I have installed it successfully on two system. One without problems, and the other with a lot of issues, but I was able to overcome them, with a bit of finagling (sp?). I will go over both of these, and what I did to get it to work on the low end system (the one with problems), to maybe help those that need it. (skip to the bottom for tips)
System 1:
Pentium 4, 2.8GHz; Hyperthreading on
Dual SATA 7200RPM Hard drives with RAID 0
ATI Radeon 9800 PRO 128MB; ATI driver 6.14.10.6553 (6/28/2005)
Creative SB Audigy 2; Creative driver 5.12.2.444 (10/18/2004)
1500MB DDR RAM @400MHz
PageFile: 800MB
Windows 2000 Pro
Obviously, this system had no problem meeting the specifications. Everything runs fine on it from a new game all the way through to the end. I set all graphics options to maximum quality, both in the game, and on the card options. It was played at normal world size with normal number of civilizations.
System 2 (this is where the fun starts):
Celeron, 1.2GHz
5200 RPM hard drive
Started with Intel onboard graphics card; Ended with Elsa Gladiac 32; 32MB; GeForce 2 GTS Pro (TT&L, no shader) ; NVidia driver 4.3.4.5
Creative SB Live value; driver 5.12.2.252 (7/24/02)
Started with 256MB SDRAM; now has 512MB SDRAM
PageFile: 800MB
Windows 2000 Pro
So, system 2 started with an intel on board graphics card with 4MB RAM that shared it with the system. This card did not have TT&L. When trying to play civ4, the game installed, but when it went to load up it would just hang. The game didn't crash, at first, as it was taxed out at 100% CPU trying to load the game. This was due to it trying to load the game with the POS intel graphics card. It wouldn't load, and ultimately crashed back to the desktop without a warning message.
Ok, plan B. I installed the GeForce 2GTS Pro I had laying around, and now the game loads. COOL! I started a new game but it took a long long time to load the game, but ultimately gave me a settler guy standing on the map. So, I set the game graphics to low (all of them). Then set the graphics card options all to best performance. Loaded civ4 and now the settler guys appeared somewhat faster, but still took a long time. Hrmm...Ctrl+Shift+Esc shows that I was WAY into the virtual memory, sitting somewhere around 500+ MB of memory in use. Need to get this down.
After reducing all the memory and restarting the game, it was still not enough. So, I installed an extra 256MB RAM (totalling now of 512MB RAM) stick I had, and now the game loads at an acceptable rate. The game plays all the way through, but lags toward the end, when there is a lot going on. It feels like Civlization CTP by Activision...wow, what an insult to Firaxis that is...but it does. The only problem it has is that some bits of the terrain shows through the fog of war, it's only one terrain type, IIRC it was the hill tops.
So, here are some things you, too, can do to get your game going on even the lowest end system...
1. Ignore Firaxis minimum specs, they are BS marketing hype. As there is NO WAY you can run this game at an acceptable rate with only 256MB on Win2k. You need at least 784MB RAM with Win2k and 1000MB RAM with WinXP. If not, you WILL run into your page file.
2. If you don't have the aformentioned amount of RAM, you WILL run into your page file. A page file (in simplistic terms!) is an overflow for your RAM. It is a file on your hard drive. Therefore, if you run out of RAM, it will start writing to your harddrive just like a normal file...this is what causes painful waits and slow downs.
3. Optimize your pagefile by doing the following: Set the minimum and maximum values to the same amount. By not letting windows control the size, you gain a small performance increase. Right click "my computer" > properties > advanced > performance ... set virtual memory values. If you have multiple partitions, always put some on the C partition (it has fast access time by RPM). Then, also put some on the partition that your game is installed on, to cut down on hard drive thrashing. 500 on each for a total of 1000MB PageFile, or 1000MB total if you only have one partition. Reboot, for best results.
4. Defrag your hard drives, *especially* if you are hitting your pagefile.
5. Shut off ALL unecessary background programs. Open your task manager (ctrl+shift+esc) and end task on everything that you don't need. Don't know what it is? Google it, type into google as it is dislayed under the "image name" of the task manager with double quotes around it. For Example put the following into google: "taskmgr.exe"
One of the first 3 hits will almost always be a page explaining what it is, and if it is safe to turn off or not. Some processes will give you an error like "the operation could not be completed. access is denied." See step 6 on how to turn those off.
6. Shut off ALL unnecessary windows services. Some, mostly only antivirus, will need to be "disabled" or it may start itself back up in mid game. For services goto: start > run > services.msc > ok. You can shut off many but not all of them. For example, "print spooler" ... are you going to be printing during the game? NO, so shut it off. Turn it on when you are done. Some of the only ones I have ON for windows 2000 are as follows:
COM+ Event System
Distributed Link Tracking
DNS Client (multiplayer only)
DHCP Client (only if you need it, and even then multiplayer only)
Event Log (you could turn this off, too)
IPSEC
Logical Disk Manager
Network Connections (multiplayer only)
Plug and Play
Protected Storage
Remote Access Connection management
Remote Procedure Call(RPC)
Removable Storage
Security Accounts Manager
System Event Notification
Telephony
Uninterruptilbe Power Supply
Windows Management Instrumentation
Windows Management Instrumentation driver extensions
Workstation
...And even some of those could still be turned off. Just remember, don't "disable" ones you don't know what they do...just stop them. When you reboot they'll come back on. Or you can turn them on manually. Or you can do the following:
Create a text file. In the text file put lines like the following:
net stop savscan
"D:\program files\games\Civ4\civilization.exe" &
net start savscan
Save this text file as "civ.bat". This example stops just one of my norton antivirus services, launches civ, waits for me to exit civ (i.e. when i am done playing) then turns the norton thing back on. NOTE: this is an example and problably wont work on your computer. The "savscan" part can be found by right clicking and going to the properties of any item in the services.msc. There is a line called "service name", that is what you use. If the service name has a space in it, put double quotes around it as such:
net stop "symantec core lc"
NOTE: I take NO responsibility if you don't read what you are turning off, and DECIDE FOR YOURSELF if it is wise for you to stop it.
...
Anyway, that is what I had to go through to play civ on a low end system. The last two steps are what really do it. They take your normal operational RAM usage down DRAMATICALLY. For me, I went from 225MB RAM used by windows, to 102MB RAM used by windows...That's a wopping 123MB of extra ram that Civ can use! Hope that helps you! It is playable.
System 1:
Pentium 4, 2.8GHz; Hyperthreading on
Dual SATA 7200RPM Hard drives with RAID 0
ATI Radeon 9800 PRO 128MB; ATI driver 6.14.10.6553 (6/28/2005)
Creative SB Audigy 2; Creative driver 5.12.2.444 (10/18/2004)
1500MB DDR RAM @400MHz
PageFile: 800MB
Windows 2000 Pro
Obviously, this system had no problem meeting the specifications. Everything runs fine on it from a new game all the way through to the end. I set all graphics options to maximum quality, both in the game, and on the card options. It was played at normal world size with normal number of civilizations.
System 2 (this is where the fun starts):
Celeron, 1.2GHz
5200 RPM hard drive
Started with Intel onboard graphics card; Ended with Elsa Gladiac 32; 32MB; GeForce 2 GTS Pro (TT&L, no shader) ; NVidia driver 4.3.4.5
Creative SB Live value; driver 5.12.2.252 (7/24/02)
Started with 256MB SDRAM; now has 512MB SDRAM
PageFile: 800MB
Windows 2000 Pro
So, system 2 started with an intel on board graphics card with 4MB RAM that shared it with the system. This card did not have TT&L. When trying to play civ4, the game installed, but when it went to load up it would just hang. The game didn't crash, at first, as it was taxed out at 100% CPU trying to load the game. This was due to it trying to load the game with the POS intel graphics card. It wouldn't load, and ultimately crashed back to the desktop without a warning message.
Ok, plan B. I installed the GeForce 2GTS Pro I had laying around, and now the game loads. COOL! I started a new game but it took a long long time to load the game, but ultimately gave me a settler guy standing on the map. So, I set the game graphics to low (all of them). Then set the graphics card options all to best performance. Loaded civ4 and now the settler guys appeared somewhat faster, but still took a long time. Hrmm...Ctrl+Shift+Esc shows that I was WAY into the virtual memory, sitting somewhere around 500+ MB of memory in use. Need to get this down.
After reducing all the memory and restarting the game, it was still not enough. So, I installed an extra 256MB RAM (totalling now of 512MB RAM) stick I had, and now the game loads at an acceptable rate. The game plays all the way through, but lags toward the end, when there is a lot going on. It feels like Civlization CTP by Activision...wow, what an insult to Firaxis that is...but it does. The only problem it has is that some bits of the terrain shows through the fog of war, it's only one terrain type, IIRC it was the hill tops.
So, here are some things you, too, can do to get your game going on even the lowest end system...
1. Ignore Firaxis minimum specs, they are BS marketing hype. As there is NO WAY you can run this game at an acceptable rate with only 256MB on Win2k. You need at least 784MB RAM with Win2k and 1000MB RAM with WinXP. If not, you WILL run into your page file.
2. If you don't have the aformentioned amount of RAM, you WILL run into your page file. A page file (in simplistic terms!) is an overflow for your RAM. It is a file on your hard drive. Therefore, if you run out of RAM, it will start writing to your harddrive just like a normal file...this is what causes painful waits and slow downs.
3. Optimize your pagefile by doing the following: Set the minimum and maximum values to the same amount. By not letting windows control the size, you gain a small performance increase. Right click "my computer" > properties > advanced > performance ... set virtual memory values. If you have multiple partitions, always put some on the C partition (it has fast access time by RPM). Then, also put some on the partition that your game is installed on, to cut down on hard drive thrashing. 500 on each for a total of 1000MB PageFile, or 1000MB total if you only have one partition. Reboot, for best results.
4. Defrag your hard drives, *especially* if you are hitting your pagefile.
5. Shut off ALL unecessary background programs. Open your task manager (ctrl+shift+esc) and end task on everything that you don't need. Don't know what it is? Google it, type into google as it is dislayed under the "image name" of the task manager with double quotes around it. For Example put the following into google: "taskmgr.exe"
One of the first 3 hits will almost always be a page explaining what it is, and if it is safe to turn off or not. Some processes will give you an error like "the operation could not be completed. access is denied." See step 6 on how to turn those off.
6. Shut off ALL unnecessary windows services. Some, mostly only antivirus, will need to be "disabled" or it may start itself back up in mid game. For services goto: start > run > services.msc > ok. You can shut off many but not all of them. For example, "print spooler" ... are you going to be printing during the game? NO, so shut it off. Turn it on when you are done. Some of the only ones I have ON for windows 2000 are as follows:
COM+ Event System
Distributed Link Tracking
DNS Client (multiplayer only)
DHCP Client (only if you need it, and even then multiplayer only)
Event Log (you could turn this off, too)
IPSEC
Logical Disk Manager
Network Connections (multiplayer only)
Plug and Play
Protected Storage
Remote Access Connection management
Remote Procedure Call(RPC)
Removable Storage
Security Accounts Manager
System Event Notification
Telephony
Uninterruptilbe Power Supply
Windows Management Instrumentation
Windows Management Instrumentation driver extensions
Workstation
...And even some of those could still be turned off. Just remember, don't "disable" ones you don't know what they do...just stop them. When you reboot they'll come back on. Or you can turn them on manually. Or you can do the following:
Create a text file. In the text file put lines like the following:
net stop savscan
"D:\program files\games\Civ4\civilization.exe" &
net start savscan
Save this text file as "civ.bat". This example stops just one of my norton antivirus services, launches civ, waits for me to exit civ (i.e. when i am done playing) then turns the norton thing back on. NOTE: this is an example and problably wont work on your computer. The "savscan" part can be found by right clicking and going to the properties of any item in the services.msc. There is a line called "service name", that is what you use. If the service name has a space in it, put double quotes around it as such:
net stop "symantec core lc"
NOTE: I take NO responsibility if you don't read what you are turning off, and DECIDE FOR YOURSELF if it is wise for you to stop it.
...
Anyway, that is what I had to go through to play civ on a low end system. The last two steps are what really do it. They take your normal operational RAM usage down DRAMATICALLY. For me, I went from 225MB RAM used by windows, to 102MB RAM used by windows...That's a wopping 123MB of extra ram that Civ can use! Hope that helps you! It is playable.
