System specs???

hexagonian · June 2, 2001, 16:05

Any guesses on what the minimum system requirements for Civ3???

And if your system is on the low end, will you upgrade or go out and buy a new system, using Civ3 as your justification to do so??

I have a PII - 350 with 192 Mg RAM, so I should be fine. (at least I hope so)

Inverse Icarus · June 2, 2001, 16:14

what i loved about civ was the windowed interface and the ability to run on damn near any machine that had a CD rom and a harddrive.

this game looks a bit high end, and if its like AC, or an AC like engine, its going to be full screen

Grim Leaper · June 2, 2001, 16:22

From what i heard (i may be wrong, i usually am

+ i have no idea where i heard it from

) the min specs are going to low. If this is the case then hopefully it will be and 350, maybe lower.

i think they mentioned it on their website. Hope this is useful

Dauphin · June 2, 2001, 17:32

Being a turnbased game, I would think that RAM is far more important than CPU speed.

Unless you've got a really slow computer just make sure you have at least the recommended amount of RAM. (Don't know what that is yet though ~ 96-128Mb (?)). Playing a game with just the minimum of RAM is frustrating.

Seventh · June 2, 2001, 18:46

I predict that you'll have to have:

200 mhz
64 mb of ram
650 mb of free space (typical)

And I also predict that CIV will have 3D support.
[also that ram prediction might be a little high]

June 2, 2001, 19:14

Sid himself said right after the contract signing that the requirement would be as low as possible, so almost everyone can BUY the game and play it on their computer. CTP 2 requirement were 166 w/64 megs., 320MB + 150 swap file, 4megs.-16 bit VC, and 16 bit SC.
If they raise the speed, I bet it will not go above 233/64megs.

Alex 14 · June 3, 2001, 03:22

Yeah Firaxis are trying to make the game run on most systems - maybee thats why they are using 3D renders for everything. Anyway i predict the minimal requirments for the game will be:

- Pentium 200
- 32Mb Ram
- 2Mb Graphics Card (16-bit)
- Sound Card

Multliplayer:

- 64Mb Ram
- Modem

I have a Celeron 333, with 64Mb Ram, and a Pentium 3 with 128Mb Ram, but i'm almost sure the requirments will be as above (if not less)

BeBro · June 3, 2001, 04:04

Hmm, Alex that sounds a bit too low for me,

I would at least say a 300MHz CPU and at least 8MB GFX card. 32MB RAM will perhaps work with Win95, but it would be a pain under Win98ME or Win2000 (I´m not even sure if you can run it under 98ME with only 32MB)...

hexagonian · June 3, 2001, 09:39

Quote:

Originally posted by Big Crunch
Being a turnbased game, I would think that RAM is far more important than CPU speed.

Unless you've got a really slow computer just make sure you have at least the recommended amount of RAM. (Don't know what that is yet though ~ 96-128Mb (?)). Playing a game with just the minimum of RAM is frustrating.

I would echo that - I upgraded from 64 Mb RAM to 192 Mb RAM when CTP2 came out. There was a huge difference in game performance on my system (sadly not in AI performance though).

Hearing that Sid wanted to keep the game on the low-end in terms of system requirements is good news though.

Nemo · June 3, 2001, 12:41

I think the bare minimium will be:
-266Mhz
-64Mb RAM (mostly due to O/S constraints)
-4Mb video
-~200Mb HDD
-winblows 95/98/2k

but recommended will be:
-350Mhz
-96Mb RAM (again, mostly due to O/S)
- ? video (normally i would say 3D accelerator...but i dont think that will come into play with the way they have created the graphics)
-650 Mb HDD

Ralf · June 3, 2001, 15:01

Quote:

Originally posted by Alex 14
- Pentium 200
- 32Mb Ram
- 2Mb Graphics Card (16-bit)
- Sound Card

This is really far to low specs for a game released 6-8 months from now: I would predict a bare minimum of:

- Pentium II 350 Mhz
- 128 Mb

The recommended specs would be:

- Pentium III 500 Mhz
- 128 Mb
- Graphic-card: at least TNT-2

Gramphos · June 3, 2001, 15:05

I'll not speculate in this topic. I just hope that two of my computers at home will run it, and that you only need one CD to play multiplayer games in LAN.

bagdar · June 3, 2001, 15:21

Quote:

The recommended specs would be:

- Pentium III 500 Mhz
- 128 Mb
- Graphic-card: at least TNT-2

and nothing else...

Can I come over to one of your homes and play?

hexagonian · June 3, 2001, 15:39

OK, its still speculation at this point in time...

...but if the requirements are PII/350, 128 Mg RAM to be able to play Civ 3 (bare minimum), do you fork over the money to upgrade or purchase a new system????

Just curious...

June 3, 2001, 19:59

I just open the TOT disk. The whole disk is only 270 MB. The original is 48.2, with another 8.56 for extended. Fantasy is 60.1, and Scifi is 61.7. Midgar just added 4.61.
Civ 2 MPG entire disk is only 85 MB. The scenario took up 53.1 and that leaves 32.1 for Civ 2.
The Original game was only about 11 Megs.
The Game of Civ 3 is maybe 80 to 100 Megs big. I believe some of you think this game is going to be 500 Megs or bigger, no way.
Summary
Civ 1 = about 11 megs.
Civ 2 = about 32.1 megs.
Civ 2 TOT = about 48.2 w/8.56 for extended. Total 56.76 megs.
Civ 3 = ?
Keep in mind this game is not just for us who talk about it everyday. It is for us and 3,940,000 other who will be buying the game. And if add all visitor (60/80,000?) to our site it go 4,000,000.

Swissy · June 3, 2001, 21:58

Looking at other Sid games I believe it will be runable on low end systems(266Mhz) with reasonable memory(16MB) and onboard sound/video(2MB). Of course such a system will have you ending a late game turn and return 5 minutes later to see if the AI turns are done. TBS games really do not require much of a system to run, the better the system the faster the game plays.

As far as 3D graphics, if they are included you are looking at a definite DirectX game. A game has to be DirectX to insure it will run on most machines out there.

Alex 14 · June 4, 2001, 02:08

Quote:

Originally posted by Ralf

This is really far to low specs for a game released 6-8 months from now: I would predict a bare minimum of:

- Pentium II 350 Mhz
- 128 Mb

The recommended specs would be:

- Pentium III 500 Mhz
- 128 Mb
- Graphic-card: at least TNT-2

I strongly disagree, i'm pretty sure that the specs of your cpu can be as low as 166Mhz. With 128MB RAM i can run a n64 emulater and play zelda at 30Fps.
Ok possibly 64MB for win98, but no more, i mean those kind of requirments your on about could run Half Life, Warcraft 3 and Diablo 2. This is civ we are talking about.

Besides that point, Sid Meier personally announced the specs will be a absoultute minimal and will run on anyones computer. Even i disagree with it runing on anyones computer, but that just shows you that the numbers your talking about are simply not resonable!

Firaxis will loose so much money if they go above 300Mhz recommended. How many people do you know that have pc's with 500Mhz Central Proccessors, and 133MB Random Access Memory. And a TNT graphics card, come on, some of the stuff included in the game is from civ 2. City people graphics are actually been incuded from civ 2!
At least consider how much 500Mhz actually is. Anyway as far as i'm concerned my 333Mhz, 64MB RAM Pc runs any game (not exagerating) and it's going to run this one.

By the way, i found out the minimal requirments for Half Life - one of the most complex games on the market:

- Pentium 166Mhz
- 32MB RAM