Memory Usage

[scooch74]

I am really enjoying learning the latest incarnation of Civ, but is there a way to control the memory usage? That sucker is using about 80% of my RAM now when I am playing and its starting to bog down and get mighty slow. It slowly gets worse as I progress. Is there a simple fix for this by chance?

[Urban Ranger]

Use Harkonnen's memory fix but it does not work with patch 1.52

[Hauptman]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
Use Harkonnen's memory fix but it does not work with patch 1.52

doesnt 1.52 include a harkonen type fix? cause 1.52 runs BETTER than 1.09 with harkonen on my machine now.

[Urban Ranger]

It has some kind of thing called "mem saver" but doesn't do anything for me. My main problem isn't a memory leak (as a matter of fact apparently I don't have it), it is the game freezing the computer solid. This patch 1.52 doesn't help.

[Willem]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
It has some kind of thing called "mem saver" but doesn't do anything for me. My main problem isn't a memory leak (as a matter of fact apparently I don't have it), it is the game freezing the computer solid. This patch 1.52 doesn't help.

What settings do you have your game set at and what map size are you playing? I ran into that problem playing Large maps, but it works fine on Standard. But I have all my graphics turned to low, and I've turned down the setting for my video card as well. Maybe you're just trying to run it more than your computer can handle. Turn a few things down, and it might just work.

I'm dubious about that mem saver. If I understand the readme correctly, it saves about 70 meg system RAM but tranfers it to your video memory. So unless you have a 256 meg card, you might run into problems with not enough video memory. I think that's what happened to me when I had it on, my graphics after awhile would crap out. That hasn't occured since I turned it off.

[Zoid]

scooch, what´s your specs? For comparison my Civ 4 runs like a dream (well, almost...) on my P4 3.0GHz with GeForce 6600 256 Mb and 1 Gb of RAM...

[scooch74]

I'll try the Harkonen fix and see if that helps any.

My specs are P4 2.0 GHz, 1 GB RAM, Radeon X800 XL video card.

I'll check and see what settings the game is running on. I never changed any of them after I installed the game (other than the resolution I think...set that to 1280 x 1024 to match my desktop I believe) so they should be on whatever the standard is.

EDIT: Just saw that the fix doesn't work with 1.52,so I guess I won't try it.

[Aro]

The default is high, IIRC...

[scooch74]

Ah, if the default is high, that might explain a lot. I won't get a chance to check til later, but I imagine you are right on the money.

[Zoid]

scooch, those specs should do just fine. Why it works on some machines and not on others (that are equal in performance) are beyond me.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Willem
What settings do you have your game set at and what map size are you playing? I ran into that problem playing Large maps, but it works fine on Standard. But I have all my graphics turned to low, and I've turned down the setting for my video card as well. Maybe you're just trying to run it more than your computer can handle. Turn a few things down, and it might just work.

I have an Athlon 64 3200+ with 1GB RAM and a nVidia 6600GT card with 128MB RAM.

I play large maps, but I turn everything to low, even using low resolution textures.

[Alex]

My system sucks... Athlon 1.7, 1GB RAM, Geforce FX 5200 (I know, I know...) w/ 128 MB. I can play it on Standard with everything on low (including low res textures). The game never crashed on me. I haven't tried anything above Standard, though.

I'm dubious about that mem saver. If I understand the readme correctly, it saves about 70 meg system RAM but tranfers it to your video memory. So unless you have a 256 meg card, you might run into problems with not enough video memory. I think that's what happened to me when I had it on, my graphics after awhile would crap out. That hasn't occured since I turned it off.

Hmm, I'm not sure I understand this... If the memsaver transfers RAM from your system to your video memory, why would you be with not enough video memory?

[Willem]

Originally posted by Alex
Hmm, I'm not sure I understand this... If the memsaver transfers RAM from your system to your video memory, why would you be with not enough video memory?

The minimum video RAM for the game is 64 meg. If you have a 128 meg card and 70 megs is being transferred to that from system, it only leaves you with 58 meg for the rest of the graphics functions, which is below recommended. Ergo, your card might crash, as mine did.

I haven't had a single problem with my graphics crapping out after I turned that option off. Before I would get some serious problems around the late Middle Ages.

Incidentally, I have the same processor as you and Large doesn't work. It crashes during the early industrial era.

[Frejya]

I am running on an Athlon 2100, 512MB DDR 2700, GeForce 6200 w/128MB VRAM, 5400 rpm harddrive on the largest world size with most of the graphics turned up to fairly high levels. About the industrial age, it bogged down really bad and became unplayable. I applied the 1.52 patch and the no-cd hack and while there is a slight lag between turns (20-30 seconds) the game runs rather smoothly now. I don't know why different systems seem to have different performance issues. My wife is running an Athlon 3200, 768MB DDR333, 7200rpm harddrive, but only an GeForce fx 5200 w/128MB, same updates and patchs, but even with the much faster processor and ram, her system bogs down a lot more at times than mine does.