Hardware for Civ 4

[jorge_cefims]

I'm in condition to finally buy a new laptop to play Civ 4!
But I know the game is very demanding regarding graphics, so I wonder
if I must look to a specific hardware profile - specifically video
cards - or if any modern laptop can handle the game. My budget is $600
to $700. Currently I'm looking into a Compaq with an Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950. Is this a good card?

--
Jorge

 

[GVBN]

No it isn't. Integrated graphics are really slow

 

[jorge_cefims]

No it isn't. Integrated graphics are really slow

Is this an acceptable card for Civ 4: ATI Radeon® Xpress 200M 128MB dynamically allocated shared graphics memory.

Thanks

 

[UnnamedPlayer]

it depends how good you want the game to look

at minimum, you want there to be basically no lag on "low" settings

at best, there can be smooth running on the highest settings

the game will run on almost any card... like even default ones. it will just not be smooth.

 

[Tristan daCunha]

the game will run on almost any card... like even default ones.

This is true of new computers, but not true of older computers. Sorry for quibbling, but I know the dismay of the game starting for the first time and seeing your settlers standing in a ocean of black ink!

A post in the Transform and Lighting thread mentioned that the Intel 900 series works well with the game.

How did the weekend work out? I have the same intel 915GM.

I thought I had the same but it's a 945GM. Mine works fine, so I expect your should.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=133278&page=8

 

[flyingbunnys]

I run Civilization with no problem on a 3 year old laptop with a 1.5ghz Pentium M processor and integrated Intel 915GM (same as mentioned above). not much is required for civilization. even todays bottom of the line computers will run civilization.

I forgot to add i run it on low settings i dont care if its pretty or not.

 

[Rayss523]

Do NOT buy a compaq!

Get anything else, right now they are consider the worst of the worst.

 

[CivDude86]

Compaq=HP=#1 so they must be doing something right. Must be all those printers.

 

[wiglaff]

Get this:

Inspiron 1501
Everyday Entertainment
(the rightmost one here : http://www.dell.com/content/products/features.aspx/cto_inspn_1501?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs
)

$700 gets:
AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual-Core Mobile Technology TK-53
24X CD Burner/DVD Combo Drive
ATI RADEON® Xpress1150 256MB HyperMemory™ (Integrated)
1GB2 DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz, 2 Dimm

Not superb, but more than acceptable for Civ4 on medium to high settings. Try to get it with Windows XP and not Vista, though. This will make it a lot faster. If you need to get it on Vista, upgrade to 2G of ram.

 

[Impartial, & VR]

Among the systems I have used for CIV are a Sempron 3300+ laptop with Xpress 200 integrated graphics, and a Pentium IV Celeron desktop with NVidia 6200 AGP card with 256 MB graphics memory. Each system has 1GB system memory.

CIV runs significantly better on the laptop with integrated graphics, and even the responsiveness of the graphical interface is better, not just the end of turn calculations . . .

On the other hand, Quake IV plays on the Celeron/NVidia desktop, but not on the Sempron/Xpress laptop, so go figure.