I am considering getting Civ IV for my Mac G5 (1.6 GHz, 800-MHz bus speed, 1.25 MB RAM, GeForce FX 5200 video card with 64 MB VRAM, OS 10.4.9). I think it meets all the minimum recommended specs except for a recommended 1.8 GHz, Can I expect reasonable performance, or will there be significant degradation?
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Is my Mac suitable for Civ IV?
- Thread starter moe111
- Start date
MAS
Deity
I'm using a G5 1.8 with 1 gig and an ATI 9600 running 10.3x
My experiences are that that game runs fine in the early turns, but as the game progresses through the ages, and more stuff gets added to the map, things will slow down, the software will react less snappy, etc. I can live with it, especially since I don't play Civ4 as often as I play other games (civ3) but I'm sure a lot of people will find the performance unacceptable, and if I where to play Civ4 more often, I'd do so as well.
I don't recommend playing civ4 on your system.
My experiences are that that game runs fine in the early turns, but as the game progresses through the ages, and more stuff gets added to the map, things will slow down, the software will react less snappy, etc. I can live with it, especially since I don't play Civ4 as often as I play other games (civ3) but I'm sure a lot of people will find the performance unacceptable, and if I where to play Civ4 more often, I'd do so as well.
I don't recommend playing civ4 on your system.
Hello, welcome 
I suspect MAS' ATI 9600 is superior to the 5200, and it seems that graphics performance is the most critical factor in getting a good experience. The 5200 has been highlighted in the past as being poor at handling Civ4. Dunno whether the latest patches have done anything to help with that, but I rather doubt it.
I suspect MAS' ATI 9600 is superior to the 5200, and it seems that graphics performance is the most critical factor in getting a good experience. The 5200 has been highlighted in the past as being poor at handling Civ4. Dunno whether the latest patches have done anything to help with that, but I rather doubt it.
I have a iMac G5 1GB RAM, NV 5200 w 64 MB VRAM
similar to your system
I find the game very playable. True there is some stuttering on larger maps in the late game, but this is a strategy game, not a eye candy twitchfest. Try smaller maps and turning off most of the eye candy.
The demo is a much earlier version of the game, so may have bugs and problems from what I have heard. Try it with a huge grain or two of salt?
I do get some weird graphical glitches (strange multicolored polygons flickering all over the place, but zooming in and then out ususally fixes this)
no 'black ice', no sounds pops or drop outs
similar to your system
I find the game very playable. True there is some stuttering on larger maps in the late game, but this is a strategy game, not a eye candy twitchfest. Try smaller maps and turning off most of the eye candy.
The demo is a much earlier version of the game, so may have bugs and problems from what I have heard. Try it with a huge grain or two of salt?
I do get some weird graphical glitches (strange multicolored polygons flickering all over the place, but zooming in and then out ususally fixes this)
no 'black ice', no sounds pops or drop outs
s.bernbaum
Mostly lurking
My Mac is a Mac Mini with 1.5 Ghz G4, 1 GByte RAM, 64 MB VRAM, 167 Mhz bus, and built in ATI Radeon 9200. I play with the music and ambient sounds off and the graphics set to low, with all the extra graphic bells and whistles off. I usually play at normal speed and normal map size. It slows down in the late game but not unbearably. I did play one game at large map size with 13 civs, which was unbearably slow towards the end, although I did that before I thought of turning off the sound. I am now playing a game at huge map size with only 7 civs. So far, at year 1862, it has still not slowed down. I will add that I am not a very demanding player when it comes to game speed so others may find what I consider okay to be really slow. In the current game, it takes about a half hour for a turn, but a good bit of that is me looking around the map and deciding what to do. I'll also add that this is only my thirteenth game so far.
MAS
Deity
He's talking about and old mini with a G4 PPC CPU, that is before they went with Intel, and thus also before they went with the Intel integrated GPU. If you want one of those, you'll have to find it on e-bay, second hand. (But the newer Intel mini's are much better, anyway)
Up until 2 weeks ago I had a PowerMac G5 1.6 with 2 GB RAM and a brand new ATI Radeon X800 XT video card with 256 MB RAM. In early game mode CivIV ran decent in low settings but really bogged down later on. 2 weeks ago I bought a new 20" iMac Intel Core 2 Duo 2.1 GHz with 2 GB RAM and the ATI X1600 with 256 and CivIV runs great on the highest detail settings. The difference is like night and day.
BTW, at work I installed the PC version on a Dell Optiplex P4 2Ghz with 512 MB RAM and integrated video and even though Civ4 gave a message on startup that the hardware wasn't up to speed it ran much, much faster than the PowerMac G5 that was tricked out and it never bogged down.
BTW, at work I installed the PC version on a Dell Optiplex P4 2Ghz with 512 MB RAM and integrated video and even though Civ4 gave a message on startup that the hardware wasn't up to speed it ran much, much faster than the PowerMac G5 that was tricked out and it never bogged down.
XxtraLarGe
Warlord
- Joined
- Aug 9, 2005
- Messages
- 268
I play on a 1.67 GHz PowerBook G4 w/1 GB RAM & 128 MB Radeon, OS X 10.3.9. I usually play on Medium maps with 7 opponents, and have very little slow-down until the late game. Even then, I find it playable.
