Extremely sluggish performance.

[cFccFc]

Hi all
I am currently suffering from an extremely sluggish performance, I can open the game and it runs fluently for about 2 minutes, before it starts to lag and work slowly in every aspect, such as after moving a unit it takes seconds before the game allows me to end the turn or proceed to the next unit, processing time between turns increases, i have to choose technology several times etc. I am running a low res: 1360 * 768, and everything on low, which usually worked perfectly until I started playing again this year.

I have currently tried to delete and re-install the game on steam and I have deleted and installed new graphic drivers.
By running in a windowed mode I can see that the game rarely consumes more than 60 % of CPU, and 30 % of the memory is still available, but the game is still running extremely slow with a very low FPS and response time, so I suspect it has something to do with the GPU.

My specs are GT330 and i5 on a Vaio Z i5 120 gb SSD with 10 gb free.
Anyone has any clue?

 

[timtofly]

At first glance, you are not leaving yourself much wiggle room on your SSD.

You did not mention RAMM, nor operating system. Doing a Dxdiag, might also be helpful.

 

[ragan651]

Try following these instructions (Enable Game Core Threading fix). http://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Civili...its_or_end_turn_.28EnableGameCoreThreading.29

 

[cFccFc]

At first glance, you are not leaving yourself much wiggle room on your SSD.

You did not mention RAMM, nor operating system. Doing a Dxdiag, might also be helpful.

I am using W7, 4 gb of RAM. The Dxdiag found no issues in all thre areas.

 

[cFccFc]

Try following these instructions (Enable Game Core Threading fix). http://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Civili...its_or_end_turn_.28EnableGameCoreThreading.29

The multithread seem to have done some good, after playing for 3 minutes it works fine. I will play more and see if it continue to be good.

Edit: It did not help, I suspect the problem to lie at the GPU. Any idea on how to check or improve this area?
I transfered some files off my computer and now have 16 gb free. After reading on a forum that lowering all graphic settings drastically !lowered! the FPS, I decided to try a higher set-up with medium settings in windowed mode. I started a new game on a small map, but only 10 turns in the game again went from a perfectly fluid experience to a slow and laggish performance. The interesting part is that the entire computer slow down, also outside CIV. Writing this in Opera s slow and the letters are lagging behind my typing!

 

[ragan651]

Are you overheating? I've known some computers to, instead of forcing a shutdown, get really slow, painfully slow when they reach a high temp.

 

[cFccFc]

Are you overheating? I've known some computers to, instead of forcing a shutdown, get really slow, painfully slow when they reach a high temp.

Possibly, I noted that my GPU reached 89 c, which I guess is in the overheating phase.

 

[ragan651]

Are you using vsync? If not, try it with vsync on.

You could also try a third party program to cap the framerate, reducing the heat. Some recording software will do it.

Make sure your vents are clean, and if you can, use a cooling pad (it is a laptop, right?).

If your computer slows down like that again, close whatever you are doing and shut it off until it's completely cool.

 

[banker247]

had similar issue on a laptop years back playing colonization civ4
my fix was to install a vcore program that will allow me to turn off throttling or whatever its called that happens on mobile processors when they start to get hot. sounds to me like your proc is stepping down after 2-3m.

just google "turn off cpu throttling"

I do this to all laptops to have them running at max throttle all the time without clocking down - some will argue and say that's not a good idea whatnot, but I don't plan on keeping my hardware more than 3-4 years MAX anyway and have never had any issues.

edit
after some more thought it sounds like a heat issue, usually on laptops the GPU is right next to the proc side by side so it generates mucho heat... solution to this is to just undervolt your proc- again google as to how - but you're temps will decrease quite significantly allowing you to run at max throttle without a hitch all the time - again I had same issue.. back in college I spilled beer on my lappy and in frankenstiened it and undervolted yadda yadda - everything was fine thereafter