Random question concerning hardware....

[citizenalex]

Is there a really fast pc out there that can handle a 1000+ turn game of FF, with say, 16 opponents and a huge map...and you can click "end turn" and from turn 999 to 1000, it only takes a blink....


please tell me that exists...i'm getting ready for xmas

 

[WarKirby]

You really just want lots of ram and a really fast processor. Also the civ engine is not multicore optimised, so favour maximum power in a single core rather than rspread over multiple ones.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

I'd rather like advice on what new laptop to get too. My parents should be buying me one for Christmas, as my current laptop's screen has been slowly failing since shortly after its warranty wore off over the summer. It now has about 60 1-pixel wide vertical lines of various colors that won't go away and are starting to make things in parts of the screen hard to read. Handling FfH and its modmods better would be nice, but my computer would mostly be for my last year of school work and an engineering job that would hopeful soon follow.

 

[WarKirby]

you really can't go wrong with more single core processing power, As a general rule, more is better. more ram, more processing power, more hard drive space, more video memory, etc. It's generally best to make your own poc or have one custom made to specifications - don't buiy prepackaged deals and especially don't buy extended wrranties, ANY included software at all beyond basic drivers, any ffancy cases, insurance, or other useless peripheral junk.

 

[tokala]

You really just want lots of ram and a really fast processor. Also the civ engine is not multicore optimised, so favour maximum power in a single core rather than rspread over multiple ones.

Problem is, you basically don't get any decent single cores anymore, and the top-of-the-line processors usually carry a hefty price tag.
Keep also in mind, that as a rule of thump 30% more processor speed are just noticable.

I have an older Thinpad with a 2 GHz Core2Duo, 2GB RAM and a dedicated low end video card (ATI X1400, 128 MB RAM) and can play CIV just fine with a bit reduced graphics settings.

Stay away from atom-based machines if you plan to do serious work. Generally avoid integrated graphics (anything with "up to xxxx MB video memory" if you want to do some gaming. 2 GB of RAM is plenty enough, if you can get more without paying much more, get it, but keep in mind that no ordinary windows software can use more than 2GB, much less profit from it significantly!

Video card performance can differ by orders of magnitude, but it can be rather tricky to find out how a specific model will perform as the manufacturers like play all kinds of dirty tricks with this, basically you need to go through some competent reviews. Most importantly: will you get regularly updated drivers from the manufacturer? Check their website for older models! It is usually quite tricky and sometimes outright impossible to get a generic ATI/Nvidia driver to run on a laptop.

If you can afford it and don't need much storage space, go for a SSD. It's downright amazing how snappy everything is compared to even a desktop HDD, let alone a notebook HDD.

If you plan to drag the laptop around a lot, keep an eye on the weight, should definitely be below 5 lbs, so you should prefer a 14" model.

If you are going to use it extensively and/or move it around alot, you should seriously consider a "business notebook". These are usually better designed and more robust, and you can expect a better treatment at the hotline
The downside is usually a "now frills" approach and a sleightly worse price/performance ratio.

My personal recommendation would be either a Thinkpad T400 or an equivalent Dell business notebook. For one of these an extended warranty might make sense, as Lenovo and Dell tend to have efficient service that actually is capable of fixing a broken notebook.

Good reviews can be found at http://www.notebookreview.com/reviews/.
Specific infos on thinkpads: http://forum.thinkpads.com/

 

[Breez]

I would say 3 gigs of RAM not 2 Gigs... but yeah basically CIV can't make use of more hardware.

 

[zup]

That's rather...sad really. All those multicores people have these days...wasted.

If buying a desktop, consider adding a battery. Though C4 can make an autosave every turn if you so wish, it is never fun having to boot just because of half a second power failure. With a battery you might never even notice it happened. Even if you don't get power back quickly, you will have time to save whatever you were doing and shut down the pc properly.

You might want to consider additional cooling solutions so your pc won't overheat. Particularly important in warm weather.

 

[Gelvan]

I've got a Intel Core2 Duo T7700 @ 2,40GHz and 4 GB RAM with a NVIDIA Geforce 8700M GT.
Civ4-Mods are only playable on small maps - on bigger maps it's about a minute between turns.
(Vanilla FFH is faster though)
I suppose it is because of the RAM which is 2GB DIMM1 and 2 GB DIMM3 - Windows Vista gives a "score" of 4,8 for that.
So I suppose the best thing you can do ist to learn about what kind of RAM's do exist on the market, and take the best.
A Single Core sounds like a good idea too.