New official nVidia Forceware drivers (81.94)

[Zevus]

Doesn't everyone get it, if the game is having BSOD and CTD on both ati and nvidia its not graphics related. Its also obviously stated game has a memory issue, I've even seen it first hand. The game has a memory leak and eats up all your ram then it either BSOD or CTD. So one thing you can do is keep an eye on your memory usage and when it gets too low then shut the game.

I've never had a BSOD or CTD. The game does slow down later, and saving and reloading it will speed it back up (for me).

Either way, the original question was whether or not the "map glitch" goes away, and it surely does with 81.94. There are no more weird lines across the minimap and globe view in 81.94, like there were with 81.85 for some ppl with certain cards (ie nvidia geforce 6600, 6800, etc).

 

[ChristheMeek]

I installed 81.94 earlier this week for my GeForce Ti 4600, and so far (up to 1585 AD) I have experienced absolutely NO problems, compared to the multitiude of glitches and crashes I experienced with earlier nVidia drivers. I still think a patch is needed, especially to tweak the mulitplayer problems and get EVERYONE playing, but although I will always have a fondness for Civ3 I'm definitely liking this game.

 

[JJayzX]

yea my map did go black before when zooming out, but it didnt do that at first and so I installed these and it seems good now but I also reinstalled Civ4. I also haven't got a BSOD since these drivers but I still get CTD. So its probably better to use newer drivers as seeing readme i think it was said they used 81.84 beta drivers. Main issues still ly with the memory leak.

 

[gunnergoz]

Doesn't everyone get it, if the game is having BSOD and CTD on both ati and nvidia its not graphics related. (snip)

I beg to differ, friend. The glitches obviously include the graphics side of things. Just because there are memory leaks does not preclude the other problems from existing or manifesting themselves. Absolutist statements like that just cloud the issues even more, especially for the less technically inclined. Enough to say that there are both types of problems...probably overlapping to some degree and demonstrating themselves depending upon the machine in question.

 

[MadHat]

I have pretty much tired every driver from 71.x to the 81.85, I found the most recent driver worked the best. The glitches are all machine dependent and if you are having issues it is worth trying the new drivers. It is like running your car on on coolant and have having only occaisions overheating issues, but when you tried a different coolant you had more so now you refuse to use any other coolant without trying to see of others are better then the one bad one you tried. Not the best analogy but hey...

71.89 worked good for me, but eventually I started getting a few errors here and there so I upgraded to 81.85 from nvidia and I had more problems. I removed those drivers and downloaded the same drvier version from my video cards manufactuer and tried those and they worked great. The game has problems and a patch is on the way, but you should run the most recent patches as they almost always help the performance of your machine, change is good there is nothing to fear from change, but fear it self, yada yada yada.

 

[distrukt]

Game runs worse for me with these drivers.

 

[Artagel]

Not really noticing a difference (p4 2.66g, Geforce 440MX, 512 RAM)

Same stuttering movies, and slow late game play.

graphics not any better or worse.

 

[KingJim]

I tried the new Nvidia 81.85 drivers with no changes. I still have very slow framerates and the in-game videos are stuttering badly.

 

[Qinshihuang]

How does one increase memory for a Nvidia video card. I only have 32 MB and when the map is setting up and it says "done". Nothing happens. Civ IV just freezes up.

I have a GeForce FX 5200, Intel 3.06 GHz, 32 MB, AGP 4x

 

[Alvesang]

Odd. The new drivers seem to have solved the zoomed out map glitches. But with the old drivers, the intro's animation stuttered, now both animation and sound stutter.

This game is very weird. By the way: It's Friday... patch?

EDIT: Using a GeForce 6200 SE

 

[TheBarnacle]

Not really noticing a difference (p4 2.66g, Geforce 440MX, 512 RAM)

Same stuttering movies, and slow late game play.

graphics not any better or worse.

yah, ditto.

fx5200/512RAM

no discernable improvement. but who can tell. the game is so squirrly. sometimes, late game slows to 1-2 fps, but then can rebound back up to 15fps. how or why? who knows!

 

[Big Ev]

I no longer crash, I can play maps bigger then small, and 4xAA runs just fine.

Game still gets choppy at the very end, but I think that maybe a memory allocation issue.

 

[John L]

Doesn't everyone get it, if the game is having BSOD and CTD on both ati and nvidia its not graphics related. Its also obviously stated game has a memory issue, I've even seen it first hand. The game has a memory leak and eats up all your ram then it either BSOD or CTD. So one thing you can do is keep an eye on your memory usage and when it gets too low then shut the game.

I also run the game perfectly fine except for the memory leak causing BSOD and CTD, if not for that I think its runs 100% on my end and heres my setup and settings:
P4 3Ghz@3.4Ghz 1mb l2 800@908FSB
1Gb DDR400 Dual Channel
BFG FX 5900 128mb 400/850@435/880 Drivers 81.94
Audigy 2 zs w/ 7.1

Game settings:
1280x1024
aa 2x
All others on high
Audio is Eax 4

I believe that you are absolutely correct here. I have updated, erased, removed DirectX, and also the CivIV game, reinstalled, and it still does not work well for me. I have 1 Gig of RAM, and it still does not respond well.

But,.........at times it is better than others, and could be a Memory thing. I believe the folks at Firaxis were in such a hurry that they did not work out the bugs before throwing this thing out for the hungry fans.

In my opinion, this is outrageous! And I note that almost everyone here is so patient, when they actually should be raising holy He11.

If people would demand a refund from Firaxus, and do so in mass, then they would get the message and not attempt a stunt like this again. I for one, am livid over this monumental "Cluster Foxtrot".

Colour me Pissed Off! Big Time!

 

[lord_graywolfe]

i just got the game and this is my first time posting on here about it. i dont get any CTD when im playing what i do get is a stuttering sound and video when starting. i currently have to game graphics set to med cause that seemed to help with a few things. the map and everything starts out ok but after awhile, usally after ive opened an advisor or other sub screen, the map becomes very dark to the point of being hard to see. sometimes the trees all disappear or ill part of a leader head. ive added new drivers and that didnt do anything for it that ive noticed. im running a GF 5200fx 512k. im including a couple of images of the map to show what it looks like.a before and after shot.

 

[civforum151]

Athlon 64 \ 1GB ram \ fx5200

The new drivers did not help my BSOD problems. I was getting better stability out of the old 71. drivers. I did the artpak uncompress fix. That helped alot.

Movies still stutter, bu I was able to play a complete game. I started turning on features like the unit animations and combat zoom in and i was working ok.

But my questions are 1) why do older driers work better and 2) if there are errors in uncompressing the artpak, shouldn't both ati and nvidia users have to uncompress the art again?

 

[Firebird]

I have tried both the new .94-drivers, omega-drivers, the original drivers from the card (FX5700LE) and more and with all drivers a multitude of different graphic options (from very low to all on high) and I get random BSOD whatever I do. Playing on small maps or huge don't seem to make a difference.

Some times I play an hour, sometimes 5 secs. I allways clear the cache before starting civ4, I have done the Unpak-fix just to be sure, I have updated sound drivers, played around with the civ4.ini-file for hours on end etc. etc.

I don't think it's going to help until the patch is here.

But heck I still play. I just hope the patch comes soon, so my frustrations can go away (I hope!). Perhaps I ought to visit the civanon-site.

Best regards

Firebird

 

[CautiousChaos]

Ok, I have a sub-par machine, but I am getting a consistent 12 FPS on the 81.85 drivers. Not great, but usable. If I upgrade to the latest drivers and find things are not working well, is there a way to regress back to the 81.85 drivers?

-cc

 

[Denniz]

I installed the 81.94 driver. I noticed that the nVIDIA Control Panel has a Civ4 option on under performance and quality settings. I have been using it all day without issues.




There are several ways to get to this. There is an option on the windows control panel, by right-clicking on desktop and selecting NVIDA Display, or navigating the desktop properties ...



I am not sure it makes a difference but...

 

[lord_graywolfe]

i wish i had that option on mine but i have a fx 5200 and it doesnt have civ IV on the list or even civ III. plenty of other games though, for now ill just have to leave it at global driver setting

 

[Clown2TheLeft]

It's not on the 6600, either...


Later!

--The Clown to the Left