Performance Requirements

[Ninot]

I couldnt give you my exact system specs, but I hover between minimum and recommended for everything except the video card, which is slightly below minimum. Game runs perfectly fine on Direct X 11.

[Fidel]

I am currently playing this on c2D 1.8 and 8600m gt video, 2 gigs, win7. It's a laptop and it runs somehow on (mostly low) settings. My laptop is nearing its end (it still runs fine, it is just that it is completely worn out) and will replace our desktop as the 'printing machine' and the 'replacement laptop'. A new one is in order. Despite our gripes about AI, interface, bugs, etc., Civ is pretty much the only game I play and I expect Civ5 to be the only one in the next several years.
My choice boils down to i5 or i7 and hd5650 and gt330. What should I chose? One other option is i5 paired with 5730. What should I chose? I want a snappy performance and a relatively cool laptop while running civ5 on high.

[Asher]

I doubt that AI uses DirectX, but who knows... Did you notice spike of the ALL processor's loads when you hit end of turn button?

Huh? No, the AI wouldn't use DirectX.

And no, end of turn button is usually single-core heavy.

[MxM]

Huh? No, the AI wouldn't use DirectX.

And no, end of turn button is usually single-core heavy.

So, seeing that game graphically runs just fine with even average (by today standard) graphical card, I would assume that it is beneficial to have dual core with the highest possible MHz and overclocked to the max, than i7 with 4 cores + 4 virtual cores because for AI calculations Civ V uses just single core and usually you can have faster single core in dual core processor than in 4 core processor. And fast dual core with good card is more than enough for any kind of graphical load Civ 5 can produce... Interesting.

[Asher]

Core i5/i7 turbo the single-core usecase a lot. My 2.9GHz Core i7 is 3.6GHz in single-core mode, 3.4GHz in dual core.

[MxM]

Core i5/i7 turbo the single-core usecase a lot. My 2.9GHz Core i7 is 3.6GHz in single-core mode, 3.4GHz in dual core.

I am unfamiliar with this. Are you saying that the processor can decide to switch cores by itself? Or do you do this through special program? Or should it be done in bios and with only with some mobo? In any case, it looks very impressive so I guess you best bet is to use 3.4GHz dual core if you have any control over it.

[Asher]

I am unfamiliar with this. Are you saying that the processor can decide to switch cores by itself? Or do you do this through special program? Or should it be done in bios and with only with some mobo? In any case, it looks very impressive so I guess you best bet is to use 3.4GHz dual core if you have any control over it.

Turbo Mode is done automatically on Core i5s and i7s. It automatically disables cores that aren't in use, and increases the clockrate on the cores that are in use to take advantage of the thermal enveloped available from having the others off.

The Core i7 870 (what I have) is a quad-core processor. Its stock clock is 2.9GHz. But with "Turbo Mode" available (as it is by default), the clockspeeds are (unless the chip is too hot):

4 cores active: 3.2GHz
3 cores active: 3.2GHz
2 cores active: 3.46GHz
1 core active: 3.6GHz

http://www.anandtech.com/show/2832/5

It'll automatically use the correct one. It can switch the frequencies and enable/disable cores something like thousands of times per second dynamically.

[MxM]

http://www.anandtech.com/show/2832/5 It'll automatically use the correct one.

Nice read, thanks.

So, since you do not have an option to turn off cores by yourself, do you see them being turned off during turn processing in Civ V?

[Asher]

I can't directly tell if they are turned off, but CPU-Z reports my clock-rate being 3.46 GHz during end-of-turn processing which indicates 2 cores active.

[MxM]

I can't directly tell if they are turned off, but CPU-Z reports my clock-rate being 3.46 GHz during end-of-turn processing which indicates 2 cores active.

That's great! It does look that it chooses the optimal mode! This is exactly what I guessed couple posts back - you need to switch to dual core. I am impressed and I want that processor! (But I can not justify it for myself when I have dual core at 2.7GHz and 260GTX running the game quite smooth. I have to wait for my "update cycle" couple more years, may be when Windows 8 is out). Lucky you

[Asher]

I'm only "lucky" because the motherboard died on my 3-year old Core 2 Quad 2.6GHz and rather than replacing it for a second time, I just swapped out the CPU, motherboard, and RAM. Core i7 870, high-end mobo w/ USB3 & SATA 6GB/s, and 8GB of DDR3 1600 RAM for $800 CDN.

[Fidel]

so again, would i be better of having i7 or i5 in the laptop. does i7 heat more or is it all the same? which of the above reccomended graphic cards should i chose (5650 or 330)?

[Asher]

The heat is basically the same.

I'm not sure which laptop GPU is faster. Check notebookcheck.

[Sir Og]

I noticed on task manage that when I hit end of turn, my 3 core CPU is at ~60% load on all 3 cores and the turns take quite a few seconds.

I thought that since the CPU is not at 80 - 100 % load maybe there is some other bottleneck.

So Asher how long are between turn times near end game on your setup?

[Asher]

I was on a Standard map and they'd take maybe 4-5 seconds in the 2000s.