If I upgrade my Video Card?

[Zanmato]

Just a minor update. The wonder movies no longer worked after I upgraded my card, but I followed a suggestion on this forum and turned of AA and the work again. Not all run smoothly, but they mostly do. Really strange that my older card can handle them where the newer card has a rough time.

Try knocking those movies down to 16-bit and setting the image quality to performance through the 'Display' contol panel then to the Advanced tab. Seems to help me out with I got my new card, play flawless now.

 

[Metzen]

Tacking onto this thread - does anyone have suggestions on a AGP video card?

I've been having some problems with some CIV IV graphics induced lockups and am willing to concede at this point that they may be related to my GPU overheating. I noticed that the fan wasn't spinning, and cleaned it with compressed air...it's cleaner, but it's still not spinnig.

I've currently got a nvidia ti4600. I've seen the AGP 5500 w/ 256 MB for $99 US, but I've seen some not so good reviews.
I'm not looking to go high end here, maybe in the $100-$120 US range. I don't see any reason to cough up big bucks until I upgrade to PCI express, but need something until I convince myself that a turn-based addiction requires a new processor.

If it matters:
system board - Asus P4p800
processor - p4 2.4
512 MB, will be upgrading to 1 gig soon

Thanks!

 

[Tae]

Try knocking those movies down to 16-bit and setting the image quality to performance through the 'Display' contol panel then to the Advanced tab. Seems to help me out with I got my new card, play flawless now.

I switched to performance and turned off AA, that seemed to help me quite a bit. Do you switch to 16 bit movies in the the INI file?



As far as a card recommendation goes...I picked up the 6600GT at ZipZoomFly for $139 with a $20 mail in rebate bringing it down to $119. From my research prior to getting the card, it seems to be the most bang for the buck and the one most recommend. I think the ATI X800GTO or something like that is the comparable ATI card. I had so many problems with Radeon drivers, think I will stick with Nvidea from now on. The 6600GT drivers worked out of the box unlike my original 9500 drivers. Plus I had tons of issues with updating the ATI drivers, all of a sudden my games would not play and I had to downgrade.

I ran 3dmark03 before and after the upgrade and it was a significant change. 2940 before with a Radeon 9500, 7083 after with the 6600GT. I know these scores are still pretty low for todays hod rod machines, but they suite me fine and it was a nice gain in 3D performance. My games including Civ 4 all look and play well.

So far I have seen a really nice boost in performance in Civ 4

 

[Zanmato]

I switched to performance and turned off AA, that seemed to help me quite a bit. Do you switch to 16 bit movies in the the INI file?

Yes, it's in the ini file look for the line:
; Show movies using hi-color, not true-color (may be faster)
Bink16Bit = 1

1 is 16-bit, 0 is 32-bit. Also, just remembered that turning on screenshots also helps strangely:
; Allow Screenshots. May affect performance on some video cards
AllowScreenShots = 1

Metzen, I agree with Tae on the AGP card recommendation. Either a 6600 or 6800 will be a good choice. Reasonably priced and offer a good boost in performance with 256mb onboard. As you said it's a good stop-gap before going to whole hog in switching to a new system with PCI-e. Be sure to get one with the onboard fan, I think nearly all do these days anyway.

 

[Metzen]

Awesome. Thanks for the info!

 

[Metzen]

Problem solved.

I upgraded my video card over the weekend to an (Asus) nVidia 6600 w/ 256.

Apparently it was the ti4600 overheating that was causing the texture problems that eventually led to lockups.

 

[Tae]

I am very happy with my upgrade too. I wish I could have afforded a 256mb card, but they were just out of my range.

And thanks for the Movie info, I actually haven't had to go to 16 bit, with AA off they run perectly fine.

 

[Comraddict]

when changing videocard it is great idea to reinstall windows. or in worst case you have to uninstall previous drivers. if you have crashes and you haven't done that, well try reinstalling windows.

 

[Hehehe]

How much does memory effect? I can't play the earth-scenario (too slow). My processor is pentium 3,2ghz, memory 1GB and graphics card is ATI radeon club3d 9600pro. So if I buy 1GB more, should it run much better? (on bigger maps) I've lowered the graphics settings to minimum.

 

[robaughjr]

How much does memory effect? I can't play the earth-scenario (too slow). My processor is pentium 3,2ghz, memory 1GB and graphics card is ATI radeon club3d 9600pro. So if I buy 1GB more, should it run much better? (on bigger maps) I've lowered the graphics settings to minimum.

It will help a bunch especially on large/huge maps. Also make sure to apply the latest patch if you haven't yet.