What's the cheapest laptop I could play civ vp on?

[MIS]

My old computer (5 years) won't charge; I've tried other chargers and I think it's the computer. So I'll get another one. What's the cheapest that would run vp, and is easy to install the game/mod/steam (for screenshots). I don't trust refurbished. Also, will it be cheaper if I wait until first week of January?

 

[Tekamthi]

If you don't mind to min-out the graphics settings, any non-ARM (ie AMD or intel) machine from the past ~10 years with 8gb+ ram should be fine (the game will only use 4 but you'll want a little more for OS and background processes).

Personally, I try to future-proof myself as much as possible at my max budget when buying new; taking such an approach may be better value in the long-run. But if you just wanna run civ 5/VP and nothing else, it'd probably be difficult/impossible to find a new AMD/intel machine that cannot run civ 5 in 2025

 

[Legen]

Civ 5 was released when Windows 7 was a thing, and VP isn't going to radically change the spec requirements; pretty much any budget computer sold nowadays can run it. Steam has bigger requirements than Civ V, since they no longer support versions of Windows older than Windows 10. If your new computer can run Windows 10 or 11, it should run Civ V with VP just fine.

For reference, here are the Steam's recommended spec requirements for civ V:

• Recommended:
  • OS *: Windows® Vista SP2/ Windows® 7
  • Processor: 1.8 GHz Quad Core CPU
  • Memory: 4 GB RAM
  • Graphics: 512 MB ATI 4800 series or better, 512 MB nVidia 9800 series or better
  • DirectX®: DirectX® version 11
  • Hard Drive: 8 GB Free
  • Sound: DirectX 9.0c-compatible sound card
  • Note: Optimized for the touch-screen Ultrabook™ device

* Starting January 1st, 2024, the Steam Client will only support Windows 10 and later versions.

 

[FPXI]

As others have said, it probably doesn't matter much as the spec requirements are very low, especially if you are willing to turn the graphics down a little.

One thing to consider is that Civilization is CPU bound (unlike most other games which are GPU bound). The better your CPU, the faster those late game turns will process. This is also the biggest practical limit to large maps with lots of players on any modern machine. So, if you buy a notebook it'll almost certainly be using an integrated gpu which limits the power of your cpu in a number of ways because they share resources and heat limits. An older cheap desktop is probably the most cost efficient if you play large maps, and a cheap notebook is probably most cost efficient if you don't. I play standard and small games on a 4 year old $400 Ryzen-5 vivobook, but then switch to my PC if I'm going to play anythign bigger.

But again, it mostly won't matter. You can go pretty cheap and it'll be fine.

 

[Hosannah]

Make sure it supports windows 11, I.e. it has a tpm 2.0 module. If it has that, anything inbetween 500-1000usd should do the trick easily.

 

[Agiwan]

Make sure it supports windows 11, I.e. it has a tpm 2.0 module. If it has that, anything inbetween 500-1000usd should do the trick easily.

Civ5 and VP work well on linux also, and it is free so you can have a slightly better laptop.

 

[paul_soryu]

Make sure it supports windows 11, I.e. it has a tpm 2.0 module. If it has that, anything inbetween 500-1000usd should do the trick easily.

Why would you need tpm 2.0 module to run Civ5?

 

[Tekamthi]

Civ5 and VP work well on linux also, and it is free so you can have a slightly better laptop.

i even got my shiny new xmas 2025 copy of civ 7 to work in linux relatively pain-free -- seems to finally be a viable option for a dedicated gaming machine -- that said, theres a lot more CLI config involved than many PC users might be comfortable with

 

[SuperNoobCamper]

i used to run it on my 2012 Lenovo Laptop with I5 4th Gen, 8GB of Ram and a 1050 mobile iirc and it worked just fine; ofc much slower than on my current machine but it works.

 

[Hosannah]

Why would you need tpm 2.0 module to run Civ5?

Most people use windows. And when you do, you should buy a laptop that supports its current version, i.e. windows 11 (tpm 2.0 required) and whatever comes next.

 

[Fluffball]

The main limitation for civ 5/VP is it uses the old 32-bit system so even with a super gaming PC performance doesn't improve much over the most basic W11 PC.

W11 needs a minimum of 64GB of storage space and 4GB of RAM. You can get a system that matches those specs for around £150 but essentially won't be able to do anything but run Windows and browse the internet.

Windows likes to have space to pre download updates and also likes to make backup copies of itself which can take up a lot of space. While 64GB may theoretically be adequate it is amazing how much junk you find Windows clogs up your storage with when you are running a lean system thus it usually involves making sure you are extremely data conscious. i.e. keeping anything that is not absolutley necissary off the system, including automatically generated back ups, old updates etc.

If you want a basic system i would get at least 8GB of RAM so it can run windows and VP and 128GB storage to give yourself a little breathing room. You can get that for around £200 if you shop around and take advantage of christmas/new year deals, buy last years model or even buy a refurbished model. If you go refurbished you can probably get at least an i5 processor which will run VP on tickover and maybe even a dedicated graphics card for £200 if your lucky enough to find the right one.

 

[notaspambot]

The GPU tends to be the biggest bottleneck for laptops, I've found, but a combination of DX9+Strategic View should make civ5 playable even with integrated graphics for most laptops. I'm not too sure about having only 8GB of RAM though- maybe in older versions of Windows, but it feels like there's a lot of overhead nowadays.

 

[paul_soryu]

Win11 uses WebView2 in its dozens of desktop mini-applications, running constantly in the background. WebView2 is basically Chrome browser, it will eat up RAM and CPU performance. If your goal is a low-end machine to play Civ5 (which can run even on WinXP), I don't think Win11 is a good idea.

 

[gabrielsfarias]

Civ5 and VP work well on linux also, and it is free so you can have a slightly better laptop.

I'd certainly love to know how to run it on my PopOS notebook. It installs and plays just fine, but how do I install VP on it?

 

[Agiwan]

I'd certainly love to know how to run it on my PopOS notebook. It installs and plays just fine, but how do I install VP on it?

You have to install Civ5 using steam proton compatibility layer:

• Open Steam (on your Linux desktop, no Lutris).
• Click on Civilization V in your library and open the parameters:
  
• Click on "Compatibility" and check the "force compatibility" box. In the dropdown, select either the newest version of Proton or Proton experimental. Either will work:

Then when the game is installed using proton you have two choices: The "easy one" and the "little less easy one".

The "easy one": Use a modpack :

• Download a modpack
• On your steam library right click on Civilization V, go to "Manage ->" then "Browse local files"
• In the window that just opened go to "Assets" folder then "DLC" folder
• Extract inside the DLC folder all the folders from the dowloaded modpack .zip as if you were on Windows.
• Enjoy !!!!
• Tip 1: On linux you have to launch the game from the steam library window to be able to select "DirectX 10/11". If you launch it from the desktop or the little steam icon it will launch the DirectX9 one.
• Tip 2: If you want to install a new modpack or delete a modpack you have to delete all the folder you have extracted inside the "DLC" folder then delete the "Cache" folder. It can be tricky to find the "Cache" folder, mine is there "/run/media/bazzite/DATA/SteamLibrary/steamapps/compatdata/8930/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/Documents/My Games/Sid Meier's Civilization 5/" but the "/run/media/bazzite/DATA/" part is most likely different for you. If you are using Dolphin as your explorer you can do a Search with "Civ5CoreDatabase.db" (do not forget to select "Everywhere" for the search) :
  
  It will give you the location of the cache folder.

The "little less easy one" is to use protontrick to install VP as a mod which is the official way to install VP then you have to use the MOD menu from the main menu of the game. If you need I can try to explain how to do it but I am new to linux + I am not english native so I can be unclear :/