Civ IV G5 Performance

[waltham845]

Figure that I would put my two cents into this discussion on G5's since I have the low end. I have found that having a 256mb 9800special has made everything smooth from start to finish, even turns between civs are fast. I have it on max settings right now, played large maps. However I did find one short coming in that when you start up the dashboard it drags the game down. I use ipulse and was noticing that some dashboard widgets are always accessing the CPU. Of course I was wondering how much CPU and RAM dashboard was taking up anyway? Anyone have any ideas? I figure if you start up and don't access dashboard then thats more CPU and RAM for CIV4, although I might be wrong about that.. I really do think that the GPU and VRAM make a lot of difference. I wonder how Leopard's multithreaded Open GL and 64bit native will work with the G5 since it is a 64bit processor...

 

[comradeTJH]

So... now I'm really done... just coming home from office where we begun a civ IV game after work and thought we could finish our challenge on my G5 at home... but with that 3 FPS performance it just sucks major donkey balls and I just can't find ANY joy with it anymore....

It was sooooo smooth there (far older self-built-Intel-wreck)...! And please, don't come with that silly 'is very playable on my G5' statement... I really tried nuff and the difference is just unbelievable... call me a troll.. or something rotten in switzerland.. whatever... I'm done here.. and you may close this thread...

/me at dell.com ... STOP

 

[comradeTJH]

oh yeah.. and maybe I'll throw this one in as well...

http://prosecco.tjh.ch/WTH.jpg

 

[jdevo]

The game has been out now for a while and I still have pathetic performance and no sounds. It's frustrating.

 

[AlanH]

/me at dell.com ... STOP

A Dell can't run OS X. Before you abandon the Mac, if you're planning on spending money on new kit, think about a Mac Pro. It's at least competitive in price with the equivalent Dell, and it can run "virtually" any OS.

I've been running Linux and Windows in OS X/Parallels at the same time as Mac Civ3 and Mac Civ4. Four cores means there's no conflict for CPU with multiple tasks, and even the default GeForce 7300 GT gives a smooth Civ4 experience. Networking between the virtual machines means file sharing is easy. If you need Windows-only gaming then Bootcamp will handle it.

 

[enkiduMT]

I dunno, this isn't what you want to hear, but it is very smooth, no glitches, never crashed, reasonably fast even in late game on my G5 iMac 1.8 1 GB RAM, Gf4MX 64MB (running latest patch and 10.4.6 btw)

Try only running Civ4 after a restart

Make sure you aren't running any other apps

Remove APE or any other system hacks

set all settings to lowest - single unit, fast moves, fast combat, tweak .ini text file (no real effect for me btw)

the black villages/bldgs etc isn't right, so something is wrong there...

what system are you running that on? vid card? OSX version? RAM?

wish I could do more, but it is very playable on my min spec system (of course I played for a few weeks on a G4 1.4 1.2GB RAM, Radeon 8500 64MB, so the G5 is quite an improvement!)

 

[comradeTJH]

A Dell can't run OS X.

Oh, actually you can - there are several 'modified' generic versions of the Intel Mac OS X Installer out there ... but.. honesty... who would want to do that?

I use WinXP for the most time at work and since OS X the Mac is just not better anymore. On March 2001 the Mac died. Sad but true.

 

[comradeTJH]

Me again... another odd thing: Why is the Civ process niced to 6? I tried to renice it to -20 or start it with -20 but the priority seems to get overridden again to 6.... why?

 

[Zaimejs]

comrade... I'm right with you on this performance issue. My PC friend has a much lower powered PC, and it runs this game much better. There's really no excuse for that.

 

[Brad Oliver]

comrade... I'm right with you on this performance issue. My PC friend has a much lower powered PC, and it runs this game much better.

What are the specs of the Mac and what are the specs of the PC?

I've run Civ4 here on an Intel Mac and done comparisons in performance vs. the Win32 version in Boot Camp on the same Intel Mac. As far as I can tell, performance is very comparable between the 2 versions.

 

[Brad Oliver]

Me again... another odd thing: Why is the Civ process niced to 6? I tried to renice it to -20 or start it with -20 but the priority seems to get overridden again to 6.... why?

It gets set to 6 when you switch Civ4 to the background (unless the game is loading) to aid with CPU usage. It will readjust it to 0 when Civ4 is active and in the forefront.

 

[comradeTJH]

've run Civ4 here on an Intel Mac and done comparisons in performance vs. the Win32 version in Boot Camp on the same Intel Mac. As far as I can tell, performance is very comparable between the 2 versions.

So G5 owners just aren't fortunate ones...?

 

[Brad Oliver]

So G5 owners just aren't fortunate ones...?

Do a "Get Info" on your Civ4 app in the finder and see if the version # includes a v9565 in it. It's possible that the updater didn't patch it properly.

 

[comradeTJH]

Yes, it's the right version:

I have all the sounds but the performance is just fubar

 

[Brad Oliver]

I have all the sounds but the performance is just fubar

How are you measuring performance?

Edit: Sorry, you're the guy that posted the video. Well, as I said earlier, I'm not sure what about that video is supposed to indicate a performance problem. Can you point it out to me? It sure looks snappy enough, definitely higher than the claimed 3FPS.

 

[floppymoose]

Advice needed. I have a dual 1.8 G5 with 1.5gig of ram and a bottom of the line GeForce FX 5200 with 64meg of ram.

Reading this thread it sounds like my mac would be fine if I had a better graphics card? I've been playing Civ4 on it but it's extremely sluggish as the game progresses.

Can I plop a new graphics card in this machine? It would have to work well with a 23" cinema dispaly and also with civ4. Any advice?

 

[Zaimejs]

x800!

Brad, I have a dual 2.0 G5 with 1.5 gig ram and the x800GT 256 card. It runs okay for awhile, but dogs toward the end game. My PC using friend has a 2.2 gig AMD system with a GeForce 6800. Comparible... but his does not dog like mine does.

 

[Theophilus]

I'm with enkiduMT. Post-patch, I've been happy with the performance on a 1.8 G5 iMac. Yes, the frames per second could be faster, but I was well-aware going in that I was at the min specs to run the game. It is definitely playable--and fun!

 

[chronicdog]

You can build a PC for $650 that runs Civ4, and most other games beautifully.

CPU Athlon 3700+) $100
Case/PS $100
RAM $100
HDD and DVD drives $100
Video Card Nvidia 7900GT $250

If you really want to play games, and not have to worry about whether they will play well on your Mac, just invest in a separate system.

 

[AlanH]

Yes, thanks. Not very helpful for those of us who prefer to use a Mac for real stuff and just want to play the odd game, though. I'm willing to bet that most people who really want a gaming system already have a PC for that purpose, or a console.

The topic of this thread is performance on a G5, not performance on a home-brew PC.