Civ 4 spec requirements

[Excalibur]

Ok say my computer did not meet the required 256 RAM and only had 223 RAM and say the video card also did not meet requirements. How would I be able to get more RAM and a better video card? And say I was only going to use the computer for strategy games. What kind of graphics card would be recommendable?

 

[Excalibur]

I've seen some Geforce2 cards on Ebay for 20-30$. Would that be the card to go for? And what about my RAM situation?

I am well versed in Ebayian methods and ways so no need to warn me. I can smell a scam most of the time.

 

[Janos]

www.newegg.com is a good site for decent priced components. Buy another 256mb or even 512mb more of RAM from there, and you can get some reasonable 128mb graphics cards from almost anywhere for decent prices. Check that site out (and continue looking on eBay of course.) Feel free to post the products you are thinking of buying and getting mine and others' opinions on them. Hope that helps.

 

[Excalibur]

When you are looking for the 256 RAM in Newegg what section would you look under?

 

[Vael]

Look here for memory:

http://www.newegg.com/ProductSort/Category.asp?Category=17

The more memory the better (1 GB+ is ideal for a game like this).

You probably also want a card better than a GeForce 2 if possible as well, though that should be capable of playing the game with stuff on low.

 

[Excalibur]

Does Newegg ship to Canada? And what video card and RAM would be recommended?

 

[Excalibur]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814142034

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814161121

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814145067

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814164024

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814140056

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814125191

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814121181

Which,if any, of these cards would be recommended? And also how can you tell if the card is compatible with your computer,if that is neccessary?

 

[jameson]

You'll need to find out what make your motherboard is - the original bill of purchase is probably the best way to find out ( you won't find it listed in Windows). Motherboards have either PCI, AGP, or PCI-express slots for the graphics card; you want a card that's listed as fitting that slot.

 

[Excalibur]

I have a little box here with a number of things listed such as: Form factor,chipset,VGA/Audio,Modem/LAN,DIMM,DDR and such. At the very bottom of the list it says:

ISA/PCI/AGP/CNR and some numbers.

Would anyone be willing to take a stab at what this box most likely and if it would have any value in finding out what kind of graphics card I need?

 

[JakeCourtney]

Get a Geforce 4 TI4200 with 128mb of RAM.

 

[Eden]

Just to warn you, both RAM and Graphics cards can be compatible or incompatible.

If you got a PCI graphics card, it'd most likely be compatible unless it's an extremely old motherboard. If that box was your motherboard box, it'd mean either AGP or PCI would work. Though only use one and you may have to set which in the BIOS.

You'd most likely need DDR DIMM RAM if that is the box. I can't say for sure with any though. It'd be best to ask someone who can open up the PC and inspect it, who knows what they're doing.

</What too much A+ Cert classes do to you>

 

[Excalibur]

In the device manager some things that came up were PCI bus, PCI standard host CPU bridge, and PCI standard ISA bridge. So would PCI work then?

 

[jameson]

PCI would most definitely work (it's the standard type for older computers), but given that it lists AGP too a card of that type would be preferable. AGP cards are faster.

I'm rather ashamed to admit that I only recently find out that my old radeon 9200 AGP card wasn't even running in AGP mode because the AGP driver for the motherboard wasn't installed (but then if you only play civ3 or championship manager you're never going to notice !). That could be the case here too if there's no AGP device listed in the device manager.

 

[Excalibur]

Ah yes the numbers next to ISA/PCI/AGP/CNR. Maybe they will bring more foresight or whatnot into what I would need when the time eventually comes. The numbers in order are 0/2/1/1. So would that mean ISA=0,PCI=2,AGP=1,and CNR=1? And if so what would that mean exactly? Oh and the box at the top says "L7VMM3 Supports Athlon Processor". I am not really sure what this box was for exactly...

 

[jameson]

I think it's the number of slots, i.e. there are no ISA slots on your motherboard, 2 PCI, 1 AGP and one CNR (whatever that is).

Here are the specifications of your motherboard. From the looks of it, any AGP graphics card will do (they can all be set to run at 4X speed), you will want to take note of the clock speed of the RAM (DDR 266 ram - that's not the most modern standard).

 

[Shardie]

You'll need to find out what make your motherboard is - the original bill of purchase is probably the best way to find out ( you won't find it listed in Windows). Motherboards have either PCI, AGP, or PCI-express slots for the graphics card; you want a card that's listed as fitting that slot.

Oh, cant you? Go to run, and type in dxdiag and it should, if you have XP, show your motherboard here, the part I circled in Red

 

[jameson]

Thanks for the tip ! (though dxdiag lists the model as 'unknown' in my case ). I was looking in the system properties and device manager instead.

For the record, I know which make my motherboard is .

 

[Excalibur]

Okay then so what would be the best kind of memory to purchase?