What should I upgrade?

[El Stormo]

Hello everybody! I finally got my DVD drive to recognize the disk, but when I start the game on a fairly large map (and for me, huge maps are the only way to play CIV ) the game runs slow as molasses even with all te graphic options turned down low and in the lowest res.

So, my question to you: what should I upgrade? Probably more RAM or a better motherboard, but maybe you have other opinions. Thanks for the help!

My system:

AMD Athlon 2200+
AT/AT compatible
523.764 KB RAM

Windows 2000
Service Pack 4

nVIDIA GeForce 6800LE 128MB

[GeoModder]

That's a weird amount of processor RAM you're showing there.

I thought they only came with in increments... 128, 256, 512, 1024...

[El Stormo]

Yes, but it's in KB, so in MB it'll be 512

[Timmer]

From every thread I've read, more RAM seems
to be strongly encouraged by just about
everybody.

That's what I'm gonna do anyway.

I've got a pentium IV with 256M of RAM, and
the game runs fine. Providing I turn the graphic
settings to minimum and don't uncover the whole
map. After that, I can watch a Lord of The Rings movie
between turns in the modern era game-part.

I play on large or huge maps though.

[El Stormo]

So you don't think my processor needs upgrading?

[Timmer]

Originally posted by El Stormo
So you don't think my processor needs upgrading?

I couldn't tell you. I only know the RAM thing from
reading these forums.

Before I bought CIV IV, I hadn't even ever opened
up my computer. I just to think magic pixies made
it work.

Now I've installed a new graphic card and I'm gonna
get more RAM.

Course, you should also weigh costs versus use.

If you're just upgrading to play ONE game, that's
rather silly. (yeah, that's exactly what I'M doing,
I've been addicted to CIV ever since the first one)

[El Stormo]

Nah, I need more RAM to play Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines without choppiness as well, so now's a good time. Merci en ik betaal u daar eens een pint voor he

[Caranorn]

Good to know (not as in good that you have problems, more like good to know so I go fr a big enough upgrade:-)) that you have speed problems with 512 MB Ram. I was already tending to go up by 512 MB for my own upgrade (from 256), maybe I'll get even more.

Marc aka Caran...

[El Stormo]

Well, on a large map, the game is unplayably slow, so maybe my processor is also too weak.

[Addled Platypus]

even with a good processor (3.0/ l gig ram/ nv5500fx)
it will still lag on large maps with a lot of AI & units

I went with the next lower resoultion.

No iusses yet

[El Stormo]

I'm already at the lowest so that's not an option...

[Peets]

I'm going for bigger memory and better graphic card

[joncnunn]

First, increase your virual memory to something like 2.5 X the RAM you have. But first you probably want to ensure you have lots of free disk space and defrag the harddrive.

If that doesn't solve it, I'd next upgrade normal RAM up to 1 GB RAM. (Repeat steps of increasing V-RAM)

If it's still too slow, then upgrading the graphic card to one of the highly recomended ones for Civ IV would be the next thing to do.

[Peets]

Yeah, increasing the virtual memory helped me a lot.

[El Stormo]

I've increased virtual memory to 2.5 GB, so we'll see what that gives after a reboot. Thanks!