iMac G5 Issues

[MrAGi]

Hi there,

This is my first post here but I've been lurking around for a while trying to get some tips on how to run Civ 4 at reasonable speeds. However, I still find that the game is almost unplayable on my machine.

I have a rev. B iMac G5 2Ghz with 2GB RAM/128Mb GFX and within the last week I have completed a clean install of OS X Tiger and updated everything to the latest available version (including Civ 4). The only applications which run whilst I'm playing Civ are You Control:iTunes (iTunes itself isn't running) and Connect360.

I have tried to play a standard game (7 civs) on several settings...starting off with everything on high (which is fine in the early game) and eventually having everything low in an attempt to get a smooth experience but no luck. Even on low the end game is horrible with the camera jerking around as units activate and pop ups taking 5secs or so after the 'pop up sound'.

Whilst I realise my machine isn't a quad Xeon Mac Pro or even a Core Duo iMac I still would have thought the game would run well on a computer that is above the recommended system requirements.

Thanks for any advice,

Adam.

 

[AlanH]

Have you checked what's loading up your CPU? Run Activity Monitor, sort on descending CPU% and see what's going on.

 

[willpax]

I have a similar machine, with less memory, and I haven't found the game to bu unplayable--but I also usually turn the sounds off and run the graphics low anyway. The game does respond somewhat sluggishly at times.

 

[MrAGi]

Have you checked what's loading up your CPU? Run Activity Monitor, sort on descending CPU% and see what's going on.

Normal operation with just Safari, Mail, iChat, iTunes, You Control and Connect360 running seems to hover between 30-50% CPU idle. With just You Control and Connect360 running I have anything between 80-95% CPU idle. So there is no real resource hog there that I can see.

I have a similar machine, with less memory, and I haven't found the game to bu unplayable--but I also usually turn the sounds off and run the graphics low anyway. The game does respond somewhat sluggishly at times.

It isn't unplayable in the sense that I can still actually play for most of the game but in the late mid-game things slow down considerably. The sluggishness/jerkiness from then on makes the experience unenjoyable. I my last game for example I had actually destroyed three of the other civilizations and it was still sluggish in the extreme.

I will try playing with the sound off and see if that makes a difference.

Thanks,

Adam.

 

[Skippy_Kangaroo]

I my last game for example I had actually destroyed three of the other civilizations and it was still sluggish in the extreme.

I will try playing with the sound off and see if that makes a difference.

Thanks,

Adam.

Your experience is pretty typical. I play on a MacBook Pro and it slows down in the end game too. In fact, I think it's one of those strong laws of convergence: "Every game of Civilization (I, II, III and IV) on every machine ever made, will play slowly in the endgame."

I have found that turning off animations speeds things up to get passable scrolling. Going to single unit graphics should also help. But there is something troubling about the performance of this game. Until yesterday, I had one of the most powerful Macs you could get - and it struggles with Civ at times.

(I don't think the number of AIs should really make that much difference. Just the amount of stuff in the world - and this is going to be high when you are fully developed at the end of the game - it won't matter whether you own Neapolis or Julis Caesar does, just that there are three mines, two plantations, five farms and a bunch of cottages.)

 

[MrAGi]

Your experience is pretty typical. I play on a MacBook Pro and it slows down in the end game too. In fact, I think it's one of those strong laws of convergence: "Every game of Civilization (I, II, III and IV) on every machine ever made, will play slowly in the endgame."

I have found that turning off animations speeds things up to get passable scrolling. Going to single unit graphics should also help. But there is something troubling about the performance of this game. Until yesterday, I had one of the most powerful Macs you could get - and it struggles with Civ at times.

(I don't think the number of AIs should really make that much difference. Just the amount of stuff in the world - and this is going to be high when you are fully developed at the end of the game - it won't matter whether you own Neapolis or Julis Caesar does, just that there are three mines, two plantations, five farms and a bunch of cottages.)

I guess you are right, however I can't say I've ever had the same problem with it before. I used to play Civ 1 (from floppy) on an Amiga with 1Mb of RAM and the speed was acceptable. Civ 2 was fine as well as by the time I got a PC it was way above the system requirements. However, by Civ 3 Conquests my PC was pretty dated but I still found that even late game on a huge map I could still enjoy the experience. I still play vanilla Civ 3 (MacSoft version) on my G3 iBook and the speed there is quite good as well.

Obviously the move to 3D has added new burdens but really don't understand how a machine that is above the 'recommended' specifications should be running a game as if I was trying to run Half Life 2 on a five year old PC. I mean Alpha Centauri was a partially 3D game but I never encountered anything like this level of performance issues back then (I didn't even have a 3D card).

I have yet to try it with the sound off, so hopefully that will make the scrolling passable but I think it pretty much defeats the point if I have to run on lowest settings with no animations and sound to get any sort of performance late game.

You have got to wonder what the intended audience was for this game during the porting process? - when Civ 4 was released on PC there were no Core Duo's let alone Quad Xeon Mac's and most people were still expecting a 2 year transition period. The number of people with PowerMac G5's at home must be quite small as well, as is quite probably the number of machines spec'd similarly to my own.

Ah well, time to start saving for a new Mac.

Adam.

 

[MrAGi]

I have a similar machine, with less memory, and I haven't found the game to bu unplayable--but I also usually turn the sounds off and run the graphics low anyway. The game does respond somewhat sluggishly at times.

I played without any sound in the end-game and this does appear to speed up response times.

Thanks for the tip,

Adam.