Will Colonization run OK on a Mac with only integrated graphics (Intel HD 3000)?

[Thomas Ash]

Will Civ IV: Colonization run OK on a Mac with only integrated graphics (Intel HD 300
I have a Mac with a 3.3GHz i5 2500k processor, which includes integrated graphics (Intel HD 3000), but have no video card. How well will Civilization IV: Colonization run? The specs at http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/sid-m...11705368?mt=12 suggest the following "Video Card (ATI): Radeon X1600 / Video Card (Nvidia): Geforce 8600". According to http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/gaming...w-32274-7.html my HD 3000 is at least equivalent to these. However, that same apple.com link says 'Intel integrated video chipsets are not supported' (but also 'Fix a crash unique to the Intel HD3000 GPU' which implies my card *will* work). Confusing... can anyone help me out?

 

[raystuttgart]

Simply try it.
(After all the game can be bought really cheap today. )

However, most of the really great mods will definitely not work ...

 

[Thomas Ash]

Not so cheap I want to waste the money on it it doesn't work at all. Interesting to know about the mods though, I haven't really looked into them, but I'm assuming you're saying there are some very enjoyable mods that require more graphics processing power. That's good to know - maybe I'll shell out for a Radeon 6670 (which'll have the good side effect of letting me run Civ 5 )

 

[raystuttgart]

... but I'm assuming you're saying there are some very enjoyable mods that require more graphics processing power.

Nope.

I am saying they won't work at all on Mac.
(No matter what graphic card you have.)

Reason:
Custom DLL.

Unless of course you are running a second partition with Windows.

And believe me:
Once you have seen some of the great Mods, you will never want to play Vanilla (without mods) again.

 

[Thomas Ash]

Ah, gotcha! Cool, I'll play in a Windows partition then (sucks being a Mac gamer ) Thanks for the pointer.

Will the Windows version run OK with just a HD 3000 rather than a graphics card? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilization_IV:_Colonization says it requires a 'DirectX 9.0c-compatible 64 MB (128 MB for full) video card with Shader 1.1 support' - on paper the HD 3000's significantly more powerful.

 

[raystuttgart]

Thanks for the pointer.

No problem.

Will the Windows version run OK with just a HD 3000 rather than a graphics card?

Don't know.

 

[MagicMagor]

Will the Windows version run OK with just a HD 3000 rather than a graphics card?

Probably. Apart from the chip itself, the speed (mhz) and video memory are also two important factors concerning how well the game will run.

I also have a mac, with a GMA X3100 on-board chipset, only 144mb vram and 400MHz, and i can play Civ4:Col reasonably well. (Running on the windows-partition with the newest TAC-Mod (2.02d))
However, even with 4GB of Ram, i only play standard-sized maps, but these work fine.

As the HD-series from intel seems to be newer than the GMA-series, and the HD 3000 starts at 350 Mhz i think you should be fine.

 

[shivan]

im running Civ 4 Col on my Macbook air (2011 version)

Runs fine!

 

[ChrisC323]

im running Civ 4 Col on my Macbook air (2011 version)

Runs fine!

This is bordering on thread revival, but I am curious as to whether you've played Civ4/BtS on your MBA; does it run okay? What graphics settings do you use? Are you using Lion or Snow Leopard? Thanks!