Help!!!!!!!

[supersoulty]

I have a major problem with my Civ IV. First, I'll explain the background. I recently purchased a new video card (G Force 5500) so I could play Medal of Honor Pacific Assult, which won't run on my Intel Integrated Graphics card (I know, they suck, but it came with the computer). Well, the problem was that the card was bringing me down to only 256mb of RAM (my standard is 512) so everything was running extremely slow, including Civ IV. So, I decided to switch back to my standard graphics card. Now, when I try to play Civ, the world map is messed up. All the special features on the map (mills, units, etc) are as they should be. However, all the terrain sqaures, including those with just roads, are dark and hard to make out.

Is this a graphics card issue? Did I forget to reset something? Can someone help?

 

[ainwood]

Moderator Action: Moved to tech support - have a look here for other people having this problem, and try out some of the suggestsions.

 

[supersoulty]

Okay, great, my thread has been moved to a place where no one can find it, now can someone please help me?

 

[ainwood]

Okay, great, my thread has been moved to a place where no one can find it, now can someone please help me?

Its been moved to a forum that has over 100 people viewing it, and where there are volunteers who are giving up their own time to help people who have issues similar to yours.

If you care to have a look through some of the threads, there are some people who have noted problems with Intel Integrated graphics cards.

Personally, I suggest that if you can get good graphics with the GeForce 5500 but its RAM that's the problem, then you get some more RAM. Also - I'm not quite sure why you are allocating RAM to the graphics memory - doesn't the 5500 come with 128 MB of memory - that should be enough.

There are also threads here where people have suggested tweaks to improve the game speed.

 

[Pyrion]

Why on Earth would you switch BACK to integrated graphics? You know what those use for video memory?

System memory. That's right, you actually GAIN BACK your 32MB or whatever of system memory by using a separate video card.

The only thing I can think of that would cause you to "lose" 256MB of memory with a dedicated video card is that the game is loading much more feature-wise into RAM as your GeForce 5500 can support that which your Intel onboard cannot.

Just switch back and bite the bullet on the RAM, and/or go buy more. 512MB won't cut it for Civ4, and Intel integrated graphics chipsets don't support hardware T&L, so there's no fixing that.

 

[supersoulty]

Why on Earth would you switch BACK to integrated graphics? You know what those use for video memory?

System memory. That's right, you actually GAIN BACK your 32MB or whatever of system memory by using a separate video card.

The only thing I can think of that would cause you to "lose" 256MB of memory with a dedicated video card is that the game is loading much more feature-wise into RAM as your GeForce 5500 can support that which your Intel onboard cannot.

Just switch back and bite the bullet on the RAM, and/or go buy more. 512MB won't cut it for Civ4, and Intel integrated graphics chipsets don't support hardware T&L, so there's no fixing that.

But the card was acctually degrading the memory for my entire system. I mean, every opperation performed on my system was running off of half it's total RAM capacity because of the card. When I switched back, I immediatly went back to 512mb. Is there something I'm not getting here?

 

[supersoulty]

Its been moved to a forum that has over 100 people viewing it, and where there are volunteers who are giving up their own time to help people who have issues similar to yours.

If you care to have a look through some of the threads, there are some people who have noted problems with Intel Integrated graphics cards.

Personally, I suggest that if you can get good graphics with the GeForce 5500 but its RAM that's the problem, then you get some more RAM. Also - I'm not quite sure why you are allocating RAM to the graphics memory - doesn't the 5500 come with 128 MB of memory - that should be enough.

There are also threads here where people have suggested tweaks to improve the game speed.

Sorry, I am very frustrated by this whole thing, though. I am not exactly sure what the problem is though. Thank you. I'll look at it.

 

[alamo]

Definitely put the card back in!

The card should not automagically such up 256MB, unless that is the AGP aperature setting. If it is, then I would leave it there for Civ4.

How did you disable the on-board graphics? Check the BIOS and make sure it is turned off.

Also, check your virtual memory. You definitely need 1024MB. Set it to custom with min=max=1024. You probably need to clean up your disk and defrag first.