Performance tips

[EdCase]

Another one that a lot of people tend to neglect: De fragment your hard drive, especially if you have a system with minimum RAM. Virtual Memory will work much better if it's clean, and most games have some sort of cache placed somewhere that would also benefit from a clean drive. Many people tend to not bother with this even though you should be doing it every 6 months to a year. It's a basic maintenance requirement that all systems need from time to time.

Good advice..unless your like me..in which case once a month is better

Add to this..an app that cleans your pagefile at shutdown. After all do you watch your machine shutdown? (it will lengthen shutdown time)

Have your pagefile on a drive other than your system drive,preferably in a different "chain".

And I highly recommend this prog...http://www.ccleaner.com/ as well...just be careful with it.

 

[Willem]

Add to this..an app that cleans your pagefile at shutdown. After all do you watch your machine shutdown? (it will lengthen shutdown time)

I've never heard of that, can you point me in the right direction? I probably don't have to worry to much since I have 1 gig of RAM, but I can see that would be a good app to have anyway.

 

[pilight]

If you've got programs in your Process List that you don't recognize, click here...

http://answersthatwork.com/

...and go to the Task List. Most of the common things that should be running are listed. If it's not there, you can probably get by without it.

 

[Tidus4444]

This is a great thread, deserves to be stickied IMO.

 

[LlamaGod]

How do you open the art pack?

 

[Pyrion]

a) Download Microsoft Antispyware and/or Spybot S&D and clear out spyware. Spyware is constantly sending and recieving information, so in addition to collecting information, it slows you down.

Alternatively, stop using Internet Explorer.

 

[NKVD]

Can I close the running ones under ''sytem'' ?

I have like 15 running .exe
3x SVCHOST.EXE

I have downloaded taskmanager but he doesnt clear the one like that..only the real real programs.,.

I need to format this week or so...

 

[PjotrS]

NKVD:
svhost.exe is one of the services of windows you can't close with the task manager. Here is a guide about what each service does and how to shut then down http://www.techspot.com/tweaks/winxp_services/index.shtml. Read carefully what each service does because some of the are critical for windows to work!!!!

LlamaGod:
The bottom of this page has instructions to open the artpack http://www.2kgames.com/civ4/support_ati.htm

Undisclosed:
I can't because the EULA sais you may not distribute them and togedder they would be to big for me to send anyway.

 

[rob.derosa]

Alternatively, stop using Internet Explorer.

the only people who get spyware while using internet explorer are dumb asses

 

[GenocideBringer]

*wails on the thread, beating it up to the top*

 

[Willem]

Another mistake that people commonly make is filling up their hard drive until there's no room left. Every drive/partitain should have at least 15% of it as free space. This is what's required in order for defragmenting programs to function. Also, if you don't have enough room on your drive, Virtual Memory may not have enough room in order to run your system properly.

 

[Cyberstar]

I found these two sites in a google search that were somewhat helpful in letting me know what start-up items and tasks were okay to disable and how to do it.
For msconfig startup go here and type in the item you want to search for - http://www.sysinfo.org/startuplist.php?
For Task Manager/Processes you want to know about go here - http://www.answersthatwork.com/Tasklist_pages/tasklist.htm

Also, try defragging your hard drive. Start/Programs/Accessories/SystemTools/Defrag

 

[tmarcl]

This is a repost of my answer from the specs thread. If you can afford to spend $40, and currently have 512 or less RAM, this is a great way to speed up your game:
---
Here is the solution for folks with low RAM:

Go to http://www.crucial.com, and click "Memory upgrades".

Walk through the questions to find out what kind of RAM you need for your system.

Next, search http://www.newegg.com to find the cheapest Kingston, Mushkin, Corsair, Micron, Samsung or Crucial RAM with those specs.

For example:
512 MB SDRAM for $80
512 MB DDR SDRAM (Most common) for $40
512 MB RDRAM (highly unlikely) for $210
512 MB DDR2 SDRAM for $45

Buy it.

Finally, Google for "how to install RAM" and get a nice, illustrated guide like this one from PCWorld.

As you can see, if you can install your own lightbulbs, you can buy and swap your own RAM, usually for under $50.

Question: Is there a generic brand RAM chip for Gateways, or am I forced to use theirs? I know they designed my computer so it *had* to have Windows XP, but do they make their very own unique RAM as well?

Marc

 

[opkoad]

Another tip is to look in your graphics card settings (right-click on your desktop, click Properties, and then go to the System tab. Click Advanced, and look for a tab from your graphics manufacturer):



You want to turn everything all the way down. Usually there will be a Detail or Quality tab, and this one often makes the most difference. It compresses the textures, allowing you to get away with less graphics memory than the game wants. It does make a visible negative difference in-game, too, but it sure runs faster (if you are trying to run a card with low memory).

It usually doesn't hurt to tweak other settings in this window (or windows, depending on your card) to maximize performance.

And use FRAPS to easily measure whether your changes are having any effect on speed. See this thread: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=135924

 

[opkoad]

And...if you take any of this advice...don't blame anyone posting here if you screw up your computer

 

[spa]

Just a quick question. I'm going to do a RAM upgrade so that I have a gig instead of 512 since I can do that for fairly cheap. I'm running a Geforce FX5200 though. I don't plan on replacing that until some of the newer cards come down into my price range, but I was wondering if installing the latest Nvidea drivers would really make any difference? I ask because I would rather not tamper with drivers when everything is working if I'm not missing anything because I'm afraid that when I'm done things won't be working (I had problems once before). So am I missing anything by leaving things as they are with the year old driver on an older card and if I am is it really that big a deal? (I know the RAM upgrade will make the most difference obviously) Just trying to weight the risks.

 

[glasl]

I have a problem to resizing the texture with the directx sdk.
I can change only the width or height but not the width and the height.

e.g.
original
width: 256
height: 256

resizing is possible to
width: 128
height: 256
or
width: 256
height: 128

but not to

width: 128
height: 128

anyone know why? :/

 

[Rising Sun]

Well getting those spy bots and other tools to remove those spywares and virus aint gonna help much. So better off re-format your HD and re-install all your OS/Drivers IF you really want to play this.

After i re-formatted mine and stay off the internet as much as possible due to spywares and other craps, just stick with friendly sites but keep it minimum as possible and DONT let anyone use your PC regardless.

To play this you gonna have to disable those spyware and/or other programs to keep you from getting those nasty bugs on your pc.

Im using GeForce FX 5200 w/256mb 81.85 driver and ran pretty good except my pc barely can handle that game (AMD 1.100MHz, WinXP 2SP, 512mb). Been playing it for two full days so far and had only a few crash.

This might help some of you guys by clicking "Animations Frozen" at the Option-Graphic Settings. I got all mine high with everything unchecked except Animations Frozen. So far it ran pretty smooth for me even no lag with alot of units/FXs going on. Oh BTW im playing on HUGE world along with 18 civs... playing the Japanese right now.

 

[spa]

Well I upgraded the RAM in my machine and now it runs just great. The improvement is incredible. The animations and everything were a little choppy in the late game, but now it runs just perfectly, even with tons of tanks and choppers and what not on the screen. All I did was I went from 512 to 768 (added a 512 piece and kept one of my 256s). If you're looking for a minor upgrade that'll improve game play and meet the recommended specs in every other way, RAM is the place to put your money and happily it's also the cheapest option going.

 

[crciv]

Had some real performance issues initially....largely resolved through the following:

1. Defraging
2. Drvie manipulation---Installing the game on a non-boot drive (SATA Raptor, 10,000 RPM--highly recommended). Any system calls are thus on the boot drive while program calls are to another drive. Along the same lines, I use yet another SATA Raptor drive for virtual memory...again, less read/write jumping around...does make a difference. You can set virtual memory from the advanced tab on system properties.
3. Updated NV graphics drivers. GForce 6600GT, 128 MB, the updated October drivers matter.

I have a GIG of RAM in a dual P4 Xeon (2x2.4GH Xeons) and I really shouldn't have to tweak, but there you go.

I used to be able to have more than one app running (dual monitors) in CIV3, but 4 doesn't seem to like that.

Still, like the game...and hope the patch helps with speed...