Slow!!!

MorganFreak · March 10, 2002, 20:53

I love CivIII. What I can't stand is how fricking SLOW the game is!! My system's no slouch (900 MHz T-bird, 512MB PC133 RAM) and if I play on anything larger than a Standard map, by the end of the game (which I've never made it to the end other than on OCC) the turns can take up to 2-3 minutes to compute!!

Forget Marla's Map...one game I played, the turns were 10-15 minutes each! Ridiculous! It was so long, I spent an entire weekend playing and still didn't finish the game.

Is there ANYTHING I can do to speed the game up? I love Marla's map and I want to be able to play it, but I have no patience for 10 minute turns. (BTW, I turned off ALL animations).

Thanks in advance.

steelehc · March 10, 2002, 21:00

This has been discussed many times all over the board.

Solutions:

-Play on a smaller map
-Play with fewer civs
-Don't build as many units/cities
-Win early

EDIT: FYI, I'm running an Athlon 1333, with 512MB of DDR, two 80GB 5400 RPM drives in a RAID 0 array, and it still runs slow. I'm not complaining, just pointing it out.

Steele

Thrawn05 · March 10, 2002, 21:06

Quote:

Originally posted by MorganFreak

I love CivIII. What I can't stand is how fricking SLOW the game is!! My system's no slouch (900 MHz T-bird, 512MB PC133 RAM)

Mine is a P3 550MHz with 256MB of 100MHz SDRAM and I no probs. Marla's map is great. Make sure you close all background programs (only Explorer and Systray should be running).

Also, find a program called FreeMem Std (its Freeware). I think you can get it at http://www.download.com/ . With this program, you can manually free your RAM. Why? Because Windows doesn't remove the program from memory. To see this, when you turn on your computer, try loading Word, and note how long it takes. Then close it and load it again. You'll notice a differnce. With FreeMem, it just takes two seconds, you tell it how much you want to free (for you, the max you free is 480MB). Free up ram before you start any games and you'll be cruisin'.

FYI further computer info...
P3 550MHz
256MB 100MHz SDRAM (2x 64MB + 1x 128MB)
Vodoo3 3000 16MB

13.1 GB C: 7200RPM (Civ3 is on this)
15 GB D: 5200RPM
8x/48x DVD/CD E:
4x/2x/24x CD-RW F:
250MB External USB Zip G:

MarkosSuckanos · March 10, 2002, 21:14

i hope it speeds up before multiplayer (if it ever comes out)

MorganFreak · March 10, 2002, 21:16

Thanks for the ideas...I think I'll try that freemem thing out.

And sorry if I posted a Q: that was here already..>I don't have much time to read the threads...

Thanks once again!!

Dida · March 10, 2002, 22:11

This game is extremely slow. Slower than any other game that I have seem.

Alex · March 10, 2002, 22:39

Some say that pressing "Shift" during the AI's turn helps to speed the game up. I never noticed a difference.

Ninot · March 10, 2002, 23:04

oh, also, if your looking for a program that closes all non-essential programs quickly, Enditall is also a nice, free program closing program

Thrawn05 · March 11, 2002, 08:43

Quote:

Originally posted by Ninot
oh, also, if your looking for a program that closes all non-essential programs quickly, Enditall is also a nice, free program closing program

ALT + CNTRL + DEL, and you don't even need to download anything.

March 11, 2002, 09:40

To speed things up, I play scenarios with 16 Civs on Small and Tiny maps. Games are much more competetive because you are forced into wars in order to expand. In fact, I think I'm going to play it now!

Akaoz · March 11, 2002, 09:56

Quote:

Originally posted by Alexnm
Some say that pressing "Shift" during the AI's turn helps to speed the game up. I never noticed a difference.

It just turns of animations.

This is the reason I don't play Civ3 anymore... My platform can run the newest FPS smoothly, but Civ3 on huge with 12+ civs... Forget it!

Who would have thought a TBS would demand more then most FPS's?

Maybe we need nVidia to come up with a AIPU? I can see it now in the PC of tomorrow:

P6 25000 MHz CPU
GeForce 9 2 GB GPU
CivForce 5 1,5 GB AIPU

More RAM than you can shake a stick at... etc...

-Alech

falsfire3401 · March 11, 2002, 15:23

Quote:

Originally posted by MorganFreak

I love CivIII. What I can't stand is how fricking SLOW the game is!! My system's no slouch (900 MHz T-bird, 512MB PC133 RAM) and if I play on anything larger than a Standard map, by the end of the game (which I've never made it to the end other than on OCC) the turns can take up to 2-3 minutes to compute!!

Forget Marla's Map...one game I played, the turns were 10-15 minutes each! Ridiculous! It was so long, I spent an entire weekend playing and still didn't finish the game.

Is there ANYTHING I can do to speed the game up? I love Marla's map and I want to be able to play it, but I have no patience for 10 minute turns. (BTW, I turned off ALL animations).

Thanks in advance.

Really? I have no problems running the game. Even on a huge map, in the late game era, it only takes about 10-20 seconds for the AI turns (provided i don't have to watch animations of his 20+ destroyers bombarding improvements near my coastal cities...uggh it should not take my fleet of battleships 10 turns to get there to beat them up).

I have an Athlon 1400, 512MB PC133 RAM, two 40gb 7200rpm drives in RAID-0, running win2k sp2 and if any system is bloated with software, mine is. Just sitting in windows i am using 200MB of ram, as i run about 20 background tasks in the tray all the time, and ICQ/MSN messenger, and outlook express all running.

Yet still I suffer no slowdown at all in the game. If you're running a VIA chipset m/b like me, make sure you have the latest VIA 4-in-1 service pack, make sure DMA mode is turned on for all your HDs (and your CD/DVD-ROM if it supports it), and make sure you have all the latest drivers for your h/w installed.

History Guy · March 11, 2002, 23:52

I just unistalled it and installed it as 'minimum install'. It cuts out music, but it works fast.