Need help with video cards - CIV4.

[PaulM]

I`ll be brief ( cos I`m that angry )
Cards used nvidia geforce440 64meg
Nvidia geforce 6600 256meg 128bit
Nvidia geforce 5200 256meg 64bit all VGA.

PC AMD athalon1.7gig 512meg ram
Microstar mainboard XP homeSP2
when i recieved my copy of civ4 it was loaded with the gf440 64meg
I had stuttering intro and wonder movies and reboots and monitor going into standby. changed card to 6600256 128bit ( changed drivers...blah blah)
Stuttering movies fixed but still got reboots and monitor going into standby
got progressivly worse and this spread to other games(hl2)returned card to shop
Tryed 5200 64bit back to stuttering wonder movies STILL get reboots and monitor going to standby, have done EVERYTHING on this and apolyton to try to fix this. Im suprised Sid has not sacked Soren yet for releasing this possibly WORSE product Firaxis have released.
I CANNOT AFFORD to buy a new pc just to play a game..any advice????

 

[Superfly]

I find our name very offending It's ok to be mad, but this is way over the line.

Have you downloaded and installede the 1.09 patch? Do that, and then find and dl, Harkonens memory patch, here on this site. This will help make the game playable

 

[Xavier Von Erck]

I have advice. Take a deep breath. Get some psychiatry. Go to college.

 

[PaulM]

College..?? I`m a married Man with kids and a job.
Sorry about the name but im kinda peeved off now, and yes I`ve tryed harkonens memory fix, bios upgrades ,latest drivers and turning of the AA in graphics settings NOTHING seems to cure this. and i find it odd because its only this game that caused this, ialso only play on small maps to reduce the memory usage there. Considering i work in IT i find this product dangerously UNSTABLE, and have managed to get a few chaps at work who code to investigate this as well

 

[PaulM]

oh yes also patched the game ( obvious)

 

[CargoCult]

Actually i've always wonderd if thiers an inverse relationship somewhere between knowledge of IT (or clamied knowledge at least) and ability to get functional errors...

After all the majourity of the people here seems to have sucsseded.

I wonder if their is then something to be said for cookie cutter computer setups..

have owned and run several handmade setups myself, remember to wonder (having made this mistake myself) what to you may seem a perfect setup - may well not have ever been thought of by those who Write the games..

have a cup of tea on me ;-)

 

[PaulM]

hold that thought...!!!
usually i find home built pcs to be better than labelled boxes ( hp dell..blah blah) but thats a good idea, i`ll try and borrow an up too spec labelled box and see what happens, ill post my results later, Illl also try installing an ATI card ( although i dont think the issue is with cards now)

 

[Banira]

plug the supplementary power cable into the video card and she'll be good to go

 

[xGBox]

With your setup, it's really slightly above (or slightly under) the recommended requirements. Don't even hope for high graphics, just go to your options and set everything to low or a low-medium combination, check the following: Single Unit Graphics, No Combat Zoom, Animations Frozen, Effects Disabled, Globe View Buildings Disabled, and maybe Low Resolution Textures if it's still doing bad.

Alternatively (or maybe not), you can turn off the in-game movies. Really though, they're all just nuisances. This should be a last resort because you should at least check these out the videos a few times before they start to annoy:

Open the following file at:

C:\Documents and Settings\Gearbox\My Documents\My Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\CivilizationIV.ini

Where it says:

; Set to 1 for no in-game movies
NoMovies = 0

Change 0 to 1 and all in-game movies will be disabled.

Remember, this game uses more and more memory as the game progresses. More processing power is needed for all the calculations it'll need for every unit and every choice made for the AIs and you in the game. More RAM and more virtual memory is always a plus.

 

[PaulM]

Hi Thanks for the advice
However I`ve already done all that
Geforce 660 64meg everything HAD to turned down ( still got reboots and monitor going to standby)
Geforce 6600 256meg 128 bit wonder and intro movies played BRILLIANTLY still got reboots and monitor going into standy ( so much so this time that it broke the card)
Geforce 5200 256meg 64bit back to stuttering intro and wonders set movies to no and everything down to low still get reboots and monitor going to standby however before it crashes i get a loud fart noise from my speakers

 

[Smidlee]

My guess is you got a hardware problem somewhere which civ4 seems to have revealed. GF 6600 was enough to run civ4 with max settings. Have your tested your ram to see if there's any errors? Memtest and Prime95 are good programs to see if you got hardware problems. Also it's possible it could be your sound card/chip.

 

[MickyLuv]

Why sack Soren because your rig can't handle the game? Get a GRIP!


Now some advice. Sounds like a problem I had a few years back - throwing in bits willynilly and wondering why I was having problems. Check your power supply, Check the BIOS version of your mainboard (very important - had all sorts of grief with MSI) I had to flash mine to get it working properly, completely uninstall drivers (use a decent third party uninstaller) etc.

If you want some help a full list of your rig's componants plus drivers installed, home built/bought and so on would be helpful. Not that I feel too inclined to do so.

 

[Brancaleone]

My card was also fried while i was playing civ 4! Its a brand new geforce 6800. I was playing and the screen went black. Changed back to my old card and it worked.

I dont think its civ4 falt. I also have installed black and white 2, battlefield 2, and other heavy games. I playied BW for a few hours, then played civ4 for a few minutes and poof. Maybe it was too hot? I dont know. But it was my second day with that card, so im pissed!

Off course, ill contact evga and tell them the video card never worked in the first place, so they replace it for a new one. I hope. Otherwise im damned; paid for a good card, waited 2 months to get it and burned it in two days!

 

[Comraddict]

there's hardly anything crappier than GF 440mx and 5200

 

[Smidlee]

My card was also fried while i was playing civ 4! Its a brand new geforce 6800. I was playing and the screen went black. Changed back to my old card and it worked.

I dont think its civ4 falt. I also have installed black and white 2, battlefield 2, and other heavy games. I playied BW for a few hours, then played civ4 for a few minutes and poof. Maybe it was too hot? I dont know. But it was my second day with that card, so im pissed!

Off course, ill contact evga and tell them the video card never worked in the first place, so they replace it for a new one. I hope. Otherwise im damned; paid for a good card, waited 2 months to get it and burned it in two days!

My GPU doesn't get as hot playing civ 4 as it does with games like doom3 and especially with max setting like FEAR. My GPC gets +30 c over idle temperature with FEAR. Trees seems to work the graphic cards more than anything so late in the game my GPU runs a lot cooler than an empty map.
Still +30c (around 80 c) is no where near the overheating mark.

 

[Jarrod32]

I've been playing the game with a GeForce 440 MX (128 MB), and (since the patch) have not experience a single crash. The game has played smooth and flawless. When I start the game, I do get the message that the computer is below specs, so the program is adjusting the graphics...I don't have the detail on the oceans/desert for example (they are displayed as smooth blue/tan). However, like I said, other than missing some of that graphics detail, the game has been running smoothly. No crashes at all since 1.09.

 

[Kilroy]

Wait, so was a video card fried then? Or what?

Voted terrible.

 

[xGBox]

He says his 6600 was ruined because the game kept making his PC reboot and his monitor go on standby. Sad it had to be the 6600 and not the other crap cards.

 

[Efexeye]

Wait, so was a video card fried then? Or what?

Voted terrible.

Yeah, really? How does the thread title tie to what actually happened?

Doesn't "fried" mean it no longer works at all?

 

[Kilroy]

He says his 6600 was fried because the game kept making his PC reboot and his monitor go on standby. Sad it had to be the 6600 and not the other crap cards.

Ah alright then. I can't parse half of his post, maybe because I'm not a married IT man with kids and a job?

All I've got is the job

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