People who have NO problems running the game...

[Bast]

.. and have played A LOT of games and hours on large maps and lots of civs with everything (graphics and sound) put up to max.

I want to hear from you!

Ok, after a beautiful start I'm now experiencing problems (as expected). I can start new games and saved games perfectly and run for about half an hour (on larger maps) and a couple of hours (on smaller maps) but after that my system restarts.

It's obvious that I need an upgrade. I have:

AMD Duron 1.3 Ghz
256 MB RAM
64 MB GeForce 440 video card

But I want to know WHAT to upgrade to. So that's why I want to hear from people who can run it perfectly.

I've been really surprised with my system because it's been able remarkable imo for a system that's so old and with such low specs. I mean look at them!

I've been able to play all movies, sound, graphics, diplomacy and everything REALLY well.

So the system restarting is the only problem. I think it's got to do with CPU and RAM?

Now here's the problem. I don't want to pay money and upgrade only to find I'm going to have problems. I want this restarting problem to go away and other problems to STAY away.

Can you please help me? Recommend me what I should get. Please!

Thank you.

 

[Bast]

Bump! Do you think I should keep the video card? Since so many people with better video cards have had problems?

Please! Someone help!

 

[MRM]

Much more memory - IMO more importen than better CPU have some problems with having "only" 512 MB

But your videocard is very old too ... hm

 

[Bast]

Much more memory - IMO more importen than better CPU have some problems with having "only" 512 MB

But your videocard is very old too ... hm

Yes, but I've had no problems with the intro movie, leader graphics, no black sqaures, diplomacy screens, wonder movies, religion movies or anything. I've even played with high graphics resolution and sound!

It's just that after a while playing the system goes. I've checked my system resources and my CPU is at 100% when playing Civ IV!

I don't want to replace my video card to find problems with another one.

 

[Sadan01]

Bast, what version of windows are you using? If using WinXP, 256Mb is simply not enough anymore. 512Mb would have to be minimum if you want to play games and 1Gb would be much better. Luckily, memory is cheap today, even here in Australia. I know of a couple of online computer stores in Australia that do ship anywhere (or maybe you have a preferred online store or a store nearby). Here are a couple of picks:

TechBuy
ComputerOnline

I know that ComputerOnline is based in Sydney (Burwood). However, I have never bothered to check where TechBuy is located exactly.

Your graphics card is at the extreme low end nowadays so probably would be worth an upgrade. Seeing you would be using an AGP slot, a lot of AGP cards are quite cheap. Check the above sites for prices too. This is the problem I face too. My system specs are as follows:

Athlon XP 2400+ (266Mhz FSB)
1Gb RAM
GeForce Ti4600 128Mb vid card (AGP4x)

I am in need of an upgrade - especially the video card. However this is the problem I face... Do I get another AGP card for the system or simply get a new system (motherboard, CPU, new RAM, PCI-E video card etc)? I am leaning towards a new system but the inital outlay of funds is a hell of a lot more than simply buying a new video card. And knowing myself, if I went for a new system, I would definitely have to buy a 7800GTX which are still around $800 alone. An expensive hobby ...

To test your ram in the system, go to the following site and download the file needed (can either boot from a floppy or bootable CD): MemTest86 .. This utility will tell you if your RAM is faulty or not.

I do hope this helps

 

[dshirk]

I am running it on two machines with no problems. The first (my kids) is:

AMD Athlon 2000
GeForce 4 Ti4200 128MB AGP
512 MB of ram
XP Home w SP 2

With this config, I run it at 1024 x 768 and leave AA off, and don't have any problems.

My other system (I just bult this one) is:

AMD Athlon 64 3500+
ATI Radeon X800XL 256MB PCIE
1 Gig of Ram
XP Home w SP 2

With this config, I have everything maxed out (1600 x 1200, 4x AA, etc.) and have never had a problem with the exception of some occassional slow-down during late game. On a side note, this vid card worked perfectly out of the box. I didn't have to go through any of the work-arounds.

Hope this helps.

 

[Wodan]

I agree that upgrading the video card seems to be the key thing for almost everyone.

In addition, I'd try quitting all other running software before starting the game. e.g., virus software.

Wodan

 

[Shakes]

Athlon 64 3000+
1gb RAM
128 Mb Geforce 4 Ti 4200
XP Pro SP2

Not sure what rock the people who think this is a hardware intensive game have been living under. My graphics card is almost as old as Civ III and yet I can run 1280x1024 (no AA of course) with no problems at all. I'll probably update it soon simply because AGP is dying and if I'd like something a little more modern for other games before being stuck with it.

 

[SupertoneD]

i have had no problems running the game.

my rig is as follows:

2.3 AMD cpu overclocked to 2.7
geforce 6800 GT 256 AGP card
512 MB DDR ram
windows 2000, service pack 4

i have yet to run into a single issue, aside from the
geforce 'screen interlacing at max zoom' issue.

it's been great for me all the way!

 

[ChubbyPitbull]

3.2 GHz P4 w/ HT
1.25 GB DDR RAM
128 MB Geforce 5200 FX
XP Home w/ SP2

Since install, the only hiccup was figuring out the CDs weren't labeled correctly. I've sat down and played a 4 hour session, and have played for a few hours, left it running overnight, then finished the game the next day without so much as a messed up game texture. (I'm not using nVidia's latest drivers, I've been using some guru3d nVidia drivers I installed after I bought Half-Life 2).

Have never had any black screens, blue screens, CTD's, or system restarts. Only complaint is when I've explored an entire huge map with numerous civs, the tiem it takes to process a turn starts to chug a wee bit, but I blame that on the fact there's 15 rather developed civilizations with things to do .

 

[Cironir]

I have clocked maybe 35 hours with the game now, play on normal and large maps, with 6-10 civs, and have no lag, crashes or any other problems.I play on medium, but not for performance reasons, but because the game looks better in medium to me. Haven't rebooted my computer in three or four days either, so no memory leaks here either.

My specs: P4 3.0Ghz, 1 GB RAM (PC3200), ATI Radeon x700pro (256 MB), AC '97 on-board sound, XP SP2.

 

[JiggleTheHandle]

Windows XP, SP2
P4, 33.2GHz
1 GB RAM
Radeon X800 XT
SB Audigy 2

A couple end game crashes so far but otherwise, smooth sailing. And I've been playing a LOT.

 

[warpstorm]

Bast, the RAM is your first priority. The one thing you can do without upgrading is to see how much virtual memory you have. You may be able to make it more stable by fiddling with the settings (it won't make it faster).

 

[Darwin420]

I have about 30 hours under my belt with cIV. I had an initial problem with video, but that was taken care of by installing newer codecs. There's a slight lag on starting a new turn, usually by the time I reach Middle Ages with about 8 other civs, but it's still no more than an extra 30-60 seconds. I don't think lag will be much problem.

My specs: P4 2.0ghz w/400FSB, 1.3GB RAM (PC133), NVidia GeForce 5200FX (256MB), Sound Blaster Live! 5.0

I think my lag is caused by the processor (it's rather old), as I have a HUGE amount of good RAM, and a decent graphics card. Hopefully I'll build my next pc come tax season (I'm thinking dual processors, 3GB ram, and a smokin' video card). Yeah, I'm a Geek, and I'm proud of it!

Try upgrading your RAM, and getting AT LEAST a 128mb graphics card (though I would recommend a 256mb).

 

[doronron]

I'd suggest a couple of 512MB sticks of RAM - depending on the speed, they'll run you about $50 a piece.

The card could also use a boost. If you're running AGP, you can likely get a TnL capable card for about $60-$100.

It's a bit of money for Civ IV, but you could look at it as an investment against later XPacks, which will surely increase the game's requirements a bit.

 

[NP300]

It's obvious that I need an upgrade. I have:

It sounds to me like you have a driver problem, and don't need an upgrade. Windows is set up by defeault to reboot when a Blue Screen of Death of occurs. So if the driver is causing a crash your system will simply reboot. You need to unselect the "automatically reboot" option in windows so you can see what driver caused the crash. Most likely it was the video driver.

To change it, right click my computer -> properties -> advanced -> and look under startup and recovery settings. Uncheck "automatically restart".

The only thing I'd upgrade would be the RAM. With 256MB your system may be swapping a lot and that really slows it down a lot. When the system runs out of RAM it stores the data in the disk drive but the disk drive is like 1,000 times slower than RAM.

A 1.3GHz Duron is probably close to the recommended requirements because Athlons/Durons outperform Pentium 4sclock for clock, particularly in games. I myself have an Athlon 1.5GHz that that outperforms a Pentium 4 at 1.9GHz, so in reality I probably meet the recommended spec for CPU. Firaxis must have set the requirements based on the Pentium 4 since that is what most people have. I would guess a 1.3 Duron would perform like a 1.6-1.7 GHz Pentium 4 for games.

I am running the game on a Radeon 9200 64MB and I haven't noticed any bugs or slowdowns that weren't my fault. I did notice a slowdown recently but it was because I was running a gizillion apps in the background. That's not Civ4's fault. Granted, I haven't yet played on a huge map with all the Civs but so far I haven't seen any bugs and have experience no crashes.

 

[Knightfall68]

Pentium IV 3.0GHZ (the new style without the pins)
1GB DDR2 Memory
MSI Motherboard.
ATI Radeon x700 PCI Express 256mb.

I had the render problem and the dropping to desktop problem. Applying the patch and deleting the cache folder fixed them

I am running huge pangea map, all graphics, all sounds, in the modern era with no problems.

 

[oddroot]

No issues on 3 of my systems at home:

athlon 2800+
1G ram
Nvidia 6600GT /w 128M

and no problems on either laptop

ibm t42p (2Ghz Pentium M)
1G ram
Radeon 9600 /w 128M (I think anyways, listed as Mobility Fire GL T2/T2e)
running omega 2.6.61 drivers

and the wife's laptop
Asus 1.8G Pentium M
1G ram
Radeon 9700 /w 64 or 128M (don't have it in front of me)

Only issue I've ever had is after 6+ hours of playing, if I scroll too far out from the map, I may crash to my desktop... Only happened on the T42 though. Playing all Large maps with 8 civs usually.

*** About your issue, you would be best served at trying to get your rig up to 1G of ram... Given that you can start and play for a bit, you may also want to check into overheating issues... civ 4 does definitely make a machine work hard, and with 256M RAM you are probably hitting your harddrive hard.

 

[EDI-Fuzzy]

No problems here

AMD 64 3000+(venice) at 2.3GHz
1GB Value RAM
Gigabyte PCIE K8N Ultra 9
Connect 3D X800XL 256MB PCIE (no workarounds needed)


If you have the budget.....look at Dell....they have some pretty decent PC's (that will easily play Civ IV) for not much money....I'd still prefer to build myslef though!

 

[remconius]

No problems here, (although yesterday, my 5th dayin the game, it crashed at 1.30am to desktop for the first time. Good time to go to bed ;-))

System:
Intel Petium 4, 2.4Ghz
1024Mb DDR ram.
Radeon 9800pro
Windows XP, sp2