Will this computer work with ciV?

[Brownsfan02]

My family is getting a new computer and I was able to convince my dad to get one that should work really well with civ 4, but I am also hoping that it works with ciV well also. Here are the important specs:

speed: 2.2 ghz
ram: 3gb
memory: 250 gb
video card: has one but not sure how good it is.

does anyone know if this will be good enough to run ciV

 

[Chalks]

Hopefully the game will have the ability to decrease graphical settings so that it works on a wide range of systems.

From the not entirely clear specification you've provided (some of the things don't really make sense) it looks like you should be fine. I'm basing this on the quantity of ram you have and the fact that you probably haven't upgraded it, so the rest of the spec probably matches how much you would get with that much ram.

 

[PieceOfMind]

The main thing is making sure that computer will have a graphics card. A lot of computers marketed to office-users still come with only integrated graphics which is usually insufficient for 3d video games, including Civ4 (my graphics-card-less laptop can't run Civ 4).

If you know it will have a graphics card, and assuming that 2.2GHz cpu is at least dual core (if it's a new computer it probably has one, if not you might still be ok but the game could become pretty slow), you probably have nothing to worry about.

 

[wabatt]

Everything should be fine for civ 5... Assuming it's using the new low end parts a new GPU (even an integrated on) it should work fine. My 3 year old laptop has an intergrated and can run civ 4

The main thing with CIV is RAM which you have plently of. You should be fine

 

[Shiggs713]

on the low end, but it should work. 3gb of ram isn't spectacular but it should get you by. Seriously a brand new desktop should come standard with more than that though. The last pc I bought a few years ago, it was when vista was still new, came standard with 6gb, and it was a mediocre, $500 machine.

 

[Brownsfan02]

it's an e-machine eME725-4520 T4400 it runs windows 7 and it is a dual core

 

[Sam_Yeager]

A quick search shows that this machine has an Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500M. I'm not familiar with this on board graphic but hopefully other posters will know if it is any good. I suspect it might struggle with Civ5 but that's just speculation.

 

[Willem]

A quick search shows that this machine has an Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500M.

Any graphics chip made by Intel sucks. If it does run the game, and there's no guarentee, it will do so very poorly.

 

[Chalks]

Oh dear, an integrated graphics card really isn't designed for gaming.

Although Civ 5 may well be able to run on low settings with it - it's not exactly Crysis or something.

 

[Brownsfan02]

eh im lookin to mainly run civ 4 oh well i may be getting a job here soon so then I will be able to get what I want for ciV

 

[Senethro]

It'll certainly run Civ4. Less well than you expect because dualcores confuse civ4. As for civ5, we don't know enough yet.

 

[Willem]

Less well than you expect because dualcores confuse civ4.

They don't confuse it, the game just doesn't use them. It's a single core only game. There's absolutely no performance hit running them on more than a single core though. In fact you'll get a marginal improvement since the OS and any background processes can use the other core.

 

[Brownsfan02]

well the way i look at it is that it has to run it better then the one that broke ran it

 

[vidion]

how do you find out what graphics card you have. I just checked my device manager and it has a driver for "Intel 965 Chipset family". Is that any good? I must say I haven't had any serious problems with civ 4, but my computer is primarily an office computer.

 

[Brownsfan02]

go to run in your start menu and type in directxdiag then hit run, i am pretty sure that's it.

 

[Chalks]

go to run in your start menu and type in directxdiag then hit run, i am pretty sure that's it.

It's dxdiag, but yeah, that will tell you.

 

[The_J]

I just checked my device manager and it has a driver for "Intel 965 Chipset family". Is that any good?

Any graphics chip made by Intel sucks. If it does run the game, and there's no guarentee, it will do so very poorly.

.....

 

[Willem]

how do you find out what graphics card you have. I just checked my device manager and it has a driver for "Intel 965 Chipset family". Is that any good?

It's not even a card, it's a video chip built into the motherboard. And no, it isn't any good. In fact it sucks. Those chips weren't designed for games, they're meant for things like spread sheets or text. You need a dedicated video card for good performance when playing games.

 

[vidion]

It's not even a card, it's a video chip built into the motherboard. And no, it isn't any good. In fact it sucks. Those chips weren't designed for games, they're meant for things like spread sheets or text. You need a dedicated video card for good performance when playing games.

Can I get a new graphics card for this computer or should I actually buy a new one.

 

[Chalks]

Can I get a new graphics card for this computer or should I actually buy a new one.

You can buy a new video card for the system, but then the question comes down to whether or not you're comfortable installing it yourself.

Although it's very possible that Civ 5 will work fine on low settings on your current system, so you might not need to worry. They should release the min system specs before launch so you'll have plenty of time to decide what to do when you know them.