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Given that the minimum comp specs(IMHO) are:
P4 1.5GHz CPU(or equivalent)
512meg RAM
A video card that *fully* supports DX9 programmable texture shaders(likely a Radeon 9800 or Geforce 5800 or better). If on a Laptop I really suggest getting one with the Mobility Radeon X300 or better. Other decent canidates are the newest Intel extreme graphics chip, and the SiS Mirage 2/3 chip.
Now what if you are lacking in one or more of these area's? Well it may not all be lost. There may still be an option for you to play CIV, however your only real longterm solution is to upgrade, CIV is not Quake3 but it does use the Gamebryo 3D engine and large maps can be quit demanding.
There are 3 area's that you can either tweak the game or adjust what styles of games you play:
Note if you have a below standard computer, CIV will recognize this and on startup, will let you know and it will automatically adjust the settings in the options screens to give you the best possible gameplay, but don't expect miracles if your system is way below specs.
1. CPU
You can play CIV on slower CPU's but the big strain on the CPU is the number of AI Civ's and the pathfinding calculations used to move units from point A to B. So to play with a slow CPU means small games with few if any AI.
2. Memory
There's a direct and unavoidable relationship between map size and the amount of memory the game uses, for larger maps even 512meg of ram is no were near enough and if you have less than 512, you will be limited to small/tiny/duel maps only. Ofcourse you should maximize your memory by closing out every running program but CIV, but the only long term solution is to buy some more ram.
3. Video
Video is the one area were there is some room to maneuvre, the game uses the Gamebryo 3D engine, but the developers did build in some settings that will let you turn off/down features to make the game run(if not well) on lower end video cards. This is the area that the game auto adjusts your settings if it detects that you don't have optimal hardware but even if the game thinks you have what it takes to run the game but you are having problems you can take a trip into the Graphics Tab of the Options menu.
You can get into the Options menu is several ways.
1. Main Menu->Advanced->Options(you don't even have to enter a game)
2. While ingame, Control-O or hit esc or click on the "Open main menu" button that is in the top right corner beside the year.
Now that you are in the Option menu click on the Graphics Tab. there are several things that can be done in here:
1. Graphics Level Drop Down: This you can set to High/Medium/Low, and it will effect the entire games graphic details. Try this on Medium or Low if you are having problems.
2. Next is a range of 6 check boxes, Single Unit graphics, Show Health Bars, Detailed City Info, No Combat Zoom, Show Movement Range, Animations Frozen. In MP you probably will want No Combat Zoom turned on anyway as "zoomed combat" is just eyecandy that slows the fight down. All the others are also eyecandy andwhile nice every extra item that your video card has to render every cycle can grind a old video card to it's knees, so you can try turning off any/all of these that you don't absolutely prefer.
3. Render Quality Level: This will effect how pretty all that nice terrain and 3d units appear to you. You can lower this to Medium or Low, the game will still be functional but you'll likely end up with alot more strange "artifacts" and not very pretty terrain effects, but it better than not playing at all.
4. Globe Quality: This can be set to Low/Medium/High and only effects the quality of the Globe view/Strategy layer. For the most part this is not something that the average player will use alot but can be useful and a low quality globe view is better than not being able to use it.
5. Screen Resolution:
This is the one area that can benifit both the marginal computers and the uber ones. If your monitor is not a default resolution here is the place to change it, and ofcourse for the struggling video cards setting a smaller resolution means having to render far fewer pixels. There are justa few default resolutions and if you don't find one that you prefer there is an option in the CivilizationIV.ini to set custom height and widths for your resolution.
6. Anti-Aliaising Multi Samples:
This is the technique of sampling near by pixels and filling in the empty area's so that all the edges don't look blury. Ofcourse the more times you sample the surrounding pxels the better it will look. But the flip side is this high quality sampling comes at the cost of alot of processing by your video card and can really effect the frame rates on even the high end cards. So I defientely recommend leaving this at 0 for your not so high end video card.
If you have any more questions feel free to ask.
CS
P4 1.5GHz CPU(or equivalent)
512meg RAM
A video card that *fully* supports DX9 programmable texture shaders(likely a Radeon 9800 or Geforce 5800 or better). If on a Laptop I really suggest getting one with the Mobility Radeon X300 or better. Other decent canidates are the newest Intel extreme graphics chip, and the SiS Mirage 2/3 chip.
Now what if you are lacking in one or more of these area's? Well it may not all be lost. There may still be an option for you to play CIV, however your only real longterm solution is to upgrade, CIV is not Quake3 but it does use the Gamebryo 3D engine and large maps can be quit demanding.
There are 3 area's that you can either tweak the game or adjust what styles of games you play:
Note if you have a below standard computer, CIV will recognize this and on startup, will let you know and it will automatically adjust the settings in the options screens to give you the best possible gameplay, but don't expect miracles if your system is way below specs.
1. CPU
You can play CIV on slower CPU's but the big strain on the CPU is the number of AI Civ's and the pathfinding calculations used to move units from point A to B. So to play with a slow CPU means small games with few if any AI.
2. Memory
There's a direct and unavoidable relationship between map size and the amount of memory the game uses, for larger maps even 512meg of ram is no were near enough and if you have less than 512, you will be limited to small/tiny/duel maps only. Ofcourse you should maximize your memory by closing out every running program but CIV, but the only long term solution is to buy some more ram.
3. Video
Video is the one area were there is some room to maneuvre, the game uses the Gamebryo 3D engine, but the developers did build in some settings that will let you turn off/down features to make the game run(if not well) on lower end video cards. This is the area that the game auto adjusts your settings if it detects that you don't have optimal hardware but even if the game thinks you have what it takes to run the game but you are having problems you can take a trip into the Graphics Tab of the Options menu.
You can get into the Options menu is several ways.
1. Main Menu->Advanced->Options(you don't even have to enter a game)
2. While ingame, Control-O or hit esc or click on the "Open main menu" button that is in the top right corner beside the year.
Now that you are in the Option menu click on the Graphics Tab. there are several things that can be done in here:
1. Graphics Level Drop Down: This you can set to High/Medium/Low, and it will effect the entire games graphic details. Try this on Medium or Low if you are having problems.
2. Next is a range of 6 check boxes, Single Unit graphics, Show Health Bars, Detailed City Info, No Combat Zoom, Show Movement Range, Animations Frozen. In MP you probably will want No Combat Zoom turned on anyway as "zoomed combat" is just eyecandy that slows the fight down. All the others are also eyecandy andwhile nice every extra item that your video card has to render every cycle can grind a old video card to it's knees, so you can try turning off any/all of these that you don't absolutely prefer.
3. Render Quality Level: This will effect how pretty all that nice terrain and 3d units appear to you. You can lower this to Medium or Low, the game will still be functional but you'll likely end up with alot more strange "artifacts" and not very pretty terrain effects, but it better than not playing at all.
4. Globe Quality: This can be set to Low/Medium/High and only effects the quality of the Globe view/Strategy layer. For the most part this is not something that the average player will use alot but can be useful and a low quality globe view is better than not being able to use it.
5. Screen Resolution:
This is the one area that can benifit both the marginal computers and the uber ones. If your monitor is not a default resolution here is the place to change it, and ofcourse for the struggling video cards setting a smaller resolution means having to render far fewer pixels. There are justa few default resolutions and if you don't find one that you prefer there is an option in the CivilizationIV.ini to set custom height and widths for your resolution.
6. Anti-Aliaising Multi Samples:
This is the technique of sampling near by pixels and filling in the empty area's so that all the edges don't look blury. Ofcourse the more times you sample the surrounding pxels the better it will look. But the flip side is this high quality sampling comes at the cost of alot of processing by your video card and can really effect the frame rates on even the high end cards. So I defientely recommend leaving this at 0 for your not so high end video card.
If you have any more questions feel free to ask.
CS
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