Solutions for NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 420 - Please post here.

[Baron Rakkan]

Hello,

I have posted this problem in another thread too http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=135366, but I post it again.

If anyone with this or a similar driver has any idea to solve jerky graphics and long loading times and crashes(before starting a wonder video), please post it here.

I am really confused and working on this problem since I have this game(since monday) but I didn't solve it, so I will be very thankful if someone has an idea.

Thank you,

Baron Rakkan

 

[Nightfang]

Hello,

I have posted this problem in another thread too http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=135366, but I post it again.

If anyone with this or a similar driver has any idea to solve jerky graphics and long loading times and crashes(before starting a wonder video), please post it here.

I am really confused and working on this problem since I have this game(since monday) but I didn't solve it, so I will be very thankful if someone has an idea.

Thank you,

Baron Rakkan

You realize, of course, that the card you speak of here is very old and out of date? It is essentially a overclocked GF2. You can get a GF5700 relatively inexpensively online these days.

 

[ainwood]

May nt work, but try this:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=3256370&postcount=10

 

[jened]

You realize, of course, that the card you speak of here is very old and out of date? It is essentially a overclocked GF2. You can get a GF5700 relatively inexpensively online these days.

You realize, of course, that the card you speak of here is listed by Firaxis (who created the game) as meeting the requirements. If anyone would know, I think they would know. You can get helpful opinions relatively inexpensively online these days as well as opinions from pompous jerks.

my biggest problem with that card was movies crashing and only bread showing up in terrain. i can't imagine them not fixing either. i haven't tried a huge map yet so it could lag a lot there. i'm running a p4-2.4 with 512mb ram on 2000 advanced server. what are the rest of your computer specs?

 

[mrlaze]

You realize, of course, that the card you speak of here is listed by Firaxis (who created the game) as meeting the requirements. If anyone would know, I think they would know. You can get helpful opinions relatively inexpensively online these days as well as opinions from pompous jerks.

Thanks for yours.

 

[ainwood]

Moderator Action: Calm-down people.

 

[jened]

Thanks for yours.

it's always best to be productive and constructive. everyone knows buying a new computer or adding another gig of ram or buying a bigger, better video card might fix their problems but it's just not a realistic option for many people.

 

[maartena]

My wife's computer has the same card. The game runs, but it is slow. The intro movie hardly runs, but the game itself runs fairly ok, albeit slow.

The loading times have to do with your memory and CPU power. I have 768 Mb in my wife's computer so the loading is not really an issue, with the exception of actually starting the game which takes a little while.

Her computer is 3 years old now, and I think if I upgraded the videocard it will run even better. I think however I will upgrade both mine and her computer next year, so I will wait.

I don't think there is a whole lot we can do to improve the speed of the game with this card. The MX series are significantly slower then the non-MX series, and although the card meets the minimum requirements, it gave a warning when I installed the game that to be able to play all details needed to be set to low and performance would be slow. The game told me so!

And yeah.... buying a bigger, better, faster computer or videocard isn't always an option.

But don't expect a comfortable ride at 80MPH when the car is only made to do a maximum of 85MPH mechanically. You will have a much comfortable ride at 80 MPH in a Mercedes that can do 150 MPH.

Newer driver versions may help a little. Tweaking with details may help a little. But besides replacing parts for better, faster parts don't expect a magical solution that doesn't cost anything but software tweaking.

 

[mrlaze]

it's always best to be productive and constructive. everyone knows buying a new computer or adding another gig of ram or buying a bigger, better video card might fix their problems but it's just not a realistic option for many people.

I though he was by pointing out the fact that the other guy had and old card. Not all of us new that. I have the same card.

 

[Baron Rakkan]

here is again my dxdiag for all who want to know further information, perhaps someone of you has an idea what to update.

As some of you mentioned, of course it's makes me lesser headache if I buy a new graphic driver, RAM and so on, but my computer is not three yers old and should work with the game very good. That it runs a little bit slow(especially bigger and huge maps) I can live with it, but the crashes and the jerky graphics I can't.

I tried to update my driver, but it didn't work and perhaps I have really to buy a new one, nevertheless I will try my best that it works in an acceptable way before I buy a new one. I can't buy for each game a new driver(Rise of Nation, Thrione and Patriots and so on) I am still a university student! If I weren't a civ fan since civ1 I wouldn't have that patience.

Here only little informations about my computer the rest is in the dxdiag:

AMD Sempron(tm) 2600+
1,89 Ghz, 512 MB Ram
NVIDIA GeForce4 MX420
Windows XP PRO.

Thank you very much.

Baron Rakkan

 

[Baron Rakkan]

Thank you for the link ainwood, I tried it several times, but it didn't really change the gameplay. But it was a try!

Thanks

 

[fawx]

i'm having the same issue, but i'm also missing the white circles i've been hearing about in my city vew screen. i have updated drivers and i tried the link posted earlier, but no luck.

also, if i load a game i was playing for a few hours yesterday, my framerate is totally unplayable, but starting a new game works just fine.

 

[swashbuckler]

Hello,

I have posted this problem in another thread too http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=135366, but I post it again.

If anyone with this or a similar driver has any idea to solve jerky graphics and long loading times and crashes(before starting a wonder video), please post it here.

I am really confused and working on this problem since I have this game(since monday) but I didn't solve it, so I will be very thankful if someone has an idea.

Thank you,

Baron Rakkan

Baron,

I have the same card as you. If you go to the nvidia website and download the latest driver for the card (released Oct 2005) then it works fine.

 

[fawx]

i'm still only seeing slices of bread, does anyone know how to fix this? i've got the new drivers and tried the shader 1.1 trick, but no go.

 

[thorgaard]

With my card, I can see the i Intro just fine, + the tutorial runs great. But when I set up a game with a map that is bigger than "tiny" the game will say "Done" after loading for a while, I hear the sound but nothing else happens. After a while I reboot the system. I have tried:
Removing the Cache
updating my Nvidia drivers + tried omega.

Any Ideas???

 

[Baron Rakkan]

Baron,

I have the same card as you. If you go to the nvidia website and download the latest driver for the card (released Oct 2005) then it works fine.

Thank you I will try it today.
Should I deinstall the old driver before I install the ltest driver, or is it only like an update?

 

[Baron Rakkan]

Baron,

I have the same card as you. If you go to the nvidia website and download the latest driver for the card (released Oct 2005) then it works fine.

Execuse me, when I am a little bit tiresome, but I searched exactly for the driver in www.nvidia.com, but didn't find it. Is it possible for you to send me the link, It would be really great of you, Thank you.

Baron rakkan

 

[cbeecham]

Execuse me, when I am a little bit tiresome, but I searched exactly for the driver in www.nvidia.com, but didn't find it. Is it possible for you to send me the link, It would be really great of you, Thank you.

Baron rakkan

http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_2k_81.85.html

Uninstall old driver - Reboot - Install New Driver

Make sure you have a copy or disk containing your old driver should you decide to revert back to it for whatever reason.

Good luck.

 

[Baron Rakkan]

Thank you for your tipps. I downloaded this driver from the nVidia homepage, deinstalled the old driver and installed the new. I also set my graphics for Civ4 on medium, because I was playing on a big map with many civilizations, but.................................nothing changed :suicide: and I don't know whyyyyyyyyyyyyy.
What can it be? I divided my harddisk into two parts(when I bought the computer beginning of this year), one for windows and one for the rest, of course I installed Civ4 on the non-windows homepage. Can this be the problem?? I fulfill all the requirements(as you can read in the dxdiag) I am on the end of my knowledge(which in technical matters is spare) and I cannot spend more nights drinking coffee and trying to find a solution for the gameplay. If even less graphic setting don't help, I really don't know what's wrong with my computer (or with the game)
Perhaps(if God Will, hopefully) the next patch, which will be released next week will help to solve these problems, otherwises I will not be able to play the game more often, if at all.

But thank you for your help!

Baron Rakkan.

P.S.: I will worship the one, who finds a solution.

 

[cbeecham]

I had the latest and greatest driver from nvidia and was unable to run the game without it freezing and crashing also. Like yours, my PC is also well within the requirements. I ran across this thread by WarX and gave it a try: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=137370 I had to revert back to the original driver that supported my 5200 geforce fx (128mb) card in order to get the game to run. If you still have the install CD that came with your card, try uninstalling the new driver and reloading the original one. If you don't have the CD, go to the card manufacturer's website and grab the driver specifically supported by your card (i.e. XFX made my card). It is still an nvidia driver, but it will (most likely) be an archive of the driver best suited for your card. After the install, I changed a few of the settings in the nvidia control panel, but nothing major. <-- See my post in the linked thread. I have, and am now playing games with grapics set to medium on huge maps with about 5-6 civs. I still see a stutter on some of the wonder videos, but nothing to complain about. I would probably be better off with graphics set to low, but I like milking the cow. The only other thing I see is that after a couple of hours of playing, my machine drags like hell and I have to reboot. Give it a try. I'm not saying it will work for you, but it certainly worked for me. If you want to be thorough, try this in the following order: (1) Uninstall the game and delete any cached files it leaves behind. (2)Reinstall the original driver. (3) Reinstall Civ and give it try.

Good Luck!