Heavy lag.

[Zima]

Hello again, long time no see. I had to register new account since im unable to get my old one.

I recently updated civ to its new version, pushed by my friends to do so, and it was my mistake.
I used to play at almost max settings (except those which irritated me)
I got that kind of lag before, but it was 1-2 times per whole marathon-speed game.
Now i can't play for more than 200 turns, since the lag is getting just impossible.
The funniest part is, whenever i get laggy and close civ4:bts, i have to reset my pc since...everything is getting infected by that lag.

Any ideas how to fix it, or, at least, refresh the pc without reset? >.>
Tried few solutions suggested in topics i found here, none of these actually worked for a long range...

Dxdiag attached.

 

[ori]

try updating your graphics card driver - it is somewhat old
http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_185.85_whql.html

 

[Zima]

I updated the drivers but lag isn't any better.


Also, the link you gave slightly messed with my graphics, but downloading same, but polish-languaged drivers fixed the problem.

New DxDiag attached.

 

[ori]

Please respond to my pm

does the lag change at all when you reduce the graphics settings in the game?

 

[Zima]

No...i used to play at max settings without major lag like that.

 

[ori]

sometimes other programs like antivir/firewall software has been known to interfere with the game. Is there anything else running in the background?

 

[Zima]

Yes, there were programs running in background.

Problem is, same programs kept running before it got laggy.

I restarted my pc, deactivated all programs before launching civ and...10 turns after loading game got laggy again...

Any more ideas? Can't afford to reinstall my windows ...at the very moment

 

[ori]

could you post a screenshot of the about this build screen in the game (start the game - click advanced - click about this build)?
this is it the same in Civ4? did you update directx after patching? if not: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...38-db71-4c1b-bc6a-9b6652cd92a3&DisplayLang=en

 

[Zima]

Hey there! I had guests this weekend, one of them brought some game that didnt work at his pc and i shown him how to launch it propertly.

The game...lagged my PC same way Civ4 does, few seconds after start.

Therefore, theres no problem with the game IMO. Any ideas if its soft- or hardware based? T-T

 

[ori]

the most likely culprit is the graphics card in a case like your machine.
However one thing: was this machine bought as is or were components added later? one culprit could be a power supply that is too weak to handle all of the components...

 

[Zima]

All the components were bought separately, the shop i purchased everything has a good reputation -they rather wont sell parts that fight each other for some reason to a noob

Also, i managed to launch WoW client, two stream tv shows and managed to play large CIV3 map at the same time. With no lag ...

 

[ori]

my hunch is that the problem is with the graphics card and its 3d calculations. Either it does not get sufficient power, or the cooling is not good enough. However this really is difficult to prove remotely
When it does lag is there a louder than usual noise?

 

[Zima]

Problem was caused by graphic card cooler which...was basically half-melted. It worked OK somehow, but failed to cool games with more advanced graphics.

Thanks for help in solving the problem.