What video cards actually work very well with this game?

[planetfall]

It looks like I need to upgrade my video card to play this game, and many others might be in the same boat. Nothing is more frustrating and maddening than buying a new card and then either being unable to play the game or having poor performance. So I thought it would be good to have a thread listing players video cards that work well with this game:

-- no slowness even after days of playing
-- no ragged movies
-- ideally, no crashing

For a reference thread it would be best if replying players would
follow this 4 point format:

1. VIDEO CARD - manufacturer and model number

2. VIDEO RAM - size

3. PERFORMANCE SCALE -
100 points=no latency, game screams
50 points = some slowness, but game runs
0 points = can't get game to run with card

4. DISCUSSION - open ended

Thank you in advance for sharing your experiences.

PF

FYI- duplicate thread at poly. I'll summarize the data posted later from both forums for all, after we get a good number of responses

 

[gusten]

1. INTEL 915 GM

2. Shared mem. All dependent on the RAM. I have 128 MB from the RAM that is dedicated the grfx.

3. The game lookes OK, but lags as hell...

4. 30 pts.

 

[VimesUK]

I think that it would be useful if you posted the details of the rest of your hardware. You could get people suggesting PCI Express cards when you might have an AGP slot or vice versa. Equally it might be that the rest of your hardware could be a bottle neck thus negating much advantage of just upgrading your video card.
Whilst a 'good' video card is important 1GB of RAM as well as a fast CPU will make a real difference, the pauses between each turn are not related to your graphics card after all.
You budget and how much you can afford is also important for people to be more precise in their suggestions.

 

[planetfall]

Morgan,

I understand. The most I can stretch right now is to get a different video card. I can't upgrade RAM or CPU at this time. I am not anxious to make an expensive mistake.

PF

 

[VimesUK]

I understand about not wanting to make an expensive mistake that is why it is important to give people as much information as you can about what you have already got, as well as your budget, if you are going to get the most informed answers

 

[Siggy19]

I think everyone understands that ideally a fast cpu and 1 GB of Ram will do the business as far as the performance of the game generally is concerned.

However, the Graphics card on its own seems to make a big difference to avoiding crashes and getting acceptable entertainment value.

Thus, I agree that I am most interested in finding out the Video Cards that work well although I would like both Desktop and Laptop cards to be listed.

The only time more information is needed is, for example, if someone has Onboard Intel 900 video with shared memory but has good performance. Then other system information may be useful since I gather that the I900 uses software emulation and the other system info is therefore directly relevent.

I would like to propose two sticky threads; Desktop Video and Laptop Video. These will be useful to the sizeable minority who need to upgrade their systems to get their fix.

 

[VimesUK]

The difficulty with what you suggest Siggy, in my opinion, is that you can get people who post that their game plays fine with zero problems using card A whilst others are condeming the game due to that very card. I think that at this stage there are too many variables that we don't understand that are causing issues that are requiring a game patch to at the very least reduce these anomolies.
I have played this game using an ATI 9800pro, an ATI 850XTPE and my friend has a Geforce 7800GTX and the game has graphical issues with each of those systems and yet I wouldn't condemn them as not being compatable, I know for other people those cards are fine.

I do hope that the OP and others get some useful information from threads like this but as I have mentioned previously I doubt that the resolve for many of the issues lie with the end user.

However there are people who are trying to play this game with hardware that is never going to work regardless of how many patches that are released.

 

[Old Dood]

Yes! It sure seems like a Crap Shoot! My ATI X800XL 256Mb PCIe card Seems to be doing just fine. I cannot Alt-Tab out though.

 

[planetfall]

What's really wierd is another thread had a listing of video cards. Some limp along and some fly. Looking at suppliers the range for "working" video cards is between $80 and $600. Big difference. It's hard to decide what to do now. $600 goes a long way in buying a new laptop. And the big unknown is the next version of windows will have more hardware requirements. Which of these "working" video cards will not work with the next version of windows [vista] ?

 

[Old Dood]

What's really wierd is another thread had a listing of video cards. Some limp along and some fly. Looking at suppliers the range for "working" video cards is between $80 and $600. Big difference. It's hard to decide what to do now. $600 goes a long way in buying a new laptop. And the big unknown is the next version of windows will have more hardware requirements. Which of these "working" video cards will not work with the next version of windows [vista] ?

My Guess would be having at least a 256Mb Vid Card for Vista. Some say 512Mb will be optimum.

 

[planetfall]

Makes sense. MS real requirements are always 2x stated requirements.

 

[eetzoo]

i have a P4 3.4/1gb RAM/geforce 6600gt 128mb (PCI express)
and it works fine for everything, except the sound in movies is jumpy.

 

[paulio]

1. VIDEO CARD - ATI 9800 Pro

2. VIDEO RAM - 128Mb

3. PERFORMANCE SCALE - 80

4. DISCUSSION -

AMD 3500+
2Gig of Ram

It runs very well, some slow down when zooming, I could do with a better video card but to be honest it isn't worth it.

As im sure you know, ATI graphics cards have the Civ4 problem, but once I followed the guide all has worked perfectly.

Hope this helps.

Paul.