Does civ V run faster with G & K

[TheMeInTeam]

Or is the game still preventing people from actually playing it for hours per game?

If it works now I'll get it, but if they didn't put any serious effort into the engine so the game runs decently then they're still failaxis. Let me know .

 

[DaveMcW]

No improvement over vanilla.

On the other hand, vanilla runs quite smoothly if you avoid Huge maps and multiplayer.

 

[Esoteric Arcane]

I love huge maps with civs sprawling the world, with civ 5, since it seems to help out smaller empires than previous civs (opposed to have the ICS) style, I have had an easier time playing with smallar than huge maps.

To also speed up the game, I have also noticed if you hit the next unit keyes <> it tends to help skip the sticking "click next unit" or anything thats blocking the next turn button for apparently no reason.

Also I started playing with less city states which tend to improve game speed immensely. (my computer has 8 gigs of ram, and a quad core, geforce 9500 gt)

 

[TheMeInTeam]

No improvement over vanilla.

On the other hand, vanilla runs quite smoothly if you avoid Huge maps and multiplayer.

Depends on your build.

But I can say that even with recommended or higher (mostly higher) specs that standard maps take 30-60 seconds after mid-game between turns and that command lag during turns is quite fierce too.

I know I'm always at a disconnect with most players since I play 5x faster than many casual players, but for me that means the game still doesn't work. I don't want to spend 50% of my play time waiting and inevitably that's what wound up happening in vanilla.

 

[woodshadows]

it's pretty hilarious that they brought out this expansion and didn't go through the trouble of fixing some of the major shortcomings that continue to hold this game back from being as addictive as it could be for the vast majority of people. significantly, the most annoying aspect for me is after I have moved all of my units, the "next turn" button will _not_ appear on it's own, I have to either click on a unit or city, or else manually click shift-enter to get to the next turn. same goes with the situation where a city builds something and asks you to build something new, I click the new building I want to build, close the city screen and the prompt remains there asking me to change my build, until I click on a unit, or press W, or various other tricks that are required just to do something as simple as progressing through a turn, one of the most basic functions a game should be able to perform! battles are painful, clicking a unit, the computer not acknowledging it, dragging you to the other side of the map to another unit, or various other annoying things. I've gotten to the point of just playing most of the game in strategic view, which means I'm playing a version of Civ with graphics worse than the preceding title Civ 4. My computer is by no means top of the line, but if it can flawlessly with zero lag, handle a game like Oblivion, then I am baffled as to why it should have to struggle with a game like Civ V, a turn based, slow game, with graphics that are not very intensive. And if my computer can handle all the AI mechanics involved in first person POV battles, involving 10+ enemies all with different attacks in a 3d world, including multiple allies, then why on earth is it struggling to calculate the simplistic movement/combat in Civ V? Unacceptable.

 

[SMA333M]

It feels like turns take even more time now, than in Civ 5 vanilla ... :| ... I was hoping for an improvement too

 

[Valbuena]

I actually found my frame-rate even slower now :/

 

[Zerrigan]

Surprisingly, I found it to be a little faster, but that might be due to the fact that my games are usually ending earlier now so there isn't quite as much on the map.

 

[dolvlo]

One of my biggest issues with Civ 5 vanilla is "Quick Moves" isn't quick enough. I want to be able to tell a unit to move somewhere and instantly be able to switch to the next unit awaiting orders. (Civ 4 at least let us have stacks of units, in Civ 5 you have to manually move every single unit on the board, which in the late game is just awful.)

You have to wait a second or so after issuing a move command to every unit you move. I'm guessing this wasn't really a priority for the development team since most players don't play very quickly, but I like to have my games over in a matter of a few hours, much like TMIT, and as a software developer I think this could be a very easy fix that could make the game much more enjoyable for those of us that like to play FAST.

 

[gunnergoz]

I find the game loads a lot faster with G&K and the latest patch; I can handle larger maps more smoothly, but animations hang at times and turns are about the same length. This is on the giant earth map, BTW.

 

[Kabloosh]

I think it runs quite smoother. Of course that is probably because of the changes the patch brought.

 

[mackintosh]

Late game turns take significantly longer than in vanilla. The initial slowdown occurs much earlier, happened to me on renaissance, whereas previously it would not occur until the industrial era. This, of course, is on a huge map with anywhere between 12 to 16 civilisations and 8 to 12 city states.

 

[notadummy]

I think it runs much smoother, but turn times are around the same.

 

[gozpel]

I have an average 4-quad, with an old gx-card (but the best of the old ones) and play everything on XP....so 4 gb ram is all I have to play with.

I feel a slight difference in speed, slightly slower but only at times when I play large map. On standard I see no difference, except in the very beginning then it gets better.

The late game hasn't really changed anything for me, because of my top-notch ******** old Gx-card I would guess. But no improvements, that's for sure.

So, it's up to you if you want to lower yourself to normal playpace or trying to play through a game in 3-4 hrs. I think you might be able to on a small map, though, but beware you have more choices now with the Religion and Spies, which might put another 30 minutes on your playtime.

 

[Malician]

No improvement over vanilla.

On the other hand, vanilla runs quite smoothly if you avoid Huge maps and multiplayer.

I have a 4.7 ghz i5 and can put the game on an SSD.

That said, when I played the original it was completely unplayable for my level of patience

That was, however, quite a few patches ago.

 

[Soduka]

Turn on quick combat and quick moving and your turn times will drop significantly. I really like those features, but my turns take approximately 4x-5x longer with them on and that's just unacceptable.

 

[Veneke]

I definitely agree with gunnergoz, I've found that the actual loading screen time has been cut significantly. However, I am pretty positive that turn times are about the same or slightly worse (I'm getting 12-16 seconds on a Standard/Marathon map in the late game) though the longer turn times definitely start earlier than I remember. The initial turns, for instance, take anywhere from 4-6 seconds which is definitely longer than what it used to be.

Specs: i7-2630QM, 540M GT, 8gb RAM.

 

[SG-17]

Depends on your build.

But I can say that even with recommended or higher (mostly higher) specs that standard maps take 30-60 seconds after mid-game between turns and that command lag during turns is quite fierce too.

I know I'm always at a disconnect with most players since I play 5x faster than many casual players, but for me that means the game still doesn't work. I don't want to spend 50% of my play time waiting and inevitably that's what wound up happening in vanilla.

I always play on huge maps with max AI Civs and 12 city-states and I run the game at max settings. I only experience lag when I first load the save and everything is being loaded into the RAM and my turn times are normally under 30 seconds.

My build is hardly something to be admired yet it runs Civ5 smoothly.

 

[Verbosity]

When I am playing on a lower end system, I use a trick to help speed up turn time. I've found if I switch to the strategic view (handy F10) then click next then the game goes by at quite a fast pace. Sometimes it seems like the next turn button won't come up until it finishes some animation of my unit that is so small as to not be perceptible (or it is the spinning point of light on the halo that surrounds the active unit that wants to orbit about 2 times before deciding the unit has finished its action). It is amazing how effective that is - I might be yawning as I wait for the next option to pop up... F10/Strategic view... fly through the next few actions.

I love how pretty the game is - but there is a point where beauty overpowers playability. I don't want to stare at a pretty view all day, but I don't want to play in a 1980s strategic board game view all the time - I'd like a happy medium.

As for G&K being faster or slower? I don't know - my F10 trick made me realize that I was way underpowered in my graphics card so I upgraded. With a GTX560Ti 2GB best buy EVGA card ($230 was equal to newegg prices) it runs fairly decently on standard maps. Using an old quad Athlon II 635 w/8GB RAM... thinking of going to an FX-4170 ($140, 4.2GHz quad core) for two reasons. First, from what I've read at various sites most games don't take advantage of a high number of cores so quad at high speed would help (who knows, then maybe I could get CitiesXL 2012 - that game still only works on a single core!)... Second, I can't afford a higher end i7 when you count the much higher cost of the motherboard.

In other words, I think you need a $2000 custom build rig to handle this game smoothly no matter what - which I know has kept some people I know away from this game.

 

[Charlie_B]

I built a new PC in Feb and it flew through Civ (standard maps on max settings)... until the latest patch Until late game the idea of a turn taking longer than 5 seconds was an anathma, but now I'm lucky to see them under 10.