How I solved *ALL* my graphics issues.

[invertiga]

Hi, I have a A64 3200+, 1G Corsair 3200c2, SATA HD, MSI 6800GT. I was experiencing

• Invisible units
• Unit graphical errors, esp charriot
• Lag when highlighting tech items and build unit item descriptions
• Landscape errors when zooming all the way out
• Pauses in gameplay for upto 30sec during map browsing

I've spent hours going through forums looking for a solution, I couldn't find one that helped me. The anwser that solved all these issues for me were graphics drivers.

I originally had NVIDIA 81.87 Beta's installed. I tried fresh install of 81.87 no help, i tried reinstall 81.85 offical drivers. All had the same errors. After reinstalling many other drivers, forceware for A8N, sound drivers, directx, I looked up the MSI webpage, and went to the driver section and downloaded the offical MSI drivers for the 6800GT, 76.45. At first i thought they would be too old. But after a fresh install of these drivers it solved every single error I have been seeing in CIV4.

I highly recommend that people with graphical errors, to try manufacture specific drivers instead of nvidia reference, *or* try older versions of nvidia reference *unconfirmed*. I confirmed the success of the manufacture drivers by reinstalling reference 81.85, and all the errors were immediatly noticable and returned. So those with errors, look up your manufacture drivers, download them and give em a go. They've finally fixed my days of frustration!

 

[invertiga]

*update*

My brother's configuration, A64 3700+, 1.5G Corsair, MSI7800GTX, he was only experiencing graphical issues with full zoom out globe view. These issues have been corrected with the installation of msi's 77.50 nvidia drivers for the 7800gtx.

 

[zavarik]

hmm. I will defenitly try this later tonight when I get home.

 

[Lunde]

Hi all
first off thanks to invertiga for the inspiration to resolve my civ4 graphics problems.
i have a radeon 9600 pro in xp sp2 and my experience with civ4 was "interesting"
well i had no CTD issues nor any renderer problems or xml problems.
my problem was distorted and/or missing wonder movies and leader animations.
first i found that a temp. AA in official ati drivers 5.10 cured some of my problems but then invertiga's driver experiment got me going.....
went all the way down to omega 4.11b xp drivers, and behold civ4 runs smooth as silk yes... now i will go upwards in the omega drivers releases until i encounter the problems again....

 

[Arkeide]

Thanks, your topic should really be sticked!
Rolling back to a older version of Nvidia driver (i downloaded the 77.89 in the archive section) has solved my crash-to-desktop problems! I have succeeded to play for 3 hours, whereas i could only play two or three turns before.
The drawback is that i cannot see the wonder of the world anymore (i can't see any videos at all) but i can live with that!

Again Thanks!

(I have a AMD64 3400+, 1Gb, Geforce 6200 TurboCache)

 

[daelon]

*update*

My brother's configuration, A64 3700+, 1.5G Corsair, MSI7800GTX, he was only experiencing graphical issues with full zoom out globe view. These issues have been corrected with the installation of msi's 77.50 nvidia drivers for the 7800gtx.

I'm having the same problem, but I got an MSI 6800GT. I have zero graphic glitches, except the later movies play chopper later on in the game. I suspect that's due to memory leaks though. I gotta roll back pretty far to try MSI's official driver, but i'm going to give it a shot since there's hope it'll fix the globe zoom problem.

 

[invertiga]

Nice to see this has helped some people!

I'm having the same problem, but I got an MSI 6800GT. I have zero graphic glitches, except the later movies play chopper later on in the game. I suspect that's due to memory leaks though. I gotta roll back pretty far to try MSI's official driver, but i'm going to give it a shot since there's hope it'll fix the globe zoom problem.

I've played through a couple of the games and haven't experienced movie issues you speak of so i'm not sure where to start, if there are memory leaks causing performance issues it might have to wait until an official patch.

 

[alamo]

Just to be clear, you are saying your video card is capable but not being used correctly due to bad drivers.

Further, your specific card manufacturer has better drivers than the generic Nvidia or ATI drivers.

Am I reading this right?

Using older drivers makes sense for older cards.

For one theory, it may be that the latest generic Nvidias are implementing the latest gfx hardware designs, not necessarily the design in your particular chip.

 

[VirtualCLD]

Hi all
first off thanks to invertiga for the inspiration to resolve my civ4 graphics problems.
i have a radeon 9600 pro in xp sp2 and my experience with civ4 was "interesting"
well i had no CTD issues nor any renderer problems or xml problems.
my problem was distorted and/or missing wonder movies and leader animations.
first i found that a temp. AA in official ati drivers 5.10 cured some of my problems but then invertiga's driver experiment got me going.....
went all the way down to omega 4.11b xp drivers, and behold civ4 runs smooth as silk yes... now i will go upwards in the omega drivers releases until i encounter the problems again....

Did you have to uninstall and reinstall the game each time you used a new set of drivers?

 

[invertiga]

Just to be clear, you are saying your video card is capable but not being used correctly due to bad drivers.

Further, your specific card manufacturer has better drivers than the generic Nvidia or ATI drivers.

Am I reading this right?

Using older drivers makes sense for older cards.

For one theory, it may be that the latest generic Nvidias are implementing the latest gfx hardware designs, not necessarily the design in your particular chip.

What I do know is drivers released by manufactures are supported by the respective manufacture. Nvidia / Ati release reference drivers very regulary for manufactures to produce drivers if they wish with inhouse modifications (msi have their own auto o/c thing etc). I'm sure the manufacture of the card will take no responsibility for support issues related to use of latest release nvidia reference drivers.

Both computers I have access to have MSI video cards. Different cards have different supported drivers, infact 7800gtx in sli is currently supported by 81.85 driver. In my cases though, supported driver for single 7800gtx msi is 77.50 and my 6800gt is 76.45. Changing to these drivers from reference 81.85 in both cases corrected graphical issues effecting Civ4.

With 81.85 and 81.87beta's I was having no graphical issues in any game on both systems, except Civ 4. Quake 4, Black & White 2, Half-Life 2, Battlefield 2 and WOW all performed excellent with zero issues.

I can't explain why, but in two cases, and other posted in this thread; the graphical issues listed in my inital post were solved by downgrading video drivers to the latest manufacture supported build.

 

[alamo]

It looks like you just explained it very well - use the correct driver for the card!

I wasn't really aware of the reference driver vs mfg driver thing. That could easily trip up the average user.

It is a good point that Civ4 is the only game to expose the driver differences. It looks like they really wanted to make a top-end graphics game.

 

[blue3c]

fine they wanted to make a top end graphics game. But lets not forget the memory leak that will catch up to you. Lets not forget that they list min requirments that are blantent lies. Lies I tell ya. LOL. Really I am sick of the gaming industry as a whole using us as un paid beta testers. Then patching once, which barely fixes anything. Then most of the fixes to the original game come out in an expansion pack. Which they suck you in for more. My fix to this whole problem is to never buy from them until I see some sort of "I am sorry" posted on there site. I know it will never happen, which means they will not get another cent from me. Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me. Nuff said there.

 

[alamo]

Bravo - well said!

The sad truth may be that this will be the last Civ for a long time...

 

[webb5901]

need help i get a blue screen with music when i try to play then after i hit enter a few times it goes to Civ 4 and you see a world moving with music but no menu.......can you help

 

[invertiga]

need help i get a blue screen with music when i try to play then after i hit enter a few times it goes to Civ 4 and you see a world moving with music but no menu.......can you help

I have not experienced missing menu problems, however as I have suggested start with trying your manufacture graphic drivers. Beyound that look at similar threads on the forum stating your problem for help.

 

[webb5901]

Thanks i've been looking all over but no luck yet

 

[MattJek]

Ok, I have a GeForce4 MX 64 MB card. Civ4 runs pretty crappy on it with my current drivers (81.87). What kind of drivers do I need to get, I have no clue how to find drivers that are specifically make for my card...

 

[blue3c]

Ok, I have a GeForce4 MX 64 MB card. Civ4 runs pretty crappy on it with my current drivers (81.87). What kind of drivers do I need to get, I have no clue how to find drivers that are specifically make for my card...

From other posts on this site I would say the GeForce4 MX is not cut out for this game. Please don't shoot the messenger.
My guess, I am running a 5700 256mb and still getting ctd's after a few hours. I am guessing this is a memory leak having to do with large maps. If you can I would try to update your vid card. sounds like those with 6600 and above are not having as many problems.

 

[MattJek]

Yeah, ive narrowed down my problem to two causes not enough ram or an outdated card... I was hopping it was ram cause thats cheaper to buy...thanks for the tip anyways

 

[MattJek]

$300 for a GeForce 6600... sweet!!!!