General tips:
- Always have the latest drivers for all your hardware. Visit your motherboard's manufacturer website, gfx card manufacturer and other websites to download the drivers. I suggest every month should be enough. Sign up for newsletters to let them email you about the updates.
- Remove unnecessary programs from memory (i.e. exit them). Usually there's a bunch of icons in the system tray (the rectangle on the bottom right, next to clock). Close everything you can, including anti-virus software (if you don't plan to install software while playing Civ3).
- Remove unnecessary SERVICES from memory. Services are programs which perform various functions but are not visible to the user, they're there to give you features such as cd burning, networking, etc. This only applies to Windows NT systems such as NT, 2000, XP. How:
Right click on "My Computer" and select "Manage". Now look to the left of the newly opened window and expand "Services and Applications". Click on "Services". Maximise the window to see everything. To disable a service, right click on its name and choose "Properties". Then click "Stop" and choose "Manual" in the "Startup Type" list box.
I have disabled those services:
+ Wireless Zero Configuration (bluetooth)
+ Windows Time (gets time from a time server, why use it if you have the correct time?)
+ Windows Image Acquisition (WIA) (digital cameras)
+ Universal Plug and Play Device Host
+ Themes
+ Telnet
+ SSDP Discovery Service
+ Smart Card and Smart Card helper
+ QoS SRVP
+ Portable Media Serial Number (you must disable it to protect your privacy)
+ IMAPI CD-Burning COM Service (if you dont use the inbuilt windows xp burning but different software like nero or roxio)
+ ClipBook
There's plenty of others to disable. BUT! First make sure you know what those services do. Also search on google.com for "disable unnecessary services performance" (without quote marks) to find out more.
- When Civ3 is running and you have NT/2000/XP, press CONTROL+ALT+DELETE, the task manager will pop up. Switch to Processes tab, and look for Civ, Civilization or something like this. Right click on the process with this name, choose "Set Priority" and then "Above normal" or "high". This will make Windows give Civ3 more time to do its stuff but it will slow down other applications. NEVER ever choose "Real Time", you wont be able to even shut down your computer.
- Find your motherboard's manual and look for BIOS settings. Check that you have all frequencies, latencies, etc. set to maximum level compatible with your hardware. Learn more about your hardware (e.g. memory latencies, FSB clock) toi get the most oout of it. It takes coupla hours to learn it but its worth it.
- Go to futuremark.com and download PCMark to find out how well your system performs and whether any changes you made as described above can make your computer faster.
- Last, read again the motherboard's manual and find out what's the maximum speed processor supported. Visit all your local shops, or their websites and ask for prices for the hardware. When you make a purchase, always quote the price about 5% to 10% lower, they still make a profit on you. I have recently upgraded myu Duron 800mhz to a Duron 1.3GHz for US$35 and bought a Radeon 9000 for $45 (in australia, converted to us$), speed increase is noticeable. Before buying, write down the model names (e.g. the writing on memory chips). Search the net to find out its details, e.g. what is its latency, CAS, etc. Search groups.google.com to find out if there are any problems with the hardware.
- Get the fastest memory you can (the important thing is QUALITY not quantity), fastest cpu, superior cpu heatsink (even if you don't need such a big one, you'll use in the future). Learn about overclocking. It's a procedure of increasing the speed of a chip by increasing it's clock rate. But you can only overclock things if you have fans on them installed, e.g. CPUs, motherboards, gfx cards, AND you can monitor the temperature. You can usually increase the clock of a typical 1GHz cpu to about 1.1GHz without any problems. When you learn more about this process, you will be able to do overclock a 1Ghz chip to 1.4GHz. It can overheat the chip, it can crash the computer so make sure to learn how to do it properly. Most BIOSes let you increase the clock rates in small increments, like 1% or 10MHz or something. Google.com
Also more things, but I don't have the time for detailed instructions:
- Move your virtual memory file to another drive (if you have one) and minimise the virtual mem size. If you have 256mb of memory, 256mb of virtual memory should be enough. dont let windows manage it for you, set the sizes precisely and correctly. The rule of thumb that the size of virtual mem should be 2x the size of real memory doesnt apply anymore whith large amounts of memory (e.g. 256mb+). I have 1G of memory and only 128mb of virtual mem just in case (I don't plan to create a toy story movie)
- Adjust your display settings to allow for maximum performance (on dekstop, right click, then "Properties", "Settings", "Advanced" and there you go. ATI has much more superior set of options than nvidia. Also make sure that your hardware acceleration is set to full.
- Disable Windows XP skins and themes, the old gray+blue isn't that bad anywa
- Get XQSetup, its a marvellous tool for setting up all the hidden settings in Windows and getting the max out of it.
And I can't stress this enough. Always MAKE SURE you know what you're doing! After you are you are absolutely sure, think about it again, review your decisions and MAKE SURE you KNOW what you're doing.
- Always have the latest drivers for all your hardware. Visit your motherboard's manufacturer website, gfx card manufacturer and other websites to download the drivers. I suggest every month should be enough. Sign up for newsletters to let them email you about the updates.
- Remove unnecessary programs from memory (i.e. exit them). Usually there's a bunch of icons in the system tray (the rectangle on the bottom right, next to clock). Close everything you can, including anti-virus software (if you don't plan to install software while playing Civ3).
- Remove unnecessary SERVICES from memory. Services are programs which perform various functions but are not visible to the user, they're there to give you features such as cd burning, networking, etc. This only applies to Windows NT systems such as NT, 2000, XP. How:
Right click on "My Computer" and select "Manage". Now look to the left of the newly opened window and expand "Services and Applications". Click on "Services". Maximise the window to see everything. To disable a service, right click on its name and choose "Properties". Then click "Stop" and choose "Manual" in the "Startup Type" list box.
I have disabled those services:
+ Wireless Zero Configuration (bluetooth)
+ Windows Time (gets time from a time server, why use it if you have the correct time?)
+ Windows Image Acquisition (WIA) (digital cameras)
+ Universal Plug and Play Device Host
+ Themes
+ Telnet
+ SSDP Discovery Service
+ Smart Card and Smart Card helper
+ QoS SRVP
+ Portable Media Serial Number (you must disable it to protect your privacy)
+ IMAPI CD-Burning COM Service (if you dont use the inbuilt windows xp burning but different software like nero or roxio)
+ ClipBook
There's plenty of others to disable. BUT! First make sure you know what those services do. Also search on google.com for "disable unnecessary services performance" (without quote marks) to find out more.
- When Civ3 is running and you have NT/2000/XP, press CONTROL+ALT+DELETE, the task manager will pop up. Switch to Processes tab, and look for Civ, Civilization or something like this. Right click on the process with this name, choose "Set Priority" and then "Above normal" or "high". This will make Windows give Civ3 more time to do its stuff but it will slow down other applications. NEVER ever choose "Real Time", you wont be able to even shut down your computer.
- Find your motherboard's manual and look for BIOS settings. Check that you have all frequencies, latencies, etc. set to maximum level compatible with your hardware. Learn more about your hardware (e.g. memory latencies, FSB clock) toi get the most oout of it. It takes coupla hours to learn it but its worth it.
- Go to futuremark.com and download PCMark to find out how well your system performs and whether any changes you made as described above can make your computer faster.
- Last, read again the motherboard's manual and find out what's the maximum speed processor supported. Visit all your local shops, or their websites and ask for prices for the hardware. When you make a purchase, always quote the price about 5% to 10% lower, they still make a profit on you. I have recently upgraded myu Duron 800mhz to a Duron 1.3GHz for US$35 and bought a Radeon 9000 for $45 (in australia, converted to us$), speed increase is noticeable. Before buying, write down the model names (e.g. the writing on memory chips). Search the net to find out its details, e.g. what is its latency, CAS, etc. Search groups.google.com to find out if there are any problems with the hardware.
- Get the fastest memory you can (the important thing is QUALITY not quantity), fastest cpu, superior cpu heatsink (even if you don't need such a big one, you'll use in the future). Learn about overclocking. It's a procedure of increasing the speed of a chip by increasing it's clock rate. But you can only overclock things if you have fans on them installed, e.g. CPUs, motherboards, gfx cards, AND you can monitor the temperature. You can usually increase the clock of a typical 1GHz cpu to about 1.1GHz without any problems. When you learn more about this process, you will be able to do overclock a 1Ghz chip to 1.4GHz. It can overheat the chip, it can crash the computer so make sure to learn how to do it properly. Most BIOSes let you increase the clock rates in small increments, like 1% or 10MHz or something. Google.com
Also more things, but I don't have the time for detailed instructions:
- Move your virtual memory file to another drive (if you have one) and minimise the virtual mem size. If you have 256mb of memory, 256mb of virtual memory should be enough. dont let windows manage it for you, set the sizes precisely and correctly. The rule of thumb that the size of virtual mem should be 2x the size of real memory doesnt apply anymore whith large amounts of memory (e.g. 256mb+). I have 1G of memory and only 128mb of virtual mem just in case (I don't plan to create a toy story movie)
- Adjust your display settings to allow for maximum performance (on dekstop, right click, then "Properties", "Settings", "Advanced" and there you go. ATI has much more superior set of options than nvidia. Also make sure that your hardware acceleration is set to full.
- Disable Windows XP skins and themes, the old gray+blue isn't that bad anywa
- Get XQSetup, its a marvellous tool for setting up all the hidden settings in Windows and getting the max out of it.
And I can't stress this enough. Always MAKE SURE you know what you're doing! After you are you are absolutely sure, think about it again, review your decisions and MAKE SURE you KNOW what you're doing.
