Civilization 4 game play

[mikeyredk]

Just got my copy an hour ago and installed it. The first thing you notice is how polished everything is over Civ 3. The other thing is the choppy game play. Very disappointed in how slow the game movement is. anyone else have the game yet? I have a Rev b. iMac *G5* with 2 gigs of ram. Setting are native resolution with everything else at default.

[therevolution]

You know, "Rev. B iMac" doesn't mean much. There have been lots of iMacs over the years... were it not for the 2 gigs of RAM, you could be talking about a bondi blue iMac. :p

What are the other specs? What if you try turning down some of the eye candy?

[mikeyredk]

Everything is down by default

[Mr. Anderson]

I'll be getting mine on the 5th - bleh - but I have a quad G5 with 8 gigs of RAM - so it will be fun to see how good/bad things work on my machine.

D

[macidiot]

Just got my copy an hour ago and installed it. The first thing you notice is how polished everything is over Civ 3. The other thing is the choppy game play. Very disappointed in how slow the game movement is. anyone else have the game yet? I have a Rev b. iMac *G5* with 2 gigs of ram. Setting are native resolution with everything else at default.

Considering that Civ 4 is a 3d game, it really isn't too much of a surprise, though I'm sure it's disappointing for you. And it will probably get worse as you play the game. Civ is notorious for slowing down as the game progresses.

The G5 iMac has very modest graphics. If I remember right, a 128mb ati 9600? That card was only low-mid range when it was current, and it pretty weak by today's standards.

According to the game requirements, sounds like your iMac is just squeaking in at the minimums.

I'd try changing the various graphics settings to minimum, and possibly changing the resolution to a lower one. Experiment a bit to see what helps...

[SamIchi]

Has anoyone tried this on a MacBook?

[meghop]

I got this today, played for awhile on my Dual 1.8ghz G5 with 1.5gb RAM, 64MB video RAM, and an Nvidia GeForce 5200. It's choppy as all heck, and the music is the worst, it didn't play for the first ten minutes of the game at all, and often cuts out when the game bogs down and gets slow, which is very, very often. It's playable, and hasn't crashed, but obviously not what you would get with the "preferred" system requirements. I find it kind of crazy that it won't play well on my machine, it's not like it's that old, but whaddya gonna do...I guess I'll just deal with it...

[~Shard~]

I would love to try this game out to see how it compares to the others in the series (and since I haven't played a Civ games in ages!) however I fear my 1.25 GHz G4 iMac might not cut it. :(

Ah well, there's always Civ II on my PC. It was the best game in the series anyway... :D :cool:

[nordesmic]

I got this today, played for awhile on my Dual 1.8ghz G5 with 1.5gb RAM, 64MB video RAM, and an Nvidia GeForce 5200. It's choppy as all heck, and the music is the worst, it didn't play for the first ten minutes of the game at all, and often cuts out when the game bogs down and gets slow, which is very, very often. It's playable, and hasn't crashed, but obviously not what you would get with the "preferred" system requirements. I find it kind of crazy that it won't play well on my machine, it's not like it's that old, but whaddya gonna do...I guess I'll just deal with it...

I expect to get my copy tomorrow, and judging by that post I could be in for some trouble (that is exactly the same as my machine).

Any suggestions on upgrading the graphics card. If I upgraded the card to a 128/256 MB card do people think I would see a major improvement in gameplay. I'm fairly clueless when it comes to graphics cards. I was looking at a couple of sites, most notably this one

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=190002738614&ssPageName=MERC_VIC_RSCC_Pr4_PcY_BIN_Stores_IT

Is this a good deal for the performance increase i'm likely to see?

Thanks very much

[Atlasland]

Just got my copy an hour ago and installed it. The first thing you notice is how polished everything is over Civ 3. The other thing is the choppy game play. Very disappointed in how slow the game movement is. anyone else have the game yet? I have a Rev b. iMac *G5* with 2 gigs of ram. Setting are native resolution with everything else at default.

You have exactly the same machine as me.

That it ran so slow for you, really, really sucks.

[mikeyredk]

You have exactly the same machine as me.

That it ran so slow for you, really, really sucks.

Heck now i am using ATIccelerator to overclock my graphics card, its giving me a small boost its sort of playable now.

old setting: 325/200
new setting: 400/300

BTW how does urs run?

[eva01]

I think it is time to get a 6800 or an X850 in my Mac

[The Senator]

whats a good place to buy mac games??? idk why want to i have windows on my mac but for some strange reason i want to try it out. I went to my walmart and target and they didnt have any macgames

[thegreatluke]

According to some websites, Civ IV seems to run better on Intel Macs, even with similar graphics cards to compare with.

[jsw]

I almost picked up a copy at the Apple Store Friday and was going to return my copy from Amazon (arriving tomorrow), but I realized that would be idiotic.

Once it arrives tomorrow, I'll try it on my MBP (2.0 GHz) and my 17" Intellimac and report back. I'd try it on the mini duo, but all reports I've read have indicated it'd be next to worthless on that. So... I'll verify iMac and MBP playability.

[thegreatluke]

whats a good place to buy mac games??? idk why want to i have windows on my mac but for some strange reason i want to try it out. I went to my walmart and target and they didnt have any macgames
CompUSA, Apple stores, Amazon and other online retailers, Mac-oriented third-party stores and local mom n' pop retailers.

Edit: I looked at Best Buy's website, and they do seem to have a nice selection of Mac OS X software (http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=cat12085&type=page&sc=Software&qs=mac&cp=1&sp=Relevance&mipp=25&uq=Mac&_requestid=90910). I don't know if it's available in brick-and-mortar stores though.

[The Senator]

CompUSA, Apple stores, Amazon and other online retailers, Mac-oriented third-party stores and local mom n' pop retailers.

Edit: I looked at Best Buy's website, and they do seem to have a nice selection of Mac OS X software (http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=cat12085&type=page&sc=Software&qs=mac&cp=1&sp=Relevance&mipp=25&uq=Mac&_requestid=90910). I don't know if it's available in brick-and-mortar stores though.


thanks man,

I guess I'll have to buy my mac games online since theres nowhere here that sells mac software

[ScarletRed]

I got this today, played for awhile on my Dual 1.8ghz G5 with 1.5gb RAM, 64MB video RAM, and an Nvidia GeForce 5200. It's choppy as all heck, and the music is the worst, it didn't play for the first ten minutes of the game at all, and often cuts out when the game bogs down and gets slow, which is very, very often. It's playable, and hasn't crashed, but obviously not what you would get with the "preferred" system requirements. I find it kind of crazy that it won't play well on my machine, it's not like it's that old, but whaddya gonna do...I guess I'll just deal with it...
There's no reason why a turn-based strategic game shouldn't run smoothly on the system mentioned above. I suspect the source code isn't very well optimized.

[unfaded]

There's no reason why a turn-based strategic game shouldn't run smoothly on the system mentioned above. I suspect the source code isn't very well optimized.

This is not just a turn-based strategy game. The new system is a massive, massive graphical update, with huge 3d worlds that are really quite spectacular... if you have the hardware.

[jamesmcd]

I play Civ IV on my Intel iMac Running Windows Vista Beta 2. My iMac is 2.0Ghz 1GB RAM and 128MB VRAM. Nothing is overclocked.

The game runs very smooth apart from long-ish loading times of saved games. Also, when you try to do other things in Windows, like play Solitare, then it slows down immensely. You quickly find out what not to do, to ensure smooth gameplay.

[Mr. Anderson]

My game is currently in Pennsylvania.....and looks like it will arrive on the 5th....bleh - I was so hoping it would be here today. So unless someone else has a quad, I'll post the results on Wednesday.

D

[gloss]

I'm very interested to hear first-hand how Civ IV runs on the Intel GMA 950 within Mac OS.

[kaosfere]

I'm very interested to hear first-hand how Civ IV runs on the Intel GMA 950 within Mac OS.

^^^ What he said. I'm having a hard time not running out to buy it just to see how it runs on my BlackBook. Don't make me be the first!

[fatties]

^^^ What he said. I'm having a hard time not running out to buy it just to see how it runs on my BlackBook. Don't make me be the first!


i know! its like us macbook people are all playing chicken here... who is going to break first and get the game?

[jsw]

If I have time, I'll try it on my 1GB mini core duo. If it runs on that - and I'm skeptical - it'll run better on the MBs due to their faster CPUs.

[Cougarcat]

Anyone tried the game on a 1.67 Powerbook w/ 128 MB VRAM yet? My copy's supposed to come later this week, and with these god-awful reports of horrible performance on even 2 Ghz iMacs I'm thinking of sending the game back...

[Mr. Anderson]

If I have time

What!!? You haven't conquered the world yet?

btw - Is the game multi processor aware? I'm certainly hoping it is....

D

[jsw]

OK, I just got the game at noon and in fact came home to get it and then went back to work. I've briefly tried it on the (work) MBP (2.0/256/2GB), the 17" iMac (2GB), and the mini duo (1GB).

The MBP plays it fine - and note that for me "fine" means it's not noticeably bad. I'm sure some people will knock it, but my standards are low. The iMac plays it about the same, as one would expect. Also playable. The mini, at 1024x768 and lowest graphics settings, is certainly playable but not spectacular and noticeably worse than the MBP or iMac. So, to those with MBs: yes, it'll play. At least the early part of the game, and in low settings. It might play fine all the way through, and it might die around 3000 BC. I don't know, and odds are I won't find out, as disk space is at a premium on the mini and this sucker eats up 2GB. However, it seems like it'll work, and I bet it's not going to crash, even on a mini, possibly even on a mini solo. But it'll be a bit jerky.

As far as multi-processor aware? Dunno. Not sure how to check - there's probably a way to get out of full screen, or I suppose I could check CPU history, but I haven't looked into it yet.

Note that I've only had it on for maybe 10 minutes or so on each system, and that I'm not sure how much time I'll have to play it over the next couple of days, but I will say that I like the new interface very much but that, so far, as others have said, it's a lot like Civ III with nicer graphics. So... if you have a mini/MB and wonder if you'll see a vastly new game... you won't. Of course, I haven't seen the improvements yet, but on a lower-spec system, I'm not sure you're missing all that much by sticking with Civ III. For those with the horsepower, though, the graphical improvements, at least, are fantastic.

[kaosfere]

Thanks for that, jsw.

I'll go ahead and take a chance on it. Not tonight... it's my girlfriend's birthday and, even though she's a Civ fiend too, I think she'd kill me if I Civ'd out tonight. ;)

But soon! And then I'll report how it runs on a 1GB BlackBook, for comparison's sake.

[eva01]

Well I have it running on my Dual 1.8G5 and as far as i can tell yes to is multi proc aware as it was taking 183% of my CPU

but the game stutters like hell for me at 1680X1050 with 3GB of RAM and a ATI 9650 THis is with graphics at minimum for the most part

So soon you people's will be seeing a marketplace thread selling off crap so i can get a 6800 or an x800

[fatties]

2 whole gigs! now apart from wondering whether it will work, i have to worry about my computer coming periously near the '10%' left zone?

i love the fact that from this thread, the game seems v. futureproof... i should really sell off my obsolete mb for something better..., or go back and ask steve why we have intergrated graphics... (if that is part of the problem)... or civ IV people who were they planning to sell this little gem to... who wants to go time travelling with me?

[mikeyredk]

I was reading the mac forums over at civfanatics and there was a thread that showed promise. If you play the game not in full screen it runs faster than in full screen!!! Try it and tell us what you get.

[eva01]

I was reading the mac forums over at civfanatics and there was a thread that showed promise. If you play the game not in full screen it runs faster than in full screen!!! Try it and tell us what you get.

I am getting beach balls all over the place when not in full screen.

This game is absolutely horrid on the 9650

[mikeyredk]

I am getting beach balls all over the place when not in full screen.

This game is absolutely horrid on the 9650

you running anything else? how much ram?

[eva01]

you running anything else? how much ram?

3GB of RAM nothing else is running, dual 1.8G5 damn fracking video card now i have to go out and spend near 350 for an X800

[Eric5h5]

This game is absolutely horrid on the 9650

Well, the 9650 is years old and this game is quite new and graphically demanding, so that's not surprising at all (unfortunate, but not surprising).

--Eric

[ScarletRed]

I'll be getting mine on the 5th - bleh - but I have a quad G5 with 8 gigs of RAM - so it will be fun to see how good/bad things work on my machine.

D
ECC or non-ECC? I heard non-ECC are slightly faster...

[Mr. Anderson]

ECC or non-ECC? I heard non-ECC are slightly faster...

Non-ECC - and from what people are saying here, it looks like the GeForce 7800 GT on my machine will make more of a difference.

D

[~Shard~]

Well, the 9650 is years old and this game is quite new and graphically demanding, so that's not surprising at all (unfortunate, but not surprising).

*Sigh* Why does a game like Civ have to be "graphically-demanding"? I realize you have to keep it current, have a new feel and so forth to it and keep it on par with other games, but it's a shame if certain people won't be able to play it simply because of the graphic requirements. Graphics aren't what makes Civ great, it's the game itself. As long as the gameplay, structure, etc. is good, heck, give me Civ II graphics, I wouldn't complain! ;) :cool:

[srobert]

but it's a shame if certain people won't be able to play it simply because of the graphic requirements. Graphics aren't what makes Civ great, it's the game itself. As long as the gameplay, structure, etc. is good, heck, give me Civ II graphics, I wouldn't complain!

Totally agree, but unfortunately, the reverse is also true. Some people wouldn't even peek at the game if it wasn't very graphically demanding. They have to find a balance to make it marketable to the widest range of players. (The low-speckies and the graphic afficionados) ;)

[~Shard~]

Totally agree, but unfortunately, the reverse is also true. Some people wouldn't even peek at the game if it wasn't very graphically demanding. They have to find a balance to make it marketable to the widest range of players. (The low-speckies and the graphic afficionados) ;)

Rightly or wrongly, that's quite true as well. I guess purists such as myself are in the minority these days. As much as I love great graphics, don't get me wrong, they simply aren't a priority for me. I could easily play a game of Civ II, Starcraft, and heck, Starflight and Wasteland right now and wouldn't even care - those games will be timeless classics because of what's "underneath", not because of their graphics. (Wasteland is still one of my all-time favorite games - one of the greatest games ever made, hands down.) :cool:

[thegreatluke]

2 whole gigs!
Be glad they cut it down to two gigs... it was originally supposed to be 3.5 GB.
;)

[hyperpasta]

I'm playing Civ 4 on a revision A iMac G5, with only 64MB of VRAM. I also have 1GB of RAM.

BRING DOWN THE RESOLUTION! This saves a TON of juice. My game runs well... maybe a 6 out of 10 on the smoothness scale... a tad choppy but totally bearable... with the resolution set to 1280x800 and all the graphics effects turned to HIGH. Remember that I have a worse computer than the OP.

Also, about the music "bug". I thought I had the same problem. But as it turns out, music volume varies according to how far in you've zoomed and how big your Civilization is. Grow your civ or zoom farther in and you'll hear the music just fine.

The only realy Bug I've noticed is that the game loading screen is unaccpetbaly choppy... but I'm sure this will be patched.

[Atlasland]

I'm playing Civ 4 on a revision A iMac G5, with only 64MB of VRAM. I also have 1GB of RAM.

BRING DOWN THE RESOLUTION! This saves a TON of juice. My game runs well... maybe a 6 out of 10 on the smoothness scale... a tad choppy but totally bearable... with the resolution set to 1280x800 and all the graphics effects turned to HIGH. Remember that I have a worse computer than the OP.

Also, about the music "bug". I thought I had the same problem. But as it turns out, music volume varies according to how far in you've zoomed and how big your Civilization is. Grow your civ or zoom farther in and you'll hear the music just fine.

The only realy Bug I've noticed is that the game loading screen is unaccpetbaly choppy... but I'm sure this will be patched.

Thanks, you've given me hope for my Rev. B

[Mr. Anderson]

Well, after playing it for a bit on my Quad, I'd say it wasn't exactly *snappy* but it seems fine. I went and adjusted some of the settings in the Advanced panel - and I'm going to run it as a window and see what the cpu stats look like.

It does have a few bugs though, and I'll post those to see if anyone else has them.

It took me a while to get use to running the game, but I did the tutorial and it helped - Civ III was great, Civ IV still has to grow on me. But they did get rid of pollution :D

D

[~Shard~]

But they did get rid of pollution :D

Nukes for everyone!!! :D

[jsw]

Well, after playing it for a bit on my Quad, I'd say it wasn't exactly *snappy* but it seems fine.
Looks like we all need to buy Mac Pros to have a prayer of this working, then. ;)

Actually, I completed a campaign on my slightly-under-spec 17" Intellimac, and it ran pretty well. Now I think I'll check out the tutorial to see what I missed.

There are graphics bugs. Some I've found:On full zoom out, the image seems to be of one of the rulers (changes to various civs) but not the most powerful or whatnot, so I wonder if this is, in fact, a glitch.
Black rectangles everywhere (a restart to a saved game fixed this)
Multiple images of units (very odd bug; I loaded a saved game, and suddenly there were three views of all of my units instead of one, in a semi-circle, about 60º apart, but only one unit actually there; had to delete the saved file as it was trashed - and, yes, I should have saved it for debugging purposes).
I had no crashes but had to restart a few times and did lose one campaign early due to the last bug in the list above.

Playability was nice... seemed like less micromanagement was required. However, either I'm missing some knowledge of how to do things (likely), or certain things (like upgrading units) were very troublesome. The "attack" animations were a bit ridiculous (up close, but pretty sad, really - a waste of GPU).

Religion seems to play a much bigger role, but I didn't quite get the hang of how to use it.

It's a lot like Civ III but a bit less mundane and detail-oriented... but with bugs.

I look forward to an update/patch in the near future.

[mikeyredk]

Multiple images of units (very odd bug; I loaded a saved game, and suddenly there were three views of all of my units instead of one, in a semi-circle, about 60º apart, but only one unit actually there; had to delete the saved file as it was trashed - and, yes, I should have saved it for debugging purposes).

Not a bug its a "feature" you have to go into your advanced panel to enable single units if you choose to

[jsw]

Not a bug its a "feature" you have to go into your advanced panel to enable single units if you choose to
No... there was only one unit there (in each of the squares) as this was very early in the game. Each unit showed as three units, spread out. So it was definitely a bug.

[mikeyredk]

like that right

http://www.civfanatics.com/gallery/files/1/civ4uu_preview_original.jpg

Was this your saved file or did you download the saved game? Did you play a saved game before this one that you downloaded? saying this because it might have changed your settings

[jsw]

like that right

...

Was this your saved file or did you download the saved game? Did you play a saved game before this one that you downloaded? saying this because it might have changed your settings
It was my own saved game... just about 15 minutes into one. What settings would cause this behavior? I hadn't changed anything, IIRC.

Edit: but yes... just like that.

[QCassidy352]

"it runs fine" on a quad with 8 GB... :eek: I'm beginning to despair. I don't think I'll be playing this one anytime soon. Maybe when I get a conroe imac... ;)

[jsw]

"it runs fine" on a quad with 8 GB... :eek: I'm beginning to despair. I don't think I'll be playing this one anytime soon. Maybe when I get a conroe imac... ;)
It runs fine on a 17" Intellimac, bugs aside.

[thehuncamunca]

on my MBP with 2GB of RAM and the 256MB graphics card, it runs okay-not nearly as smooth as i thought it would run

has anyone played the PC version? is the mac version just a poor port or does the PC version also require quite a lot of computing power

[ginner]

on my MBP with 2GB of RAM and the 256MB graphics card, it runs okay-not nearly as smooth as i thought it would run

has anyone played the PC version? is the mac version just a poor port or does the PC version also require quite a lot of computing power

The PC version ran pretty well on my 1.7Ghz Centrino with 512Mb DDR Ram and 64Mb ATI 9700 graphics card.

Used to get a lot slower once all the map was revealed, particularly with Huge maps but it was certainly playable. With sound as well!

I've got mine on order, hopefully it'll be patched by the time I receive it.

If not, be in no doubt, I will return it.

[gloss]

I got my hands (legally) on a free copy of Civ IV for the PC, and I must say it's just as insanely addicting as earlier versions. Great sound, music, visuals, etc. Good stuff.

But yes, quite demanding as far as turn-based strategy games go.

[milkdev]

I just tried Civ IV on my Mac mini Intel Core Duo with 2 GB of RAM.

It's absolutely unplayable! Even on the lowest resolution (1024x768) with everything on low it's unbelievably slow right after the start.

So for everyone with integrated graphics (Mac mini, MacBook) it seems like a no go. :(

Edit:
Just tried it in window-mode and it runs noticeable faster. Don't expect too much, but if you're very Civ addicted it may work for you (1024x768, windowed, all graphic details low).

[fatties]

so far it seems its thumbs down for the macbook. so the question now is... is civ IV really that much better for me to be jealous about?

[thehuncamunca]

so far, i'm very pleased-i've played civ 2 and civ 3 QUITE a bit and civ 4 adds some new things with some new graphics but isn't totally overwhelming by adding too much

so far it seems its thumbs down for the macbook. so the question now is... is civ IV really that much better for me to be jealous about?

[atmenterprises]

Alright, here is my two cents...

First, my machine specs:

Intel iMac Core Duo 1.83 GHz with 2 GB RAM.

I had the resolution in the game set to 1440 x 900 with high quality on all three choices. I don't recall all of the other graphics options I checked/unchecked, however.

I ran a campaign from 4000 BC to 1972 AD. The game does slow as you get further along but I found it playable. I didn't notice much in the way of slowness until I got into AD (4000 years into the game).

I read what others said about the sound, but I'll get a sound cut every so often and they cut out rather abruptly. I haven't noticed any other issues. No kernel panics for me. And the nukes look nice exploding.

[Atlasland]

"it runs fine" on a quad with 8 GB... :eek: I'm beginning to despair.

Yes, I agree.

I think that was the most depressing comment on this thread.

[ScarletRed]

I just got the game in the mail today. But after reading horrible performance reports from you guys, I am afraid to break the factory-seal... If the game ran choppy on an iMac with 2GB, then it can't be all that much better on my MBP since the specs on iMac and MBP are almost similar.

[lmalave]

I just finished a campaign on a Standard Size/Continents Landform world. Played all the way to 2050 (won on points). Why the heck are people saying it's slow? Have they played Civ III or any of the other Civs? I think I just played through a full campaign faster than I ever did on Civ III. Despite the pretty graphics the game mechanics and *speed* are smoother than any other Civ I've played. So I dunno about PPC Macs, but on Intel Macs it runs fine. Even with integrated graphics.

[meghop]

OK just to update...my dad surprised me with a new ATI Radeon X800XT AGP video card with 256mb vram and now Civ on my Dual 1.8ghz system I previously posted about works really good. Much, much improved gameplay with smoother graphics and transitions, almost no choppiness or stutters at all. It's like a totally different machine when playing Civ IV and the Sims 2. I can play Civ 4 full screen now with almost no probs. So there ya go - not cheap, but all is not lost. :) I will be able to eke another year or two out of my 3 year old mac now I think...

[macidiot]

Seems to run ok on my mbp. And it should. A $2800 computer should be able to run a game. But the lack of sounds is a real problem, like when a unit or city gets attacked.

However, I do find the new interface confusing. It is a little too reliant on the mouse. And I just can't seem to get my hands around it like Civ 3.

[displaced]

I play Civ IV on my MacBook Pro (2.0GHz, 1GB RAM)

... but it's the PC version in WinXP via BootCamp.

It runs beautifully. All graphics cranked up, native screen resolution (1440x900). I love this game :) I can't resist watching the entire introduction sequence every time I start it. Gets the heart (and the urge to conquer) racing.

From the sounds of it, the Mac-native version leaves a little to be desired. Has everyone here with sub-par graphics performance updated to the 10.4.7a version of OS X? Apparently the original 10.4.7 update was missing some OpenGL-related files for Intel Macs, crippling graphics performance.

[merc669]

See Link...This may help some....

http://insidemacgames.com/news/story.php?ID=13738


Bill......:)

[Eric5h5]

See Link...This may help some....


Yep, that fixed the CPU problem, and the sound is better, but some ways from being right (they're still working on that). This is the version that should have shipped...it's not perfect but at least it's playable! (Very good game, too.)

--Eric

[MacsAttack]

It just about works on a 1.42Gh G4 Mac Mini with 1GByte of memory. Thought it says it needs a 64MByte video memory and complained that the machine was beneath minimum spec it did run in window mode with all the settings turned down on a first generation mini with 32MByte vid memory.

Video was jerky and it was just a little too slow to be really playable I was able to run a game up to 1800 AD before calling it a night. Stability was fine.

The sound problem is a bit irritating - but that has nothing to do with machine specs.

[aidanpendragon]

I have a last-rev eMac, 1.42 G4 w./64MB 9600, 1GB of RAM...had despaired at getting Civ IV to run, especially after viewing many of these posts. However, the G4 mini user's post has given me some small hope. Before I drop 50 bucks, I wonder if anyone else with a comparable config (fellow eMac'ers?) can comment on their experiences?

[MacsAttack]

I have a last-rev eMac, 1.42 G4 w./64MB 9600, 1GB of RAM...had despaired at getting Civ IV to run, especially after viewing many of these posts. However, the G4 mini user's post has given me some small hope. Before I drop 50 bucks, I wonder if anyone else with a comparable config (fellow eMac'ers?) can comment on their experiences?

Applied the patch and it did help a bit performance wise - as well as making the sound work a bit better.

Think there is a memory leak somewhere though - as quiting and then starting again with a loaded position runs better.

I was able to play a medium size game to completion. What it will be like with a bigger map remains to be seen.

[alec]

The patch is beta and we all are still experiencing problems. I really don't think they'll be able to deal with all the bugs in the first go around. I expect a few round of patches and fixes until this is truly a playable game.

[eji]

Civ IV is a great game in terms of both graphics and playability. It's everything I wanted to extend from Civ III, and all the nonsense and glitches out of the way.

But it's bordering on unplayable -- even with the beta patch that's out now. I've been playing standard-sized maps on the second-lowest resolution with animations off, and I dread the thought of going to war because it will take hours to fight for a city. It really feels like you're clicking and dragging through syrup. Civ III took a while to run through turns, but I get better performance from Civ III on our six-year-old iBook than I do with Civ IV on our one-year-old iMac. That's just crazy.

[thegreatluke]

I have a stock 1.83 GHz MacBook Pro.

I keep all the settings on the highest and it runs very well.

It gets a bit bogged down in the AD, but it's still very much playable.

Remember though - The patch makes the game a lot speedier.

DOWNLOAD IT HERE (http://www.macgamefiles.com/detail.php?item=19218).

[JackSYi]

Just got my copy an hour ago and installed it. The first thing you notice is how polished everything is over Civ 3. The other thing is the choppy game play. Very disappointed in how slow the game movement is. anyone else have the game yet? I have a Rev b. iMac *G5* with 2 gigs of ram. Setting are native resolution with everything else at default.

Exactly what happened to me. It was so bad, I actually sold it within two days. I am never going to buy another game for Mac OS X, it runs far better on my Windows partition.

[chicagdan]

Since Civ IV was trashed pretty heavily on its release (for good reason) I think it's fair to report that the new patch pretty much fixes all the issues on my iMac G5 2.1 ghz ... the game runs great now.

[QCassidy352]

I just got civ IV last night and am trying it for the first time now (macbook 2 Ghz with 2 GB RAM). It's slow... unbearably slow. I don't think I'm going to be able to play it on this computer.

[eva01]

I just got civ IV last night and am trying it for the first time now (macbook 2 Ghz with 2 GB RAM). It's slow... unbearably slow. I don't think I'm going to be able to play it on this computer.

no, not with the integrated graphics it will run like crap.

But I will say I finally got a 6800 Ultra and am running it at full resolution 1680X1050 and everything on high and it is running great. Minor lag for later on in the timeline but 100000000000000X better than the 9650

[KingYaba]

Ah well, there's always Civ II on my PC. It was the best game in the series anyway... :D :cool:
My only ambition in that game was to stockpile 200 Nukes and declare war on the entire world. Mwahahahah fun times. I have CivIII, but I liked CivII's gameplay better. It seemed artillery and airplanes were more effective.

[QCassidy352]

no, not with the integrated graphics it will run like crap.

I spoke too soon. I thought my copy would be up to date since I just got it, but I guess not; I needed the patch. All is well now. Not the fastest in the world, but far more than playable.

[Mackilroy]

It was running bad for you? I've got only 512 megs of RAM and it runs quite well for me – though it's obvious that two gigs would make it run better. And I'm on a 2 GHz MacBook. The update helped, too.

[QCassidy352]

It was running bad for you? I've got only 512 megs of RAM and it runs quite well for me – though it's obvious that two gigs would make it run better. And I'm on a 2 GHz MacBook. The update helped, too.

before installing the patch, yeah. It was laggy even in early B.C. But after the patch it's not bad at all. not perfect, but very good.

[Mackilroy]

Well, it runs pretty smooth for me. I'll see how much better it runs if I ever get more RAM.

[KingYaba]

I'm really upset that the jump of requiremtns between Civ III and CivIV left my computers in the dust. I could run Civ III on a 400mhz computer. But Civ IV requires 1.8ghz :eek: Nasty lil Sid.