New pc Max game size?

[rich.h]

I'm just about to go through a long overdue overhaul and just wondering if it's worth restarting my current c2c game or maybe being able to actually finish one for once. Juust curious what the the maximum map size/number of civs I can play on with the specs below.

Core i5 3570k (not overclocked yet may be depending on how things go after a couple of months)
16gb DDR3
HD 7870 2gb
W7 64bit
OS installed to ssd with all applications installed to a seperate ssd.

 

[JosEPh_II]

With viewports enabled the sky is the limit.

Without viewports your set up should handle Gigantic Maps with 20 Civs, probably even with REV and Barb Civ On as well, easily.

JosEPh

 

[strategyonly]

What he said above, btw nice graphics card!!

 

[rich.h]

Is it possible to have more than 20 civs if I were to reduce the map size? I always liked the idea of having many civs so as to make it that much harder for any one to gain super power status and force more puppet states etc.

 

[strategyonly]

Is it possible to have more than 20 civs if I were to reduce the map size? I always liked the idea of having many civs so as to make it that much harder for any one to gain super power status and force more puppet states etc.

Best thing to do is like i do, play WITH Barb Civ ON and start with like 15 -20 and you will probably end up with around 40ish or more on really any map, Huge or bigger. I suggest you start on Huge and go from there.

 

[ls612]

With viewports enabled the sky is the limit.

Without viewports your set up should handle Gigantic Maps with 20 Civs, probably even with REV and Barb Civ On as well, easily.

JosEPh

Not for turn times. However your proc is about the same as mine, especially if it gets overclocked, so I'd suggest no bigger than Enormous if your are using the SVN or Gigantic if not.

 

[JosEPh_II]

His turn times using SSDs should be very good. Of course that's a subjective view on what is acceptable EoTs and at what stage of the game.

But since rich.h is a C2C player he's familiar already with the Mods EoT times.

JosEPh

 

[AIAndy]

His turn times using SSDs should be very good. Of course that's a subjective view on what is acceptable EoTs and at what stage of the game.

But since rich.h is a C2C player he's familiar already with the Mods EoT times.

JosEPh

What do SSDs and turn times have to do with each other?

 

[JosEPh_II]

Data transfer speed.

JosEPh

 

[strategyonly]

Just look at the charts, it seems as of 2012 Intel has made a great and dynamic result of SSD's now, see the charts midway through the link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid-state_drive

 

[AIAndy]

Data transfer speed.

JosEPh

There should not be any relevant access to data on SSD during EoT.

 

[ls612]

There should not be any relevant access to data on SSD during EoT.

According to sp00ns testing SSD vs HDD has no impact whatsoever on C2C, either on load or on end-turn. It is entirely processor bottlenecked. Which means that multi-threading will give very good results for everyone buying modern machines with i5 or i7 procs.

 

[strategyonly]

means that multi-threading will give very good results for everyone buying modern machines with i5 or i7 procs.

Well there ya go, lets start multi-threading then, along with multi-maps, only makes sense!!

 

[KMRblue1027]

Well there ya go, lets start multi-threading then, along with multi-maps, only makes sense!!

As Koshling pointed out before, when multi-threading starts it will kill performance temporally as anyone with an Intel processor can turboboost on single-core programs, this will be lost as soon as you start the process.

 

[AIAndy]

As Koshling pointed out before, when multi-threading starts it will kill performance temporally as anyone with an Intel processor can turboboost on single-core programs, this will be lost as soon as you start the process.

There is already multi-threading used for small parts like the property solver.

 

[KMRblue1027]

There is already multi-threading used for small parts like the property solver.

Really? So we've already lost the ability to turboboost then?

 

[AIAndy]

Really? So we've already lost the ability to turboboost then?

That is not how turboboost works. There are always multiple processes and threads running on your system.
For instance the graphics of Civ4 usually use at least a second core to some degree.
As long as it can still deal with excess heat, turboboost will be used. Some minor multithreading won't change that.

 

[KMRblue1027]

That is not how turboboost works. There are always multiple processes and threads running on your system.
For instance the graphics of Civ4 usually use at least a second core to some degree.
As long as it can still deal with excess heat, turboboost will be used. Some minor multithreading won't change that.

It was my understanding that once a core is active you loose the ability to shut it down to turboboost. So unless you maximize the yield of said core you're loosing overall performance.

 

[Koshling]

It was my understanding that once a core is active you loose the ability to shut it down to turboboost. So unless you maximize the yield of said core you're loosing overall performance.

Windows 7 (and above) are smart in this regard with their thread scheduling - they will move threads between cores to optimize usage, in a way that understands how turbo boost works. As AIAndy observed, you will always have at least several 10s of threads running at any one time, regardless of whether they are part of the Civ process or not. However, if we start to make more significant usage of multiple threads turbo opportunities may reduce, so it's not completely clear-cut.

 

[JosEPh_II]

From SO's Wiki link

Data transfer rate:

SSD technology can deliver rather consistent read/write speed, but when lots of individual smaller blocks are accessed, performance is reduced. In consumer products the maximum transfer rate typically ranges from about 100 MB/s to 600 MB/s, depending on the disk. Enterprise market offers devices with multi-gigabyte per second throughput.

Once the head is positioned, when reading or writing a continuous track, an enterprise HDD can transfer data at about 140 MB/s. In practice transfer speeds are many times lower due to constant seeking, as files are read from various locations or they are fragmented. Data transfer rate depends also upon rotational speed, which can range from 4,200 to 15,000 rpm.[78] and also upon the track (reading from the outer tracks is faster due higher absolute head velocity relative to the disk).

@AIAndy,
So the question is, Is EoT's (with CIV IV/BtS engine and C2C MOd) all Ram usage and no HD or in this case SSD usage? Is that what you're tell us?

JosEPh