Will game work?

M

MZBKA

Chieftain
Joined
Jun 21, 2007
Messages
3
Hey there everybody! I've been playing the Civ series since Civ I. Civ 3 is probably my favorite game of all time. I'm thinking about buying Civ IV, but I only have a laptop and I've heard the the game doesn't run too well on lower end machines. Here's what I have:

Windows XP
1.70 GHz,
450 MB Ram,
Intel 82852/82855 64MB graphics card.

I espeically worried about the graphics card, since it's on the low-end. Oh yeah, if the game isn't an good, and I should just stick with Civ III, please let me know that too! BTW, I'll buy the German version if I get it. . .since I'm in Germany.
Thanks for the help!
Matt
 
Unfortunately, this is not a good machine to run Civ4 on.

I'm not certain about the graphics chip - it might be possible to run Civ4 on it, or *partially* possible (i.e. the game might run, but rivers might be black and leaderheads might be missing to lacking shader support of your chip), or it might not run at all. Certainly someone else can help you out with some solid info here.

However, even if the game runs on your graphics chip, you have too little memory for Civ4. If you trim the memory footprint of WinXP, and turn down the graphics in Civ4, then you should be able to play on small sized maps with 4-5 opponents, and might be able to play on standard sized maps with 7 oppoenents, but don't expect anything larger. Larger games may seem to work in the beginning, but you can get a very annoying persistent scroll stutter from the renaissance on, when the AI civs have discovered much of the world.

Regarding the quality of Civ4 as a game, it has been received favourably by most of the fans, although there are of course people who still prefer Civ3. Read about the changes (there are many) and decide for yourself. Personally, I think that Civ4 tops the list in complexity, playability *and* accessibility, which is quite a feat. Its main weakness is that it needs a good machine (and lots of memory) to run well, especially when you like to play on huge maps with lots of civs.

Regarding the German version: I think the one sold here in Germany is a multi-language version, at least the one I bought is. Which is a good thing for mod compatibility issues.
 
Upgrade time. 2gb ram, mid range graphics card and a core 2 duo should run civ 4 fine.

Civ 4 will happily gobble up 500-600mb of ram on my pc. Thats on top of what memory windows uses to run before you even load civ 4. Perhaps on win xp 1gb might do trick. just! Civ 4 needs memory more than graphics.

I recently upgraded my system so i could play this game properly.
 
The game will work so long as the graphics card is adequate. My guess is you're fine there, but might need new drivers.

Psyringe and Gumbolt are right about memory. With 450 MB of memory, Small is the largest size you'll be able to play comfortably (5 civs on CivIV). As a CivIII veteran, my guess is you'll find that woefully inadequate. If you can upgrade to 1 GB RAM, you'll be able to play Civ quite well (I've had both 512 MB and 1 GB on Civ so I've had experience with this). If not, you'll probably be enjoying CivIII much more.

As to the version, I think the same version is sold in England, Spain, France, Italy, and Germany, only with different default languages. I can set mine to any of those languages if I feel like it.
 
Gumbolt said:
Upgrade time. 2gb ram, mid range graphics card and a core 2 duo should run civ 4 fine.

Civ 4 will happily gobble up 500-600mb of ram on my pc. Thats on top of what memory windows uses to run before you even load civ 4. Perhaps on win xp 1gb might do trick. just! Civ 4 needs memory more than graphics.

I recently upgraded my system so i could play this game properly.
Click to expand...

um he said lap top.......
 
Ozbenno said:
I started playing Civ IV on a laptop with XP, 1.7Ghz, 512MB Ram, ATI Radeon 32MB.

Runs OK on it (never had a crash but can be slow in the late game).

Got a new laptop recently with 1.7GHz, 760MB Ram, Intel 915GM 128MB.

Runs like a dream.
Click to expand...

Runs like a dream?!! Ok sure but for how long, two turns?
Ive been around and failed to get far on much better(well only 256 more ram but still the vcard n CPU is weak to) .You need some serious Sh#t to take this game on. Specs Im not sure any laptop can deliver this year. Unless of course you like travel version of Civ4

Actually Ive found Civ3 to be the same in that its demanding if you want to play CIv3 'flawless edition"
Man You won't believe the power of processor I needed to kill those lags. My house almost blew down from the fan tryin to cool it. :eek:
 
T.A JONES said:
Runs like a dream?!! Ok sure but for how long, two turns?
Ive been around and failed to get far on much better(well only 256 more ram but still the vcard n CPU is weak to) .You need some serious Sh#t to take this game on. Specs Im not sure any laptop can deliver this year. Unless of course you like travel version of Civ4
Click to expand...

Never had a crash, all the movies run fine, no lag between turns even in the modern era. I tend to play huge maps as well. No problems. I turn off the music (do it in every game I play as music bugs me when I'm playing), whether that is what makes it work well don't know.
 
what resolution you running it at? since Higher Resolutions is what actually eat up much more video Memory then running lower resolutions.
I dont have a lap top though so I dont know what kinda performance you get out of it. My rigs a bit behind the times need to do some more upgrads. 3.33 single core processor, 2gigs ram, and a nvidia 8800 gts (320mb). rams cheap ass kingston ram though wanna get some corsair......and I didnt have teh extra at the time to spend more then 300 on my vid card. I also should replace my processor to a fast duel core at the very least.
 
Drago Askani said:
um he said lap top.......
Click to expand...


Some new laptops take 2gig of ram. CPu on newer models has a different pin layout to the desktops but its similar in design. Graphics would be weaker on a laptop. Its the ram that is probably the issue.

It would be difficult to upgrade his existing laptop. Firstly pends how easy it is to open up laptop and what size ram it might take. cheaper to order off web than take into store. Secondly what ram and how much the motherboard will take. Details probably on web somewhere. Probably not cost effective as ram is not always cheap for laptops and not always compatible. Its best to upgrade ram when you buy the machine not 4-6 years on. Ram layouts change over years and make compatibility harder in my experience.

Must admit i went on a bit of overkill on my new system last month and installed 4gbs of ddr2 667mhz on my desktop. Modern machines are better equipped to run new games. ;)
 
Hey, so I'm going to buy 512 MB of RAM. . .which after throwing away 256 MB since both slots are taken (grrrr) gives me 768MB. Think the game will run then?
 
MZBKA said:
Hey, so I'm going to buy 512 MB of RAM. . .which after throwing away 256 MB since both slots are taken (grrrr) gives me 768MB. Think the game will run then?
Click to expand...

768 MB should be enough for standard and large maps. I'm not sure about huge ones. In any case, 768 MB will be a very noticable improvement over 480 MB.

However, nobody has addressed the video chip so far. Perhaps it's a good idea to ask in the Technical Support section of these forums.

If you can handle a 300+ MB download, you could also try the Civ4 demo version. However, keep in mind that the demo was derived from an unpatched game. AFAIR, some problems with Intel graphics, which appeared in the unpatched games and hence will appear in the demo, have been patched in the meantime.

Rule of thumb: If the demo works, then the game will work too. If the demo doesn't work, then one of the patches may still make the full game playable for you. Caevat: The demo only plays 100 turns, which means that you won't get to the time when the game tends to bog down (about renaissance), so it shouldn't be used to determine whether your machine can handle larger maps etc.
 
MZBKA said:
Hey there everybody! I've been playing the Civ series since Civ I. Civ 3 is probably my favorite game of all time. I'm thinking about buying Civ IV, but I only have a laptop and I've heard the the game doesn't run too well on lower end machines. Here's what I have:

Windows XP
1.70 GHz,
450 MB Ram,
Intel 82852/82855 64MB graphics card.

I espeically worried about the graphics card, since it's on the low-end. Oh yeah, if the game isn't an good, and I should just stick with Civ III, please let me know that too! BTW, I'll buy the German version if I get it. . .since I'm in Germany.
Thanks for the help!
Matt
Click to expand...

With that setup, I strongly suggest downloading the demo first (provided you haven't already purchased the program). From my own tests, I can confirm Civ 4 will not work on an Intel 815/855 GME. RAM will not help as the internal GFX chipset Intel provides does not have the architecture to support hardware T&L, which Civ4 requires. The earliest Intel produced internal graphics solution to implement hardware T&L was the Intel 915.
 
I run Civ4 on a similar laptop (also with Intel 82852/82855), but with 1GB of memory. I think 512 MB is too little. You must install the latest patch (1.61 for vanilla) and run on the lowest graphics settings, but I have never had any problems even on late games on large maps.
 
Yeah, I just wanted to let you guys know that with the patch the game works. I'll be upgrading the memory . . .right now the game runs slowly.
 
he should be able to run it at minimum specs. I have a 256MB RAM, an Intel 828245 G which is just like his but i have a higher proccessor. However his proccesor meets minimum requirements. My game works perfectly through standard sized maps but i need ram increase for further.
 
I play CivIV on a laptop 512MB ram, 64MB video card and 1.5GHZ processor and it play ok.

There is a little lag when scrolling but not too much.

I can't play wonder/victory/opening movies but you download lower resolutions for these.

When I first got CivIV the entire landscape was black but I could see the cities, but when I downloaded the 1.61 patch everthing worked fine.
 
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