Could it run any slower

[roughing56]

Im at a loss now as to what to try to speed up game. the lag is incredible. Like watching the dancing on the old thriller. I appreciate the guys who support Fireaxis/take2games but this is a disgrace

My specs

Pentium 4 2.8
1G Ram ( thanks Fireasses just bought it for the game cause I thought it was the cause of the lag)
GeForce 5700 card with updated drivers

I exceed the requirements yet still.it gets slower and slower...

anyone with a suggestion?

[Patch61]

I am having a similar problem with my system. I have an Athlop XP 2600+ w/ 1GB RAM. GeForce 5900XT w/ 128MB. The game starts to slow down when larger animations play, such as other civ leaders. Sometimes changing the resolution in game helps, sometimes not. It is really frustrating to see the 'active unit' circle turn in clicks, like a clock's second hand.

[roughing56]

LOL..I agree same thing here..Im sure its supposed to fly arounf the unit but for me its like a broken second hand..and love the fight scenes as the sound doesnt match the action..what a huge disappointment

[alva]

Check if your system doens't force something like 8 x AA or something.

Also try to lower the graphical settings in game.

Try closing stuff running in the background and all that.

[roughing56]

I have the setting of the game on low and the setting on my graphics card low ( again we shouldnt have to do this) but nothing speeds it up

whats 8 x AA

oh and nothing in the background

[alva]

Some programs like mine (ATI card) lets' you force programs to run with things like a higher AA than the game "wants'..nice for goodlooking graphics, bad for performance.

AA = Anti Aliasing ( basically drawing two pictures on top of each other to get nicer edges, you get a slightly blurred effect)

Meh, why try to explain it when others can do it so much better:

http://www.grafx-design.com/02gen.html

My system is better than yours but not all that much and I have no slowdown whatsover (some very late in game).
you're not playing large maps are you? Those are heavy on the 'puter

[locutus411]

As far as I can tell, the Nvidia 5xxx series video cards run Civ 4 slowly. I haven't run across anything that has been a sufficient fix yet. I have the Omega drivers (http://www.omegadrivers.net/) installed on my machine. They are running a little better than the official drivers, but still choppy and laggy.

Other than that, it looks like a case of crappy coding. I think we are going to have to wait for a patch.

I'm SO glad I preordered.

[alva]

If it runs less good on one series of cards, doesn't that tell you more about the card than it does about the game coding? It does in my book.

The 5x series of nVidea IS a crap one, the 6X is great, the 5x not so, not by a long shot.

[evizaer]

Originally posted by alva
If it runs less good on one series of cards, doesn't that tell you more about the card than it does about the game coding? It does in my book.

The 5x series of nVidea IS a crap one, the 6X is great, the 5x not so, not by a long shot.

What's more expensive: a high-end graphics card or a game?

The people with 5000 series graphics cards are above the recommended requirement. The game should run reasonably well on low graphics settings.

[roughing56]

I wouldnt be so quick to blame the card, is it top of the line..no. But it meets and exceeds the requirements on the game. Im always amazed at how people defend the game maker. Heck I LOVE the series and know wat goes into the game but this problem(s) are across the board. This falls on the game maker no doubt..

[alva]

I was not blaming the card, I said that it wasn't the best series they ever released.
Geforce 1 : Great (still have one as a back-up that can run civ4 btw, sloooow but it does work, what's said is that it is 6(?) years old and does have T/L compared to some much newer that don't)
Geforce 3 : Great
Geforce 5 : meh
Geforce 6 : Great
(knowledge on other series isn't good, so I'm not going to comment on those)

I also don't know how slow your game is at the moment, so it's hard to tell if the performance you're getting is normal or not.

his falls on the game maker no doubt..

Like I said, if only ONE series of cards isn't performing as should be expected, isn't it reasonable to state that it may be the card and not the code? I think it does.

[roughing56]

Well if it wasnt for the postings of all the other cards having problems I might agree with you but since its MANY cards...its the game..lol

[alva]

The ATI problem was solved yesterday(and that WAS an ATI bug).

Don't forget that some problems are because of users not knowing how to solve their problems.
Not knowing how to upgrade their drivers, not having T/L and many other things they may not know off or that could easily be fixed.
Don't get me wrong, I don't think people should know these things and that both hard and software makers often tke the easy way out but that's a different topic of discussion altogether.

Don't forget, there's less satisfied people taking the trouble to register on a forum and express how much they like it than those for whom things have gone wrong.

[Falconius]

Originally posted by alva
The ATI problem was solved yesterday

Uh, it was? I refer you to this thread:

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=140908

Getting past the render issue was step one. We're still looking for ways to solve the "whitewashed terrain" and "triangulated sea zones". If there is a fix for these, please direct me to them.

Please!

[alva]

I didn't read the whole thread, what I did notice in the opening post wast the GFX card, which is a 7500 Radeon.
That card is the absolute minimum, we both know that's asking for trouble. Not saying it shoud be, but it's always going to be.
I wouldn't buy a game, any game for that matter if any of my hardware is absolute minimum. I wouldn't even try a demo if there was one...

Oh, and every game has some trouble for someone, Civ4 isn't going to the exception here.

To answer your question, no, I don't have an answer for you or him, sorry...besides spending money of course.