I have no idea if my system is adequate...

[Elok]

I currently have Windows Me (yes, it stinks, I know, long story), so I can't play Civ4 anyway. But I'd like to know if my system is capable of supporting it if I changed to 2000.

I have:

an Intel Celeron
448 MB RAM
No sound, but I don't care
So far as I can tell, my vidcard is a "SiS 661FX Rev 00," whatever that is, according to DirectX diagnostic when I consulted it. I currently run DirectX 9.0, so that's not a problem. I just don't know about the video card itself. I can't find any info on its memory. I'm pretty ignorant about hardware.

Can anybody tell me if this will be enough to run the patched version of Civ4 provided I change OS?

[TheHateMale]

What speed is the Celeron?

Also, I think you'll need at least twice that amount of RAM for satisfactory play.

[Sabre2th]

Originally posted by TheHateMale
What speed is the Celeron?

Also, I think you'll need at least twice that amount of RAM for satisfactory play.

RAM is nice, but not critical. Runs just fine for me with 512

[Elok]

Really? I thought somebody else here could play the patched version easy with 512 MB. I read about the dramatic effect of the patch and that got me interested.

My computer's system menu doesn't say anything about the Celeron, but according to Intel's official site, it's "950 MHz to 2.80 GHz." Not a very specific figure, I'm guessing there are multiple models or something? Like I said, I know all but nothing about hardware.

[Vlad Antlerkov]

If you want a rough idea, go to http://www.srtest.com and select Civ IV from the dropdown menu. As a bonus, it'll also tell you your processor speed.

[Orky]

Civ4 does run on Windows 98SE, so I think it will run on ME as well, so you don't have to upgrade.

I think the biggest problem with your PC is that it has an internal video chip, which eats RAM, instead of a real graphics card. If your computer has an AGP slot, you should really consider buying e.g. an Nvidia FX5200 card, which shouldn't cost more than $50. I have one of those, and the game works remarkably well for me on my underspecced system.

[Raion]

Run "dxdiag" which is the Direct X program, and make it a shortcut on your computer desktop. There on the initial page of the program will be your processor speed.

Mine is a rated as being a 1.8gHz Celeron, that because of dust and dirt -- running around ~ 1.73gHz or so, so cleaning the dust and dirt out of your computer probably will help also.

But you seem to be below specs so don't ask for performance out of Civ IV, you simply will not get it!

And a Geforce 4 anything is really not up to par, and especially the new Geforce MX 4000 -- it is not meant to play games with -- it is just general -purpose computing usage.

Even a FX5200 like I have is just below Recommended Specs -- so Civ IV will slow down -- if you can not wait a moment or two -- then turn down the graphics -- turn off the Animations and Effects -- use Single Graphics Units, and admit -- you need a newer better computer -- but then that all costs a lot of money and even that is changing again - due to Microsoft -- and their OS is not all that great either!

Direct X10 on their new (use to be Longhorn) Vista OS will not support Direct X 7,8, or 9 anymore, and only through being compatible -- and that -- that word means that Microsoft will mess it up as much as they did playing a ms-dos game with Windows 2000, which -- will not work -- because -- only Microsoft knows what they call -- compatible -- according to their programming -- of which -- the rest of the sane world -- does not know - again due to Microsoft --- hoarding the info, so other programs can not be fully compatible with Microsoft's OS because -- someone decided to use that piece of crap of OS system for everything and the sane world --- thinks in part -- that it is and always has been -- crap!

[Elok]

Srtest didn't work for me; it said "downloading" and didn't download. Thanks anyway.

Getting a video card would be out of the question, I'm afraid. Civ4 itself already costs like $50. Maybe I wouldn't have to buy Windows 2000, but my experience with Me makes me deeply suspicious of it. This OS is a control freak and a half, very prone to hissy fits. We're tight on cash at my place of late, VERY tight. Long story why, but my godawful expensive college and the phrase "financial disaster" are part of it.

I wouldn't mind turning down the graphics at all, tbh. Personally, I'd be fine if Civ4 had graphics no better than Civ2's. I'm in it for the gameplay.

[CrONoS]

.. Why Win2000???

Go for Win98SE or go for WinXP! You havr 4XX mb of ram because you have an inboard vid card.
When playing Civ4, i do Ctrl-Al-Delete and close all the unusefull processes, and when I start the game I even close explorer.exe. Explorer use 20-30mb of ram when loaded.

With my 512ram and Inboard vid card(ihave a laptop) the game is smooth at small, smooth to really playable at standart size maps.

So try it.... Other way, you'll have te game for the future.

see ya

[Just_Matt]

Elok...

Try enabling helper applications in youre browser menu. The site requires either ActiveX or Jave to work.

If you are using Internet Explorer (the big blue "E") go to Tools, Internet Options, choose the Security Tab and either manually configure settings for these helper applications or click select the Trusted Sites option and press the Sites button. Add www.srtest.com to the list. Press OK all the way out and try to reload the page.

[DmD]

Initialize Renderer failed...

Hello,

I have tried everything to get this game to work but still nothing has helped. I followed the steps on this forum to unpack the ART0.FPK file but I was not able to find the file in the game directory, just the folder itself. I installed DirectX that was included with the game and when I checked my version number it came up as DirectX 9.0b (4.09.0000.0903). The error that I receive during the startup of the game is "Initialize Renderer failed. Check DirectX Installation, Latest Graphic Drivers and Settings Paremters: width - 1024, height - 768, flags - 0xc, hwnd - 0x3110fc, adaptrid - 0, deviceid - 3 (new line) - Error:Creation failed: Could not initialize DirectX9" I also ran the update patch for Civil4, which was version 1.52. I also downloaded the latest graphics drivers for my video card ATI Raedon 9200. I have tried just about everything I can think of.

Any help will be appreciated, thanks.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Raion
Run "dxdiag" which is the Direct X program, and make it a shortcut on your computer desktop. There on the initial page of the program will be your processor speed.

You don't have to do that. Just right click on "My Computer" and choose "Properties."

Rebooting the computer and noting the POST report also works