old, and never an issue. If you want to spend more money for "perceived" quality, then go ahead. There are plenty of boutique companies making gaming laptops that run several thousand dollars. Really the important thing is the quality of the components inside...it's pretty easy to verify this stuff...and better places than here to do so.

Love Apple, but never been into MACs since they don't really do what I need to do, and they tend to suck for gaming. I certainly would not turn one away though as a second machine (ha - I have like 5 or 6 machines right now). And likewise, I recommend you take the plunge into windows pcs for a change. Doesn't hurt to have both.

Oh..another recommendation when researching a new rig is, once you have a feel for the specs you want and have a few models/vendors in mind, do a search online for consumer reports and user reviews on those models. I trust user reviews the most honestly, but you have to really read them. Sometimes you see a bad review on a overall good machine that is otherwise well reviewed, but the guy is complaining about something stupid or that is really is own fault/error.

Again, other than windows-based, I really don't think you should be making decisions on a new rig based on Civ iv. Get something newer and modern and IV will work fine regardless
 
How many years do you guys expect your machines to last?
I'm averaging about 5 years for a Mac machine with heavy civ 4 play and media production etc, how about with lenovo or Asus?

I looked at the lenovo p series and looks like I can get a super high power machine for <$3g, which is promising. Is it worth it paying that much for a machine that only lasts a few years anyway, just to be replaced with the new tech?
Is there a simple way of understanding the technical difference between a gaming laptop and a lenovo 'workstation' eg? (Why is workstation more expensive than their so-called 'serious gaming laptop'?)
I glanced at Asus site as well to check out their options but I pretentiously found the website design to be unhelpful so I quit my search...
 
Regarding the compatibility of CIV with the newest Mac OSes: You have to make a few fixes after installing the OS, then CIV works fine. Check the Mac forum for the thread regarding this, begun by Xyth.
 
If you want a lower cost Lenovo with about the same amount of computing power as a Thinkpad P50, Costco right now is selling Lenovo Legion Y520 laptops with two terabytes of hard disk space, 256 gigs of SSD space, a core i7-7700HQ processor, 16 gigs memory, and a NVIDIA 1050Ti chipset for $1000. I am sure it will run Civ4 quite nicely, but I prefer the keyboard on my Lenovo Thinkpad T430.
 
Dylan - IMO it really depends on what you want to do with the machine. As mentioned, I purchased the Lenovo well over a year ago. When I make a purchase I try to make sure I have the latest key specs, although not maybe the top of the line stuff.. For example, the 960GTX nvidia graphics card is was the mid-range gaming gpu at that time..while the 970 and 980 were the top of the line for very serious gaming. (the difference in price point being quite substantial) The 960GTX is still great and runs most anything new quite well.

But for IV, the graphics card is not really that big a deal anyway. It's a ten year old game and gpus have come a long way since, so even new crappy gpus will run it fine. Ofc, you do multimedia stuff so you probably want a decent gpu, but it does not necessarily need to be a gaming variant.

But the point here is that I expect to use my machine for many years. I even keep some older windows machines around my place and play Civ and other stuff on them too. My Asus is about 7 or 8 years old.

I also feel that tech as kinda peaked recently in terms of gaming. I think any quality system you buy right now will last for years unless you want to do something advance in terms of new gaming. Like I don't what will happen with all this VR stuff coming out now or what the will mean tech wise, but I have no interest in it. Also, all the MMO stuff may take more resources and require upgrades over time, but don't care about that either. I think for most single player type stuff - strategies, rpgs, action, adventure, etc.,I don't see tech advancing all that much.

I mean, I've gamed for about 18 years now and have seen it evolved tremendously over that time in terms of quality of graphics and the amount of resources and storage it takes. But over the last..say..5 to 7 years, it really seems to have peaked in that regard. Oh..someday it will probably make some huge advance in technology, but if you are content like me playing the games of today or yesteryear, like Civ IV, you can use your machine for ages. I honestly don't expect to buy a new machine for many years unless it just dies, but I've never had a machine die on me.

Also, while Laptops have less flexibility than desktops in upgrading, you can always had new memory or a better harddrive.

So back to your decision. Gaming rigs are just that..they are geared for gaming. Two big factors for gaming rigs are the GPU and cooling. Games in general are very GPU intensive, and GPUs create a lot of heat, especially with certain high end games. Civ IV runs pretty hot as well. (I actually had it burn out an old Samsung laptop of mine years ago that wasn't a true gaming system). The other things you want to do with your machine will not do this..not even close. The Workstation is designed for business. While it will most likely run Civ IV fine, it is not designed for gaming. It will likely do your other stuff more than fine. So if you want an all-in-one machine, I'd lean toward a gaming rig, and make sure it gets good reviews in terms of cooling (read almost any user review on a rig and you will see them mention cooling). Laptops are not easy to cool simply due to design - cooling systems take up a lot of space. Most serious gamers use desktops which have far better cooling systems to install. But good gaming laptops will have good cooling systems built in. Both my Lenovo and Asus do quite well in this regard. By virtue of a gaming rigs generally high specs anyway, it will do all your other things quite well too. Heck, these machines I own I run my business off of among other things.

Storage, RAM and CPU are important too, so keep that in mind. Again, go with an SSD. You can buy a system generally cheaper just taking whatever cheap-o harddrive they throw in there and then look for a good deal on a Samsung EVO SSD on NewEgg or Amazon and install it yourself. Go with a minimum of 16g DDR5 RAM, but more the better. You can always upgrade it anyway.
 
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You don't need to buy a computer specifically for Civ 4. My crappy laptop from 7 years ago handles it easy. But I guess you do want more power for other things as well. An SSD helps load times and Windows a lot, but they're quite expensive especially for bigger ones and greatly drives up the price of a laptop.So it's quite a luxury.

Generally, you want to look for an HQ processor (eg. i7-7700hq) as those are better performance than the power saving U ones. 8 GB of ram, more is better. And some graphics card (9xx being the cheap option, 10xx being better because they're actually real desktop cards in there)

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834154497 Something like this would be quite nice. (currently $794 US)
https://www.amazon.com/Acer-Flagshi...&sr=1-16-spons&keywords=acer+aspire+950&psc=1 Cheap option

And I definitely wouldn't spend 2k+ on laptop, or even desktop of any kind these days unless you're looking for high resolution/high fps AAA gaming. For the most part it's meant for hardware enthusiasts and professionals. Especially when graphics cards are advancing rather fat.
 
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You can find very good deals on SSDs. I got my EVO at Best Buy actually for under $150 dollars.

Leery of MSI as I often read there shells are flimsy, but the specs are fine. Also, the 1050 would be there low end GPU option. My lenovo came with similar storage and the 128SSD is separate from the standard harddrive. So you can replace the 1tb crappy drive with a large SSD and have the original 128 SSD running the OS and system stuff, and the large one for everything else.

Acer one will run Civ IV but is not a true gaming rig..it will have cooling and overheating issues.

Sounds to me like Dylan is willing to put a few more bucks into a system, so I would go best you can get for what you are willing to spend. Lenovo, ASUS and HP are all respectable. Samsung makes some nice machines, but not sure what they have for gaming setups (again, I melted my old Samsung years ago, but it was a very nice laptop otherwise..just not for gaming)

The are high end small companies they sell really good rigs but at higher price points. Alienware (now owned by Dell) and many other more boutique type shops that I can't think of at the moment. Oh yeah..Sager is one company you can look into too. Do a search on best gaming laptops and start from there. (oh and some of these shops like Sager offer much more customizing options)

Oh, and this site - Wirecutter - is one of use many times to get ideas and reviews on computers and other techologies.

http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-gaming-laptop/

But note that I'm mainly directing you there because reading that particular article will give you a lot of pointers about what to look for for a gaming rig. (Not touting that particular machine they are recommending. I'm sure that Acer is fine, but damn it is one ugly machine ..ha..There second option though in the ASUS ROG sound great though and might be a consideration. My old ASUS is a ROG and still works great after 8 years) The point is this is what these guys do and the article is very informative outside of just a laptop review - scroll about halfway down to find the great section.

xoticpc.com is another place you may want to check out
 
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A 1050 for laptops, I wouldn't consider low end. That would be the 900 cards, since the 1050 is an actual desktop level cards and thus much faster. It can handle modern games well, so Civ 6, much less Civ 4 won't be much of a problem. ;)

And yea, I do have more expensive recommendations, but I prefer to start out lower just to establish a baseline of which to start. Obviously we don't want $200 bargain bin computers that barely run Windows, but at the same time even if one wants to spend more money, there should be something around to take advantage of all that power. And personally, I feel people tend to lean towards the high end of what is "needed".

As a side note, are desktops in line for consideration? Since you can get a lot more power out of one.
 
Oh...1050 is fine..I'm just saying it is the low end of the nvidia gaming tier of gpu (well actually they might have a 40 gtx series but I forget). Anyway, all this stuff is way more than sufficient for games like IV. As I stated earlier, gpus at this stage are not a factor much for an old game like IV. But also, Dylan is talking about other stuff he does and having a system that will last for a long time. If he's like me at all, I try to research the best bang for the buck when making a purchase at a given era of technology (an era being like 6 months or so in computer tech ..ha)

I have the 960GTX, so the last iteration. I was not aware that the 10XX were desktop level cards. Not sure how they do that in a laptop since desktop level gpus are humongous nowadays. Ha..I remember when gpus were about as then as credit cards.

Anyway, I started pushing the envelope when Dylan mentioned the $3k workstation, so I thought that may be giving us some idea of his price range. Although, you can spend 4 or 5K on the super space marine gaming rigs out there, $3k will get you a excellent system. Still, as you have pointed out, there are fine systems out there in the $1 to 1.5k range or thereabouts. (Interestingly, I bought the Lenovo at a local Best Buy and got an open box unit for under $800 dollars. Sent it to Lenovo complaining about the screen and wound up with a brand new system with better specs..ha)

Not sure if Dylan wants a desktop or not. for me, I want the portability because of the other things I do like work. I expect this is the same for him. But yeah, desktops are a whole other animal really and you can do so much more with them in terms of gaming and pretty much build great system from ground up for cheap. But they don't fit in my lap very well.

ha..all this talk makes me want to buy something...I always enjoy the process of getting a new system, but i'm more frugal nowadays
 
Yea, it's quite amazing how they manage to cram things in there. It's a new development, So that's why they're so much stronger; it's not some "mobile" version that's dialed down. Well, okay, it's not clocked as high due to heat/power issues but it won't be noticable. And indeed, I do not want to bring up a computer that only plays Civ IV, because that would result in buying a $200 clunker.Funny enough that 6 year old laptop was only 200'ish at the time, though the heat issues were terrible. A cooling pad is recommended. But yea regardless, I generally will recommend stuff that will at least play the newest games.

The desktop vs laptop argument is one that is truly a matter of personal preference. When we talk about mobility, it's sometimes not even outside; it may just be another room. But I wanted to toss out that as an option. If the laptop is needed for travel, then obviously this has to be the case.

On the other hand, one could always do both! Instead of a 2k system. One could have a $1k laptop and $1k desktop and get a ton of utility, as well as having a ton of power anyways.
 
Most pcs should run it, but if your laptop is not a game oriented system, and had a low price tag, it may be best to just save for a desktop, unless you want to run today's high system demanding games, it should not cost too much. Don't gauge pcs based on ark though, save your money on that.
 
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