Official System Requirements

[tokala]

What laptop CPU will be best for Civ V: i5 2,4 GHz (dual) or i7 1,6 GHz (quad)?

1. At best, the i7 will be slightly faster: if CiV scales almost perfectly with the core number, you will get about 30% performance increase, thats "just noticable".

However, there are two scenarios where the i5 might be significantly faster:
2. CiV scales not very good with >2 cores
3. CiV will scale quite well up to 4 cores but not more, and won't mind very much if it's a physical or logical core.

So far very few games would fall into category 1.
If none of those scenarios are valid for CiV, you will probably feel no difference between the two processors.

 

[J-man]

Thanks for all the info above. However, much of it is for desktops, and I'm about to buy a laptop. So 2 questions:

What laptop CPU will be best for Civ V: i5 2,4 GHz (dual) or i7 1,6 GHz (quad)?

And will a ATI Mobility 5650 graphic card be able to run the game ok (not necessarily on high settings)? Or do I need a ATI Mobility 5850 or 5870?

Firaxis claims that Civ 5 is really good in utilizing multiple cores, so I'd say quad core.

Hierarchy: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-460-radeon-hd-5570-gaming,2697-7.html

Difficult to say... The 5650 should be able to run it but certainly NOT on high settings.

 

[a5ehren]

On the Civilization 5 website the Minimal Requirements have been quietly adjusted to included more detail on the minimally required processor:

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 1.8 GHz or AMD Athlon X2 64 2.0 GHz

Btw, anyone got a good link for a website that benchmarks multicore processors? Googling yields a lot of rubbish.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/CPU/2. They also have a tool for comparing any modern GPUs.

 

[trevort]

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/CPU/2. They also have a tool for comparing any modern GPUs.

This is another site you can compare video cards. It has a much more extensive list of GPU cards than the one mentioned by a5ehren. Just pick a card from the list, then on the next screen choose another card from the pull down list.

 

[Blanchflower]

OK, this is the specification of my laptop:

2.53Ghz Core 2 Duo processor
NVIDIA GeForce 9800M GTS graphics with 1 GB of Video RAM
4GB of RAM

Will I be able to play Civilization 5 smoothly on high settings?

It is a Gateway P7805-g gaming laptop which I bought on July 2009. Should I purchase a desktop?

Thanks!

 

[The_J]

With "only" a dual core, you don't meet the recommended system requirements, so probably not.

 

[Bataknese]

I met the min. req. on my desktop PC. but not on my notebook

 

[Blanchflower]

With "only" a dual core, you don't meet the recommended system requirements, so probably not.

LOL! There was a time when dual core was considered an overkill and quad core was considered spending an unnecessary amount of money on a processor......

Lesson learnt! Next time, one should buy a processor for future proof and there is no such thing as buying a computer part which is considered overkill. In the future, even a six core processor would be considered mainstream.....

 

[Acronym2]

Man......a quad core, 4 GB RAM (which would imply 64 bit), and 512MB video memory as the recomended system requirements? What could a strategy game like Civilization 5 possibly need that much power for? It's just rediculous for this type of pc game!

 

[tokala]

Lesson learnt! Next time, one should buy a processor for future proof and there is no such thing as buying a computer part which is considered overkill. In the future, even a six core processor would be considered mainstream.....

There is no such thing as a futureproof computer, courtesy of Moore's Law

As you basically cannot upgrade laptops, and they are much more costly than equally powerful desktops, they are not very cost effective investments as a gaming rig.
By buying a high end laptop you will even make things worse, as you will be paying a steep price premium for a comparatively small performance increase

If you have the choice, a desktop will always be the better/cheaper gaming machine.

That being said, you have a pretty decent gaming machine there, should do on "high", just not on "highest"

 

[xarver]

There is no such thing as a futureproof computer, courtesy of Moore's Law

As you basically cannot upgrade laptops, and they are much more costly than equally powerful desktops, they are not very cost effective investments as a gaming rig.
By buying a high end laptop you will even make things worse, as you will be paying a steep price premium for a comparatively small performance increase

If you have the choice, a desktop will always be the better/cheaper gaming machine.

That being said, you have a pretty decent gaming machine there, should do on "high", just not on "highest"

You can upgrade a laptops, it's just more difficult.
That's why I'm getting a new processor and 2GB more of RAM.

 

[tokala]

You can upgrade a laptops, it's just more difficult.
That's why I'm getting a new processor and 2GB more of RAM.

Just be careful that the cooling system can handle a more powerful processor ...

 

[MrBanana]

I panic when Steam told me I had 8190mb, because the 0 looked like a d. Knowing I have double the recommended RAM is great.

 

[civ_king]

I'm willing to buy a Dell-Alienwere. I need a machine to work (i'm a political cartoonist and a musician), but it's for Civ V as well. I just need to click the link and it's mine...If I'm going to do something wrong, someone stop me!

The specs:
CPU:Intel Core i7 720QM 1.6GHz 2.8 GHz Turbo Mode 6MB Cache (468-6211)
Memory: 8GB Dual Channel DDR3 1333MHz (317-3665)
LCD: HD 1920x1200 (1200p) RGB LED 17 polegadas UXGA (320-8854)
Video card: ATI Radeon Mobility HD 5870 Crossfire 1GB (320-8988)
Stem and Portal pre-installed...

Is this machine as great as it seems to be?

you are doing something seriously wrong by buying an Alienware, if you can handle a non-flashy notebook* and want an awesome warranty

*You can add a free etched design to your Maingear laptop for free
http://www.maingear.com/custom/computers/laptops.html

There is no such thing as a futureproof computer, courtesy of Moore's Law

As you basically cannot upgrade laptops, and they are much more costly than equally powerful desktops, they are not very cost effective investments as a gaming rig.
By buying a high end laptop you will even make things worse, as you will be paying a steep price premium for a comparatively small performance increase

If you have the choice, a desktop will always be the better/cheaper gaming machine.

That being said, you have a pretty decent gaming machine there, should do on "high", just not on "highest"

Dual 5970
Dual Hexacores @3.33GHz (liquid cooling)
12 RAM slots (up to 8GB a slot)
10X LG SuperMulti Blu-ray/DVD Burner
does not a future proofed Desktop make? (for the next five years that is)

 

[trevort]

Go to Falcon Northwest and you can order a $15,802.68 computer. It has almost all of the most expensive components they offer. I have just listed the essentials.
Proccesor: Liquid Cooled Factory Overclocked Core i7 Extreme 980x 3.33Ghz
Ram: 24Gb
Video Card: 2 Radeon 5970 2Gb plus 1 Radeon 5870AM 2Gb
HDD: 4 2Tb WD 7200rpm
RAID Controller: 9260-8i with 8 256Gb SSDs

The talk of future proof computers is pointless because the state of the art is ALWAYS improving. Even the above computer will no longer be top of the heap in 6 months. Unless you have a money tree the best most of us can do is to buy the best you can when you can afford it. And then upgrade as necessary.

 

[J-man]

25 Gb of ram, three graphic cards? jeez

 

[trevort]

25 Gb of ram, three graphic cards? jeez

Don't forget 8Tb of spinning storage and i think 2Tb of solid state storage for the RAID array. Absolutely insane. That one system costs more than both my wife's and my own car.

 

[tokala]

Dual 5970
Dual Hexacores @3.33GHz (liquid cooling)
12 RAM slots (up to 8GB a slot)
10X LG SuperMulti Blu-ray/DVD Burner
does not a future proofed Desktop make? (for the next five years that is)

Might make sense for specific workstation applications, but certainly not for a gaming rig, anyone remember skulltrail

For something like a quarter of the cost of that machine you will be able to get a rig which would be not noticably slower in games NOW. In 2.5 years you could buy for the same money a machine that will be definately faster than the one above, and in 5 years you will get one that will simply obliterate your rig.
So for less money, stretched over 5 years to boot, you were basically never much worse off, and most of the time better off then by once buying one over the top system.

And I seriously doubt that those dual 5970s will survive under load for five years, unless you have access to a nitrogen liquefaction facility

 

[trevort]

Might make sense for specific workstation applications, but certainly not for a gaming rig, anyone remember skulltrail

For something like a quarter of the cost of that machine you will be able to get a rig which would be not noticably slower in games NOW. In 2.5 years you could buy for the same money a machine that will be definately faster than the one above, and in 5 years you will get one that will simply obliterate your rig.
So for less money, stretched over 5 years to boot, you were basically never much worse off, and most of the time better off then by once buying one over the top system.

And I seriously doubt that those dual 5970s will survive under load for five years, unless you have access to a nitrogen liquefaction facility

That isn't my rig. Just one I made up on the Falcon Northwest site for shits and grins.
My computer is a four year old (I think) Dell XPS 420. I'm not quite whuppin a yet, but soon. I don't think I'll be playing CIV 6 on this machine.

My computer:
Operating System: Windows® Vista Home Premium SP2
Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.40Ghz
Memory: 3GB RAM
Hard Disk Space: 300GB HDD about 140GB free.
DVD-ROM Drive: Got one
Video: 256 MB ATI HD2600 XT
Sound: Don't know, don't care. Whatever it came with from the factory.
DirectX®: DirectX® version 11

I know, I need a new video card. And Power supply.

 

[bhavv]

So, will my overclocked I7 920 @ 4.0 Ghz, 12 Gb ram, and shiny new pair of MSI Cyclone GTX 460s in SLI be able to run the game? I figured that my 5770s were too slow now.

Or maybe I need a new motherboard, I dont think my Rampage III Extreme is good enough anymore, I need better!