Will my laptop run this? Please help

[lightnng]

All,

I have tried finding the answer through the forum but I am still uncertain as to whether it is yay or nay.

I have an IBM X31, Pentium M 1.4GHz, 768MB RAM. While money is not the issue here, the laptop itself is, as it is my business machine and what I will continue to have for the next two years. I know from a spec perspective that's sufficient to run the game (I'm concerned about having top notch performance at this point, just workability).

However, where it gets iffy is the graphics card. It says it has a "Mobility Radeon AGP". I can find no other information on the card. I DO know it supports T&L and such, but I think it has only 16MB dedicated. However, I also believe it uses machine RAM as a sort of virtual graphics RAM (I might be wrong).

Anyone have any idea on this? Will I be able to play the game on this box? I spend a lot of time in airports and planes, and Civ is a very valuable companion on those times.

 

[felder]

According to the prerelease info on this site, the minimum requirements state 32mb of video ram:
http://www.civfanatics.com/civ4/info/#requirements

This article would seem to indicate you probably have 16mb of video ram:
http://www.anandtech.com/mobile/showdoc.aspx?i=1809&p=4

If you've only got 16, it could be trouble. Since the game hasn't been released yet, it's pretty difficult to say whether it would work or not...I'm thinking most likely not, or if it does it'll be painfully slow. I'd suggest waiting for it to be released and seeing what other people have to say about performance with their systems.

 

[Steve2000]

just go to this site using the laptop. Select Civ IV from the menu. It will run a diagnostic on your computer to see if it will run the game.

 

[lightnng]

Tried the site. Says I have everything except video memory, which needs to be 32MB. Everything else is beyond recommended spec.

But here's the thing. Isn't video memory generally a factor of resolution and color depth? You need a certain amount of memory per pixel based on many colors you are using, and then the number of pixels define the overall amount of memory needed? Or am I wrong? Because if so then wouldn't it be possible to play the game in a lower resolution (say) if this is indeed the only issue?

I'm not that technical, so I may be saying things that make no sense, please forgive me if the questions sound stupid. I am literally heart-broken over this, if indeed it is true; I was truly anticipating the game with great enthusiasm, and my pre-order has been in for a while now.

 

[Phoenix_56721]

All the PC gaming Mags, recommend the (Dell XPS) for laptop gaming, it might be over kill for Civ4, but if money not an issue I would buy it for the best performance while playing Civ4, and for future gaming!..

EDIT: Where's my manners Welcome to CFC

 

[Steve2000]

We'll be crossing our fingers for you - I truly hope the game works for you the day you get it in the mail.

Unfortunately I would have to say that your best case scenario is that the game runs slowly at a low resolution. Even if that is the case you should probably be in the market for a new graphics card. I am not sure what size/type will fit in your laptop. I am by no means an expert - I would probably suggest reading through this thread. Lots of people have weighed in on the graphics card issue there. If money is an object I would wait a couple of months as there will probably be a couple of new cards on the market from the big boys (Nvidia and ATI) thus lowering the price on "last year's model" (which of course is already overkill for Civ IV. If you can't wait look for deals on used/refurbished cards on ebay or similar sites.

WELCOME TO CIVFANATICS and make sure to come back and let us know if things are working for you next week! With luck you will be entering a question about game strategy not technical help

 

[lightnng]

Thank you so much for the kind replies!

I'll go read that other thread presently, but... money is not really an issue (as could be ascertained from the laptop itself, which is certainly not cheap), but from a business standpoint I am bound to using this machine for the next two years or so (standard life cycle), and in any case, would not stray from the X series even if I were at the point of replacement. The benefits I get from them for the main purpose I have the laptop - that is, serve my clients - far outweigh gaming considerations. There is simply no other laptop out there that can stand the abuse I heap on my laptop day in and day out without complaint.

But another point has been raised which both surprises me and lifts my spirits a bit - is it even possible to exchange the graphics card on the laptop? I don't mind doing it if it can be done, and the cost is no object - I'd happily pay even $500 to upgrade the graphics chip if it were possible just to make the game run (I presume that should be enough?). I just thought that in the case of a laptop with this form factor, the graphics chip is part of the board. Any more clues?

 

[agoodfella]

All the PC gaming Mags, recommend the (Dell XPS) for laptop gaming, it might be over kill for Civ4, but if money not an issue I would buy it for the best performance while playing Civ4, and for future gaming!..

EDIT: Where's my manners Welcome to CFC

beg to differ...

Toshiba's Qosmio G25 seems to edge out the XPS according to most PC reviews I've read (and if Civ IV doesn't work on my two laptops, that's what I'm getting)

 

[Rince]

I just thought that in the case of a laptop with this form factor, the graphics chip is part of the board. Any more clues?

Usually it is, yes. Sometimes it's detachable for easy replacement in case it dies. In some cases you can really buy a better version and install it yourself but i think that's an exception (with my Dell Inspiron 8600 it works). So you might check your manual or the web to see if you're lucky.

Rince

 

[Mercade]

You have enough RAM, and the graphics card is sufficient for the other specs, so if the card knows how to take extra memory from the main RAM (which I think it will) then you'll be OK. Just try it out. I have good hopes that

will work for you.

Otherwise, try to convince your boss to upgrade the graphics card in your laptop. That's a relatively low cost. Someone who travels as much as you do must be cute enough to find a way to do that.

 

[warpstorm]

I think I've got that graphics card in my laptop. I used it to do Gamebryo development for a year. Sad to say, it is near the bottom of the heap of cards that can actually run Gamebryo. Having said that, you can probably run the game with many of the graphics settings turned way down and putting up with low frame rates and stutters as it is loading and unloading textures.

 

[darkdude]

You have enough RAM, and the graphics card is sufficient for the other specs, so if the card knows how to take extra memory from the main RAM (which I think it will) then you'll be OK. Just try it out. I have good hopes that

will work for you.

Otherwise, try to convince your boss to upgrade the graphics card in your laptop. That's a relatively low cost. Someone who travels as much as you do must be cute enough to find a way to do that.

As his card has AGP in its name it seems the card can indeed use main system RAM; see e.g. http://www.pcguide.com/ref/mbsys/buses/types/agpMemory-c.html
That's not the whole story of course, but it gives hope.

 

[Flakpanzer]

I am in a similar situation myself.

I went ahead and pre-ordered CIV IV even though I really have no idea whether or not it will run on my laptop. I just want it that bad that I'll buy a new one if it doesn't work. Anyway, I have a Toshiba with the old GeForce 2 Go card. Apparently it has 16MB VRAM, but I really don't know. What I do know is that it will run Rome Total War just fine, and that game requires 64MB VRAM! It must share memory from the main RAM, which I have upgraded to 640MB. Also, I have the latest driver installed for the card, which has helped.

So...if your video card can borrow from the main memory, you should be set.

Is anyone else losing sleep over this?

 

[JakeCourtney]

The only thing that www.srtest.com does is compare your computer to the system requirements of the game. You can tell right off now that 16mb of video ram won't cut it. You're laptop might be using shared memory. Which will rob even more resources from you. It'll run, but barely I believe.

 

[reddragon72]

you might try looking around the bios, as some laptops have a setting for increasing the video shared ram(UMA) try it and see what you find. You have a UMA card in there not a discret so you might be in luck.

 

[lightnng]

Otherwise, try to convince your boss to upgrade the graphics card in your laptop.

Oh, that's easy enough. I'll ask myself. Answer is "no problem, but you can't replace the laptop until you've used this one for three years". Thing is, I don't know that it's possible to do this.

I finally found out exactly what the card is: ATI Mobility Radeon M6-C16H. Not that it helps me any; I still can't figure out if it can or cannot use main system RAM if it needs to. If it can, then I should be good; the card does have all the hardware acceleration features required by the game. If it can't, it appears I'm SOL.

The only indication I currently have is that the card, according to ATI, has "no external memory allowed". I'm not even sure what that means, but it doesn't seem good

Again, thanks everyone for pitching in. I'll certainly report once the game arrives, but that will be 2-3 weeks from now.

 

[Phoenix_56721]

beg to differ...

Toshiba's Qosmio G25 seems to edge out the XPS according to most PC reviews I've read (and if Civ IV doesn't work on my two laptops, that's what I'm getting)

By all means differ, I sure the Toshiba is now top dog they change all the time, I was just Quoting from the last time I read an article on the topic. I don't plan to play Civ4 on a laptop anyway, so I really don't pay that much attention to who's on top.

 

[Sark6354201]

Since the card can draw memory from your ram, (Nvidia calls it Turbocache) the card should be fine. Especially since you have a good amount of RAM.

I wouldn't worry.

Also, that Pentium M is a excellent processor, despite its low clock speed.

 

[theatrus]

I'd worry about the graphics, mainly since AFAIK, mobility radeons do not operate in a shared graphics setup.

I have a Thinkpad T40p, and the ATI FireGL (Basicly a mobility radeon 9000) can not change its video size (i.e., by stealing system memory).

The main use of ram in 3d systems is for textures (putting a picture on your triangles). It may run, but you will get terrible performance if it does, since the textures will be continuously swapped in and out of video ram.

 

[lightnng]

AFAIK, mobility radeons do not operate in a shared graphics setup

Having now spent a couple of hours looking through whatever information I could find, I am afraid you're right.

The main use of ram in 3d systems is for textures (putting a picture on your triangles).

Oh, I see. Hmm. Well, in that case, doesn't it make sense that by turning off various graphic options (for example, using single-unit instead of multi-unit display, which should cut down the number of polygons) I should be able to at least get it to run? Sure, it won't be as pretty as it could be, but I'm interested in gameplay first, glitz later. Oh, I know nobody has the answers, I just wish there was someone from Firaxis that I could ask.