Should I buy more Memory?

[civrules22]

Civ 4 runs horribly slow on my computer (1.74). My laptop has a P4, 3.3 ghz, 512 ram, ATI Moblility radeon 7000 IGP. Would adding another 512 ram help or am I out of luck w/ the crummy vid card?

 

[CCRunner]

Considering you have the minimum amount of ram, it would probably be beneficial. A new video card also wouldn't hurt since they recommend 7500

Spoiler Minimum system requirements :

Operating System:
Windows® 2000/XP/Vista

Processor:
1.2 GHz Intel Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon processor or equivalent

Memory:


256 MB RAM (Windows 2000) / 512 MB RAM (Windows XP)

Hard Disk Space:


1.7 GB Free

CD-ROM Drive :
4X Speed

Video:


DirectX 9.0c-compatible 64 MB video card with Hardware T&L support ( GeForce 2/Radeon 7500 or better)

Sound:


DirectX 9.0c-compatible sound card

DirectX®:


DirectX® version 9.0c (included) or higher

And this belongs in Computer Talk Don't post a new thread there though as this one will most likely be moved.

 

[GoodGame]

I'd go for at least 2 GB ram regardless, but yeah your vid card is weak and many generations old (It is Direct-X 7.0 according to my research). Non-replaceable?


Unless you can't afford a new laptop, I'd probably not even bother upgrading the ram and just use the money for a new laptop.

 

[Ginger_Ale]

Moderator Action: Moved to Computer Talk.

 

[civrules22]

I'd go for at least 2 GB ram regardless, but yeah your vid card is weak and many generations old (It is Direct-X 7.0 according to my research). Non-replaceable?


Unless you can't afford a new laptop, I'd probably not even bother upgrading the ram and just use the money for a new laptop.

I do beleive its not a pluggable component - and I figure if it were i'd still buy more RAM as well if I got a new one. I'll probably get a new computer in the next year...but I really wanna play civ now.

I might try going to 1GB or more overall and hope it helps...

 

[Genocidicbunny]

Those specs will basically never be able to run civ 4 decently. Even my old MX 4400 couldnt run it and it is a lot more powerful than a 7000 IGP

 

[Cutlass]

You shouldn't run a Windows XP on less than 1 gig. More is better. RAM is typically the cheapest way to speed up a computer.

 

[mdwh]

In what sense is it slow?

* Do the graphics run slowly?
* Does it take ages thinking?
* Is there lots of hard disk activity whilst it is running slowly?

The other obvious thing is to go to Task Manager (press control+shift+escape), click on Performance, and see how much memory is in use.

512MB sounds like too little for Windows XP - but there's no point us guessing, you can see exactly how much memory is being used, and whether you need more.

 

[Quintillus]

I'd recommend moving up from 0.5 to 1.0 GB - when I did that Civ4 performance went through the roof from unfun to actually quite reasonable. Pretty much everything except the title screen went faster.

The video card isn't exactly helping the situation, but while it will result in you never having very good frame rates, the extra memory should still help a lot. Your computer will spend much less time swapping data back and forth from the hard drive and you'll spend much less time waiting. Even if the video card is replaceable I'd go with the RAM first - you'll still have just as many delays with the best video card you can get if you stick with 512 MB RAM even if it runs better during non-delays.

 

[Jafendel]

Yep... 1 Gigs is adequate for CIV 4 but I experienced lag anyhow with larger maps. So I recently bought more RAM... just to force myself to start playing again