A little MORE than three (usually, unless you have a large number of devices installed), not less. And no, that wouldn't cause problems, it just means his OS can't address all of his memory. 3+ gb is still more than enough for Civ V.
Your knowledge of PC's is the problem. Just enough to think you know something, but not enough to really know something.
A little MORE than three, not less. And no, that wouldn't cause problems, it just means his OS can't address all of his memory. 3+ gb is still more than enough for Civ V.
Your knowledge of PC's is the problem. Just enough to think you know something, but not enough to really know something.
Then riddle me this: how come that playing Civ 4 (yeah 4 only had 5 on the 64bit win) on 32bit on a huge map would crash the game all the friggin time after medieval, but on 64bit there was never ever a single crash, even on bigger maps? Same system, both clean installs.
BTW his video card has at least 1 GB of VRAM, so yeah, 32bit windows adresses a little LESS then 3GB RAM
Sorry, that's not how it works. In 32-bit Windows, you can have at most 4GB worth of memory addresses. 2GBs are reserved for kernel-mode software, while the other 2GBs are left for user-mode software. Also VRAM is not entirely mapped. Only the AGP/PCIe graphics aperture (which is used to copy data from RAM to VRAM) is mapped. That is usually 256MBs (but it can be changed on many BIOSes).
Also, graphics aperture memory is mapped in kernel space, having zero effect on the the user-space memory.
When I make my statement that "3+ gb is still more than enough for Civ V," I am simplifying a bit, because I assume that Firaxis/2k is also simplifying when they post/print their recommended specs.
I am making the assumption that Firaxis/2k is taking all of the following into account...
32 bit OS memory addressing constraints (I would imagine that they know that most people to whom they sell their game use 32 bit OS's, after all)
Typical amounts of RAM used from loading any devices (including graphics cards) into RAM
Typical 2gb RAM kernel space allocation on 4gb RAM systems
...when they recommend 4gb RAM.
What the user typically sees in msinfo32 on a 32bit, 4gb RAM system... is 3+ gb RAM. Thus my statement ("3+ gb is still more than enough for Civ V") would hold true.
Firaxis/2k knows full well when recommending 4gb RAM that you don't actually have 4gb RAM to use *just* for the game. Some of it is being used for other things on the machine, things that the game needs in order for it to be able to run. Like Windows. Like your graphics card. Like every other piece of installed software/hardware that Civ V uses to communicate with your PC. But it's easier to just generically say that "4gb RAM is the recommended amount" than it is to put a post like this on every box sold. In other words, simplify.
Incidentally, kernel space (allocation) can easily be decreased from 2gb to 1gb on a 4gb RAM setup. The OP may even want to try this, if he feels comfortable doing so. Though I'd strongly recommend reading the whole article, especially the part about things being "large address aware," first.
Actually it doesn't work out that way. VRAM is not mapped into system RAM on a 1-for-1 basis. Here is a Device Manage screenshot of system memory address space allocation for 2 GTX 280 (1GB VRAM each).
(this continuation from the above Spoiler is written by builer680, not the author of the above Spoiler)
Those are hexadecimal memory addresses, and the third example from the top is the range of memory addresses being used by his first GTX 280 card. It is a range of bytes in memory:
___________________________________________________________________
BYTE ADDRESSES IN HEXADECIMAL: (I'm ignoring the leading zeroes)
byte# 90000000 thru
byte# 9FFFFFFF
BYTE ADDRESSES IN DECIMAL: (the same byte#'s as directly above)
byte# 2,415,919,104 thru
byte# 2,684,354,559
___________________________________________________________________
Subtract the low number from the high number to get the full size of the memory range in total bytes:
2,684,354,559 minus
2,415,919,104
____________
268,435,455 (total bytes)
divided by 1024 = 262,143.999 Kilobytes divided by 1024 = 255.999 Megabytes
___________________________________________________________________
So... 256mb RAM allocation for a video card with 1gb Vram, inside the default 2gb and potential 1gb kernel allocation... not inside the default 2gb and potential 3gb allocation for (and therefore not limiting the resources available to) "User-mode processes" (e.g., games), like Civ V.
A little MORE than three (usually, unless you have a large number of devices installed), not less. And no, that wouldn't cause problems, it just means his OS can't address all of his memory. 3+ gb is still more than enough for Civ V.
Your knowledge of PC's is the problem. Just enough to think you know something, but not enough to really know something.
Seriously though, you really should consider a move to 64-bit Windows 7, as much of your memory and processor capabilities will be unused due to the 32-bit restrictions. You will notice quite a difference if you upgrade.
Seriously though, you really should consider a move to 64-bit Windows 7, as much of your memory and processor capabilities will be unused due to the 32-bit restrictions. You will notice quite a difference if you upgrade.
This may be true, but the fact is that he meets the recommended specs, and therefore shouldn't have these problems. The only explanation is that they've written a sloppy program that needs far more resources than it should, according to their own recommendations.
Again, while what you are saying may be technically true, it is wrong for others to try and imply that it is his system that is somehow at fault for poor performance. Their coding is what is at fault. He meets their own recommendations, he's held up his end of the bargain (meet minimum AND recommended specs), he should be able to expect quality performance.
I wouldn't update drivers through Steam if I could avoid it. It would seem much simpler to just download them from the website of the card manufacturer. No middle men (and potential confusion between them) that way.
What is the make/model of your graphics card? You can find it in Control Panel --> System --> Device Manager --> Display adapters.
-also-
What OS do you use? Is your OS 32 bit or 64 bit? You can find out by right clicking on My Computer and selecting Properties.
Typically, updating my display drivers shuffles the icons on my desktop a bit (because it switches resolutions to a smaller one for a second during updating), so I often do a Print Screen and save the picture of my Desktop before installing so I can move them all back after it's done.
Typically, updating my display drivers shuffles the icons on my desktop a bit (because it switches resolutions to a smaller one for a second during updating), so I often do a Print Screen and save the picture of my Desktop before installing so I can move them all back after it's done.
Getting crashes for saved games, and also crashes when leaders contact me while I have another screen open (city management, city-states etc)....and also, rarely when I click too fast and shift to another part of the screen.
Many are desktop crashes, but a recent serious one crashed the entire computer and turned my screen back. Sound went out with a repetititve, mechanical "dededede" noise.
2K Support has not been very helpful. After asking me typical questions (system specs, have you tried low graphics, playing in a window), they stopped responding to my messages. So much for that.
Seriously though, you really should consider a move to 64-bit Windows 7, as much of your memory and processor capabilities will be unused due to the 32-bit restrictions. You will notice quite a difference if you upgrade.
I've been getting some crashes after the patch too. Seems to happen every so often more or less randomly afaik.
I find it strange that you people blame the hardware and not 2K. A crash is almost always a software bug (whether it's the game, Windows, or drivers).
Anyway, if what's needed are up-to-date drivers, then I guess I'll look into it. However, I'm pretty sure I have the latest ATI drivers. Or autosave every turn
Prepatch the game would take 1minute+ between turns on the largest settings mind. Now it's reduced to 30 seconds or so on the very biggest maps (though usually it's well under 5 seconds per turn now on standard size games etc)...
I am not saying my system is great as it really needs an upgrade; I just seem to be in the lucky minority :s.
It's possible that another explanation is that his drivers were out of date. Especially since he stated that upgrading the drivers solved the problem ...
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