lagging gameplay

[lullemans72]

Originally posted by snoopy369
To the OP, you probably should increase your memory (RAM). 512MB is the low end of playable, and with large maps or late in the game, will not be playable. Your CPU is also a bit old, but it's rather easier to replace your memory.

I'd also be curious about your graphics card's onboard memory, that could be an issue if it's <128MB (This will combine with the general memory lack to be a bigger problem).

You should also make sure your drivers for your graphics card are up to date. If you still have your 2004 drivers, that is a large part of the problem right there.

Finally, definitely install the 3.17 patch. Not because of lagging issues, per se, but because it fixes lots of other problems

Graphics card's memory is 128 mb. The driver version I have seems to be from 2006. For some reason when I tried to automatically update the drivers (from my desktop), the old 2004 drivers got installed, so I'll just try and do it manually from the ati website.

[Baldyr]

I too experienced a lot (LOT) of this "lag" on a brand new (and tested out by the vendor, or so they claim) PC. My trials and tribulations are described in great detail here:

http://apolyton.net/forums//showthread.php?threadid=178757

In my case it was in fact a hardware malfunction, apparently caused by a mother board that didn't quite know how to communicate with the CPU. The problem manifested itself as the GPU shutting down and resuming its task in cycles of about 10 seconds. Very strange indeed. It was, in the end, all sorted out by switching to another mother board.

I'm not sure what to make of the various claims made in this thread concerning this issue. I'm kinda fatalistic about the whole thing - the game works on some machines/configurations and it doesn't on other ones. Consider getting another PC if you can't fix it easily yourself.

Personally I wasted almost a week of vacation time on trying to fix something that wasn't fixable in the first place. It was a good thing the PC was brand new so the vendor hadn't any other choice but to keep changing the configuration around until it finally worked. If it wasn't for I would probably never known there was a malfunction in the first place. So I guess it was a good thing, then?

[lullemans72]

Originally posted by Baldyr
I too experienced a lot (LOT) of this "lag" on a brand new (and tested out by the vendor, or so they claim) PC. My trials and tribulations are described in great detail here:

http://apolyton.net/forums//showthread.php?threadid=178757

In my case it was in fact a hardware malfunction, apparently caused by a mother board that didn't quite know how to communicate with the CPU. The problem manifested itself as the GPU shutting down and resuming its task in cycles of about 10 seconds. Very strange indeed. It was, in the end, all sorted out by switching to another mother board.

I'm not sure what to make of the various claims made in this thread concerning this issue. I'm kinda fatalistic about the whole thing - the game works on some machines/configurations and it doesn't on other ones. Consider getting another PC if you can't fix it easily yourself.

Personally I wasted almost a week of vacation time on trying to fix something that wasn't fixable in the first place. It was a good thing the PC was brand new so the vendor hadn't any other choice but to keep changing the configuration around until it finally worked. If it wasn't for I would probably never known there was a malfunction in the first place. So I guess it was a good thing, then?

Ouch, sounds like you were in quite a pickle there huh.
Well good you got your motherboard fixed in the end.

As for my pc, after having read people's tips and everything here, I'm starting to think that my pc is still in a darn good condition!=) it's not like Civ is always unplayable or anything, but I was just wondering why it lagged so much at certain times.

I still manage to play civilization without too much toil, or games like command and conquer tiberium wars 3 with hardly any problems.

[Blaupanzer]

Try a lower graphics setting. If the problem either fails to manifest or takes longer to do so than before, then the graphics card is the problem. If the problem were the RAM, then the game would slow down and then speed up, depending on demand -- the highest demand being during the AI turn. Also, if either of those were the problem, speed would not improve if you restart, but load the previous save.

[MoonWolf]

lullemans72, if you don't want to spend money on a new computer now, get some RAM. It's quite cheap and you should be able to get it even cheaper used.

Any chance you can find out what type of RAM you have? If so, I can help you locate the right ones Luckly the Norwegian webshop Komplett.no has a shop in Belgium too (looking at your flag...) and they use the same item number so it's easy to find it for you

Originally posted by snoopy369
It is also that the GPU gets hotter as the gameplay progresses... which is why shutting it down and restarting can help.

Then you actually have a hardware/ cooling issue. A game like Civ is not that heavy + out-of-the-box cards and not poorly built PCs should have suffient cooling

[lullemans72]

Originally posted by MoonWolf
lullemans72, if you don't want to spend money on a new computer now, get some RAM. It's quite cheap and you should be able to get it even cheaper used.

Any chance you can find out what type of RAM you have? If so, I can help you locate the right ones Luckly the Norwegian webshop Komplett.no has a shop in Belgium too (looking at your flag...) and they use the same item number so it's easy to find it for you


Then you actually have a hardware/ cooling issue. A game like Civ is not that heavy + out-of-the-box cards and not poorly built PCs should have suffient cooling

Moonwolf

Yeah i don't think i'll be buying a new pc just now, so ram might be a good thing.

Thanks for wanting to help, but how do i find out what type of ram i have? sorry i'm a newbie when it comes to pc hardware and the like.

[Baldyr]

lullemans72: I'm also a novice at this computer tech business, but my bet would be to locate any receipt or invoice you might have saved (for warranty purposes). It might just give you a clue as to what is installed on you machine.

And yeah, it sure was a pickle (me trying to get my new, dedicated computer to actually run the game), but hopefully it's all sorted out now. I really don't know for sure, though, since I have little or no time at all to actually play.

Funny thing, by the way. After I bought another graphics adapter and installed it (since I thought it was an issue with the GPU), I created a new user account in XP - just so I would be able to set it up optimally for . I actually named the account "Sid" and even gave it a portrait (GC but none-the-less) of Sid Meier, for luck. It didn't help any, by-the-way. I still have it set-up on my PC and it auto-starts my latest save - convenient for quick reboots during game play! (I noticed that I could cut 5 seconds between turns by rebooting every once in a while. Not that is was "lagging" anymore.)

[MoonWolf]

Or, do you have the excact computer model? Then I can look at the internet to see if I find anything.

If you know the model of your motherboard, that will help too. If you dont know it, download AIDA32 which will provide information about your system (it is quite old, but should work for your machine). Just extract the files and run the file called aida32.exe. Under Motherboard - Motherboard, you should see what you have and then we can look it up to see what RAM you need

[lullemans72]

Originally posted by MoonWolf
Or, do you have the excact computer model? Then I can look at the internet to see if I find anything.

If you know the model of your motherboard, that will help too. If you dont know it, download AIDA32 which will provide information about your system (it is quite old, but should work for your machine). Just extract the files and run the file called aida32.exe. Under Motherboard - Motherboard, you should see what you have and then we can look it up to see what RAM you need

sure thing. the model is a NEC i-select D4620

I also downloaded that program.
Was it the motherboard chipset you wanted to know? In that case, it seems to be Intel grantsdale i915

[lullemans72]

Message for snoopy btw

In an earlier post, I said that my graphics card's memory was 128 mb, but using moonwolf's program, I now noticed that it was actually 256 mb, sorry about that

[usarmyaircav]

I have a similar issue. newer laptop, running vista, install was fine and seemed to work fine for a while, but now it seems to be slow right away every time I play. I have a dual core 2.0, NVIDIA® SLI Dual GeForce® 8600M GT, 512MB GDDR3, 2 Gig of memory PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM, with Dual hard drives, with the game installed on the second drive.

Most of the wait seems to be whenever there is interaction with the AI players. then the screen just hangs there for a long time, I don't see any HD activity, I have graphics set pretty high, I will try a lower setting. Also I alway, always play the huge map.

[Blaupanzer]

Huge map seems to introduce delay during the AI tun on almost every system.. Are there folks out there playing full graphics, huge maps, possible slower speeds (epic, marathon), who don't experience delays by the 1500's or so?

[MoonWolf]

Sorry for my late reply. Have been off sick and too busy at home to be on the internet But, I've checked your computer. You need RAM of the type DDR400 (also called PC3200). Here's the link the spec of your computer.

You have slots for 4 pieces of RAM in total. My suggestion, would be to buy a set of these. That would give you 2-2,5GB of RAM (depening if you want to keep your old RAM or not). If you look at your motherboard, the slots should be paired identifyied by colors. Remember to install the new RAM pieces accordingly.

Good luck!

[lullemans72]

Moonwolf

Hey, you'll have to excuse me for being late as well.
Thanks for looking up that stuff for me. I don't have lots of time to play civ. at this time, but I will take your advice into consideration if I get new ram etc.

thanks again

[MoonWolf]

No problem, it's you who will suffer longer with a slow computer

Maybe you will have more time if you don't have to wait so long between turns Just note that the RAM-market is like the stock market: prices are going up and down. I've even heard of people who have bought it when it was cheap to sell it again used when it was expensive again just to make money...