Optimal System Stats for Civ3

[Txurce]

What's optimal for Civ3 play, in terms of M/GHz and, particularly, RAM? Is there an upper limit, after which increases have negligible effect?

I ask partly because I use a G3 iBook with 800 MHz and 256k RAM, and was told by the salesman that more RAM wouldn't help with Civ3.

 

[dojoboy]

Well, I played Civ3 on an iMac G3/333MHz w/ 512MB RAM just fine. Now, I play on an eMac G4/1GHz w/ 384MB RAM, which is much better of course. I believe the minimum processor recommended was a G3/300MHz. I believe the recommended RAM increased to 128MB w/ the release of 1.21g.

I think there is a point where more RAM wouldn't show an increase in performance, but it would allow you to run other apps while playing Civ3.

 

[tao]

More than 256MB will help. You need about 200+ MB for Civ III, plus OS, plus other apps.

If I compare gameplay on my 500 MHz G4 (512MB) Powerbook with my 2x1GHz MDD (768MB), the graphics is much faster on the MDD. And the 2 processors are used also by Civ III.

 

[n8mac]

I used to have 192MB ram with civ III and now use 384MB ram and notice a decent improvement, i.e. the app starts up quicker but when waiting on the AI during its turn with many civs is still slow because of my 400mhz G3. Mhz will matter more over all for those big games.

@Tao - wow, I didn't know Civ III used multi-threading!

 

[Nixnutz]

I'm running a G3 300, OS9.2.2...started at 224 MB RAM and it worked fine with v1.21...now running 512MB RAM on v1.29b2 with 325000 allocated...GOTM21 ran very slow between turns. I'm not surprised given my system and the size of the game.

(sorry gang, I really fubared the original post. Changed GOTM to 21 and deleted some other stuff that I wanted to post in another thread)

 

[waltham845]

Running a G3 machine with a G4 500mhz chip. Started with 256mb of RAM. Have 512mb of RAM, with a Radeon 7000. Using the 256mb and ATI Rage card music glitches on saves and while playing. Slow down in loading, and AI moves. With 512mb and 7000, just slow on loading large files. Otherwise works well. Both using v1.29b2. 1gig of RAM might help in loading large game files, don't know though?

 

[Txurce]

I'm having very little wait between turns in GOTM22, and I'm well into the ancient era. I play with animation turned off except for battles, and the Civilopedia cursor as well.

 

[AlanH]

I'm not seeing any of the between-turn delay problems reported by some for GOTM22. I'm running near to the minimum speed spec, I think - a 350 MHz G4 Sawtooth. But I do have 1.2 GB RAM. I have all the animations turned on because I like watching the battles and I find I don't always spot the arrival of barbs if enemy movements are disabled. The only things I switch off are the civilpoedia curor and the font thingie in the launch screen.

 

[Brad Oliver]

Originally posted by Txurce
What's optimal for Civ3 play, in terms of M/GHz and, particularly, RAM? Is there an upper limit, after which increases have negligible effect?

Yes, around 200MB. Civ3 rarely uses more than that, even for large games.

 

[Mavfin]

I'm sure my dual-1.25 GHz, 1GB RAM G4 I'm expecting anytime will run Civ 3 just fine.....I picked it up at a nice price after the G5 release....

 

[nmcul]

I continue to be suprised at Civ 3's massive hunger for memory. I use 384 MB/466 GHz G4 and still get slowdowns later in the game.

 

[Sid]

nmcul, I was suprised at how long the auto-save function takes during, "Please wait ..."

If you turn it off in the preferences for a few turns, the turn gap really lessens. I don't do it for long, because that tends to invite one of those rare crashes, just after I've conquered someone.

 

[Brad Oliver]

Originally posted by nmcul
I continue to be suprised at Civ 3's massive hunger for memory. I use 384 MB/466 GHz G4 and still get slowdowns later in the game.

That's not related to memory usage, it's because of all the AI calculations that go on as the complexity of the game increases.

 

[Nicci]

exactly. and the bigger the map . . . .
so, i hardly ever use a big map.
i run civ on a iBook 500mhz and 384MB of ram.
it's a bit slow, but not anoying.

 

[nmcul]

Of course, one could argue that many of these processes were present in Civ 2. There are many new processes, of course, but enough to account for 118 MB of difference? (Civ 2 required a whole 10 MB !!)

 

[Ricardo]

Well up until about 3 months ago I was playing on a G3 powerbook 266Mhz with about 500Mb of RAM and had no problems at all although the turns in the GOTM were a little slow. Normal games with less opponents ran very smoothly. Now I am playing on a shiny new powerbook and the only difference I see is that the time between turns is about 1/2 what it used to be (~4 times the processor speed and about the same amount of RAM).

So I would say the minimum system requirements for civIII are pretty low as long as you have lots of RAM and are a little patient in bigger games

 

[Brad Oliver]

Originally posted by nmcul
Of course, one could argue that many of these processes were present in Civ 2. There are many new processes, of course, but enough to account for 118 MB of difference? (Civ 2 required a whole 10 MB !!)

The memory usage is impacted much more by the size and complexity of the graphics and animations than the AI and 'other' stuff.

 

[Nuclear Master]

I have an EMac G4 800 Mhz and 640 MB.