Game slows down TERRIBLY after few turns playing

[vicentiko]

Hi there, that used to happen to me in Civ 3 sometimes at the end of the game, but with Civ 4 i can only play around 10 turns (even in the tutorial) and then the game slows down A LOT (takes a couple of seconds for every single scroll movement!!!)

the funny thing is that once (out of 30 trials already) i could play for an hour without experiencing this problem

anyone experiencing the same problems?

what could it be the reason? hard disk is defragmented with 25 Gb free space and page file fixed to 4096 Mb (min and max) ... i tried as well no page file, page file to 1536, etc...

drivers? graphic card? any hint about what should i improve in my computer? (it's pretty brand new though, so i don't understand)

I'm running a Dell Latitude D600 Pentium M
processor 1700 MHz
598 MHz
1.00 Gb RAM
59
Mobility RADEON 9000 - 32 Mb (i think, where can i actually check the memory of my graphics card?)

Cheers to everyone

 

[Aemilius XXIII]

drivers? graphic card? any hint about what should i improve in my computer? (it's pretty brand new though, so i don't understand)

I'm running a Dell Latitude D600 Pentium M
processor 1700 MHz
598 MHz
1.00 Gb RAM
59
Mobility RADEON 9000 - 32 Mb (i think, where can i actually check the memory of my graphics card?)

Cheers to everyone

I believe a 32mb graphics card have much to less memory. Reading postings from others it looks to me that even a 128 mb graphics card is a problem during the endphase of the game. Maybe this game will work as expected if you have a 256 mb graphics card on board.

 

[VimesUK]

any hint about what should i improve in my computer

Install it on a desktop PC (which has a good spec), rather than a Laptop - if possible.
Unless you have a high spec laptop, which yours isn't, you are really going to have performance issues with this game.
Turning the games resolution and eye candy down to the lowest setting will help but your PC will still struggle as the game progresses.

FWIW Your graphics chipset is....
Video Controller - ATI® MOBILITY™ RADEON™ 9000; Video Memory - 32MB DDR SDRAM; Video Type - 64-bit
hard-ware accelerated, 4X AGP support

http://www.dell.com/downloads/us/products/latit/d600_spec.pdf#search='Dell%20Latitude%20D600%20Pentium%20M'

 

[Andas]

I have a geforce 5700 with 256 Mb ... i allready experienced same problem after 1-2 hours of playing... I think is a issue with some memory leaks...
Also now i have CTD's after CTD's and i can't play it anymore (late game I mean). So... we just need a patch soon... the game is very very buggy...

 

[Ominous]

I'm having this problem too. After a few turns when i've got 2 or 3 units on the screen, the game really slows down and is extremely frustrating to play.

What I find odd is that I've got 2.8G processor, 768MB of ram and a Radeon 9200 graphic card.

I don't know TONS about technical jargon, but I know enough to realize the game should be running better given my settings. I've dug throught he forums and can't find a solution to this issue.

Is there a solution?

How many other people are experiencing this?

 

[TheBarnacle]

How many other people are experiencing this?

LOTS!!!! and it seems to be happening across a variety of systems, patforms, configs, hardware, RAM, etc. no machine seems to be immune from this, though some 'symptom management' can help.

as for can or will it be fixed? i don't know. i wish someone affiliated with the game would make a statement concerning their ability to fix it or not.

 

[VimesUK]

It is very strange though as I am playing a Terra map, Large world size, at 1280x1024 with 2x AA and it is the year 1870 and up to now it has played fine.
My hardware isn't 'that' good....
ATI 9800pro
Athlon XP 2600
1GB RAM

The biggest difference for me was to setup a copy of XP configured specially to play Civ4, but this was due to CTD's that I now no longer get at all (fingers crossed).

 

[Ominous]

I updated my graphic drivers (even though they weren't terrible out of date) and dumbed down my in-game graphic options as much as I could. There was a little improvement, but overall I'm just not impressive with the graphic fluidity of this game. It's choppy and feels like I'm playing an MMORPG on dial-up.

A question for the more Tech Savvy out there (or not quite so dense at least).... How do you view your FPS?

 

[opkoad]

A question for the more Tech Savvy out there (or not quite so dense at least).... How do you view your FPS?

Install FRAPS (http://www.fraps.com/).

 

[Harkonnen]

They just wrote like some people write string sorting via database engine INSERT/FETCH, just because "damn, it works, and I don't need to test my own algo". So I doubt there will be a fix. There is a word "overhead" which Firaxis has neglected. This overhead will vanish within 6Ghz/3Mb/according-video-system, but it'll happen not sooner than 1-2 years.

 

[cookjos1]

My system used to be terrible, with 5 and 10 minute freezes, until the game just wouldn't load any more. I installed all of the updates from Microsoft for my operating system and the game no longer slows down. It still takes forever to load a game, but there is no problem between turns. That said, I still have a problem where the movies start to play funny, and eventually end up triggering a memory dump and system crash about the time I'm 1/2 through the game.

 

[alamo]

Here are some things I would try:

1 - Be sure you have the best driver for your graphics
2 - Check BIOS AGP aperature (you need the highest setting)
3 - Disable nonessential system services (free up overhead)
4 - Dumb down the graphic settings - game and directx

 

[beano]

Hello all! First Post FTW!

Anyways.

I too am experiancing massive slowdown after 10-15 turns.

My specs are as follows:

2.93GHz Pentium 4 515 w/ 1mb L2 cache
Intel 915GV Mobo 533mhz FSB
1.5Gb pc3200 DDR-SDRAM
Sapphire ATI Radeon X-300 w/ 128mb (16x - PCI-Express)
Seagate ST3200822AS 200Gb 7200RPM SATA HDD
HP dvd640i Dual-Layer Lightscribe DVD/CD Burner
Samsung TS-H552B Dual Layer DVD/CD Burner
AVerMedia AVerTV FM/TV Tuner
WinXP Media Center 2005/Profession Dual-Boot
(Tried game on both partitions with no real difference)
All Non-Essential Processes terminated for gameplay.
Both OS's Fully Up-to-Date/All Drivers Fully Up-to-Date/Latest BIOS Installed

Any of you tech wizards that can recommend some tweaks or upgrades, besides the Video Card (I'm already looking into that)?

Any recommendations would be great. Thanks!

 

[oldStatesman]

Hello all! First Post FTW!

Anyways.

I too am experiancing massive slowdown after 10-15 turns.

My specs are as follows:

2.93GHz Pentium 4 515 w/ 1mb L2 cache
Intel 915GV Mobo 533mhz FSB
1.5Gb pc3200 DDR-SDRAM
Sapphire ATI Radeon X-300 w/ 128mb (16x - PCI-Express)
Seagate ST3200822AS 200Gb 7200RPM SATA HDD
HP dvd640i Dual-Layer Lightscribe DVD/CD Burner
Samsung TS-H552B Dual Layer DVD/CD Burner
AVerMedia AVerTV FM/TV Tuner
WinXP Media Center 2005/Profession Dual-Boot
(Tried game on both partitions with no real difference)
All Non-Essential Processes terminated for gameplay.
Both OS's Fully Up-to-Date/All Drivers Fully Up-to-Date/Latest BIOS Installed

Any of you tech wizards that can recommend some tweaks or upgrades, besides the Video Card (I'm already looking into that)?

Any recommendations would be great. Thanks!

That system should rock Civ4. My suggestion is to have patience and see if the patch that is anticipated this week will solve things. Unless you enjoy playing with your OS and hardware...BTW Welcome to CFC!

 

[beano]

That system should rock Civ4. My suggestion is to have patience and see if the patch that is anticipated this week will solve things. Unless you enjoy playing with your OS and hardware...BTW Welcome to CFC!

Thank you, I spent $780 to build it (I had some of the components already on hand.) I guess I'll wait for the patch. It's just so unbearable to play such a good game with massive lag. I feel like I'm playing Lineage 2 on a dial-up. And I have DSL lol. Massive lag. I need to upgrade the gfx card but otherwise I think it should do well. I do get slightly better performance on the XP Pro Partition (No media center junk that can't be shut down, I'm guessing). I'm playing at near minimum details. No AA and 1162x864 resolution at 75mhz refresh. I'm a diehard for some effects though. :sigh:

Wish I could play more than 15 turns without slowdown. I've only played standard and duel maps, with duel performing MUCH better for about an extra 10 turns. Then the slowdown.