Extreme choppiness. What should I upgrade?

[Smidlee]

well i went and got myself 1 gb more ram, so now i have 1.5 gb. gameplay has improved a little bit, but not as much as i thought it would.

just tried starting a game on a large map, and game started to lag pretty soon. i had explored my small home continent, found two other civs, and built a second city, then it started to get choppy again.

gameplay was tolerable on the small map game that i was finishing. lost the game by space race, but game was playable till the end.

i'm starting to think it's my graphics card, but looking at the screen i just can't justify "how". the graphics isn't even close to being as good as other 3d games i've played, which run perfectly smoothly on my rig.

and if it's cpu, why does it lag while it's my turn, and presumably the other AIs aren't "thinking". between turn times is also very fast

i'm confused now

The speed of your cpu and ram (as well as the motherboard) does make a difference but atleast now your pc has enough ram to run without running your hard drive. If you change your graphic setting between high to low and don't see much improvement I would wait on getting a graphic card just for this game. I don't believe graphics is the problem but how poorly civ4 handles it's memory.

Also your processor is handling a lot more than just AI to slow it down. The slow downs is related to have much the map is revealed and how many unit/cities in on the map.

 

[Mujadaddy]

Not to mention the insane memory leak this game is suppose to have. Maybe if they ever decide to release a patch this year, maybe it can be corrected. I thought it was coming last week anyway?

They decided to wait to patch it until you get the game.... the Sunday before it comes out...

 

[Northstar5757]

It's an nvidia issue RAM will not help most likely. I've been experiencing same problem (also have a 5200 64mg), spent a whole weekend trying different fixes and the shader thing made the biggest difference. If you check support you'll see its a common problem for nvidia FX 4 and 5 series.

Its getting on my nerves the number of posters here who tell people to upgrade their computer for nothign (I made a warning post about this weeks ago). Anyone who frequents the support pages should know that there are major issues with these video cards in regards to choppiness. Sorry to say I didn't get here sooner to tell you to save some cash on RAM but I guess its always nice to have some extra).

Guys please dont make suggestions if you have little knowledge of the problems...

Also I suggest you do alot of research on support forums if you do decide to get a new video card. This game seems to be very unstable even with higher level cards.

 

[romelus]

well i'm holding off on the vid card upgrade until the patch is released. i am sure there are optimization issues within civ4, as there aren't that many polygons on screen, and the texture is not exactly high rez either.

don't really regret getting the ram as i hate hearing the hard drive clearing up after i quit the game, now it doesn't even blink. when i get a new system eventually, i can just take out this stick of ram and put it in the new computer.

 

[Smidlee]

Guys please dont make suggestions if you have little knowledge of the problems...

Actuially I was speaking for personal experience since I got three pcs I tested civ4 on. My oldest pc had fx5500 but it got damaged so I put back mx420 back in. Ram is the cheapest and probably the best improvement he could have done with his specs since now he got plenty of room for the program to run in. Most here suggested only to get an extra 512mb , it was his decision to raise it to 1.5gb. others has also reported improvements by add ram. On my newest PC adding 1GB of ram help but didn't remove all the lag with zoomed out on fully loaded huge maps. On my oldest PC mx420 works just as good as fx 5500 as long I lower the graphics to low settings. with 5500 the graphic setting made little differance so I kept it high.

Also I suggest you do alot of research on support forums if you do decide to get a new video card. This game seems to be very unstable even with higher level cards.

I got GF 7800 gx oc card which handles better than my other pc. If he wants better preformance than he should be a new PC but that's too much just for one game. I still believe increasing ram is the best options with his specs.

 

[Smidlee]

well i'm holding off on the vid card upgrade until the patch is released. i am sure there are optimization issues within civ4, as there aren't that many polygons on screen, and the texture is not exactly high rez either.

don't really regret getting the ram as i hate hearing the hard drive clearing up after i quit the game, now it doesn't even blink. when i get a new system eventually, i can just take out this stick of ram and put it in the new computer.

Only if it's the same speed. Most average new PC comes with atleast 1 GB or ram now days.

Again if you can tell a big difference between low and high setting then a new graphic card will let you run on the high setting as good or better than a your card on low settings. MX 420 framerate on my old pc was about the same framerate with low setting as my FX 5500 on high.

 

[romelus]

Only if it's the same speed. Most average new PC comes with atleast 1 GB or ram now days.

Again if you can tell a big difference between low and high setting then a new graphic card will let you run on the high setting as good or better than a your card on low settings. MX 420 framerate on my old pc was about the same framerate with low setting as my FX 5500 on high.

on some motherboards it's ok to mix ram of different speeds. i can always use more ram on a new system that i may buy next year

i can't tell any difference in visual quality between high and low. all i noticed was that low setting turned off some animations and effects. i have my driver set to "high performance" instead of "high quality" so that may have something to do with it. anyway right now i'm just waiting for the patch to see if it helps

funny thing with the large map game that i started is that sometimes it becomes quite smooth. even the leader movies play fairly well. then after a while things get jerky, then it improves again... i must say civ4 is the weirdest acting game i've seen

 

[Mumin]

Just a stupid question: Did you try to lower the graphic settings in the game? It did wonders for the performance on my computer. (Without turning off the animations.) The movies are still choppy, but I hope that gets fixed in the patch.

 

[Smidlee]

on some motherboards it's ok to mix ram of different speeds. i can always use more ram on a new system that i may buy next year

i can't tell any difference in visual quality between high and low. all i noticed was that low setting turned off some animations and effects. i have my driver set to "high performance" instead of "high quality" so that may have something to do with it. anyway right now i'm just waiting for the patch to see if it helps

funny thing with the large map game that i started is that sometimes it becomes quite smooth. even the leader movies play fairly well. then after a while things get jerky, then it improves again... i must say civ4 is the weirdest acting game i've seen

Then I serious doubt a new graphic card will improve your game. On my oldest pc the setting made no difference in performance with FX 5500 card but it did when put in MX 420. (My fx5500 doesn't work anymore) While I'm far from being an expert, to me it seems civ4 handles memory/files very poorly as even on my new pc I've notice it runs smoother at times. No hardware is going to fix that.

 

[Green_Power]

I'm obliged to refresh every ones memories by posting the "recommended" Firaxis specs for, supposedly, having no problems running the game.

----------------------------------
Recommended System Requirement:

Operating System: Windows® 2000/XP
Processor: 1.8 GHz Intel Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon processor or equivalent
Memory: 512 MB RAM
Hard Disk Space: 1.7 GB Free
CD-ROM Drive : 4X Speed
Video: 128 MB Video Card w/ DirectX 8 support (pixel & vertex shaders)
Sound: DirectX 9.0c-compatible sound card
DirectX®: DirectX® version 9.0c (included) or higher

Come on .. why do this guys lie to us so bad. With this specs for sure no one bare large maps (or >). If they tested Civ4 to the bone, and I suppose they did, how can they release this specs? This farse makes me furius

 

[romelus]

Just a stupid question: Did you try to lower the graphic settings in the game? It did wonders for the performance on my computer. (Without turning off the animations.) The movies are still choppy, but I hope that gets fixed in the patch.

i did. set graphics to low, disabled combat zoom, enabled quick moves, etc. it does help but the game is still choppy. normally in 3d games, low graphics settings use lower rez textures and other optimizations. for example for command and conquer generals, turning graphics to full would bog my machine down, but using low graphics provides smooth play. civ's low graphics setting only disables some extra animations and effects, it seems

 

[Pyrion]

Must be an old rig then, because even on my previous system which was two years old, running C&C Generals at full ran smooth as silk.

I still play that game (well, zero hour anyway).

 

[Lahdoz]

Upgrading video card and RAM are both good suggestions. I'm rinning C4 on 2 different computers and they both have different qualities. 1 with a single Athlon XP 3200, 1 G RAM, and an awesome video card, an x800 Pro, AGP 256 M. The other with dual Athlon MP 2800s, 2 G RAM, and a cheap video card, a GF FX 5200, AGP 128 M.

As high performance as the dual processor machine is, I can't get smooth graphics, but have had zero problems otherwise. I have tured all graphics low, set to fast moves, but won't turn my resolution to anything other than 1280x1024, since that is the native resolution on my monitor. Adding the better video card, the game flows perfectly, even with high video settings.

The PC with the single 3200 has excellent graphics with the x800, but I do get occasional crashes after extended gameplay.

The upcoming patch should fix the crashes, among other things, so I can quit gaming on my server hopefully.

 

[Sydney_Bristow]

Some people seem to have problems with Civ 4 regardless of how powerful their system is. I have a few computers, one of them is a p4 1.7ghz, 768megs ram, GeForce 3, and it runs Civ 4 relatively smoothly, even late game on a 'large' map. Upgrading the ram will help your computer overall and you'll appreciate it as time goes on, even if it doesnt seem to have helped your civ 4 problems.

Hopefully the patch might clear up the stuttering issues for you.

 

[Colossian]

0. windows memory tunning - it's free
1. waiting for the patch - be patient
2. Ram
3. video card
4. CPU
5. New PC

Exactly same I'm on 1 stage. http://www.2kgames.com/civ4/firaxis_note_01.htm

 

[Colossian]

Also I suggest you do alot of research on support forums if you do decide to get a new video card. This game seems to be very unstable even with higher level cards.

Good point!

 

[Zakharov]

funny thing with the large map game that i started is that sometimes it becomes quite smooth. even the leader movies play fairly well. then after a while things get jerky, then it improves again... i must say civ4 is the weirdest acting game i've seen

That's because Civ 4 drops to 'below normal priority' in the list of Windows processes. Hopefully this will be fixed in the patch.

Have you tried Alt-Tabbing out and back again when the game gets choppy? This always speeds things back up for me, at least temporarily.

As for your upgrade, if I were you I wouldn't get a new graphics card unless absolutely necessary. The GeForce 4 Ti range still performs fairly well, so you would have to spend a fair amount of money to get a worthwhile upgrade. If you do have the money then a GeForce 6600GT would be a good buy. There is no point going any higher than that as your cpu would strangle anything more powerful.

 

[Blarg]

RAM. Consider 512 a minimum for anything these days, and 1 gig is really more like what someone who wants to play games should have. Some games show much improved progress with up to 2 gigs of RAM, and everything is just getting more RAM intensive all the time, including the Windows operating system.

Writing to your hard disk is impossibly slow compared to writing into RAM. If your disk is regularly being accessed while you play the game, enough that you can hear and notice it, you will probably experience a very significant performance increase if you add more RAM.

 

[Chiefwiggum]

Romelus

I have a 2GB RAM, 256MB GT6800 and 3.6Ghz Intel P4 and I have the exact same problem. IMAO upgrades at this point would be a waste of money. As somebody stated earlier, pressing ALT-tab when the game slows down actually solves the problem temporarily, at least for me.

 

[MarcAntiny]

I can only say this... I have a Geforce 6800GT and the game runs great... with that being said I also have 2gb low latency ram, and an abundance of virtual memory set... 4gb I believe... so what will make yours run better I know not but I know mine runs smooth...