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

[Cromat]

I have a fairly modern laptop but with a bad graphic card (integrated Intel 4500MHD)
Well I downloaded the demo and it runs but it chugs pretty bad (and also looks bad). It's barely playable but I think once I reach modern times it won't be. I spent most of them time playing through Strategic View, which is 2D and crappy.
Should I buy the game and just play it through Strategic View or is that too much?
It's a laptop so I can't upgrade it and I just got it :/

 

[Davor]

CPU
Minimum: Intel Core 2 Duo 1.8 GHz or AMD Athlon X2 64 2.0 GHz
You Have: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T6400 @ 2.00GHz
PASS

CPU Speed
Minimum: Intel Core 2 Duo 1.8 GHz or AMD Athlon X2 64 2.0 GHz
You Have: 2.00 GHz
Upgrade Suggested: Unfortunately, your CPU Speed does not meet this requirement. Click here to see some recommendations.

RAM
Minimum: 2 GB
You Have: 4.0 GB
PASS

OS
Minimum: Windows® XP SP3/ Windows® Vista SP2/ Windows® 7
You Have: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Edition (build 7600), 64-bit
PASS

Video Card
Minimum: 256 MB ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT or better, 256 MB NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GS or better, or Core i3 or better integrated graphics
You Have: GeForce 9600M GT
PASS
Features: Minimum attributes of your Video Card
Required You Have
Video RAM 256 MB 2.7 GB
Hardware T&L Yes Yes
Pixel Shader version 3.0 4.0
Vertex Shader version 3.0 4.0


DirectX version
Minimum: DirectX® 9.0c
You Have: 10.0
PASS

Sound Card
Minimum: Yes
You Have: NVIDIA High Definition Audio
PASS

Free Disk Space
Minimum: 8 GB Free
You Have: 5.7 GB

I have low space because I have the demo installed. So far I have to run the game on low settings. I am scared how this game will run on larger maps. I really wish the demo had a huge map so we can try it out.

I have the feeling this is like Civ IV. Play on small maps, unplayble or really slow on huge maps.

 

[Vlade Divac]

CPU
Minimum: Intel Core 2 Duo 1.8 GHz or AMD Athlon X2 64 2.0 GHz
You Have: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T6400 @ 2.00GHz
PASS

CPU Speed
Minimum: Intel Core 2 Duo 1.8 GHz or AMD Athlon X2 64 2.0 GHz
You Have: 2.00 GHz
Upgrade Suggested: Unfortunately, your CPU Speed does not meet this requirement. Click here to see some recommendations.

RAM
Minimum: 2 GB
You Have: 4.0 GB
PASS

OS
Minimum: Windows® XP SP3/ Windows® Vista SP2/ Windows® 7
You Have: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Edition (build 7600), 64-bit
PASS

Video Card
Minimum: 256 MB ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT or better, 256 MB NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GS or better, or Core i3 or better integrated graphics
You Have: GeForce 9600M GT
PASS
Features: Minimum attributes of your Video Card
Required You Have
Video RAM 256 MB 2.7 GB
Hardware T&L Yes Yes
Pixel Shader version 3.0 4.0
Vertex Shader version 3.0 4.0


DirectX version
Minimum: DirectX® 9.0c
You Have: 10.0
PASS

Sound Card
Minimum: Yes
You Have: NVIDIA High Definition Audio
PASS

Free Disk Space
Minimum: 8 GB Free
You Have: 5.7 GB

I have low space because I have the demo installed. So far I have to run the game on low settings. I am scared how this game will run on larger maps. I really wish the demo had a huge map so we can try it out.

I have the feeling this is like Civ IV. Play on small maps, unplayble or really slow on huge maps.

Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't know why your laptop wouldn't run this fairly well. Those are decently close to mine and better than some other's in this thread who are running at medium/decent settings. Obviously you have to clear up room on your hard drive and you may have to wait between turns a little bit later on, but I think you should be all right based on what people have been posting here...

 

[Janig]

I have a fairly modern laptop but with a bad graphic card (integrated Intel 4500MHD)
Well I downloaded the demo and it runs but it chugs pretty bad (and also looks bad). It's barely playable but I think once I reach modern times it won't be. I spent most of them time playing through Strategic View, which is 2D and crappy.
Should I buy the game and just play it through Strategic View or is that too much?
It's a laptop so I can't upgrade it and I just got it :/

strategic view looks horrible. if youre prepared to do that you should just play civ1 imo

 

[DarthMuffin]

I'm solidly below specs, as I'm still rocking a single core (though with hyperthreading).

P4 @ 3.6 GHz, HT enabled
2 GB RAM
ATi HD 3650 512 MB

The reason why I still haven't upgraded is that this box has managed to run fairly well everything I've been throwing at it, including some "dual core minimum" games like Mass Effect 2, Assassin's Creed and Prince of Persia (2008). The only one that didn't run that well was Assassin's Creed 2, possibly because of the larger crowds, but it was still very playable.

All this to say that I expected my computer to run Civ 5, and it does, at least the demo. By default it gave me everything on low/minimal, and I have to say that game looks pretty ugly under these settings (worse than Civ 4 in my opinion). I promptly increased fog of war from minimal to low so at least I get the cute clouds instead of the ugly black borders. I'll fiddle more with the other options later on.

One thing that annoyed me was the resolutions. The interface doesn't scale so on the lower resolutions it takes like half of the screen. I've brought them up quite a bit and the performance remains good, though I get a lot of texture popping-in when I move around the map.

All in all, the game appears to be playable on single cores with a high clock and hyperthreading. Obviously I would expect things to get ugly later on in the game and on larger maps but anyway.

 

[Greyfield]

Well, I'm above the minimum specs, but the demo keeps crashing for me when I get into a game, which is a bad sign.

I have a Boot Camped MacBook Pro, but because Apple didn't get the fans to work on the Windows side until last year, the internals are pretty fried from overheating, and the problem's just gotten worse. Apparently, the damage is just too severe to run a game like this even at minimum settings.

Disappointing, because I was looking forward to this game. I'll have to wait until I get a new computer to install it. At least I'll get it when it goes on sale.

 

[WillowBrook]

Hi, everyone, my name is Willowbrook, and I'm a Civ addict. (Hi Willowbrook!) I've been clean for nearly two years, since a three-day binge ....

Oh, wait, wrong meeting.

This thread is really, really tempting me to try my sightly-below-spec laptop (details unremembered ATM), despite having no time to play if it works. Fortunately for the other areas of my life, I'm traveling for work or I might be downloading the demo right now....

 

[steve1962]

Well, I guess they were seriously cautious on the minimum specs. My GT 220M is very inferior to the so-called minimum video card and I am running full screen 1600 x 900 with almost all video settings on High (though the game initially set everything on the lowest setting). And it is running fine.

Maybe having 64 bit Windows helps?

Anyway, I am relieved

 

[Mallipeep]

64 bit Windows 7, I3-530 and Radeon 4650
Running everything on High Setting and 2x MSAA. getting 30fps in the demo DX10/DX11 demo.

So low-mid end setups that have bought in recent year should be pretty ok.

 

[ruskyandrei]

Below min specs, playing this on some 2007 integrated intel graphics.

5-10fps but i don't mind, it's good enough for my work laptop and next week i'll be home to my gaming desktop.

 

[The Swede]

The demo worked fine so I ordered the game.

I have:

Pentium 4, 3GHz HT
2 GB RAM
ATI Radeon HD 4350 with 512 MB
Windows XP 32 bit

 

[Gangor]

The demo works pretty well on my GMA4500 equiped laptop, although no clouds

 

[steve1962]

Belatedly, I went to Can You Run It and got a Pass on my supposedly below minimum Graphics Card (GT 220M) and a Fail on the Core 2 Duo 2.2 Ghz processor.

In any event, it's running just fine and no crashes even when using other applications (web browser/email) at the same time.

 

[Davor]

Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't know why your laptop wouldn't run this fairly well. Those are decently close to mine and better than some other's in this thread who are running at medium/decent settings. Obviously you have to clear up room on your hard drive and you may have to wait between turns a little bit later on, but I think you should be all right based on what people have been posting here...

I finally got the game to run. My problem was, I kept on clicking on the DX 10/11 because it kept saying recomended, so I tried tweaking the settings for that. I finally went to DX 9, and running all settings at max and now its running finally.

I just wish it didn't say recomended. I thought it ment since it read my system that is where I should be playing at. Now I am wundering if that is there no matter what.

Havn't had a crash or slow down yet. But only the begining of the game.

 

[Davor]

So the question now is for people who are having problems, are you playing on DX 9 or DX 10/11?

 

[May Day 10]

My CPU struggles with the game. Very discouraging.

 

[Davor]

My CPU struggles with the game. Very discouraging.

What version of DX are you playing?

 

[Biffa001]

dx9 as I cant even select dx10? on vista sp1, but prob going to upgrade to w7 anyway so will see what happens

 

[steve1962]

I finally got the game to run. My problem was, I kept on clicking on the DX 10/11 because it kept saying recomended, so I tried tweaking the settings for that. I finally went to DX 9, and running all settings at max and now its running finally.

I just wish it didn't say recomended. I thought it ment since it read my system that is where I should be playing at. Now I am wundering if that is there no matter what.

Havn't had a crash or slow down yet. But only the begining of the game.

Interesting because I have DX9 showing as recommended - on my screen the text for the DX10/11 option is all compressed together so I can't really read what it says. Still, I'll try it tonight when I get home from work.

What sort of system are you running?

 

[Davor]

dx9 as I cant even select dx10? on vista sp1, but prob going to upgrade to w7 anyway so will see what happens

I wouldn't upgrade to Windows 7 just to see what happens with DX 10. But since you are using Vista, and you get Windows 7, you should see an increase in performance speed wise since Windows 7 is not a memory hog like Vista.

I don't think you will see any increase in DX 10 though.