Ultimate Machine

[fredcdobbs]

Does anyone have a rig that can run this mod without much slowdown? If there is such a computer. I'm speaking of time between turns.

 

[Jabarto]

I can play any map on GEM without more than 5 seconds between turns, except for the 1940AD scenario. That one usually takes 10-20 seconds between turns for me - as I recall, anyway. I haven't had the presence of mind to time it.

Have you considered upgrading your RAM? It's dirt cheap these days and makes a huge difference.

 

[Bastian-Bux]

Win XP (32), 2 GB RAM, AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual 3800+ usually does the trick.

Trying my modifications with Overlord or Rise of Mankind though will be significantly slower, as those mods do have a larger overhead.

If you get BtS to run under a 64bit enviroment (preferable Win XP) tell me how to do so. Then you can and should use more then mere 2 GB RAM.

 

[fredcdobbs]

I have 4 Gigs of ram, 9800 GTX, 9450 CPU, and Vista32. Don't know what your specs are, but I'm not seeing five seconds between turns.

 

[Bastian-Bux]

4 GB doesn't do you a lot good in a 32 bit system, just in the opposite. There is a way to increase the usefull RAM above 2 GB ... but its a "workaround" at best.

 

[Halt]

Mine is:
2GB Ram
Name Intel Pentium D 830
Codename SmithField
Specification Intel(R) Pentium(R) D CPU 3.00GHz

Video Card: GeForce 7800 GTX

And it is damn slow....

XP system of course.

You need 32 Bit Vista to use up to 3.3GB and 64 Bit version for more than 4 and that only works it the software would support the extra RAM which Civ 4 probably does not.

Besides the speed issue I am fairly sure is more of a processor issue at 2GB Ram XP.

 

[Jabarto]

I have 4 Gigs of ram, 9800 GTX, 9450 CPU, and Vista32. Don't know what your specs are, but I'm not seeing five seconds between turns.

Halt and Bastian Bux said it better than I could, but if you were wondering...

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 CPU 3.00GHz
Nvidia GeForce 8800GT
4GB RAM
Windows Vista Home Edition 64

Also, if I read your CPU model correctly, my CPU is a bit faster (though it's not a quad core, but I don't think Civ4 benefits much from more than two cores) which could account for it.

 

[Bastian-Bux]

Well, as far as I know Vista in itself will slow down Civ 4 significantly. So either use a Win XP 32 system with 2GB, a Vista 32 with 3.3 GB or if it does work (as it seems for Jabarto) a Vista 64 with 4+ GB.

And yes Jabarto, my CPU is "basically" just running on 2,01 Ghz, so yours should be faster.

 

[Genghis_Kai]

My machine is worst than you guys but still running reasonably well.

Intel Core 2Duo T7300 2.00GHz
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 2600
2GB RAM
Windows Vista Business Edition 32

I never had any CTD after changing the memory allocation setting and I always restart the game if I want to reload the game.

The turn time for playing the 1940AD scenario is probably about 30s to 1min for me. Acceptable for me.

 

[raja2002]

Dear Genghis,

thats my problem! I always get CTD´s with the message "... wrong memory allocation ..." when reaching a savegamesize around 2,7 MB.
What should i do to avoid this?
My system is a intel core 2 duo 1,83GHz, 3 GB RAM, Vista Home Premium

As I really like playing the GEM-Scenarios i´m glad for every help!

 

[Genghis_Kai]

See this post:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=6863669&postcount=3

No guarantee and no support from me though. I did it trying different things. It works now but I don't remember what i did already.

 

[Imperium30]

Hi there,

I wonder if Genghis Kai or one of the other modders would care to comment on the viability of a map larger than the current GEM. Don't get me wrong I really like GEM and I have played all my best games on it. However even on GEM Europe is crowded and lot of compromises have had to be made in terms of resource allocation(especially true since I use the WoC mod with 16 new resources to find space for). Is it possible to make a map size 3 times larger than the current GEM? If so how would you go about doing it?

I am aware that the game will run slowly on such a vast map size. At present I have slowdown of about 15 seconds between turns on single player during the late game which does irritate me but I plan a processor/ mobo upgrade anyway. If I could have a more realistic earth map I could tolerate a longer delay.

By the way I upgraded my PC yesterday going from 4GB to 8 GB of RAM and a 256MB video card to a 1GB one. My GEM games are now a little faster but I only managed to shave about 5 seconds a turn off in the late game. I have concluded it must therefore be a processor issue. Any suggestions on great processors / motherboard combinations for CIV would be welcomed.

I read In the ultimate machines thread someone claimed to have 5 seconds between turns. Why I can't achieve this with my system is beyond me.

My Partially upgraded system is:

intel core 2 duo CPU E8200 2.66Ghz
Asus P5Q motherboard
1TB LaCie Hard disk
8GB Ram
Asus ATI Radeon HD 4850 1024MB GDDR3
OS = Win XP professional x64 (English version) (Dedicated Drive for OS)
Civ version. BTS 3.17 WoC 1.0 (Dedicated Drive for games)

Imperium30.

 

[Jabarto]

I read In the ultimate machines thread someone claimed to have 5 seconds between turns. Why I can't achieve this with my system is beyond me.

Yeah, I hadn't played GEM for a while when I said that, that or I was thinking of a different mod. My load times are a bit more like Kai's upon testing.

 

[Mean]

I just recently added GEM and Blue Marble on max settings. It runs fine for me. not sure if i even have 5 seconds between turns. However, it will go over 5 seconds if i have it on show all CPU moves when its late in the game and the map is revealed; but i usually play with show CPU/other players moves off. It is a great mod and map. I just recently started playing Civ4 (bought complete bundle from steam) and it is very fun. Saw this thread; thought i would share my specs because my gameplay is fine.

Intel Quad Core i7 920 @ 2.67 ghz
ASUS P6T Mobo
6 gigs RAM
1 TB Hard Drive @ 7200 rpm
1 320 GB Hard drive @ 15,000 rpm (for the games i play to go on )
Vista 64

Take care all.

 

[Lachlan]

what do you think of "Unité centrale HP M9680.FR" for Civ 4 BTS 'Giant Earth Mod' or '40 Civs Earth Map' of Liambane ?

+ Processeur Intel Core i7-920 à 2,66 Ghz
+ 6 Go de mémoire vive (RAM)
+ 1 To de disque dur (HDD)
+ Carte graphique nVidia GeForce GT120 à 1024 Mo
+ Télécommande HP Vista Media Center

+ 999 € : ok or too expensive ?



I just find m9570fr it seems better but i still search...

 

[TPL]

I just recently added GEM and Blue Marble on max settings. It runs fine for me. not sure if i even have 5 seconds between turns.
. . .
Intel Quad Core i7 920 @ 2.67 ghz
ASUS P6T Mobo
6 gigs RAM
1 TB Hard Drive @ 7200 rpm
1 320 GB Hard drive @ 15,000 rpm (for the games i play to go on )
Vista 64

Take care all.

That is one mean machine. I have a reference game in the modern era that takes about a minute per turn (on the laptop I used to use it was over two minutes). My system:

Intel E8500 core 2 duo (overclocks to 4+ GHz)
Asus P5Q-VM motherboard
8 GB RAM
120 GB hard drive @ 5400 RPM
Windows 7 64 RC

Sometimes to speed things up I'll edit the map file to remove the New World civs, but I want a better solution. I am in the process of figuring out how to run Civ from a RAM drive.