Very jerky gameplay

[sirhiss]

Is anyone using a FX5200 and getting playable performance?

 

[Rabid Bunny]

Just to confirm to others that you don't need a high-end video card to play CivIV:

My Specs:
GeForce2 MX400 64MB (just meets min specs)
AMD2700+
1 GB 3200 RAM
On-Board Nvidia ound

I play this game at the highest settings, and the only problems I have are choppy sound during wonder completion movies and game intro. Graphics are smooth and to no lag at all.

I have yet to disable sound acceleration, but will try that tonight.

I have logged about 6 hours of gameplay thus far, and no crashes or lock-ups.

So, if some of you have an older GeForce card stashed away somewhere, my suggestion is to dust it off, and give it a try. Just be sure to uninstall the old and reinstall the latest video drivers, if needed.

Also, definitely disable Norton when you install ANY game. Most likely when you play it also. Unplug from the internet if it makes you feel safe. AntiVirus' are responsible for many install issues.

Good luck!

 

[Mellonius]

A possible fix for some people:

Now, I read all of the posts, and I kept coming across the "Disable Motherboard Monitoring Software" posts, and I tried them. However, I found out that at least with the software I had, which was ASUS SmartDoctor, that even after you closed it, it still somehow affected gameplay. I ended up having to uninstall it completely, and then give the computer a good reboot. My game works much better, although still not perfectly.

You quite possibly could just make sure that your Motherboard Monitor doesn't startup when Windows does, but I hated the program anyway, just never got around to getting rid of it.

I hope this helps.

 

[ibcoltscrew]

Wow it seem it's impossible to play this game without having to deal with LAG and Jerky gameplay.
For the people who have problem like "Game slowing while you play"... try to press pause and press windowsTAB. leave to desktop and go back in the game... it should solve the LAG for at least 5 minutes... do it when you feel your system need it and you should be able to play an entire game...

Conclusion... we need a patch

...still waiting for Civ4 1.01

 

[sirhiss]

Tried disabling audio with no difference in results, so I dont think this is a sound issue.
Choppy sound i videos could be a different issue altogether, as I think the intro and wonder movies use BINK.

I'm all out of ideas.

 

[TheBarnacle]

Is anyone using a FX5200 and getting playable performance?

no. i play the first 5-10 minutes "ok", but JUST "ok". not great or even normal. then it just gets choppier and slower from there. 45 minutes seems to max out my tolerance for slow speed.

oddly, similar to how after playing GTA i want to go drive really fast, after playing this, i seem to go through my real life in slow mo' for a few minutes.

-- despite my attempts at levity, i'm still pretty frustrated and ticked off.

 

[sirhiss]

Well, I'll try putting in my old gf2 mx something card in. I'll post the results here.

 

[ibcoltscrew]

I don't get it... I just finish an entire game (island-normal size-6 civilization) with Medium setting (graphic) and no background (tray) program... this time no lag except wonder video. With LOW Setting i have more lag... medium setting less lag...and with multi unit (3) instead of only one unit (1) make my game run smooth... I just don't get it... sometime it's cool sometime it sucks... I just don't get it!!!
Again ... we need a patch !!! Usually we don't have to make 20 tweak before playing a game...
Good luck guys, i give it up, can't fix it 100%

 

[Zombieboy]

Hi, new to the board (Would have liked to have come under different circumstances though...)

I'm having all the problems people are talking about in this thread; Stuttering during the movies and really laggy graphics. Here's what I'm using:

NVIDEA GeForce FX 5500
AMD Athlon 64 Processor 3200+, 2.2Ghz
1 GB Ram
Realtek AC97 Audio
Windows XP, Service Pack 2

I sent an email to 2K support. If I get an answer that works, I'll post it here.

Man, this is depressing...definitely the last Firaxis game I pick up...

 

[TheBarnacle]

Hi, new to the board (Would have liked to have come under different circumstances though...)

I'm having all the problems people are talking about in this thread; Stuttering during the movies and really laggy graphics. Here's what I'm using:

NVIDEA GeForce FX 5500
AMD Athlon 64 Processor 3200+, 2.2Ghz
1 GB Ram
Realtek AC97 Audio
Windows XP, Service Pack 2

I sent an email to 2K support. If I get an answer that works, I'll post it here.

Man, this is depressing...definitely the last Firaxis game I pick up...

yah, i don' think you're the first newbie to venture here. i think i agree though, i usually don't pick up new games for this reason, but i figured they had 3 years (!!! or more?!?!?) to work on this. also, i guess i got used to console games that are truly ready to play out of the box!

this certainly wasn't worth 50 of my dollars.

 

[sirhiss]

Well, my old gf2 mx 32mb card ran the game way smoother than my fx5200. It looks really ugly, but its perfectly playable. Seems the game has issues with FX5*** cards. Does anyone know if anyone who uses one of these cards has managed to get a decent framerate?

 

[TheBarnacle]

Well, my old gf2 mx 32mb card ran the game way smoother than my fx5200. It looks really ugly, but its perfectly playable. Seems the game has issues with FX5*** cards. Does anyone know if anyone who uses one of these cards has managed to get a decent framerate?

don't know, but this seems odd since nvidia just put out new drivers for this dated release 10/20/05!!! but i must admit, seems the ati guys got there's working, and i have more lag/speed problems with my new card than i did with my intel chipset (which couldn't render but had no speed issues!!)!

 

[jrosiek]

SP2 and sound accelerator turned off helped lag and wonder videos alot, not sure which was the causal factor since I did not behave like a good scientist and do them one at a time. But it still did not solve intro video choppiness.

 

[MattJek]

Quick update. I downloaded new drivers, reinstalled directx, downloaded new sound card drivers and nothing worked. Then I remembered I had freshly installed XP about a week ago and never upgraded to SP2. I didn't think it would make a difference but I had tried everything else and turns out upgrading to SP2 did it for me. Got rid of the dxdiag error messages and the game runs great.

What is SP2?? is that a window upgrade?

 

[TheBarnacle]

What is SP2?? is that a window upgrade?

service pack 2.

though, not sure why this makes a difference. ms site says SP2 is mostly security stuff.

i think my problem stems from memory leak. but whehter it's the process or a system issue, i don't know.

 

[Zombieboy]

yah, i don' think you're the first newbie to venture here. i think i agree though, i usually don't pick up new games for this reason, but i figured they had 3 years (!!! or more?!?!?) to work on this. also, i guess i got used to console games that are truly ready to play out of the box!

this certainly wasn't worth 50 of my dollars.

Yeah, I haven't bought a video game in a LONG time. Gave up on PC games a while ago (although Civ, Civ2 and Civ3 have permanent spots on the hard drive).

 

[TheBarnacle]

Yeah, I haven't bought a video game in a LONG time. Gave up on PC games a while ago (although Civ, Civ2 and Civ3 have permanent spots on the hard drive).

exactly. and i only picked it up b/c it was a new civ game!! and i only learned about it monday!!! so...i got pretty excited over those couple days waiting. thus, my disappointment is more that of a child who needs instant gratification. and in all actuality, you wouldn't drive off the lot with a new car on which the brakes don't work. so...releasing this with so many apparent problems sort of steams me.

 

[Eleri]

So, it looks like the problem might be pretty specific to the FX 5200.

The question then becomes, what cards work, and is it worth fetching one?

Irritating that no one caught this problem, since it's such a common card.

 

[Warflagon]

I'm using a GEforce4 MX4000. I'm getting 2 FPS. Been doing my best to deal/tweak for 8 hours. I'm done. This peice of garbage is going back to the store.

Maybe I'll check it back out in 6 months.

BTW, links to this forum from Firaxis DOES not work. 800 numbers on 2kgames DO NOT work. (Well, they didn't. Now they are simply gone.)

And to top it off......no uninstaller.


It's a shame, cause I love civ, but I've had enough agrovation. Good luck to the rest of you. I'm done with firaxis for a long long time.

 

[mchristnsen]

I've had the same intermittent sound/jerky gameplay as everyone else. The solution for me was to turn the graphics down to Low, which makes the game playable, if very sluggish. Performance improves when I zoom out.

Specs:
P4 2.8GHZ
1022MB RAM (DDR)
SoundMAX digital audio
Geforce FX 5700 LE PCI (128mb)

I'm very, very disappointed by the performance. There's no reason CIV should be so graphic intensive -- it's certainly not using much of my CPU or memory, so that's noot causing the problem.