Discussion/support for those with GEForce MX 440 and/or older computers

[TheDervish]

I've concluded that without Shader pixel, Civ IV is only playable up until about the late 19th century (default map), where it will crash at least once PER TURN. If you're a patient singleplayer gamer, this is well and good, but unless you're playing multiplayer by e-mail, this WILL NOT cut it when you have another player live, waiting for you to restart the program, or worse, reboot your entire system.

I had this card installed in my Dell 3 years ago. It's clearly out of date (as is my computer), and I recommend that EVERYONE reading this with GEFORCE MX 440 who has not yet bought Civ IV, do not purchase the game until you get a new card, or unless you're very patient person who will only play multiplayer via e-mail.

Upgrade options? If you're like me, your GEForce MX 440 was installed with your Dell multiple years ago. If you have a 250 W Power supply like I do, any decent videocard with pixel shading will be too much for your power supply to handle, especially if you only have a 4x AGP slot (8x's are more power efficient, so I've been told by my more computer savvy friends).

So you need a new power supply. Well I've been told that if you want more wattage, computer case size as well as your processor can complicate things. Smaller cases and P4 processors may not be able to handle something more than 300 W. Am I right? Can someone with more computer knowledge confirm or deny this?

So it seems you either need to install more than 3 upgrades to your computer to fix a video card problem, or buy a new computer. I personally will go for the new computer route. I'm a bit overdue for one anyway.

 

[Thorek]

This is weird because i heard of players with a 64MB card having no problems at all... Then again, all the problems with civ4 are weird and unacceptable.

 

[Xeos]

I can play to modern+ on duel and tiny maps with a GeForce4 go 440 32mb on my laptop. From what I have checked, it does not have pixel shading. A little more investigation may be needed before pinning this 100% on pixel shading.

 

[TheDervish]

This is weird because i heard of players with a 64MB card having no problems at all... Then again, all the problems with civ4 are weird and unacceptable.

It's not the memory amount in question, it's the fact that this is the only GeForce 4 video card that does NOT have pixel shading. I imagine this particular model was a cheap budget video card that Dell bought en masse to stick in their computer models some years ago.

 

[Zertez]

Sadly the MMX 440 is misleading, it is geforce2 on steroids. It isnt really a Geforce4 card, that is why it doesnt have many features the other geforce4s have. If you check the specs, it basically has the same as other Geforce2

 

[TheDervish]

Misleading, a borderline kind word for RIPOFF

 

[Zertez]

No doubt it was a ripoff, they took a crusty turd and put fresh paint on it and sold it as new

 

[Rise]

i have a geforce4 mx 440 with agp8x what is that? and whats the best replacement i found a club 3d geforce 6600 256 ram is that any good?

 

[Zertez]

AGP refers to the type of slot the card fits into, most common slots are agp, pci and pci express. It is best to check which slot your motherboard has before choosing a card. PCI express is the slot of choice for most new high-end cards but the technology is a little over a year old, so your motherboard may not have it. There is almost to much information to list on specs of video cards, motherboards, ram. Your best bet is to look at Toms Hardware site, do some research on newegg and check customer reviews of hardware and then research a little more. You can save yourself a lot of time, money and headaches researching the various hardware. It can be a little intimidating at first but it is pretty easy to work on things, it is basically like a new erector or fancy lego set.

 

[hoplite21]

Ok, so I'm not promising this will work for everyone, but it worked for me and I was desperate. I'm sure there's a lot of you out there who are dying to play so I'll offer what helped for me.

I'm off to Europe next week and so really wanted to get the game working on my laptop (for the plane). The laptop is a Dell Inspiron 8200 with a GeForce 4 440 GO.

So, I had the black terrain problems. Tried everything I read on the forums and official website (so you might have to do all of those before using 'my' fix). I tried running in windowed mode, turning the graphics options down, the cache fix, unpak fix, upgraded my video drivers and chipset drivers from the Dell website and nothing worked. All I was ever able to get was to see some of the terrain on Duel size maps.

So, I downloaded the tweaked Omega drivers (not sure if this has already been suggested by others, apologies if so) from here http://www.omegadrivers.net/ (I used the 'Quality' settings.

Now I can run the game in full screen, huge maps at 1600 x 1200 and the map appears! No more blackness! So, you shouldn't need to upgrade your computer hopefully.

I'm thinking that these drivers might also help people with other cards chipsets.

Disclaimer: These drivers aren't supported by nvidia (or me) so use at your own risk. But they are working fine for me and I can finally play CIV!

Good Luck.

Hoplite

 

[Slestak]

I've concluded that without Shader pixel, Civ IV is only playable up until about the late 19th century (default map), where it will crash at least once PER TURN. If you're a patient singleplayer gamer, this is well and good, but unless you're playing multiplayer by e-mail, this WILL NOT cut it when you have another player live, waiting for you to restart the program, or worse, reboot your entire system.

I had this card installed in my Dell 3 years ago. It's clearly out of date (as is my computer), and I recommend that EVERYONE reading this with GEFORCE MX 440 who has not yet bought Civ IV, do not purchase the game until you get a new card, or unless you're very patient person who will only play multiplayer via e-mail.

Upgrade options? If you're like me, your GEForce MX 440 was installed with your Dell multiple years ago. If you have a 250 W Power supply like I do, any decent videocard with pixel shading will be too much for your power supply to handle, especially if you only have a 4x AGP slot (8x's are more power efficient, so I've been told by my more computer savvy friends).

I have two machines running civ4 (2 purchased copies of civ4). My machine has run from day one with no problems. I have played probably 30-40 games with no complaints. Its specs:

AMD axp1800
1G pc2700
xp pro sp2
ati radeon 9800 pro

Reason for my post is the second machine. Its my moms Dell 4600c. Its a sff desktop. Specs
Dell 4600c
3.0G P4 HT
512M DDR 400
SATA
Geforce 4 MX440 64
the kicker - 160W power supply!!!!!

This machine had stuttering movies, and flaky city display (just food, no coin or hammer display),

Leader heads and map were ok. All seeting in graphics turned to low.

This machine was able to play for approx 2-3 weeks, but has started having a complete lockup that has increased in frequency. Got a call tonight from mom that machine will now not even reboot. I think the PS is dead, dead, dead. Better not be a processor problem, hoping for PS.

I forgot this thing only had a 160W power supply. I have ordered a half height radeon 9600se to replace the nvidia, but am now concerned that between cd spinning (spinning 100% of game play time), the 3G HT processer, HD prob swapping (512 MB ram) that 160 wont cut it.

Unfortunatly, being an sff case, no other PS is available but the OEM model. I surely hope civ4 didnt kill this PS. This machine had no instability before this. I hope this thing will be able to play with the 9600 and a new PS. May give up on this case and move this cpu and memory andf whatnot to a standatrd atx mb and case.

 

[TheDervish]

This machine had stuttering movies, and flaky city display (just food, no coin or hammer display),

'

I have the exact same problem

 

[Slestak]

Well, got a PS on order. REplacement was only 27 bucks from Dell. radeon 9600 should be in soon as well. Will post back when everything is installed. Hopefully the first patch will be available by then as well.