please help, game runs slow and stutters

[esisco]

Ok, first I'll say that I am running Civ4 on a laptop with 2.0Ghz AMD Athlon 64, 512Mb RAM, and a 64Mb ATI Mobility Radeon 9600 graphics card. When I first installed the game I had to install the 1.09 patch to make it work with my video card and everything played pretty well.

I was able to run the game in High Graphics mode without much lag. Then patch 1.52 came out and after I installed it I am now unable to even run the game efficiently at Low quality mode. I updated my graphics driver and it didn't help.

While running the game I alt-tabbed and checked the Civilization4.exe process running in task manager. It had set itself to BelowNormal priority. I tried setting it to AboveNormal and Normal priority but it always resets itself to belowNormal after returning to the game.

Has anyone had a similar problem or does anyone know how to permanently set the process priority? I am also assuming there is going to be another Patch soon? Thank you all for your help.

Sorry for the duplicate post, I posted inside of the other thread first and then realized I should post here to get a wider audience. I have also attached my dxdiag.

Thanks,
Erik

 

[Zydor]

Hi Erik

Replied in your original post - if you have any further queries or need help/run something by - post it here

Regards
Zy

 

[esisco]

My Game used to run in high mode, please view my DxDiag in this thread.

-Erik

 

[Zydor]

Originalreply posted for completeness - reading dxdiag now

===================
The priority setting has little effect on a standalone PC running few - or zero - concurrent applications.

The problem is the Mobility Radeon graphics setup, its not a separate Video card, it relies on on board graphics, which the game does not support. The switch to V1.52 involved placing more load on the graphics card - which you do not have - hence you crashed. If you run your dxdiag (post it afterwards and we can take a look for you) you will see substantially less than 512Mb available in the memory line (probably says 446 or 478Mb Mb - thats the graphics setup "stealing" main systemRAM to work.

The plus side is that its 9600, and might be able to get it to run, but it will be slow even then, a memory upgrade to 1 Gb may help make up some of the lost power of no card - but cant guarantee that. Follow through on the link below (ignore the AGP part your AGP is ok) reducing memory load on the video as much as possible.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=154317

Ifyou post your Dxdiag we can have a look to see if anything else will help.
===========================

 

[Zydor]

Sorry eric - having seen dxdiag - my error on first reply

I note you are running it on a TV ? Is that correct ? If so what kind ....

Regards
Zy

 

[esisco]

No, I am not running it on a TV, it is on my laptop which I described earlier.

-Erik

 

[Zydor]

Reason for the strange question is the dxdiag entry ...

Monitor: Generic Television
Monitor Max Res: 640,480

What res is your desktop set to, and what driver do you have loaded - have to admit that thew me a bit ...

Regards
Zy

 

[esisco]

I am set at 1280 x 800 32bit.

I have the following driver information:
ATI Mobility Radeon 9600/9700 Series
Driver Date: 12/11/2005
Version: 8.203.0.0

When I open the ATI Catalyst Control Center and go to Help...About
I see this version
1.2.2172.2074

I have a gateway laptop
Model: 7405GX

 

[Zydor]

Thats a fairly new beastie - did it come configured like this or have you changed the screen res at all - I'm trying to get past the dxdiag infor above, it seems wierd, before going further - probably something simple as its relatively new, but your having video type issues, so need to resolve the TV bit first

Anyone else reading this seen this before ?

Regards
Zy

 

[esisco]

I received this laptop last year for Christmas. I don't know why there would be a tv setting or if it is even affecting anything.

 

[Zydor]

Eric

I have a feeling that Gateway customise their grahics drivers, if so you would need to load their version of the video driver.

Check with Gateway first, but if I am correct this is the latest driver they use for your Laptop - dont install blind,check with gateway first

http://support.gateway.com/support/drivers/search.asp?param=7405gx+video&st=kw

Regards
Zy

 

[esisco]

That driver is over a year older than mine.

 

[Zydor]

Did you download one from ATI ? if so that may be the problem - I think Gateway customise the driver, if thats so, that may expalin the strange setting if you loaded an ATI driver. Need to check with gateway

Regards
Zy

 

[esisco]

After I updated to the newest version of Civ4 I got the error that the game would crash before loading the map saying some kind of video error. That problem was fixed with the graphics driver I installed. If I rollback the driver then I may not be able to play still.

 

[Zydor]

I updated my graphics driver and it didn't help. Erik

If it didnt help - nothing to loose, all to gain. If - I stress if, need to check with gateway - I am correct and they do customise drivers, its a real possibility you will introduce other errors that are masking the original issue. Incorrect drivers can - and often do - have detrimental effects on performance.

Need to "put this one to bed" before going further, because if the wrong driver is loaded, you will eventually, if not right now have problems with other applications let alone Civ IV. We need to understand why its showing "Generic Television" - I have a feeling its the wrong driver being misinterpreted by your card.

I could be wrong, but we need to get to the bottom of this beforte going further or we chase our own tail pipe. Need to check with Gateway, if necessary copy this in the email, they will know immediately if there is an issue

Regards
Zy