***Official "I'm at/below Minimum Specs" Club ***

[Casper84]

P4 3.0 ghz
2.5G ram
Ati Radeon Sapphire 3850HD 512mb.

Demo on max settings runs sluggish but not in a way that it annoys me. Intro runs smooth. Time between turns was ok but I bet the turns will take very long late in the game.
I'm going to check the store for ciV this afternoon, I just can't stand the 100 turn limit anymore.
I'll run fraps later on to check the actual framerate. I'm not sure if I can even run at DX10/11 so I'm sticking with 9.

 

[Pegasos]

I'm above recommended specs, and I got this powerhouse of a machine for only 800€ (Is it 1100-1200 in US$?). Anyway, the graphics are at maximum and I'm playing very smoothly even late-game huge 12 civ maps, the waiting between turns keeps short right into 2050. /bragging

 

[Biffa001]

the CPU and memory in my laptop should be ok judging by above comments by my VGA sucks - SIS 762 I think....anyone got it working on a low VGA card?

 

[player1 fanatic]

SiS is the worst of the worst. Even old Intel integrated graphics are better then that. And only latest GMA HD is Civ5 capable.

 

[Biffa001]

I know, I could only get Civ IV working by downgrading from Vista to XP! But it does work a treat even on large maps/lots of civ's.

Was really hoping I could tweak some ini's, lower the graphics enough so it would at least start! (already got no video etc but only get a black window pop up then disappear on launch)....

 

[DaveGold]

I'm running below spec and I'm very pleased the game runs. I was willing to have to have game in a drawer for a few months until a hardware upgrade. I'm using an NVIDIA GeForce 6600 with 2Gb Ram.

I'm using small/tiny maps of course with the lowest graphics settings. The game crashed when I came out of the strategy screen so I don't use the strategy screen. The initial movie breaks up. Performance is a little slow when scrolling from unit to unit but it is certainly playable. The worst part is the user interface that dominates the screen and hides the map. You can get used to it but I'm certain the game should be played on higher resolutions.

 

[Taygeta]

My machine:
P4 3.0 ghz HT, 4 gb RAM, HD 3450 256 MB (a bad old card, cause my GT 8600 simply burned a month ago).

The game runs fine on minimum specs, DX9 version ofc, played up to large maps - even in late eras the wait between turns is no longer than 6-7 seconds. The only problem I observed was when once I started seeing glitches on the screen like tile improvements placed in the sea, but after i shut down the pc and waited for half an hour, it was ok.

No glitches here.. so far. Radeon and P4 are not overclocked. I am using newest ATi drivers provided by Sapphire (because of the PCIE-AGP conversion) So far Civ V has crashed only once, it stuck after I ended my turn and I had to power down my PC - No way back to desktop.

How slow CIV V runs in the end (my current game is only @ 900 AD) is yet to be seen, but so far - Minimum specs are a partial joke.
It is mostly amount of RAM that counts.

 

[CustodianV131]

I'm above recommended specs, and I got this powerhouse of a machine for only 800€ (Is it 1100-1200 in US$?). Anyway, the graphics are at maximum and I'm playing very smoothly even late-game huge 12 civ maps, the waiting between turns keeps short right into 2050. /bragging

Can't you leave us alone with our misery? LOL

I'm below minimum on both my machines. My laptop just barely pulls along with DX 11 (LOW, no shadows, ect the works) and my desktop plays it on low, without shadows, with DX 9 and up to small maps or it will bog down asap I think, even tiny might be the max. (I only discovered that it runs it at all, just a few minutes ago, big surprise, its not even dual core and the demo wouldn't run on it)

Really looking forward to some new hardware. But luckily work is really really busy, so I've a lot to distract me form Civ V. Yay!

 

[SerialK]

What most need is memory. 1 gig just IS NOT ENOUGH. Usually CIV V eats around 1.6 gb - So 2-4 gb of RAM it seems is Highly Recommended..

I run it at 1GB RAM. Yeah it eat in my windows virtual memory, but as long as i stay in medium settings, i don't have my HDD going mad. I know 1GB is barely okay, but as long as you clear your memory from unneeded services and processes, it works fairly well.

 

[Shaleghi]

I have got a laptop Lenovo x200
Core2Duo P8600 @ 2.40 GHz
2 GB Ram
Mobile Intel(R)4 Video 64 MB Dedicated + 715 MB shared

I got all the video set to their lowest settings except fog of war +1

I things are running fine on standard map but can get a bit slow. Strategic view help speed things along. Going to give the big maps a go again after my current game.

Game needs a lot of patching but I am loving it any way.

 

[Lord Monkey]

I want to run Civ5 on my laptop, but it has an ATI 1250x card built into it.. Are there any options for an external GPU for laptops that'll run it that don't cost more than $100? Wishful thinking, but meh.

 

[Fezzik]

7600 GT is fine on XP at least. Pretty hard to make a desktop PC not run it.

 

[moksheebs]

Thats a laptop right?
Hmn, i say maybe low settings... Try the demo.

exactly how low?

 

[player1 fanatic]

^ Not as low as with my laptop. Since that GF 310M is twice stronger laptop graphics then my 3470 radeon (at least according to 3dMark05 benchmarks). And Core i3 is pretty decent CPU. And Civ5 needs decent CPU (faster turns, loading times, etc...).

Anyway, here are almost minimum specs (a bit above) that game works on:

Asus X59SR laptop:
T3400 dual core (2.16Ghz), 3470 mobility radeon, 3GB ram.

It's playable at 10-15fps in late game. All low settings with terrain at medium. 1280x800 in DX9 mode.

Still, those 2GB ram may be issue for you in late game. I would even recommend DX10/11 mode for playing, since it's easier on the ram.

 

[troytheface]

vaccume tube model here

i have 100 megs of ram and my machine takes up the whole upstairs

actually with a bit of tweaking i can get the movies and decent water
and can play standard (i suppose i could go higher but i have not tried)

1.66ghz whatever that is
980 mhz- whatever that is
2 gigabytes of ram and an old x1400 Radeon ATI Mobility thing

all to low except water to medium and fog to minimum

the evidence is clear - Time Master and Civ lord of the new forever

 

[Taygeta]

P4 3.0 ghz
2.5G ram
Ati Radeon Sapphire 3850HD 512mb.

Demo on max settings runs sluggish but not in a way that it annoys me. Intro runs smooth. Time between turns was ok but I bet the turns will take very long late in the game.
I'm going to check the store for ciV this afternoon, I just can't stand the 100 turn limit anymore.
I'll run fraps later on to check the actual framerate. I'm not sure if I can even run at DX10/11 so I'm sticking with 9.

Nice. I have Sapphire 3850 too.. A little more ghz but less memory. Fraps gives me around +60-100fps during normal game (game: all max, no AA - ATi-Quality), but a little less if I have any information layers on. There are some memory leaks, so if they are fixed, many have easier time with less memory.

 

[timtofly]

The demo runs fine for my taste on my HP Pavilion Entertainment PC that was designed to play HD movies. XP service pack 3 Core2 T5500 @1.66 Ghz 667 mhz bus, 2 gig of ram, DirectX9, and a Nvidia GeForce Go 7600 512 meg. I had to turn down the diplomacy screen. My 512 meg Nvidia would freeze the game whenever it tried to load. My rivers look the same as others, however I also have "dried" up patches where there is no blue at all.

My desktop is a faster machine, but only has integrated G33 graphics and the game will not even start. Maybe I will have to go for one of the Nvidia offers one day. With all of the negativity around here, maybe they will be giving away a free game in a few months.

 

[Just Checking]

My spec is

AMD 4400X2
2GB RAM
Radeon 3850HD 256MB

The performance is a mixed bag for me. I find that switching between everything on low and everything on medium changes nothing FPS-wise for me, the same problem still remains - the FPS is very smooth, until i move the camera.

It's like 70-90FPS while just idle, and when i move to camera it drops to an unbearably low 20-25FPS, then after a couple of seconds back up to 70's.
It's a TBS and the FPS shouldn't be so important but i just can't stand any game not playing smoothly, any idea why this is happening to me? I see people with similar specs running the game smoothly at least on low.t
I only played Standard size maps so far and the turns actually don't take long at all for me.

 

[DrunkenPirate]

AMD Opteron 165 1.8GHz stock overclocked to 2.9 runs this game great.

 

[player1 fanatic]

It's like 70-90FPS while just idle, and when i move to camera it drops to an unbearably low 20-25FPS, then after a couple of seconds back up to 70's.
It's a TBS and the FPS shouldn't be so important but i just can't stand any game not playing smoothly, any idea why this is happening to me? I see people with similar specs running the game smoothly at least on low.

It's CPU limiting factior.
When i tried playing with core affinity (using task bar) on my destop machine (x3 core phenom 720), with every core turned down there was bigger lag when scrolling. Making game with just one core performing worse then for you (using 4850 radeon).