Looking for advice on which version of Windows 7

[s.bernbaum]

I am considering getting Windows 7 to play CIV and would like some advice from anyone already using it. Does CIV work equally well on the 32 bit and 64 bit versions? If so, which is better to get? My cpu is a 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo. Would it be worthwhile to pay the extra and get the Pro version instead of the Home Premium one?

 

[kiwitt]

Go 64-bit and you will give Civ4/BTS a full 4GB of RAM, if you buy enough RAM 6+ GB.

Great for large Mods like mine.

 

[s.bernbaum]

Thanks for your reply kiwitt. Although I could buy new RAM chips to expand my memory to 8 GB, it is currently 4 GB. Would 4 GB also work okay with the 64-bit version? Also, do you know if a Core 2 Duo is a 64-bit cpu, or where I should look to find out?

 

[kiwitt]

I believe it is 64bit. And you need to go to 8GB

 

[s.bernbaum]

Thank you.

 

[mintegar]

And you need to go to 8GB

If you wan't max memory for civ for large mods, ample room in RAM for the OS and most of files civ frequently reads in disk cache...

otoh win7-64 will run fine on a 4GB system.

 

[Lemon Merchant]

Unless you need to use XP Mode, or back up to a server, the Home Premium version will work just fine for you.

If you have older programs that will only run on XP, then you will need Win 7 Pro.

 

[RogerK]

Go 64-bit and you will give Civ4/BTS a full 4GB of RAM, if you buy enough RAM 6+ GB.

Great for large Mods like mine.

Easy way is to plug in a USB thumb drive and enable Ready Boost.

 

[mintegar]

How exactly would that help here? I think you misunderstand what Ready Boost does.

 

[Padjur]

I am considering getting Windows 7 to play CIV and would like some advice from anyone already using it. Does CIV work equally well on the 32 bit and 64 bit versions? If so, which is better to get? My cpu is a 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo. Would it be worthwhile to pay the extra and get the Pro version instead of the Home Premium one?

Civ V can run on XP pro, Vista (any version) and Win7 (any version) but for the best graphics you will need Directx 10 or 11 that XP cannot use.
Civ IV can run on any version of XP, Vista or Win7 but you may need to run in compatibility mode and download the latest version of DirectX 9 from Microsoft for vista or win7.
Win7 Professional is not required to run Civ IV or V but Home Premium is missing some nice features that come with the professional or ultimate versions which you may wish to consider outside of the requirements for the game.

I run Civ IV on a Win7 x64 system. The game does not recognise Win7's version number and therefore see's the system as below recommended specifications (I have seen people running Vista x64 having the same issue), the solution is to run the game in compatibility mode for Windows XP (service pack 3), which is available on Home Premium.

I am not convinced that you will need more than 4GB of Ram for the game to run successfully, so Win7 x86 would be fine for the game but you would need to consider what other processes you will be running at the same time, which would impact on memory usage.
x86 (32bit) systems can use no more than 4GB Ram so outside of Civ it is worth considering x64 (64bit) systems which come with many enhancements including being able to use up to 16GB's of ram,
there is no lower limit on Ram as such (although you would need some memory of course )
A bigger consideration than 8GB of Ram is graphics.
Integrated graphics chips use the system memory which has a big impact on performance where games are concerned and a dedicated Graphics card should be used.
For Civ IV I recommend a card with 1GB or more of its own memory, which is more important than 8GB of Ram to play big mods in my view.

 

[Furiey]

I run Civ IV on a Win7 x64 system. The game does not recognise Win7's version number and therefore see's the system as below recommended specifications (I have seen people running Vista x64 having the same issue), the solution is to run the game in compatibility mode for Windows XP (service pack 3), which is available on Home Premium.

I run on Win 7 x64 (home premium), you can turn off the min spec warning in the .ini file so there is no need to run in compatability mode.
For Civ 5 go for a dx 11 card, there are issues with dx10 that means dx10 cards usually run better in dx9 so you still don't get the fancy graphics.

 

[mintegar]

I am not convinced that you will need more than 4GB of Ram for the game to run successfully, so Win7 x86 would be fine for the game but you would need to consider what other processes you will be running at the same time, which would impact on memory usage.

Its not an issue if you play unmodded game with normal Map sizes.
But with complex Mod and large Map, 64bit OS can give you advantage.

Lets say you have a computer with 6GB of Ram.

32 Bit OS: 4GB is used in total. It has to be shared between the game, all the OS processes and services and extra applications. Even if you keep you system lean, there would still be severall hundred MB less than 4GB available for civ4

64 Bit OS: 6GB used in total. Windows uses some trickery to give a whole 4GB 32-bit address space to civ4.

x86 (32bit) systems can use no more than 4GB Ram so outside of Civ it is worth considering x64 (64bit) systems which come with many enhancements including being able to use up to 16GB's of ram,

i don't know the limit off hand, but it's much higher than 16GB

 

[kiwitt]

^ correct

 

[Padjur]

i don't know the limit off hand, but it's much higher than 16GB

Windows 7 x64 Home Premium can address a Max of 16GB of Ram, Professional and Ultimate editions are able to address 192GB of Ram, if you have the hardware needed to utilise it, or can afford the cost of buying the necessary hardware.

Its not an issue if you play unmodded game with normal Map sizes.
But with complex Mod and large Map, 64bit OS can give you advantage.

Lets say you have a computer with 6GB of Ram.

32 Bit OS: 4GB is used in total. It has to be shared between the game, all the OS processes and services and extra applications. Even if you keep you system lean, there would still be severall hundred MB less than 4GB available for civ4

64 Bit OS: 6GB used in total. Windows uses some trickery to give a whole 4GB 32-bit address space to civ4.

Yes I agree completely with what your saying and it is a valid point.
But the O/P's questions were "Does CIV work equally well on the 32 bit and 64 bit versions?"
and " Would it be worthwhile to pay the extra and get the Pro version instead of the Home Premium one?"
Well yes it does work on 32bit systems as well as 64bit but "you would need to consider what other processes you will be running at the same time, which would impact on memory usage." and as you say "with complex Mod and large Map, 64bit OS can give you advantage."

As the OP has a core 2 duo it is not very likely that he is going to have the hardware to support more than 16GB of Ram, so in that regard x64 Home Premium is all he needs. But then Professional "does have some nice features...... which you may wish to consider outside of the requirements for the game".

Upgrading machines on a budget is tricky, where best to spend the money available to get the best performance from your machine is a issue.
I still say it is worth looking at the memory on the graphics card, pushing that up to a gig may be a better option than more Ram, it is certainly worth consideration before buying a x64 O/S and more ram.