Civilization 4 Memory Problems

[clintonio]

I have noticed that Civ 4 runs in a Below Normal Priority mode in task manager. And that it only uses 512MB of my 1GB RAM. I have been looking through other peoples threads and noticed this is a recuring theme.
I have posted a complaint to Firaxis about this. I have tried to find the option in the .ini of Civ 4. But I seemingly couldn't find it.

Does anyone know where the soloution is? I think that it would be in a config file somewhere or I just didn't see it in the .ini. I will continue looking and if I find an answer I will post it here.

 

[Briareos]

I have noticed that Civ 4 runs in a Below Normal Priority mode in task manager.

Only if you switch the focus away from it - use 2 screens and watch Process Explorer from Sysinternals on the 2nd one and you'll see it snap back to "Normal" as soon as you switch back to Civ 4.

And that it only uses 512MB of my 1GB RAM.

Exactly what should it do with the other 512MB?

Everyone else was complaining that it took waaay to much RAM and started swapping with both 512MB and 1GB before Patch 1.52, and now that this has been mostly fixed you're complaining that it doesn't use enough RAM?

I have posted a complaint to Firaxis about this.

Just one word - WTH?

np: Dirk Leyers - Come To Where I Go (Pop Ambient 2006)

 

[kingkano]

sorry but I agree. I have 2 gig of memory, and over 1 gig free while playing civ. yet its using my page file and swapping.... in reply to your post... WTH!! I got 2 gigs for THIS GAME and yet it refuses to use physical RAM and pages to swapfile at every opportunity. it seems like a paste over not a proper fix. In fact I had a map loaded and it said civ was using 500mb of memory, yet my pagefile usage had risen around 500mb..... so the whole game almost is being played from swapfile not from my empty ready to use physical RAM?!?!?!

In fairness I thought of perhaps the other programs that arent being used are being swapped out. yet still civ is generating page faults at an amazing rate so its definitely paging out. There really should be an option to force the game to use physical memory when its available (as it really should do anyways).

 

[Briareos]

There really should be an option to force the game to use physical memory when its available (as it really should do anyways).

Well, there is:

; Set to 1 to page units out when non-visible
DynamicUnitPaging = 1

; Set to 1 to page unit anims out when the unit is non visible
DynamicAnimPaging = 1

Set both to 0 and there you go...

np: The Orb - Edelgruen (Pop Ambient 2006)

 

[kingkano]

hmmm okay please excuse a fool.... where do I find these options as I am really keen to do that

oh and thank you that'll be brilliant if its true!!

 

[Briareos]

hmmm okay please excuse a fool.... where do I find these options as I am really keen to do that

You'll find them (along with another boatload of options) in the Civilization4.ini file, which you'll find a shortcut (named "_Civ4Config") to in "C:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4", or wherever you installed the game to.

oh and thank you that'll be brilliant if its true!!

Well, I haven't tested it, but I didn't get heavy swapping with 1.52 and just 1GB of RAM here without touching those options, so I never changed them - and thus I can't guarantee anything.

np: Uli Teichmann - Piano Tec (Pop Ambient 2006)

 

[Smidlee]

sorry but I agree. I have 2 gig of memory, and over 1 gig free while playing civ.

with 1.52 it very seldem uses over 1gb of ram now. So 2gb of ram isn't need as much after 1.52 unless you are playing maps bigger than huge. Did you see the game read from your hard drive? Your hardrive should be idle with 2gb of ram. Exit civ4 with the window key then reenter civ4 tto see if your hard drive is loading. If civ4 appear in 2-3 second then the whole game is in your ram.

 

[kingkano]

Im playing the earth realism scenario lately. think its aboutm 180x87 so huge. but civ says only using 500mb.

I did the first of those tweaks but the second option doesnt appear in my ini file?? maybe 1.52 removes it?? or should I just manually add it? will see how it runs now

 

[gimhalos]

Erm.... I play with 768 RAM with minor slowdowns... there are some memory issues but it's only with select people.... it's a bad problem but it's not happening with everyone...