Computer Roll Call

[urban]

Hi all,

My laptop is on its last legs, and I am considering getting another, preferably affordable. Basically I only want to be able to play DoC and RFCE, as this is something like 90% of my gaming.

Who is playing these on laptops? Who is able to play the late game without 3 minutes between turns? Who is playing without it becoming a furnace?

What are your specs?

Thanks everyone,
Urban

 

[ales_]

Oh, you're reminding me that I'm also going to get a laptop, so I'm interested in this as well.

 

[citis]

I play DoC and not RFCE, however, I tried it once, and it was good.
My laptop has these specs:
*Windows 7
*CORE2Duo
*ATI RADEON
*Toshiba

 

[urban]

Thanks, citis. Would have responded earlier, but the migration issues happened...

Can you be more specific?

For example (not sure why I didn't start this off!)

I have a Samsung Samsung 700Z5A s03US, which has:

Intel Core i7 2675QM
AMD Radeon HD 6750M
12GB ram

Both RFCE and DoC are crashing and going super slow for me. I'm not sure what the real reason is, whether it is that my specs are too bad or if it is just because it is old.

I'm trying to decide whether I need a $1500 computer to run this stuff, or whether one of the sub $1000 (800?) computers might do it. Thanks!

 

[Leoreth]

I'm running DoC on a 700€ laptop (last year's prices) and crashes are a non-issue for me. I don't know what's going wrong for you guys but I would look into driver issues and ways to optimize your OS before burning 1000$ on a better machine.

 

[urban]

Thanks, Leoreth. Could you be more specific about what you have? If you don't want to put a free advert on here, I understand! But some details, eg whether you have a graphics card/what kind, what kind of processor, etc. Or if you would pm me the machine, that would be awesome!

Thanks!

 

[citis]

It is important to run the game in Windows 7. Windows XP is compatible theoritically, but I had problems with it, all of them solved when I migrated to windows 7.

 

[Fresol]

Here I digress. Is there any recommended software for video recording DoC games?

I think even without recording the whole game, some clips would be much better than plain talking. I'm thinking about trying it but have no clue where to start. Any help?

 

[Leoreth]

Thanks, Leoreth. Could you be more specific about what you have? If you don't want to put a free advert on here, I understand! But some details, eg whether you have a graphics card/what kind, what kind of processor, etc. Or if you would pm me the machine, that would be awesome!

Thanks!

Sure, but I don't know it off the top of my head. Will reply when I'm home and can check.

Here I digress. Is there any recommended software for video recording DoC games?

I think even without recording the whole game, some clips would be much better than plain talking. I'm thinking about trying it but have no clue where to start. Any help?

Oh, GIFs would be cool in stories.

 

[urban]

I am running it on Win8.

One thing that I changed last night that seems to help (though I will have to play more to see if it really is): I disabled my discreet graphics on CIV. It isn't all that heavy a graphics program, and the computer runs much cooler this way.

 

[Leoreth]

I'm running Win7 by the way. No idea if that makes much of a difference.

 

[Eric Cartmenez]

Hello, I'm running the game quite confidentally on Lenovo IdeaPad G710 Black (price 550&#8364
Intel Core i7 4702MQ Haswell, 17.3" 1600x900, RAM 8GB, NVIDIA GeForce 820M 2GB, SSHD 1TB+ 8GB cache, Windows 8.1 64-bit.

The late gameplay is slower, but still playable - like Indonesia til 1910AD, I never play 1700AD scenario, I experience a crash to desktop very very occasionally.

 

[Leoreth]

So here are my relevant specs:

Intel Core i7-4702MQ 4 x 2.2 GHz
NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M
8 GB RAM
Windows 7 Professional 64 bit

 

[urban]

Thanks!

 

[Panopticon]

My laptop is a little worse than Leoreth's and it does fine.

I would check out what else it is doing. When I first installed Civ IV, it was set by default to run with integrated graphics processor rather than the NVIDIA graphics card. That might be worth checking out.

 

[Tomorrow's Dawn]

Here I digress. Is there any recommended software for video recording DoC games?

I think even without recording the whole game, some clips would be much better than plain talking. I'm thinking about trying it but have no clue where to start. Any help?

If you want to record gameplay, try Fraps:
http://www.fraps.com/

I made a .GIF tutorial a long time ago which you can read here (only mentioning this as Leoreth said GIFs would be nice):
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=460761

 

[urban]

I have gotten a new computer: a *graphics-cardless* Dell XPS 13 2016, with the i5 - and it works like a charm. Civ 4 yells at you that you don't have a discrete graphics card, but do not listen - Intel's graphics are more than good enough these days. I've played a few late games on high graphics, and it has been moderate tens-of-seconds between turns. Nothing too bad.

 

[calad]

I cant really take people seriously when they say they play on laptop. It is pretty much the worst option in every way: less everything, shorter life time. Only plus is that you can carry it.

So dont play on laptop.

 

[The Diocletian]

Only plus is that you can carry it..

I've heard that's the point.

 

[Leoreth]

I don't understand why people would still have a desktop these days. You have to sit at a desk to play or basically do anything. I wouldn't get anything done if I couldn't mod from my couch. If you don't play anything requiring high end graphics (shooters and the like), there's really no point.