Performance Questionare

[fishlore]

I was just hoping to get some information from everyone.

1. Does the game work for you, yes or no? If no, state where you're at with it and what you've done so far.

2. Does the performance meet your expectations, why or why not?

3. Did you buy or build your computer and when did you do that?

4. What are your specs and when was the last time you updated your drivers?

5. What kinds of games are your favorite and how often do you play them?

I'm just trying to get an idea of how widespread these issues are. Thanks in advance.

 

[TheBB]

1. Yes, though not initially.

2. Yes. It doesn't perform optimally, but smoother than I had expected (although my expectations _were_ pessimistic).

3. Bought it, august 2004

4. 512 MB RAM, 1.6 GHz, ATi Mobility Radeon 9200 64 MB RAM

5. Strategy games of all kinds, very rarely

 

[Mujadaddy]

Specs are in my sig... I haven't had any problems... I built this system 2 years ago or so...

 

[Efexeye]

1. Does the game work for you, yes or no? If no, state where you're at with it and what you've done so far.

Yes, as long as I limit myself to 8 Civs on a Large map. Playing several multiplayer games now, and have played a couple singleplayer games through to completion.

2. Does the performance meet your expectations, why or why not?

Pretty much- I have an older computer, I didn't expect top performance. The wonder movies are a bit stuttery.

3. Did you buy or build your computer and when did you do that?

Bought it 3 years ago.

4. What are your specs and when was the last time you updated your drivers?

P3 1.7 gHz, 388 Megs of RAM, 5G free space on hard drive, Radeon X800 video card. I haven't updated since I installed the X800, back in February. Windows XP.

5. What kinds of games are your favorite and how often do you play them?

cIV, RTS, and RPG's. About 15-20 hours a week.

Good luck dude!

 

[The Person]

1. Does the game work for you, yes or no? If no, state where you're at with it and what you've done so far.

Yes.

2. Does the performance meet your expectations, why or why not?

It meets my expectations.

3. Did you buy or build your computer and when did you do that?

I assembled my computer myself this winter, but I upgraded my mobo and CPU about a month ago.

4. What are your specs and when was the last time you updated your drivers?

Specs: 1 Gb RAM, Athlon 64 3000+, GeForce 6800 LE 128 Mb. Updated my drivers about a month ago after upgrading.

5. What kinds of games are your favorite and how often do you play them?

Strategy. I play them as good as every day.

 

[markcogan]

1. The game works for me ... now. I had to get a video card and more RAM for my destop for it to be playable. I do see the CTD problem ... a lot.

2. After upgrading to 1GB of RAM, the performance is OK, but I think it could be better. I'm unconvinced by arguments that the sluggish performance on large maps is inevitable.

3. Bought. Civ IV is running on three machines in my house (a laptop and two desktops), all bought from Dell.

4. (A) -- Laptop. 1GHZ Pentium CPU, 256MB RAM, GeForce2 built-in. Video drivers updated many, many moons ago. Windows 2000 SP3. Civ IV installed and ran fine, although it quickly moved into a swap-o-rama and became very sluggish. No graphics problems except sometimes seeing terrain features in the black part of the screen.

(B) Desktop. 2.4GHZ Pentium CPU, 1GB RAM (was 256MB), GeForce5200FX. Drivers updated when card was installed, about ten days ago. Windows XP, up-to-date. Works acceptably; still sluggish on large maps. Occassionally crashes to desktop.

(C) Desktop. 3.0GHx Pentium CPU (w/HT), 1GB RAM (was 256MB), GeForce5200FX. Drivers updated when card was installed, about ten days ago. Windows XP, up-to-date. Works acceptably; inexplicably has bursts of performing very well, and then reverts to being kind of sluggish on large maps. Frequently crashes to desktop, especially when the game hasn't be manually saved in the last 2-3 turns. Crashes can happen when he camera is moving (either by me or by the program showing me enemy moves), or when zooming out to the world view. Once it turned my monitor off(!) (so it may have crashed the video card).

Multiplayer games between computers A and B (the main reason we have two copies of CIV IV) are still (even at 1GB RAM) slow enough that we each bring a book to read while waiting for the computers.

5. I play (a) turn-based strategy games (that is, Civ), (b) Magic Online, and (c) (sometimes) RTS city-building games like Zeus or Pharoah. I've probabaly being playing a couple of hours of Civ IV every day (some days much more, but I do have a job I have to go to) since it came out; I usually will maybe play 5 or so hours of games a week.

 

[marioh]

1. Does the game work for you, yes or no? If no, state where you're at with it and what you've done so far.

Yes

2. Does the performance meet your expectations, why or why not?

Yes. Game runs fine, though I did notice some sluggishness with large maps. Very sporadic though, and I can typically avoid it if I don't do any zooming in or out.

3. Did you buy or build your computer and when did you do that?

Built it myself back in January.

4. What are your specs and when was the last time you updated your drivers?

Intel P4 3.0Ghz
1GB RAM
6800GT
Abit IS7-E2 motherboard

I haven't updated my drivers since a month or two after building it, so around March of 05.

5. What kinds of games are your favorite and how often do you play them?

Simulation games. Whenever I get the chance.

 

[snepp]

1. Yes, game works.

2. Yes and no. Between turn times are excellent, even better than I hoped for. I am severely limited in mapsize options. Late game on even a small sized map can border on unplayable. Unplayable is subjective, each person's tolerance for laggy gameplay is different, my tolerance happens to be low. I don't even bother playing standard size or larger maps.

3. Built, a couple years ago, motherboard replaced earlier this year.

4. P4 2.4Ghz (533), MSI 865PE Neo2, 512MB PC3200, GF4 Ti4600 (128), 2 40GB IDE 7200 (pagefile resides on 2nd), drivers are always up-to-date, though for Civ4 I've actually rolled back video to the Omega 61's (slight improvement if any).

5. All kinds, and often. HL2, AoE3, Empire Earth 2, Morrowind, MVP Baseball, Madden, Baldur's Gate, NWN, Deus Ex (goat, imho)

 

[Phoenix_56721]

I was just hoping to get some information from everyone.

1. Does the game work for you, yes or no? If no, state where you're at with it and what you've done so far.

2. Does the performance meet your expectations, why or why not?

3. Did you buy or build your computer and when did you do that?

4. What are your specs and when was the last time you updated your drivers?

5. What kinds of games are your favorite and how often do you play them?

I'm just trying to get an idea of how widespread these issues are. Thanks in advance.

1. yes it works, lags in late game when the whole map is vissable.
2. yes, I couldnt belive it works so well on my old machine.
3. no
4. 866 mhz P3, 512 ram, Geforce FX 5700 le, Win XP pro
5. Age of Empires 2 Age of kings (dont play much anymore), Civ3, Rise of Nations.

 

[Mhantra]

1. The game has been absolutely beautiful for me. It locked up once, in my 2 weeks of 8 hours a day (yes, I work full time and am in a Master's program..been a rough couple of weeks lol)

2. Yup, runs very well at 1600x1200 AFx2

3. Built my computer, kind of an ongoing upgrading thing...started waaay back in the day with my old 386sx25...none of those pieces made the cut into this current build heh

4.
Abit AI7 mobo
P4 2.8ghz (478 pin, 800FSB)
1.5GB generic RAM, dual channel mode
BFG Nvidia 6800GT OC (256MB ram)
I updated all of my drivers just before I installed Civ 4

I play mostly strategy games (Rome Total War ruled) and MMORPGS. I vary a lot in my playing time, sometimes 4-8 hours a day, others 4-8 per week...

 

[kaine]

1. Yes, but I had to force the game to run in directx 8 mode (by turning down the pixel shader) for a more acceptable and decent gameplay.

2. No, I think the performance could have been a LOT better than it is now.

3. Built it like four years ago with some upgraded parts along the way.

4. Desktop, 1.61GHz Athlon XP, 512MB Ram, GeForce FX5200 (driver 66.93), XP SP1, 1536MB fixed paging file separated in 2 hard drives.

5. I play wide range of games like Fable, GTA:SA, NFSU, SW:KOTOR series, Warcraft III, Rome:TW, around 10-15 hours/week.

TIPS for GeForce FX people with sluggish performance: try downgrading your pixel shader to 1.xx version by using a tweaking program called RivaTuner. This will force the game to run under directx 8 compatibility mode which has a bit lower image quality but smooths a whole lot of stuff (map scrolling, movie clips, etc.). It just seems that Firaxis used pixel shading in literally everything and if your GPU can't handle it, the performance will be sluggish. Maybe if they put more options in the graphic menu to lower the shading quality (the one that is already there now don't do jack), more people could actually play this game on large/huge maps.

 

[MetHimPikeHoses]

1. Does the game work for you, yes or no? If no, state where you're at with it and what you've done so far.

Yes, it worked right out of the box, though with some lag issues, CTD's, and hangs.


2. Does the performance meet your expectations, why or why not?

I expected the game to hang, but not have this lagging issue as the game progresses (debated memory leak). There are certainly bugs... not too surprising. The gameplay and graphics are quite nice.
3. Did you buy or build your computer and when did you do that?

I bought it from some dude off Craigslist. It is a Dell, and I would never buy one new... next computer will be built from scratch... now that I have taken apart and put back together the Dell a few times...

4. What are your specs and when was the last time you updated your drivers?

Dell Celeron D 2.4 Ghz, 1G Ram, geforce fx5200, xp home sp 1. New gpu drivers.


5. What kinds of games are your favorite and how often do you play them?
Really enjoyed Rome Total War recently... less of a hog than Civ4! Played Civ 2 and Civ 3 more than any other computer games.

I'm just trying to get an idea of how widespread these issues are. Thanks in advance.[/QUOTE]

 

[dickie]

1. Does the game work for you, yes or no? If no, state where you're at with it and what you've done so far.

Yes, although initially there were some graphical glitches. I updated my drivers and they went away though.

2. Does the performance meet your expectations, why or why not?

Yes, works great

3. Did you buy or build your computer and when did you do that?

I built it about 1 year ago

4. What are your specs and when was the last time you updated your drivers?

AMD Athlon XP 3200+, 1024mb RAM, 128mb nVidia Geforce 6600GT. I run Windows XP SP2 and I try to keep my drivers up to date, although I don't check that regularly that they are up to date

5. What kinds of games are your favorite and how often do you play them?

I play a wide variety of games, although I haven't played that many since before summer

 

[oldStatesman]

1. Does the game work for you, yes or no? If no, state where you're at with it and what you've done so far.
No. Had to upgrade video card. The game will run, but I get constant CTD's. It started to cause BSOD's and I stopped trying to play it to avoid any potential data loss or system damge. Civ4 is not the most important thing I use my PC for. It's not worth the risk.

2. Does the performance meet your expectations, why or why not?
Can't answer this question honestly; see above.
3. Did you buy or build your computer and when did you do that?
Build. Ongoing project.
4. What are your specs and when was the last time you updated your drivers?
Athlon 2400 (2Ghz) CPU/1GB System RAM/Radeon 9550 AGP 256 MB Video Card/Catalyst 5.10 Drivers/PCChips M848 mainboard/Win XP sp2 with all current Hotfixes/Trend-Micro PC-Cillan AV/Outpost Firewall 3.0/2 HDDs/20GB System (OS) partition in C drive on primary HDD/3.5GB page file on second HHD in dedicated 4GB partition/Game installed in separate 40 GB 'Game' application partiton with 3GB free space/user game files in separate 30GB 'My Document' partition with 10GB free.

Drivers are updated regularly as needed for new software and/or hardware. Updated Mainboard bios and drivers in September.

5. What kinds of games are your favorite and how often do you play them? Stratagy. God games. Usually a few hours a day for relaxation.

I'm just trying to get an idea of how widespread these issues are. Thanks in advance. Good Luck and you are welcome!

 

[Janos]

1. Does the game work for you, yes or no? If no, state where you're at with it and what you've done so far.

Yes, it does.

2. Does the performance meet your expectations, why or why not?

Yes, because it runs very smoothly and i don't have a problem with it apart from the Radeon error i got at installment.

3. Did you buy or build your computer and when did you do that?

Built, summer 2004.

4. What are your specs and when was the last time you updated your drivers?

P4 2.80ghz, 1024 DDR 3200, Sapphire Radeon 9600XT 256mb Atlantis, 120gb Maxtor hard drive. Updated drivers November 3rd.

5. What kinds of games are your favorite and how often do you play them?

Strategies or RPGs - not very often, i don't have a huge amount of time for gaming nowerdays sadly.

 

[mikh07]

1. Does the game work for you, yes or no? If no, state where you're at with it and what you've done so far.

yes, biggest game ive finished is standard/8 civs with everything on medium and max res. (1280x1024 i think)

2. Does the performance meet your expectations, why or why not? well it runs pretty well but it gets a bit laggy near the end of the game and theres some alert bugs that are annoying (you are told you have spread religion the next turn, sometimes you get an 'enemy is near us' several turns after he passes)

3. Did you buy or build your computer and when did you do that? umm it was built.. the last time ive changed up anything inside the case was like like week

4. What are your specs and when was the last time you updated your drivers? umm..
2000 athlon xp overclocked
512 ddr ram
6800 Geforce
70gig hd

using newest nvidia drivers from nvidia.com

5. What kinds of games are your favorite and how often do you play them? i like RTS games a lot and RPGs are fun

 

[weasel77066]

#1 Yes. It runs slowly late in the game. Turned off movies, lowered graphics to medium. Very infrequent CTD. Play on standard and large map

#2 Yes. I expected it to run slower after reviews said graphics were high. It never occured to me that a turn based strategy would require so much, civ3 ran like the wind.

#3 Built computer last year November

#4 AMD athlon 64 2800+ 1.81g / 1g RAM / geforce fx5200-- drivers last November / 60g HD, 20g HD second (photos,home movies)

#5 Strategy. Almost exclusively Civ. evening/weekends. Some racing sim, occasionall tactical shooter (GR & such)

 

[neriana]

1. Does the game work for you, yes or no? If no, state where you're at with it and what you've done so far.

Yes. I've played through two games on normal maps with no issues except wonder movie stuttering, and am currectly playing on a huge map, late game.

2. Does the performance meet your expectations, why or why not?

Yes. I expected there to be performance issues before the patch, and I can deal with mine. Huge maps are the only time I get slowdowns or crashes, and they're rare.

3. Did you buy or build your computer and when did you do that?

Bought, from Falcon NW, two years ago.

4. What are your specs and when was the last time you updated your drivers?

Windows XP sp 2
AMD Athlon XP 2800+
1 GB RAM
ATI Radeon 9600
On-board sound
I very recently updated my motherboard drivers. I played around significantly with my video drivers a few months ago to get them to work with other games, and am using the latest Omega drivers atm.

5. What kinds of games are your favorite and how often do you play them?

RPGs, followed by strategy games. Very nearly every day, for at least a couple hours.

 

[denyd]

1. Does the game work for you, yes or no? If no, state where you're at with it and what you've done so far.

Yes, though I have occasional problems

2. Does the performance meet your expectations, why or why not?

Yes, though I'm a little frustrated with it sometimes

3. Did you buy or build your computer and when did you do that?

I had to spend $100USD to upgrade the sound card and will probably add 256mb RAM for Christmas

4. What are your specs and when was the last time you updated your drivers?
Drivers are current, Dell 1.6ghz 256mb RAM new G-Force sound card (256 mem)


5. What kinds of games are your favorite and how often do you play them?
Play Civ 99% of the time and I play 30-35 hours per week

 

[JakeCourtney]

1. Yes
2. No, the late game is slow and as the game goes on it gets worse.
3.