Game gets really slow, really fast with huge map

[galaxyy]

I really like playing the largest map and longest games, but I'm finding it unbearable as it takes 30-90s in between each turn.

I know it's not my CPU (3.2gz IC i7 930) as the load always seems to hover at around 20%, and I *KNOW* it's not my graphics cards (gtx 470 SLI with water cooling). Although I'm only at 4 gb of ram as I have my normal triple channels in RMA right now.

Is the problem my ram? Or is the game just that slow when there are that many things going on between turns?

 

[tokala]

Is the problem my ram? Or is the game just that slow when there are that many things going on between turns?

No, the problem is CiV

As anticipated, the AI turn calculations appear to run (mainly) on one thread, so your many cores doesn't help at all. Optimizing RAM performance might shave off a few percent of the calculation time, but it won't be noticable.

 

[galaxyy]

No, the problem is CiV

As anticipated, the AI turn calculations appear to run (mainly) on one thread, so your many cores doesn't help at all. Optimizing RAM performance might shave off a few percent of the calculation time, but it won't be noticable.

Wow. What a terrible fail design....we've had dual CPUs for what 4 or 5 years?

 

[Zymergist]

Not just that but they say minimum specs are dual core and recommended quad. Though that aside wait until we get a real heavy duty mod or a GEM.

 

[lissenber]

No, the problem is CiV

This, and city states. I like to play on huge too. 19 civs but no city states. I`m currently at 500+ turns and the loading time is pretty much equivalent to the 1st turn of the game if i include city states.

 

[Dale]

As anticipated, the AI turn calculations appear to run (mainly) on one thread, so your many cores doesn't help at all.

Proof?

 

[Becephalus]

Wow. What a terrible fail design....we've had dual CPUs for what 4 or 5 years?

Not many games can really make use of them. It is a pretty standard issue. You still get relief from running all the main OS and other crap on the second CPU.

AIs typically need to be run together to prevent synchronization issues.

Anyway if your game runs slowly on Huge try a smaller map or fewer players.

 

[Sashimi917]

The AI tends to move their units randomly without aim while at peace time, that may be one of the causes of significant slowdown at late game.

 

[paradigmx]

No, the problem is CiV

As anticipated, the AI turn calculations appear to run (mainly) on one thread, so your many cores doesn't help at all. Optimizing RAM performance might shave off a few percent of the calculation time, but it won't be noticable.

So what your saying is that a game engine optimized for up to and possibly EXCEEDING 16 cores and built on the whole concept of multi-threaded operations has a tendency to only run on one thread?

I'm sorry, but unless we get a professionally tested benchmark done that proves your statement, you can go ahead and take off your tin foil hat.

The more cores you have, the better this game will run, the reason it runs slower at larger map sizes is because there is far more to calculate and the less threads you have, the longer that will take.

 

[anandus]

I have the same problem, turns get really quite slow later on.
Now this is normal in Civ, ofcourse, but it's noticably slower than a fullblown Civ4 huge map with 18 Civs.

I wonder what the problem is?

 

[paradigmx]

I have the same problem, turns get really quite slow later on.
Now this is normal in Civ, ofcourse, but it's noticably slower than a fullblown Civ4 huge map with 18 Civs.

I wonder what the problem is?

It's not a problem, it's just a vastly more complex game and AI system.

Each AI player uses 4 threads, each city state uses 2, and on top of that, a number of other threads get used for graphics and other calculations.

if you have 12 players and 24 city states, you are running 96 threads of AI calculations alone, and the calculations just get more and more complex the further into the game you get.