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Can I install the game to two different Macs to play on (not at the same time) ?

Does it matter how I buy it (Steam vs Box, etc.) ?

1. As long as the Steam client software is not logged in on both machines at the same time (it will automatically log the other user out should this be happening), then yes you can install it on two different Macs. Or a PC and a Mac. Or five computers. It doesn't matter.

2. In the end Civ requires Steam so either the box copies of the PC or Aspyr version will work. Purchases made directly to Steam will obviously work as well. Go after whats easiest for you (download or install from disc) and cheapest as it's all about the game's serial number (google 'steamplay' as this is the same for any other games which supports it).

Also if the question arises, yes you can download the game as many times as you like (unlike the iTunes model which is a once only download)
 
1. As long as the Steam client software is not logged in on both machines at the same time (it will automatically log the other user out should this be happening), then yes you can install it on two different Macs. Or a PC and a Mac. Or five computers. It doesn't matter.

2. In the end Civ requires Steam so either the box copies of the PC or Aspyr version will work. Purchases made directly to Steam will obviously work as well. Go after whats easiest for you (download or install from disc) and cheapest as it's all about the game's serial number (google 'steamplay' as this is the same for any other games which supports it).

Also if the question arises, yes you can download the game as many times as you like (unlike the iTunes model which is a once only download)

Thank you.
 
Will this game run okay on my macbook pro with my specs? PLEASE HELP!

I meet the minimum requirements;however, I'm still leery that the game will become choppy as the map opens up...I'm not great with Mac hardware so I'd appreciate any feedback! Thank you!

2.66 Ghz intel core duo processor
4GB 1066 MHZ DDR3 SDRAM
15.4 inch/1440 X 900
NVIDIA GEFORCE 9400M and NVIDIA Geforce 9600M GT with 256MB of GDDR3 Memory
I'll have to upgrade to snow leopard to make it so.....

Thanks!
 
You are probably right in this case. I actually tried playing this on a quad-core Windows machine with 4GB RAM and a kick ass graphics card and it still wasn't smooth. It doesn't look particularly impressive so I don't see why the requirements are so high... a poorly coded game to begin with I guess. A real shame because the underlying game is probably great, but the poor graphics implementation makes it unbearably slow to play.

poorly coded game ? man you really have no idea what you are saying.
you need to see this game running on a 1gb GDDR5 videocard , of course on your macbook air ou PC with crap video card will run the game OK
and make you say those poor comments :p

btw gaming is not only about graphics.
 
The PC version is slow between turns no matter how powerful your computer is. The Mac version won't be any worse.

this really depends on how many civilizations you are playing , size of the world
etc... etc.. etc...
 
Yeah.... except ....

I have a feeling there's probably an awful lot that a game like this has to keep track of. Before I accuse anyone of poor coding, I'd have to ask if maybe the complexity of the game simply forces these kind of system demands? (Ok, perhaps not for graphics-related issues, but the RAM requirement at the very least, I can certainly believe, and quite likely CPU as well.) Unlike your typical 3D shooter game where no matter how vast the "world" is you can move around in, only the part actually on-screen has to be tracked/manipulated in real time by the computer? With a game like Civ, everything you build is cumulative. Each city still goes through all sorts of changes with each turn, even if it's nowhere near one you're actively looking at and clicking around on.


You are probably right in this case. I actually tried playing this on a quad-core Windows machine with 4GB RAM and a kick ass graphics card and it still wasn't smooth. It doesn't look particularly impressive so I don't see why the requirements are so high... a poorly coded game to begin with I guess. A real shame because the underlying game is probably great, but the poor graphics implementation makes it unbearably slow to play.
 
Works on i7

I downloaded Civ V from Steam and it works fine on my MacBook pro i7 2.66running with 4mb RAM and anit-glare hi-res screen.
My oly issue was on first boot up of the game there was no cursor visable on the screen. Also on start up of the game the intro video is not viewable, dont know why but just a blank screen untill you skip by pressing the space bar, after that ran like a dream asfter i re-started!
Running on full graphics looks a dream :)

Dave
_________________________________________________________________
MacBook Pro i7 2.66 4MB hi-res anti-glare - iPhone 32GB - iTouch 32GB
 
I had already purchased this for the pc when it first came out, so I didn't have to pay anything to download this off of Steam. I am using a 2009 13" MacBook Pro with 2 gigs of RAM, and the NVidia 9400M. Aside from some slight lag, it seems to run just fine with everything set at about Medium. So far so good...

I have this same set up (early unibody MacBook). I have a version of this game for my phone and love it. I would be a happy camper if this worked on my laptop.

Everything still running smoothly for you?
 
I meet the minimum requirements;however, I'm still leery that the game will become choppy as the map opens up...I'm not great with Mac hardware so I'd appreciate any feedback! Thank you!

2.66 Ghz intel core duo processor
4GB 1066 MHZ DDR3 SDRAM
15.4 inch/1440 X 900
NVIDIA GEFORCE 9400M and NVIDIA Geforce 9600M GT with 256MB of GDDR3 Memory
I'll have to upgrade to snow leopard to make it so.....

Thanks!

Upgrade to snow leopard yes.

The game shouldn't be choppy, but its really hard to say. I don't know how you have your computer set up and everything is a factor.
If your above the minimum requirements I believe it would just be a case of finding the setting that are optimal on your computer.More Ram always helps too if your machine will take it.
 
I have a feeling there's probably an awful lot that a game like this has to keep track of. Before I accuse anyone of poor coding, I'd have to ask if maybe the complexity of the game simply forces these kind of system demands? (Ok, perhaps not for graphics-related issues, but the RAM requirement at the very least, I can certainly believe, and quite likely CPU as well.)

Considering that the "new" features in each release of Civilization are small incrementals from the previous game and that the first one ran on boxes with 640 KB (yes, that's KiloBytes, not a typo) of RAM as a minimum requirement, I'd say not too much. You could have vast armies, large amount of cities, many civilizations in parallele with tons of diplomacy going on and big research trees back in the first game, in an age where 8 MB of RAM was standard.

In the grand scheme of things, the data (non-graphical, non-audio) is nothing. We have small databases here at work that fit in under 512 MB of RAM that are larger than the datasets required of your typical Civilization game.

Unlike your typical 3D shooter game where no matter how vast the "world" is you can move around in, only the part actually on-screen has to be tracked/manipulated in real time by the computer?

Somebody needs to read up on BSP trees and how 3D shooter worlds are actually rendered.

No seriously, the system requirements are what they are because of the graphics/audio these days. Datasets and AI for games hasn't advanced so much in the last few years (which is quite unfortunate, since those are what make the games, not the graphics/audio).
 
Considering that the "new" features in each release of Civilization are small incrementals from the previous game and that the first one ran on boxes with 640 KB (yes, that's KiloBytes, not a typo) of RAM as a minimum requirement, I'd say not too much. You could have vast armies, large amount of cities, many civilizations in parallele with tons of diplomacy going on and big research trees back in the first game, in an age where 8 MB of RAM was standard.

In the grand scheme of things, the data (non-graphical, non-audio) is nothing. We have small databases here at work that fit in under 512 MB of RAM that are larger than the datasets required of your typical Civilization game.

Civ 3 runs on my G3 700MHz PPC iBook, and yet Civ 5 may not run well or at all on my C2D 2 GHz Mac mini with 9400m video, that's 10x faster... I agree, there's no way that's necessary.
 
Apparently according to Aspyr's Game Agent page, Civ 5 is going to be exempt from the weekend Black Friday sale. Everything else is slashed except this. :(
 
Apparently according to Aspyr's Game Agent page, Civ 5 is going to be exempt from the weekend Black Friday sale. Everything else is slashed except this. :(

Doesn't matter, as you can buy the PC version and get the mac version free w/ Steam.. There are bound to be sales for that. Hell if you get it from Direct2Drive you have a 1 in 5 chance of it being free.
 
Aspyr sucks. They should have been put out of business long ago by class action lawsuits. I have a CD binder full of Aspyr games that don't work anymore. Anyway, I've played Civ 5 on my PC and it runs fine, but it's a step backward in gameplay from Civ 4 BTS. Civ 5 isn't worth buying until the expansion IMO. :apple:
 
That long turn times are because the AI worker pathfinding is retarded (literally and metaphorically)
 
can anyone confirm if this works or not on a GTX 285? it's not in the supported video cards, annoyingly.
 
definitely glad to see more titles becoming available for the mac :) eventually Apple will get to the point where they can run games just as smoothly as Windows. But, in order to do that, they need more games to come to the mac so they can figure out how the drivers need to work with the hardware. Keep it up gaming companies! You won't be disappointed! :D
 
So if you want you can buy the boxed copy of Civ V, but you need a computer that can run windows to do the initial installation onto Steam.

Has anyone tried otherwise?

I caught the Amazon flash sale on the PC version, but I don't have a windows partition terribly handy. I was expecting I'd just be able to go somewhere in Steam and key in the serial # and download the Mac version.
 
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