Graphics and Memory Problems with Civ and BE

[Wodan]

I recently burned through my second Nvidia display adapter over several years of Civ playing. This latest one I've had for 3 years. Maybe Nvidia undercools them, but it's inarguable that Civ's engine is very hard on it. There's a lot of heat after just an hour or so of playing.

And, I think it's inarguable that more could be done by Firaxis to optimize both the engine and the artwork. There was a noticeable difference both in gameplay speed and in the level of load put on the display adapter when BTS was issued (I think it was BNW but maybe it was GNK), which I attribute to optimizing the 3d models. And there's a definite memory leak or similar issue with the core engine... was never fixed.

My hope is that Civ6 will address both these things from the start. Let's get a core engine that is a better steward of the computer's hardware. And art assets (models etc.) that are optimized from the start.

 

[stormtrooper412]

This is a legitimate issue, and while I didn't burn my GPU (it's integrated part of the CPU), it did mess up my coolers which I had to have replaced much sooner than I'd have estimated

 

[ThorHammerz]

My laptop survived Starcraft 2 (on high/ultra) settings, so it survived through Civ without much issue.

A word of advice to prolonging the workable lifetime of your computer parts: Invest in some sort of additional cooling hardware.

Whether it be an extra laptop fan/cooling station (the platform you place under a laptop), some diamond-gel-thingy (don't remember the name, but it only costs like $30-40 for a small squeeze-tube) to paste on, or hell, even a cool, wet, towel on the backside of a tower computer (note: I extended the workable lifetime of a PC that I bought in 2007 well into 2012-2013 using this technique; wet towels (more precisely: water) is a great heatsink).... just don't put it on a side with the air-holes in it. Placing it underneath your tower-PC (it is usually sealed/screwed tight, and the metal base is a good heat conductor) is also good.

However, if you want to play games and not have to worry about hardware issues or search frantically for DIY solutions, I would simply recommend investing in a good, mid-high end piece of hardware that isn't branded as a Dell or HP. I don't have anything against these 2 companies, but you have far better options to choose from. Generally speaking, you are going to get the same amount of money's worth out of a PC regardless of the price range, as cheaper computers will obsolete and break down very fast, even if you treat it well (note: this is assuming that you treat you hardware well, and assuming you are using it for gaming, not just text-editing and browsing... in which case any piece of junk with over 2GB of RAM will be just fine).

A good graphics/video card that is not "integrated" with the PC (at least 2 GB of dedicated memory) will get you a long way. Generally any pre-built computer <$900 is not going to serve your gaming needs very well.

If you have the time/the know-how or are willing to learn, you can also try to build your own tower computer for a fraction of the price (<$500 is very doable for what is equivalent to a very pre-built high end PC that sells for $1200-1500).

 

[reddishrecue]

I hope civ 6 gets to support most memory cards. Expansions often need the best memory and video cards to get them to work. However, some video cards could be upgraded if the video card that the computer has at the moment isn't compatible with the requirements of the application that you're trying to watch.