Can you teach an old lappy new tricks??

[Magicboab]

Perhaps someone out there can either make or break my day. I was bought civ 4 as a present and am trying to run it with the following specs:

Acer 230TM with
2Ghz intel celeron
256 RAM (don't laugh just yet..)
400MHz FSB
Intel 845G Chipset

I have downloaded and installed the 1.09 patch and have gotten the game to run...VERY shakily. I plan to upgrade my RAM to 1GB but have reservations about my (lack of)video card technology. I don't even really know what an Intel 845G is or what I can do to better my situation.

Any suggestions? Am I doomed to wait till I upgrade my machine before playing?

Thanks,

Magic (Newbie extreme!!)

 

[Neon Deon]

Hi Magic,

This game is a memory hog and if you are running windows XP you are under spec.

The Intel 845g is a chip built into the Motherboard.

Advantage: It fits in a laptop, doesnt use a lot of power and has a low heat output.

Disadvantage: It is just a chip and lacks the power and graphics memory a dedicated graphics card would have thus stealing it from exsisting system memory.

While more memory could get CIV IV up and running, The graphics chip might not be supported.

I would ask tech support if the 845g is supported before spending any money. If it is not supported, then maybe someone with that chip and enough memory could give you feedback as to weather the game will play.

 

[robaughjr]

Intel 8xx chipsets are supposedly not supported (see T&L sticky topic above).
I have an old intel 82845g card and mine works ok since the patch. Upgrading your ram is a must with this game (I had 256 also upgraded to 768 recently with a noticable performance improvement) Bottom line, you can play game with an intel chipset. Just keep all your graphics settings on lowest setting and don't expect much.

 

[Magicboab]

Thanks for the replies.


robaughjr, do you mean don't expect too much overall game peformance or just overall graphics performace. I can definitely live with lower quality graphics.

Have you managed to complete and games yet? What map sizes were you using?

I plan to try running the game with 768MB. If this works I might consider upgrading to 1GB.

 

[robaughjr]

Magic:

If you can live with some low fps it's certainly playable. The scrolling and animation will be choppy. Oddly enough increasing or decreasing graphics settings don't seem to affect it much. Wonder movies skip, but people with high end cards have that problem also. I have gotten as far as the 1800 AD on a huge map with only minor slowdown and no ctds. I haven't finished a game yet so I'm not sure about modern age yet. Note: I have the blue marble mod and Harkonnen's memory patch installed also. Both improve performance, especially using civscale to remove the clouds (civscale comes with blue marble mod. it allows you to adjust ingame graphics). My game is certainly playable as I don't really need fancy graphics and effects in a strategy game. Here is the link to the Blue marble mod:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=140246

and the Harkonnen memory patch:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=146309

Hope that answers your question.