Slow Turns

[iEspionage]

Whenever I play on a "Huge" map, the game is very slow paced. Each turn takes forever to finish, this is why I play on "Large". Common sense that a bigger map lags, but my computer, as bad as it is, WILL handle this game no problem, considering this game has N64 type Graphics, and was made around 2001, I don't see why the turns take so long.

What's the problem here?

^The whole year thing/graphics thing was me trying to make a point, no idea when the game came out exactly.

I am NOT a patient person, I literally get VERY annoyed, irritated, and pissed off eventually because of how slow and how long the turns/game becomes. Like, even the first turn, it takes quite a bit of time (not that much, but noticeable) to complete. I do NOT want this, I don't understand AT ALL how you guys can play HUGE maps for HOURS and call it "fun", my word for it would be "hell", I'm a fast and slow (I can't explain) player. I want a fast game, but I want to take my time PLAYING the game, not WAITING for the game.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

How much RAM do you have?

 

[iEspionage]

About 3/4, I have a good computer, just.. not sure why I have to wait so long for the turns

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

How many gigabytes of RAM do you have? Not how much do you use. IIRC, Civ is a game that takes a lot of memory.

 

[iEspionage]

I have 2047 MB.
CPU: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4200+
Display: NVIDIA GeForce 9400 GT

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Hmm.

What happens if you reduce the number of Civs? I think a lot of it is the AIs planning their moves.

 

[iEspionage]

Hmm.

What happens if you reduce the number of Civs? I think a lot of it is the AIs planning their moves.

Well.. that's the thing, I don't want to reduce the number of Civs, the game gets really boring, not many people to declare war on and start a load of drama.
And they PLAN? I mean.. I know it's a strategy game.. but I thought the AI's were automated when the game was being developed, so they don't have to think.. and even if they did, their computers, their minds should be insta-made up -_-

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Well they have to do the calculations. Its not completely random (though sometimes it seems that way when they do dumb things.)

 

[ParadigmShifter]

Computers aren't instant...

Current state of the art

See also: integer factorization records
A team at the German Federal Agency for Information Technology Security (BSI) holds the record for factorization of semiprimes in the series proposed by the RSA Factoring Challenge sponsored by RSA Security. On May 9, 2005, this team announced factorization of RSA-200, a 663-bit number (200 decimal digits), using the general number field sieve.
The same team later announced factorization of RSA-640, a smaller, 640-bit number (193 decimal digits), on November 4, 2005.
Both factorizations required several months of computer time using the combined power of 80 AMD Opteron CPUs.
In January 2010, the factorization of RSA-768 was announced.[1]

And that was just factorising a big number...

 

[Souron]

RAM and cache size are the likely the features that are likely to have the most influence on improving Civ 5 AI turns. With RAM, you just need to be sure to have enough, but with the cache, more is always better.

 

[Furiey]

...considering this game has N64 type Graphics, and was made around 2001, ...

What game are you talking about?

There are forums for all the different Civ games, you may get better help asking in the appropriate one and giving details of your system.

 

[iEspionage]

Computers aren't instant...

Current state of the art

See also: integer factorization records
A team at the German Federal Agency for Information Technology Security (BSI) holds the record for factorization of semiprimes in the series proposed by the RSA Factoring Challenge sponsored by RSA Security. On May 9, 2005, this team announced factorization of RSA-200, a 663-bit number (200 decimal digits), using the general number field sieve.
The same team later announced factorization of RSA-640, a smaller, 640-bit number (193 decimal digits), on November 4, 2005.
Both factorizations required several months of computer time using the combined power of 80 AMD Opteron CPUs.
In January 2010, the factorization of RSA-768 was announced.[1]

And that was just factorising a big number...

English please?

What game are you talking about?

There are forums for all the different Civ games, you may get better help asking in the appropriate one and giving details of your system.

Sorry, I'm talking about Civ3, I think I said that :s my bad

 

[ParadigmShifter]

It's hard just to find the factors of a really large number.

Civ AI is hard also.

 

[Furiey]

You can try changing the settings so that you do not show friendly unit moves. That should speed up the turns. It can take a long time between turns though, particularly on big maps with lots of Civs. The last SGOTM I played I had to drop out of as my PC was taking 40 mins between turns and it was still quite early in the game.

 

[iEspionage]

You can try changing the settings so that you do not show friendly unit moves. That should speed up the turns. It can take a long time between turns though, particularly on big maps with lots of Civs. The last SGOTM I played I had to drop out of as my PC was taking 40 mins between turns and it was still quite early in the game.

Actually I've already done this.

I've disabled it so I can't see friendly/or my own moves, just the enemies. I'd have to record it ingame somehow to explain what I'm experiencing, I'm assuming you guys are just.. much more patient than I am because some of you have HUGE busy games and.. yeah I can't do that, although I'd love to.

 

[Souron]

So I recommend making sure that you have enough RAM. You want to compare your "commit charge" when playing the game to your physical RAM. I believe windows native task manager can be made to display this, though I use a program called Process Explorer. If your commit charge is near or above your physical memory, then I recommend getting more RAM. RAM is relatively cheep, and the benefit will be huge.

If that turns out not to be the problem, then you can either live with it, or get a new processor. A new Processor is expensive compared to RAM, may require you to upgrade other components as well. But if your gaming computer is not meeting your gaming needs, then the only option is to upgrade it.

 

[warpus]

You could also see what other processes you have running when you play - go into the task manager and sort by RAM usage as well as CPU usage. There might be stuff you can eliminate

Also, when's the last time you re-installed windows from scratch?

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Also, if you've not defragged in a while, worth a try (though don't expect too much of it). Generally the HDD is the slowest component on the system and when they have to search for pieces of files scattered all over the place it slows down even more.

 

[Samez]

C3C needs a lot of processing power in the late game. One reason next to complexity is probably poor programming/optimization.
Your processor speed might be the most important criterion.
Be aware that C3C does not use multiple cores so manually assigning it to a core with lower load might help.
As you already stated the graphics are not really load intensive for gpus but the calculation of parameters for trade, diplomacy and espionage will take quite a while to compute.

So Civ3 speed issues practical problem solutions: (CSI PPS)
disable sea and air trade (or limit it) by modding the game.
reduce diplomatic and/or espionage options.

BTW: Try out some custom graphics from this forum to eliminate the N64nes
(IMHO the modded C3C sprites look way better than the cIV 3d models...)

EDIT:
Another grand strategy game which requires incredible calculation power during the endgame is Victoria II. Also just sprites for graphics but will slooowwwww down your pc massively.

 

[Souron]

Also, if you've not defragged in a while, worth a try (though don't expect too much of it). Generally the HDD is the slowest component on the system and when they have to search for pieces of files scattered all over the place it slows down even more.

No, this won't effect civ 3 turn times, unless you're low on RAM. RAM access time and Processer speed are the critical problem here, not the Hard Disk. The hard disk only effects loading time.