How good of settings can this computer run CiV on?

[OmniPotent42]

this computer

I looked and the graphics card could play Starcraft 2: HotS on high settings, would it be more or less for civ 5?

 

[Unresolved]

I'm not a hardware expert, but both of those games are demanding on the CPU, not the GPU. The 660m is fine for probably high on CiV, but that processor will be your bottleneck. It's a dual-core CPU which will hurt you on intensive games like CiV and Starcraft. A quad-core would be better suited for these types of games, though a dual-core will suffice. You'll probably have longer wait times than many of us.

EDIT: Also, that doesn't look like such a good deal since it's a low resolution. And they don't list the HDD speed. It's likely 7200 RPM, but it might be 5400 RPM if they're trying to cut costs.

 

[OmniPotent42]

Would dual core hyperthreaded be good enough, though? Does the game treat hyperthreaded cores as 2 cores or 1?

It also says high definition LED for the screen...but is that just selling talk? Is there a different kind of screen I should look for?

 

[Unresolved]

I doubt you would get a 2.6 GHz quad core with a 660m in a $800 laptop. That would be a fairly high end laptop CPU with an average GPU. I know my laptop's CPU is an i7. But the vagueness of the descriptions give me hesitation because they don't actually tell you what they're putting in your laptop. They might be low-end parts that will break down easily.

And every screen nowadays comes advertised as high LED etc... Unless it says matted or anti-glare or something, it's most likely just a regular laptop screen. But I don't really know my monitor stuff, I prefer reading about CPUs and GPUs.

I would recommend going to forums.notebookreview.com for better advice. That's where all the laptop users congregate.

Computer hardware isn't really my forte, but no one else was helping...So I'd really recommend going over to that other site for more qualified advice.

 

[Irkalla]

Build your own. Problem solved. If you buy one, regardless of brand name (alienware, for example, is still just a Dell.) you are likely to get a box of refurbished parts which will probably only function just over your warranty period.

My last experience with Dell involved a failed I/O panel, a failed SM Bus, failed graphics card, failed PSU, and a failed Hard drive within the span of about 3 years or so.

Also, gaming on a Laptop?

But yeah, to be helpful, I will say that I run an 2.6 GHz Dual-Core 5000 Series AMD Athlon, with 2 Gigs of memory and an Asus EN9800GT Matrix (nVIDIA).

These are far from cutting edge or even modern, but I run CiV just fine, apart from the interturns being a bit slow in the modern era. I've made extensive use of OS Tweaks and configuration tricks to keep my machine running fine, but it's about that time to build a new one.

 

[OmniPotent42]

Build your own. Problem solved. If you buy one, regardless of brand name (alienware, for example, is still just a Dell.) you are likely to get a box of refurbished parts which will probably only function just over your warranty period.

My last experience with Dell involved a failed I/O panel, a failed SM Bus, failed graphics card, failed PSU, and a failed Hard drive within the span of about 3 years or so.

Also, gaming on a Laptop?

But yeah, to be helpful, I will say that I run an 2.6 GHz Dual-Core 5000 Series AMD Athlon, with 2 Gigs of memory and an Asus EN9800GT Matrix (nVIDIA).

These are far from cutting edge or even modern, but I run CiV just fine, apart from the interturns being a bit slow in the modern era. I've made extensive use of OS Tweaks and configuration tricks to keep my machine running fine, but it's about that time to build a new one.

believe me I would build my own if I could, but my parents want me to have something portable for heading off to college and they are paying for it. I'm just wondering if this will be decent enough for the games I plan on playing at medium to high settings.

 

[Pouakai]

You'll be able to play it on reasonably high settings, no worries. It sounds better than my current laptop, which theoretically can run Civ 5 maxed out. The thing I would do though is check how likely it is to overheat during something like civ, since that's been the main issue I've faced. Although I can run Civ maxed out and have done so, I usually end up having issues with it or other games with my laptop overheating and crashing.

 

[joncnunn]

I would expect a current duel core to be able to handle at least a standard size map.
But quad core would be better; those should be able to handle at least a large size map.

But note that Civ V gracefully degrades if your machine isn't quite powerful enough (it still runs; it just takes longer between turns than you'd like.) And if you find later in the game its slowing down, you can just switch to strategic moves during the AI turns (most of the time on tactical map is rendering the AI moves; not deciding what they are)

 

[darkskies]

I played on a MS Surface Pro with no problems, I saw little difference between settings on low and settings on high, it was quite playable. That said I mostly play on my desktop which is connected to a 40" monitor as I find I prefer the bigger screen, but maybe that's just because of my old eyes. The Pro uses an SSD which helps but the i5 in it is 1.9Ghz (ok it in theory goes a bit faster but usually I have it in power saving mode not high performance). It does crash slightly more often than on my desktop (which is 3.4GHz i7 16GB RAM) but not that much more, the other thing is there isn't that much difference in the graphics between settings in this game. Oh and on both computers I set the game to zoom in farther than the default.

 

[tomtom5858]

It looks fine The screen is 1366x768, which I ran on a ~20" desktop and it looked fine. Graphics card is what I have in my current machine. Core is a bit better than my old machine (2.2 dual-core), which could run ~20 second turn times late game on standard/standard.