Which machine?

[mmeyerde]

Dear Civ IV freaks,

I will buy I new machine in a couple of weeks. While I am planning components, Civ IV is one of the games, which has to run smoothly on the new machine. Thus I am aiming for lets say an "upper middle class level" PC which should cost about €850 bucks.

I assume, that I cannot do anything wrong with the hardware, can I? Since I am planning a PC which has no shared stuff or so. Secondly I am planning hardware parts from lets say "famous" companies like nvidia or asus and things like that. So everything should be enough for this "old" game. If I am wrong, please explain.

My main decision is, whether I stick to a 32 or a 64 bit version. I am completely unsure, whether there are many differences. Do I need a 64 bit machine? I am mostly playing things like Civ IV and stuff like that. Often I like to play RPGs like TES or Gothic very seldom I play shooters. So, what do you think, is a 32 bit machine not enough even in the future?

My second question is which Windows version should I use? I always had trouble playing RoM with AND using XP. I always got the "bad memory" failure. As far as I can see, this will not happen with any PC I am buying at this time. But I read lots of installing / playing issues regarding Windows and Civ IV. So which version should I use and is it possible to play the game with all the mods on each modern machine or do I have to have something in mind? While answering please have in mind, that I am not that PC freak.

Thanks in advance and best regards

 

[kiwitt]

Go 64-bit and if still possible Windows 7 and not 8. Also make sure you have at least 6 GB of RAM, as this will allow you to allocate a full 4 GB of RAM to Civ IV BTS and not reach any 'Out of Memory' Error., known here as MAFs (Memory Allocation Failure).

Plus when you install do so as per my thread.

 

[mmeyerde]

Dear kiwitt,

thank you for your answer. Well, I already read through your installing thread and am happy that I have all files downed and stored. But I am afraid, that I won't be able to get the Win 7 version.

What will happen if I simply cannot get it? Won't it be able to install the game according to your thread anyway?

According to the RAM, I am planning to put in 8GB. But what do you mean with the term "to allocate 4GB RAM to Civ IV"? Do you mean I have to tell Win that Civ IV may use 4 GB? And if so, is ist complicated?

Best regards

 

[Quintillus]

Civ4 should work just fine on Windows 8. I don't know what might be different from kiwitt's thread in the installation (I run XP x64 myself), but the game itself should work perfectly fine.

For the memory, 8 GB will work great. As long as you go with a 64-bit OS (which you absolutely should with 8 GB of RAM), you don't need to worry about the "to allocate 4 GB RAM to Civ IV" - that will happen automatically. The reason you were getting the "bad memory" issues on XP was that you were using 32-bit XP, and thus Civ4 could only use 2 GB of memory (or less, if you only had 2 GB or less), which isn't always enough for it. Moving to any 64-bit version of Windows will solve that issue with no other work on your part.

The graphics should be handled fine by any NVIDIA or ATI/AMD card, and probably even recent Intel ones (though I wouldn't bet on it for gigantic maps). A low-end one might not give top settings, but they will likely be acceptable. For Civ, the more important aspect (after 6+ GB RAM and a 64-bit OS) is the processor, if you play large maps. A faster processor reduces AI turn times. For Civ purposes, if I had to choose between a medium-end GPU and a low-end CPU, or a low-end GPU and a medium-end CPU, I'd choose the latter. But keep in mind that Civ4 does not take advantage of more than one CPU core. So, if choosing between otherwise equal 3.0 GHz processors, with one dual-core and one quad-core, they will perform equally for Civ. The quad-core might be better in other areas, but if Civ is the primary concern, save the money and get the dual-core.

 

[kiwitt]

But keep in mind that Civ4 does not take advantage of more than one CPU core.

As I have seen my 4 cpu graphs active when playing just Civ 4, just a minor correction it does not take full advantage of multi-core as python scripts are single-threaded and are a big part of complicated mods.