Boycott PC games

[Q Classic]

Actually, the game runs quite smoothly for me--except in two cases. One is if I keep playing the game for more than four hours in one sitting (which happened the day I bought it~), a memory leak becomes problematic.

The other is when I alt-tab, after which the game runs extraordinarily sluggishly.

Both can be remedied by exiting the game and reloading--and Sava, this has nothing to do with hardware, but everything to do with code that may not be as optimized as they could be.

[Sikander]

Originally posted by nostromo
That's one of the things I like about console games: you pop it in, and tada! it works!

...as well as it's ever going to.....

[Mr. Harley]

For any of you that have the processor/MB as the main problem - TigerDirect has the new Celeron D340 (a 2.93 mhz processor) for $50 with MB. I just built myself a bargain machine with that - I had picked up a couple of hard drive with rebates for under $40 for both (Maxtor 60 GB and WD 120 GB). Not a game killer machine - but with the right video card it will run a Direct X9 game decently.

[Dis]

I got a windows low virtual memory low error last night for the first time. I didn't even know I had it until I exited the program. It was running so slow, I decided to exit and reboot my computer. That's when I noticed the error. It's the first time I had this error, and it didn't come back after I rebooted.

I think the reason was because I had entered and exited civ3 at least 6 times during the same computer session yesterday. A couple of times so I could get some screen shots to post here.

[Cookie Monster]

Imran:

I got the driver you recommended and everything is working great now. Still nothing but bread in the city screen but I can live with that for now. That's a great website by the way.

[Sava]

Originally posted by nostromo
@ Sava Yes, but even if your PC is in principle capable enough to run a game, there's always a risk it won't work properly, or not work at all. And I'm not talking about a 0.0005% chance it won't work here: when you buy a PC game, you have a 5 to 10 % chance it won't work out of the box (my estimate), even if your system exceeds the requirements. Agreed, there's almost always a solution, but its not always easy to find, in fact locating the source of the problem is frequently a royal pain in the butt. If you say you never had a problem, all I can say is that you're one lucky SOB.

I'd like to think it has to do with the skill of the user.

As with any machine, you need to keep the PC "well oiled" so to speak.

I have built my rig with good hardware. That is probably the most important factor.

Second, you need to make sure you are using Windows XP. Preferrably XP Pro with SP2 and the latest updates.

Yes, developers try to design the product to be compatible with as many versions of Windows that they can, but the reality is, it is better to have the most compatible version you can get.

And the last thing one can do is just make sure your system is free of crap... spyware, malware, etc... and useless programs running the background.


If you do all this stuff, you are just more likely to be able to run games without any problems.

And lo and behold, I can run every game I can think of without crashing, and without any significant problems worth noting.

I'm sure I've had some kind of a problem or two within the last six months, but nothing that is due to a flaw in any games. And nothing that I can think of.

[y123]

i wished i could say that i got an nice machine and on civ 4 all it says is i dont like u to go beyond 800 ac in huge maps i rather put ur pc out wich is driving me

[Gamecube64]

If CIV doesn't run on my 550mhz p3, 316mb sdram, and 16mb voodoo3 I shall complain much!

Wow I REALLY need a new computer.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Q Cubed
Both can be remedied by exiting the game and reloading--and Sava, this has nothing to do with hardware, but everything to do with code that may not be as optimized as they could be.

They probably forgot to release dynamic allocated memory somewhere (you're talking about C++ here), so over an extended period of time you run low on free memory.

Sloppy programming job.

[Q Classic]

Again, not a problem with hardware, but with software.

[Urban Ranger]

Well, if you have 2GB RAM instead of 512MB, you can play the game longer before it starts slowing down

[Kuciwalker]

This is true. I can testify to that