Question about Simcity 4 running on Intel Mac Mini

[BryanP]

I don't really game much on computers anymore, but I'm curious if this game runs "ok" on the Mac Mini.

I'm aware that the integrated video does make things worse, and I've searched but I haven't found any info on how the frame rate would be, etc.

edit: actually the UB still hasn't been released

My current setup:

1.66GHz Intel Core Duo
1GB of RAM
(everything else = factory)

Does anyone have input about this game? I didn't expect to game on this system or anything but it'd be great to be able to run this game to kill time at least.

Thanks!

[apple_iBoy]

This game ran quite sluggishly on top of the line PowerPC equipment, and it's not too hot on my C2D MacBook Pro. I don't believe there's a universal binary out yet, although I've read that one is planned.

It'll most likely be playable on your system, but much more enjoyable once the UB is released.

[ehurtley]

It's Sim City. While the newer ones do have pretty fancy graphics, it's not exactly top-of-the-line. It will work fine. (Based on some quick comparisons, you should get at least 30 fps.)

[BryanP]

What I'm more concerned with is how it will play once a large city is in full gear.

I've read on this game running very sluggish when playing in big cities.

Does anyone here have any personal experience running it on their Intel Mac Mini?

[apple_iBoy]

It's Sim City. While the newer ones do have pretty fancy graphics, it's not exactly top-of-the-line. It will work fine. (Based on some quick comparisons, you should get at least 30 fps.)

Have you played this game before? On my older machines (a dual processor PowerMac and a late PowerBook), this program really started slowing down when cities got large. Rosetta performance on newer Intel machines is not much better. In any case, when scrolling around the town, I never got the impression I was seeing 30 frames per second, like some shoot-em-up. Performance was pretty choppy. I'm curious about what "quick comparisons" you're using to get this info, because I genuinely love this game but get annoyed with its subpar performance.

[adrianblaine]

What I'm more concerned with is how it will play once a large city is in full gear.

I've read on this game running very sluggish when playing in big cities.

Does anyone here have any personal experience running it on their Intel Mac Mini?

Even on my pretty powerful desktop (PC) it would slow way down when the city got big. It was one of the main reasons I stopped playing it, which is too bad.

[Savings]

I liked the gameplay but the performance of Sim City 4 was horrible across the board for me. From day one, out of the box, on a top of the line first gen Dual 2 ghz G5, the game had tons of shader issues and random crashes.

Supposedly the expansion pack fixed some of these issues, but Aspyr seems to have provided little information about a Universal Binary. I think The Sims and other games are probably on a higher priority for them right now.

[BryanP]

Thanks for the replies, I guess I will pass on this then.

It wasn't a major issue, I guess I'll just stick with the BigBang games or something :D .

[Sutekidane]

Unfortunately, Simcity 4 was always a poor performer. I'm not sure if it's the programming or what, but I can't even get simcity 4 deluxe running well in windows xp on a macbook pro c2d.

It's very dissapointing really as it is an awesome game. I wish they'd revive the series with something at least functional.

[ehurtley]

Have you played this game before? On my older machines (a dual processor PowerMac and a late PowerBook), this program really started slowing down when cities got large. Rosetta performance on newer Intel machines is not much better. In any case, when scrolling around the town, I never got the impression I was seeing 30 frames per second, like some shoot-em-up. Performance was pretty choppy. I'm curious about what "quick comparisons" you're using to get this info, because I genuinely love this game but get annoyed with its subpar performance.

I found a review of the (then new) GeForce 5700, where even the slowest machine in the roundup got 70 fps. Yes, it was a 'fast' desktop computer, but it was long enough ago that a Core Duo 2.0 GHz should be at least as fast. And the GMA 950 should be at least 1/3 as fast as the slowest chip in that roundup. Yes, their review does mention that the game slowed down to 50% framerate during the slow parts, which would mean you should drop to 'only' about 15 fps by my guess.

But, again, this was just a guess based on some web searches. Obviously, if you have run SimCity 4 on the MacBook, you can just say your experience.

[ceruleanventure]

It will not run well at all, I've tried it on book a macbook (with 2 gbs of RAM) and my Intel iMac (with 512 mb RAM) The game is sluggish at best, with random shader/graphics issues. I tried the PC version using bootcamp and performance is better, but I got a lot of random crashes so I stopped playing it after awhile. :rolleyes:

I want the UB patch! :)