How to Fix Late Game Slowdown

[Charles 22]

IIRC, the pc3200, pc4000 is DDR. Now the DDR2 memory is already rise. DDR and DDR2 memory is not compatible.

In the next 1 or 2 years, most probably new mother board will only take DDR2, so your DDR memory can be used on new mother board.

Regards,
Arto.

Yes, I hadn't thought of that, and it's a very likely development, thus guaranteeing a whole new world of sales for memory chips since the new ones wouldn't work. Considering that it does sound as though that the best option by far is a couple of more 512's for me.

Incidentally I have seen the patch details and it looks none too promising as far as the game slowing we have been talking about. this is the only description in the patch that "might" hold some hope, but I have no idea what it means:

Improved performance for large selection groups

 

[Roland Johansen]

Improved performance for large selection groups

I personally think that that has to do with the selection of large groups of units or cities. I don't know exactly what has improved. So no luck for the ones who don't have a large amount of memory in their computers.

Since the game has been out for a long time now, I don't think that the people at Firaxis can further improve the memory usage. They would have done so by now if they could improve it. It's one of the most common complaints about the game.

 

[Artosoft]

Since the game has been out for a long time now, I don't think that the people at Firaxis can further improve the memory usage. They would have done so by now if they could improve it. It's one of the most common complaints about the game.

Maybe because people at firaxis use the latest computer system. They should use pentium II or pentium III with only 128MB memory to make civ4 satisfy most of us .

Regards,
Arto.

 

[WuphonsReach]

Aye, having 2GB of RAM really makes the difference for playing huge maps. Anything less then that and you're going to want to avoid playing the larger maps. (Looking at my Task Manager, you *might* be able to do it with 1.5GB, but you'll be skating close to the edge of starting to swap a bit.)

I'm still running a single-core 2.2GHz Opteron 148 chip, 2GB of RAM and a GeForce 7800GS AGP. Things are nice and pretty at 1600x1200 with just a tiny bit of graphical lag.

 

[Charles 22]

I personally think that that has to do with the selection of large groups of units or cities. I don't know exactly what has improved. So no luck for the ones who don't have a large amount of memory in their computers.

Since the game has been out for a long time now, I don't think that the people at Firaxis can further improve the memory usage. They would have done so by now if they could improve it. It's one of the most common complaints about the game.

Valid points, but your latter point is a bit lacking in that I didn't have the slightest problem after the vanilla patch. After Warlords it went back to only slightly better than the pre-patch vanilla was. IOW a good deal of the improved perfromance was lost with a expansion, which I've never seen happen before. Usually the expansions get better performance or the same, rather than worse. I don't see what they did to Warlords that would make it so very different to assume there was a dramatic increase of data being used. Certainly not cheaper units or anything like that, which would be obvious.

 

[Charles 22]

Aye, having 2GB of RAM really makes the difference for playing huge maps. Anything less then that and you're going to want to avoid playing the larger maps. (Looking at my Task Manager, you *might* be able to do it with 1.5GB, but you'll be skating close to the edge of starting to swap a bit.)

I'm still running a single-core 2.2GHz Opteron 148 chip, 2GB of RAM and a GeForce 7800GS AGP. Things are nice and pretty at 1600x1200 with just a tiny bit of graphical lag.

Nice observation, but in my own personal case, it's not that it takes so long with less memory that bothers me. What do I care if it's swapping? It's failing while swapping that is the problem (not that all swapping fails). The CTD's resulting from it getting more and more into harder swaps is what is the problem. If every 5th turn I get a one minute delay, and I don't think I've seen any that bad, isn't so bad, but I can't do anything about a CTD. As I said before, vanilla post-patched worked just fine. There just doesn't seem to be enough changes made to the game to make it largely revert back to pre-patch vanilla in performance.

 

[oneeye]

I have a p4 2.8 and 1.5 gigs ram and it takes about a minute per turn in the late game..

 

[crazypooljunkie]

Wow, I wish I had some of your computers...I've got a laptop, if that tells you anything right of the bat...2.4 GHz processor, this is from back in the day when dell still just stuck a destop processor in laptops, meaning it generates a ridiculous amount of heat making my already antiquated computer run even more slowly...I have 512 MB of RAM, and a 32 MB graphics card...and yes, I am aware that the graphics card is below standards. But I manage to run 11 civ games on huge maps. Its quite possible that I've become so use to crappy performance that I don't really notice it anymore, but for the most part I run without problems, that was until Warlords and I started getting the CTD's... I fixed them though...Point is it is possible to run on a crap computer...its just painful.

 

[one_man_assault]

I have a monster of a Laptop....it will make you guys mad so Ill go into detail


Dell Inspirion 9400/1705

17 inch Widescreen WUXGA SCREEN
2.3ghz duo 2 core processor
2GB 677mhz DDR2 ram
60 GB 7200 HD
7900GS Overclocked to near GTX speeds



of course in 6 months I will be looking back upon this post in disgust...lmao

 

[Charles 22]

I have a p4 2.8 and 1.5 gigs ram and it takes about a minute per turn in the late game..

You're sort of fortunate in a way. I wish that's all mine did. It just gets to the point over time where it will CTD.

 

[Charles 22]

Wow, I wish I had some of your computers...I've got a laptop, if that tells you anything right of the bat...2.4 GHz processor, this is from back in the day when dell still just stuck a destop processor in laptops, meaning it generates a ridiculous amount of heat making my already antiquated computer run even more slowly...I have 512 MB of RAM, and a 32 MB graphics card...and yes, I am aware that the graphics card is below standards. But I manage to run 11 civ games on huge maps. Its quite possible that I've become so use to crappy performance that I don't really notice it anymore, but for the most part I run without problems, that was until Warlords and I started getting the CTD's... I fixed them though...Point is it is possible to run on a crap computer...its just painful.

So how did you fix the CTD's (new computer?)? Like I said, any slowness doesn't bother me too much, though it's generally good and fast; it's the CTD that gets me.

 

[Charles 22]

I have a monster of a Laptop....it will make you guys mad so Ill go into detail


Dell Inspirion 9400/1705

17 inch Widescreen WUXGA SCREEN
2.3ghz duo 2 core processor
2GB 677mhz DDR2 ram
60 GB 7200 HD
7900GS Overclocked to near GTX speeds



of course in 6 months I will be looking back upon this post in disgust...lmao

I don't envy laptops. though my desktop is quite old, she's still a 2.8G with 120GB HD (19in flat viewsonic - no missing pixels here). 80% of my HD is unused and I haven't even been very meticulous about getting things I don't use off of it anymore. With such an excess space, who would?