Will a RAM upgrade help?

[shulec]

I am afraid that either or both my processor and video card may keep a RAM upgrade from helping.

CPU: Compaq Presario V5303NR notebook.
OS: Windows XP Home, Service Pack 3
RAM: 1GB (896 MB for CPU, for 128 MB for video card), Max 2 GB.
Video card: ATI Mobliity Radeon Xpress 200 series.
Processor: AMD Turion 64 Mobile Technology ML-32, 1.79 GHz

I recently added the BUG MOD to my BTS version (with 3.17 upgrade) of Civ IV. Prior to this addition, my CPU would play the game well until around 1970 on large world games. After adding the BUG MOD, it runs slower even at the beginning of the game.

When looking at the performance in windows task manager, my cpu usage is at 100% when starting up and playing. The RAM usage appears to be near the max (820 MB in the attached image).

If I upgrade my RAM to 1.5 or 2.0 GB, is my game likely to play significantly faster?

 

[Fo0dman]

the game should be taking that much ram, is another program running in the background that is taking your cpu and ram.

 

[shulec]

Subsequently, my cpu started crashing and would go to blue-screen during start-up. I found out that one of my RAM sticks was toast. Today I just received my RAM upgrade to 2GB of RAM and just installed it. I am a bit disappointed because my in game action is not any faster. Nevertheless, my cpu runs much faster with regular windows apps.

I am guessing that my video card is not pulling it's weight. I believe I have the latest driver upgrades. I will check this next. I will not be replacing the video card or the processor so I will just have to live with this until I buy a new CPU

As to your question, I generally keep my wireless connection on at all times and have AVG-Free running in the background, otherwise nothing else significant running.

 

[Fo0dman]

you can always reinstall the game, that might help