Civ3 System Performance

Wiglaf · November 27, 2001, 20:12

What'd you guys run civ3 on? I'm curious to know the game performance on the different machines out (video cards, processor speeds, and RAM totals are really the only important things), especially scrolling and late in the game.

Thanks.

kmj · November 27, 2001, 20:40

I've got a 300Mhz celeron, 128Mb ram, and a voodoo3 2000;

Performance is perfectly fine with any thing up to a large map. On a huge map, sixteen civs, I have occasional scrolling issues and long waits later on.

Wiglaf · November 27, 2001, 21:06

not bad.

the reason I'm asking is because Firaxis pulled one on me a while back on my now gone P133 with Antietam's system requirements. It called for a P90, in actuality it required a 200 for optimal performance.

just checking to see if a 550 MHz processor would work, and for compatability with various video cards. a lot of people I know made it seem like even a massive 1.5 GHz Athlon with 256 RAM and a Ge3 suffered intense slowdown almost non stop while scrolling.

Might be a driver/XP issue, but that's another story. I was mainly concerned with any possible design flaws, and it doesn't look like there are any.

Seneca · November 27, 2001, 21:10

Well, I've got 500Mhz and 128MB, and it's liveable-with, but only just the right side of annoying.

Pyrodrew · November 27, 2001, 21:33

600MHz with 256RAM. Scrolls fine, almost perfect, no problems. Huge Map - waiting for the AI turns are long in Modern Age, but Firaxis stated they were working to address this in the patch.

Hunter Hutchins · November 27, 2001, 21:43

1ghz p3, 768mb, no video card (SiS 630 chip), Win ME

Late on a huge map with about 10 civs left the AI turns are still shorter than they were in some Civ 2 games, probably because less AI moving in the map. Scrolling is almost always good, seldom refresh, but it's slow to get across the whole map without the minimap. (Can you change the scroll speed?)

Overall satisfactory.

Dis · November 27, 2001, 21:48

P3 700, with 256 megs of Ram. Voodoo3 3000 video card. 13.6 gig hard drive about 3/4 full- maybe a little more

only speed problems came on a huge map with 16 civs. I quickly realized that it wasn't that much fun on that big of a map, but the turn speed was an influencing factor. I made it the year 1100 A.D. and my turn times were close to a minute- too slow for my impatient ass.

I actually prefer large or standard maps. No significant speed problems on either of those.

Special_Olympic · November 27, 2001, 23:44

AMD 1 gig
512 RAM
Geforce2

It runs well enough, though the larger saved games load slowly and map scrolling can be a bit chunky. Most AI turns are pretty quick.

reds4ever · November 28, 2001, 00:18

i don't think it's a system speed problem, the game just seems to eat whatever spare resources are going(ie, to show more animations or play more tweet, tweet sounds on a fast system), so i don't think it'll make much difference whether you've got a P42000 or a Duron 800 on a geforce32mx and128mb of ram,i've tried both with different progams running in the background to up the workload but it seemed pretty much all the same

Magician · November 28, 2001, 00:25

P2 300
386MB ram
Voodoo 3 2000

No performance problem on pre-modern age..no scrolling problem but the advisor screen often hang up for 5 or 6 sec in modern age

Wiglaf · November 28, 2001, 19:46

Quote:

P3 700, with 256 megs of Ram. Voodoo3 3000 video card. 13.6 gig hard drive about 3/4 full- maybe a little more

only speed problems came on a huge map with 16 civs. I quickly realized that it wasn't that much fun on that big of a map, but the turn speed was an influencing factor. I made it the year 1100 A.D. and my turn times were close to a minute- too slow for my impatient ass.

hm - 256 RAM and a fast P3 didn't translate into speedy gameplay? are you running anything in the background, or windows XP with settings fully charged?

besides that, looks like system reqs didn't disappoint as many people as was predicted.

Dis · November 28, 2001, 19:56

running win 98.

nothing in the background. although occasionally I leave audiogalaxy on

I only had the speed problems on the huge map with 16 civs. and they don't seem as bad as some of the problems I heard of.

Trampus · November 28, 2001, 20:02

Windows 2000
AMD 1600+XP
512 RAM
TNT2 Ultra (I know, I know. I'll be upgrading soon)

Game runs just fine. I guess there is that scrolling delay but that isn't a big deal.

smellymummy · November 28, 2001, 20:04

p3 800 something, 380 and change mb of ram, 32mb radeon...

the game runs fine w/o any speed problems. I concur that on huge/large maps, AI turns will take a while, but it's not unacceptable.

I've noticed though that alot of people who have posted speed problems are using winME or XP. I'm using win2k (a great os) and things do run smoothly.

Lord Khang · November 28, 2001, 20:25

Greetings -

1.4Ghz, GeForce 3, 512 mb RDRAM, Soundblaster Platinum w/ Klpsch speakers........

System is configured for gaming and runs Windows 98 w/ 96% resources free after startup.

Game plays fine until later stages of huge maps w/ 16 civs. Like everyone else has said it does. No issues other than that, it plays like a champ.

On a side bar about the huge map thing..... I read in another thread about a guy who bought the espionage for all races units and watched their turns. Like him, I have done the same, and completely concur that this slow down appears to be related to resource utilization by the program in correcting, interrupting, and implementing the trade network. I've watched their unit movement, it is virtually instant, but the game hangs when one of their units pillages a hex, whacks a town, etc........ I have the same problem when one of my cities builds a new harbor or airport, or I pillage an opponents hex with a unit. At these times, the game takes 5 to 10 minutes in actually implementing the action before it goes on to allow me to finish the rest of my turn. I just quit playing a game to wait for the patch that supposedly will fix this problem. I was in 1916, turns were taking 15-25 minutes to run, longer turns were when more races were at war. Once again, though, the patch is supposed to fix this.

I can't wait for it, I just like the huge maps........

Yours -

Lord Khang

ElitePersian · November 28, 2001, 21:35

i play on a p3 450 with 320MB ram, 32mb geforce 2 gts, 7200rpm HDD, and i run windows 98 SE. the game runs ok even in the modern ages, i usually play on a large map with 8 civs. The only slowdown i get is the wait b/w turns, which is mostly caused by the stupid AI patrolling his units, otherwise it runs fine, and the scrolling is not a problem.

Kestrel · November 28, 2001, 21:54

O.K. So what is the SMALLEST machine that anyone has successfully been able to run Civ III on ?

Minimum Speed , Memory ?

Wiglaf · November 28, 2001, 22:24

Probably a P2/200 with 32-64 megs of RAM. You wouldn't get good performance there, though.

Quote:

.4Ghz, GeForce 3, 512 mb RDRAM, Soundblaster Platinum w/ Klpsch speakers........

System is configured for gaming and runs Windows 98 w/ 96% resources free after startup.

Alienware?

Lord Khang · November 28, 2001, 23:00

Hehehe....... strait from Klinshai!

Yours -

Lord Khang

fiveht · November 28, 2001, 23:11

Hi,

I'm running Civ3 on an Athlon 1200 overclocked to 1350 (9 x 150 MHz) with 512 MB of DDR RAM at fastest timings, a Geforce2 Ultra, and a Sounblaster Live! Platinum. The disk subsystem is entirely ultra160 SCSI, but I don't believe that it grants any additional game speed except when loading saved games, since I've never noticed the disks being paged during gameplay. I'm using XP Pro with 22.40 Detonator XP drivers, and I haven't encountered any real performance problems. I have noticed that late in the game the delay incurred at the end of a turn by the AI managing its civs gets up around 2 to 3 seconds, but that's not much of an issue given the amount of real time it takes me to complete a late game turn (Micromanagement Syndrome).

I suspect that the high FSB speed and low memory latency of my system contribute substantially to Civ3's performance, since the game is clearly computationally intensive but does not use a 3D API for anything other than leader head animation. The vast bulk of I/O managed by Civ3 must be memory<-->cpu transactions. While this heavy processor load may result in long waits between turns on slower systems, at least it indicates a surprisingly advanced AI for a game. Well, either that or very sloppy and bloated code. I prefer to assume the former.

I've noted that in game screen scrolling is not entirely fluid, but neither is it slow. The perspective change occurs quickly, but it's more of a jump than a scroll. As my other systems all run various unix implementations, I haven't been able to run Civ3 on an alternate platform for reference purposes (to determine whether or not screen scrolling occurs smoothly with a different graphics chipset/driver combination). I have tried running the game with Detonator 12.41's, which reportedly fix screen scrolling "problems" for others, though, and the game runs identically under them. From that I deduce that I'm not experiencing the scrolling issues encountered by others, and that a slight jump when scrolling, rather than a smooth transitional movement, is normal. Anyone with a fast system not using an nVidia card care to comment upon their scrolling aesthetics?

All of that said, I absolutely love the game. My girlfriend, however, does not. She claims that pursuits relating to something called "real life" should be granted more of my time. I'm not entirely certain what she means, but I am disappointed that she refuses to call me "Emperor" in bed.

fiveht

Andris Jamin · November 28, 2001, 23:33

1.8 GHz P4, 512 MB RDRAM, GeForce3 64, SB Live! 5.1 with Altec Lansing surround speakers, Win2000 Pro. Nothing unusual running in the background.

Scrolls doggedly slow, and the turns take forever (I suspect due to the same graphic problems that cause the slow scrolling).

Also ran this on a P2 266 with 128 MB and a STB Velocity 4400. Didn't run well, but ran.

Falconius · November 28, 2001, 23:33

Quote:

Originally posted by fiveht
I absolutely love the game. My girlfriend, however, does not. She claims that pursuits relating to something called "real life" should be granted more of my time. I'm not entirely certain what she means, but I am disappointed that she refuses to call me "Emperor" in bed.

I have the same problem, but she will sometimes ask to play with "the little Regent."

fiveht · November 29, 2001, 00:14

Falconius: Mine makes similar requests. I tried offering her twenty gold, instead, but she insisted on right of passage. My domestic advisor was unable to offer useful counsel, so I had to capitulate and enter diplomatic negotiations with my girlfriend. We quickly reached an equitable agreement and began trading. I can now turn my attention back to my empire, but I'll have to negotiate with my girlfriend again in twenty turns. Ah well... they're sweet negotiations.

fiveht

ColdWizard · November 29, 2001, 01:34

laptop - piii 850, 128 meg ram. no scrolling issues or lag issues in my limited experience