Do you have a monitor with 1024x768 res. or better for civ 3?

[dainbramaged13]

Geez, 132 to 10, who do these guys think they are! making a game that 7% of people cant enjoy! those BASTARDS!


kinda one-sided, huh?

[squid]

Originally posted by Nemo
my gaming machine: 1600x1200 @ 75Mhz max
my laptop: 1024x768
my old PII 266: 1280x1024 @ 65Mhz ( <--and i got this monitor for $15!!!)
my still working AMD-486dx: 800x600 @60Mhz (<-- and i got this monitor was for free!)

Unless you have alien technology, that is just plain Hertz.

[Akron]

I've got a 15" laptop screen at 1600x1200 in front of me right now, and yes I can easily see everything well (I could fit four 800x600s on this screen), even though my vision is far from perfect. If you increase the resolution and change some of the windows appearance settings, it doesn't appear too small.

I couldn't imagine going back to 800x600 now, there would be so little workspace and detail! I'd have to say that investing a little more money on a better monitor goes a long way. For most tasks on the computer, it doesn't make a difference whether the chip is a P4- 1.5 ghz or 2.0 ghz. But the jump from a 15" to a 19" monitor costs about the same but makes a HUGE difference.

[Nemo]

Originally posted by squid
Unless you have alien technology, that is just plain Hertz.

LOL! you're right...opps. sorry, i've been shopping for a new processor lately. hehe.

[Nemo]

Originally posted by Blake
Question is... should I upgrade my clunky 2 year old AMD-K6-2 400 to a 1.4GHz system...
I thinking I should, with all the new animations and stuff.

i have a pII 450, and i have been asking the same thing: is it worth upgrading the processor for my games and compilers? well this is what i have come to: to get a 1.2GHz (or whatever) processor, I will also need a new mobo. now when i get the new mobo I will have to find onw that is backwards compatabel with my 512Mb of SDRAM 122Mhz ram (thats what speed it tests at, its o/c pc100 or something...i have never figured it out) now when i get the new mobo it will have a front end bus of like 800Mhz (or there about)which means that all of the speed will be bottle necked by the slower ram. therefore i will have to get DDRAM or the more expensive RambusRAM to utilize the full CPU speed and lessen the bottleneck effect. now i am looking at another 512Mb of DDR or Rambus. However, since i have a GeForce2 GTS that has its own processor of sort, which takes some of the computations away form the main cpu which means that the 450 is now like maybe a 550 or 600Mhz equivilant. so upgrading is getting too expensive with all the extras to make it truly worth it, and the GeForce balances it all out, anyway. i'll wait for unreal2 to upgrade the processor et al.

i just bought max payne, and it says that 450 is the min req. and 700 is the recomended. well, i can play it at full graphics without any noticable slow downs, or hic-ups. there is only one feature i cannot change and that is bilinear -> trilinear becuase that causes lag. but i cant see what the difference is anyway :shrug: ...so, imho, i say no, it is not worth the upgrade.

[Adm.Naismith]

Originally posted by yin26
Hey, give that guy a vacation! That was DISGUSTING!

Ok Yin, I edited and removed the disgusting part of my post... or at least the part I agree it was disgusting

LaRusso: Ciao!

About upgrade: With games like Civ III, I guess the main strain to the PC will be on the memory (specially with huge maps, late in the game filled with units and cities).

Any CPU upgrade can help the AI turn to be faster, of course, but nothing really relevant if not into above mentioned condition.

A cheap solution: learn to play very well and win the game early, when the PC is not stressed

[Fidel]

hm, my main concern is the longevity of the laptop battery 7 hr in a train without a damn plug 4 times a month it better be good

[Adm.Naismith]

Originally posted by LaRusso
hm, my main concern is the longevity of the laptop battery 7 hr in a train without a damn plug 4 times a month

1) Buy a spare battery and install the game fully on HD: if the game force you to still have the CD in place for anti-piracy you at least avoid some CD access (it's a strain on the battery, you know).
If the game don't check the CD and you can, remove the CD Drive and place in the spare battery for uninterrupt source of power.

Don't forget to:

2) Buy some medicine to help your eyes: 7hr playing a game will stress your eyes really a lot

[Earthling7]

Originally posted by Ozymandous
Well a flat screen 17" will run you roughly $900-$1000, but a "regular" 17" is inexpensive (comparatively)

WHAT??? I am in Europe and I bought one for $450...

When I bought my first "modern" PC in September 1994, the salesman gave me a good advice. Get the best monitor you can afford. If you have a tight budget, save on other things to get a better monitor. The processor will be too slow in two years, the memory insufficient, but the monitor will survive a few CPUs. And he was right. I bought a 15" monitor, instead of the standard 14". It is now used by my sister, performing as well as it ever did.

I upgraded in 2000, buying, again, the best I could reasonably afford. The choice was between a top-of-the-range 17" and a standard 19". I went for the 17". It's a Trinitron, flat, beautiful. I'm sure I'll be using it for the best part of a decade. I can stare at it for hours without feeling my eyes turning into cotton coated golf balls, unlike others I have used.

My advice is simple. Buy the best monitor you can possibly afford. It will grow old with you, gracefully, and it is a waste buying a standard one, only to replace it out of frustration while it still works.

And Solver, if you bought a high-speck 15" monitor in 1994, it should easily display 1024x768. I never used my old one at lower resolution. I even got it to function at 1280x1024, although it wasn't pretty

[Solver]

I'll have no choice but to upgrade, sooner or later, wish I it or not .

However, I can as well ask why is Firaxis only requiring 32 MB RAM for Civ 3? Who has 32 MB RAM now? Everyone has at least 64, most have 128, and enough have 256! Still oI'll have no choice but to upgrade, sooner or later, wish I it or not .

However, I can as well ask why is Firaxis only requiring 32 MB RAM for Civ 3? Who has 32 MB RAM now? Everyone has at least 64, most have 128, and enough have 256! Still only 32 is required.

BTW, how much does a monitor cost?nly 32 is required.

[Sabre2th]

Originally posted by Solver
I'll have no choice but to upgrade, sooner or later, wish I it or not .

However, I can as well ask why is Firaxis only requiring 32 MB RAM for Civ 3? Who has 32 MB RAM now? Everyone has at least 64, most have 128, and enough have 256! Still oI'll have no choice but to upgrade, sooner or later, wish I it or not .

However, I can as well ask why is Firaxis only requiring 32 MB RAM for Civ 3? Who has 32 MB RAM now? Everyone has at least 64, most have 128, and enough have 256! Still only 32 is required.

BTW, how much does a monitor cost?nly 32 is required.

Having difficulties? Or is this some strange sort of rant?

[Bleyn]

Originally posted by Solver
I'll have no choice but to upgrade, sooner or later, wish I it or not .

However, I can as well ask why is Firaxis only requiring 32 MB RAM for Civ 3? Who has 32 MB RAM now? Everyone has at least 64, most have 128, and enough have 256!

BTW, how much does a monitor cost?

Acutally, if you look at the Civ3 sys. reqs. taken as a whole, most of the requirements make sense. Effectively, what their reqs. call for is the equivelent of a complete system purchased 3 years ago. (Except for the DirectX part of course)

And 3 years ago, 32 megs of RAM was pretty much standard in what the major computer manufacturers shipped. The same with video resolution. A complete system purchased 3 years ago would have supported 1024x768.

I'm sure they probably did some testing, and the stats represent what they consider minimum adequate performance, but I do find it amusing that what would have been fairly well top of the line when they started development is their minimum now.


And I can't say for sure about Europe, but in the US, a 15" monitor would set you back between $100-$150, and a 17" would be $125-$250 (or more depending on how much you care about quality). These are rough numbers taking from a quick peak at prices on computers.com just now.

[Zealot]

Nope! I still have a 14" monitor since 1995.

[Adm.Naismith]

Originally posted by Bleyn
I'm sure they probably did some testing, and the stats represent what they consider minimum adequate performance, but I do find it amusing that what would have been fairly well top of the line when they started development is their minimum now.

That would be quite a smart move: starting the game development with an almost top HW and with a project timeline targetted two years later you know you'll have them as pretty medium game requirement at the end of development.

Then almost every one at your development team left and you have a little shift in timing, but that's another story...

[jaw395]

Originally posted by connorkimbro
Solver, tell me WHY should Firaxis, or any company work to make their products backwards compatable, when you (or whatever other person that has old equipment) CLEARLY in the minority?

Well, people with monitors that only do 800x600 might not be the minority for long. I own a new HDTV that supports computer inputs. I stopped using my 21" monitor and packed it away. My new monitor (the HDTV) is 52", I would never go back to the 21", but alas, I can't play Civ3 because it only supports upto 800x600 resolution. It's really a shame, I am sure a lot more people will be buying HighDef TV's and will want to use them as computer monitors. I am NOT going back to my 21" just to play Civ3, I guess I'll just never play it. You would think, with a 3d game, they would be able to scale it to any resolution they wanted (like the majority of the games on the market today), but I think they just got lazy.

Originally posted by connorkimbro
My parents still have an oooooold 486 mhz computer. Should Firaxis also make the game backwards compatible for them, just to make sure they can play it too? of course not.

For whatever strange reason, one that you won't even talk about, you refuse to buy a new monitor. That's fine. But don't expect Firaxis to listen to you, as MOST people either are fine, or are willing to upgrade to keep up with the times.