Game Freezing During Map Scrolling (Geforce 8800 GTS ?)

[Dark_Jedi06]

System Specs:

Windows 7 Professional (64 bit)
Intel Core2 Quad CPU @2.40 GHz
Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTS w/ 2404 MB
4 GB RAM
DirectX 11

I've been having frequent freezes, usually when scrolling the map and/or using the mini-map (even just clicking around the mini-map seems to cause it). The game usually freezes with the music still playing and I have to minimize to bring up the task manager and end the program manually. I always see the old man from the intro video in the background when I bring up the task manager.

All drivers are up to date as is DirectX. I'm playing the game on the recommended settings for my computer.

 

[Nostradam]

I'm running a Windows 7 64-bit computer with a GeForce 8800 GTS 320 MB.

I had this crashing issue where you the 'image' just freezes, you can still move the mouse and hear the music playing but you can't interact with anything. This usually happens at the start of a game but I've had it after 2-3 turns too. After looking for a fix on forums etc. I decided to do some troubleshooting.

I foudn that the crash is actually caused by your video settings and can easily be fixed by just lowering your terrain detail level to low, anything higher than low makes it crash (at least on my computer). I can play with everything on max aas long as I let that option stay on low (everything is slower ofcourse but no crashes). It does take a while to actually load the textures but no crash (propably due to my graphic card being to low). From the moment I up that settings, bam crash.

This is only for DirectX 10, when I played around with the settings on Direct X9 everything was fine, no crashes on directx9 so far.

Just thought I'd share my troubleshooting with other poor souls dying to play the game

*edit: it seems I'm running on Direct X 10 instead of 11. but the troubleshoot still stands *

 

[Robbobloke]

I have same video card 8800 GTS but still crashes randomly (made it to turn 12 with the low setting). Doesn't crash using DX9 mode.

 

[ERLoft]

Yep, you now join myself and at least one other person who seem to be having problems with the 8800GTS cards and CivV. I can tell you that I experienced the exact same issues when running the DX10/DX11 executable. However, the DX9 executable works fine. Not sure if this is going to require a driver update or a patch, but CivV and 8800 GTS cards don't get along in DX10 or DX11 at this point...

 

[Nostradam]

Try reducing ALL your gfx settings to the absolute minimum. And upping a few at a time. That's how I found out. These random crashes really are related to your gfx card.

 

[Swift777]

Another 8800 GTS user here - it seems that when the screen freezes, the buttons still function - clicking "Next Turn" you can hear everything going on in the background.

Hope that helps find a resolution? xD

 

[ShadowXOR]

I'm having terrible issues with my 8800 GS in DX 10 mode (even though other games work fine). There's a huge thread regarding the 8800 line on the Steam forums and 2K forums. Looks like there is an issue they need to fix.

 

[The_J]

Moderator Action: Threads merged.

The 8800 series does not seem to be the best choice for Civ5.

 

[tokala]

Moderator Action: Threads merged.

The 8800 series does not seem to be the best choice for Civ5.

8800s are notorious VRAM hogs. Is there a pattern, i.e. GTS 640MB, GTX (768MB) and GT 1024 MB working better, while GTS 320 MB and GT 256 MB giving trouble?

IIRC this was a huge issue when the first generation 8800 GTS entered the marked, for some people the 320MB version was giving lots of trouble, while the 640MB worked mostly alright. Some knowledgable people claimed that the memory management for the 8800 (and 9800, GTS250 too, of course) was seriously messed up.

 

[The_J]

Moderator Action: Ups, moved to the wrong section, back to bugs.
Guys, here to them, anyone having one of these cards here?

 

[Dark_Jedi06]

I see, well hopefully they release a fix soon.

I'm currently playing with DirectX 9 and not experiencing any issues. I have all the graphics on high and things still run pretty well, the only downside is no anti-aliasing but I still think the game looks nice without it.

 

[Ashbery76]

I am also having crashes on the 8800 GTS in DX10.Nvidia needs to know.

 

[CosmicCharlie]

I also have the same problems with a GeForce 9300 running Win 7 64 bit. Whenever I run in DirectX 10/11 it crashes, but when running in DirectX 9 all is fine.

 

[ERLoft]

Okay, I'm hopeful that I've got this fixed on my end.

I've been able to run a couple dozen turns in the Renaissance Era with no crashes on the DX10/DX11 executable with no freezes or crashes with all settings on 'Medium'. I'm going to try 'High' next and see what happens.

I'm not sure which exact setting has helped out here, but basically, what I've done is this:

Went to my nVidia control panel.
Went to Manage 3D Settings
Added civilizationv_dx11.exe with the following settings:
Anisotropic Filtering - 4x
Antialiasing Transparency - Multisampling
Texture Filtering Anisotropic Sample Optimization Off
Texture Filtering Negative LOD Basis - Clamp
Texture Filtering Quality - High Quality
Texture Filtering Trilinear Optimization - On
Threaded Optimization - On
Vertical Sync - Force On

All the rest of the settings were left at my global settings default.

Again, I'm not certain which of these has helped out, but so far, so good...

We'll see what happens with everything turned all the way up...

 

[ERLoft]

Okay, ran a few turns with all settings on 'High', no crashes. Also, this is a 'Large' map with 10 civs and 20 city states... (well it was 10 civs, a few have gotten knocked out since the start though...)

 

[Zelig]

The 8800 series does not seem to be the best choice for Civ5.

People really need to specificy exactly what card they have though...

The 8800 GS, 8800 GT and 8800 GTS 512 are G92 cards, while the rest of the lineup are G80 cards.

The 8800 GT was actually being rebranded to 9800 GT cards for a while, the hardware was the same, and then the newer 9800 GT cards have been rebranded as GTS 240 cards, with the newer 9800 GTX+ cards being rebranded to GTS 250 cards.

FWIW, I'm not getting any crashes in either DX9 or DX10 mode with my 8800 GTS 512, unless I try to use strategic view.

 

[Robbobloke]

Tried ERLoft's suggestion but crashed on turn 14. It looked like my worker had finished building a farm and the map was going to focus on it.

My card is specifically a OcUK GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express). Running Windows 7, 64 bit.

When it crashes and I try to ALT,CNT,DEL sometimes it looks like the intro movie is still playing even though im playing a game. I therefore disabled the into movie, but unfortunately it still crashes. So... no further forward..

 

[tokala]

Tried ERLoft's suggestion but crashed on turn 14. It looked like my worker had finished building a farm and the map was going to focus on it.

My card is specifically a OcUK GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express). Running Windows 7, 64 bit.

When it crashes and I try to ALT,CNT,DEL sometimes it looks like the intro movie is still playing even though im playing a game. I therefore disabled the into movie, but unfortunately it still crashes. So... no further forward..

Try disabling Antialiasing, set texture quality to low, and if all else fails, running at a resolution below your native monitor resolution.

 

[gunnergoz]

FWIW, I have a GeForce 8800M GTS in my HP HDX9494NR laptop (512 MB) as well as 4GB RAM and a dual core processor. The game runs - most of the time. I too get lockup crashes that freeze the PC requiring a reboot. The crashes invariably come while the game is loading from the main menu, during map formation. I play with no voice or music and that seems to help.

 

[Dan Quale]

I have a gts 640 works fine in dx9 all settings high, not super fast but good enough. Running w7 64 bit.

Dx10/11 are epic failures with maybe 5 fps before it crashes at any settings.
Strategic view causes me to crash in either mode.