New player with minor problem

[Ashen Sukar]

Hi everyone,

I have played Civ3 a long time ago and recently decided to check out Civ IV. I have a fairly old comp, but apart from some small issues the game was slow but playable.

Specs: 1.8 Ghz / 512 MB / Geforce 2 MX 400 card

I assumed a lot of the minor problems could be solved by increasing the RAM. This week I realized I had not updated my videocard drivers in years, so I found the latest drivers and installed.

And here is the "problem": In-game everything has improved big-time. I can now even read the names of the cities
But now all the startup screens are completely out of wack.
The 2K sign and the intro movie, right up to the screen with the world in the background. I doesn't effect gameplay but I just don't understand why?

Any thoughts?

[Kloreep]

Sorry, but "completely out of wack" is not a very helpful description of the problem. What exactly is the issue with them?

I myself have some issues with the movies (intro movie's video freezes partway in) but as you say, it thankfully doesn't affect the actual game.

[Sabre2th]

Are the movies choppy or otherwise unwatchable? Are they just blank? Can you hear sound? Does it crash? If it does, do you get an error message?

[Ashen Sukar]

Sorry, I was trying to keep it short . The first part where the 2K logo appears used to be choppy, now I just get two frozen images, first some of the red lines, then it skips to the logo. Also the intro starting with "Firaxis" was somewhat choppy, now it skips huge parts and shows only frozen images.

First you see just the map on the table, then it skips to the complete logo etc.

I haven't tried it with sound yet as I have the music turned off. Either way, it does not crash. I also have had no in-game crashes, even in big games.

I'm still wondering if more RAM, which would almost certainly help the gameplay, would also improve stuff like the intro, because it was better with the old drivers (2001.......) which leads me to think it is a power issue and the allocation of that power. The graphics look better, only now they're standing still .

[Solver]

RAM wouldn't help this particular issue. As you're probably aware, the GeForce 2 MX 400 is quite an ancient card . In fact, I believe it's the lowest GeForce card that will run Civ4.

There is a set of low-resolution movies available for download specifically for players with low-end video cards, so they would hopefully stutter less.

[Metaliturtle]

That was the vid card I had when I got CIV, I had to turn off all the movies and skip through the intros as fast as possible in order to play.

Make sure you set everything to LOW

and save up the extra $100 for a new card if you can't save up for a new PC

[Ashen Sukar]

Ok, thanks guys, I will start by trying the low res. movies. I have everything set to low, although the high setting didn't result in more problems but it seems to run a tad better on low.

And, yeah, I know I've got an ancient computer but it seems I would have to wade through a ton of info to find out which videocard would work for me when I will probably buy a new comp in about a year or so. And after all I played some marathon games with Civ3 so I'm used to slow

You will see me back soon for some tactics discussions......I had Civ3 all figured out, but now with Civ4 I'm getting my $@# kicked on Noble...........

[Solver]

The computer itself is okay. I started playing Civ4 on a similar one, only with a much better video card. Huge maps were a drag, but other than that, it was fine.

No worries on a new video card, by the way. Any video card you can buy now (and certainly a year from now) will run the game as long as it's a real video card and not an integrated piece of trash. What will the weakest card you can buy be in a year anyway, the GF 6200?

[Ashen Sukar]

Probably. I looked at what several cards would cost me and noticed that everyone over here seems to be blowing out the 5500.

I used to buy computers made to my specifications, but when I bought this one I didn't want to part with a lot of cash so I bought one ready made if you know what I mean.

I never had any problems with it but I think my next comp. should be one more to my needs; I also record music with it so it will need several top end components; I'm probably best of playing with this comp. as is, and go for a completely new system ASAP.

[snoopy369]

Anything would be better... a 5500 would be better, a 5200 would be better, and a 6200 would be better. Any of those would be able to play Civ4 much more stably than your 400 [n.b., I could be wrong, but I vaguely recall a 400 is actually better than a 440 in certain elements. Either way they both are bottom of the barrel Civ4 cards.]

[Ashen Sukar]

Yeah I would suspect any recent card would be better, but I was somewhat suprised to see that in general everything worked. Before installing I read a lot of the technical and problem solving discussions and I think it's save to say I haven't had 90% of those problems.

I haven't had any crashes, crashes to desktop, loading errors, blackouts, blank aerias on the map, or audio problems.

Still I know a shop close by has GF 5500's for around $30, so I'm gonna pick on up in the next week. Even one of those should be a big improvement, and for that kind of money it would be silly not to try one.

[Solver]

A word of warning. There's a fairly substantial problem with the entire 5xxx series of GeForce cards. They do have support for shader model 2.0, but the support is on paper only. If you try to run an application using 2.0 shaders on any of those cards (except maybe the 5900), your framerates will drop to 2 or 3 FPS at best.

A 5500 will be a massive improvement over your MX 400 for Civ4, but if you also want to play other games, I'd consider getting a 6200 instead. Anyway, I recommend you first check to see how much a 6200 would cost in your area.

[Ashen Sukar]

I was mistaken. They're dumping a batch of 5200 cards

I can't find a local store that sells a 6200, I can only find 7100 and up. And that will cost me around $75. I'm not sure I want to spend that kind of money on a "soon to be replaced" computer, as I have been playing games for a long time ( for reference: I was there when Pacman was released ) but nowadays I only play games I really like, which at the moment is just the Civ series.

But I'm tempted for sure.

I seem to recall a discussion on the forums with someone who had a lot of problems with a 6 series card?

Ah, it just occured to me that I could get a good card now and later swap it into to a new computer. Mmmm....

Do you know if recent cards will be compatible with my current board or is that never an issue?

[Solver]

The newest cards use the PCI-E slot, which is surely absent from your current board. However, you shouldn't worry about that - all cards except the currently cutting-edge ones also exist in an AGP version, which is what you'll need. If you'll be buying a 5000/6000 series card, that'll definitely be AGP, and there are some AGP cards in the 7000 series, too.

And you can definitely buy a good card now and later put it into your new computer. I myself prefer buying parts periodically when a certain component on my PC gets weak - seems an all-around better way of doing things than just dumping the old PC and buying a completely new one.

[Ashen Sukar]

I just noticed you're from Latvia. Isn't it the middle of the night over there right now? Or are we in the same time-zone?

Thanks for the info. You're right in that a new card could prolong the lifespan of my current computer and there is probably no harm in trying.