Graphics Question

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.simcity (More info?)

Just bought Sim City 4 and wanted some advice on graphics settings that will
give me the smoothest frame rate. I have a lowly Athlon 2200+ and 4600Ti
graphics card. I could experiment but I'd rather spend time playing the
game, and hope therefore that someone can give me some advice.

PJ

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.simcity (More info?)

On Fri, 14 May 2004 20:34:43 +0100, Paul Jager wrote in alt.games.simcity:

> Just bought Sim City 4 and wanted some advice on graphics settings that will
> give me the smoothest frame rate. I have a lowly Athlon 2200+ and 4600Ti
> graphics card. I could experiment but I'd rather spend time playing the
> game, and hope therefore that someone can give me some advice.

Lot's of memory helps the game out. I have an Athlon 2100+ and a GeForce4
Ti 4200 graphics card and the game runs great. I recently upgraded the
system memory from 512MB to 2GB and noticed a big improvement in the
graphics in the game. Notably the speed I could scroll and the buildings
refresh themselves. No more slow refresh with the boxes being replaced
with the part of the city I just scrolled to.

Dave
--
We are the US military. Your asses will be kicked. Resistance is futile.

US Army Signal Corps!!
http://www.geocities.com/davidcasey98

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[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.simcity (More info?)

Thanks for the reply. Excuse my ignorance but when you mention memory do you
mean RAM?

PJ
"David Casey" <sgtcasey@cableoneIH8SPAM.net> wrote in message
news:161yp420h136n$.dlg@sgtcaseycableone.net...
> On Fri, 14 May 2004 20:34:43 +0100, Paul Jager wrote in alt.games.simcity:
>
> > Just bought Sim City 4 and wanted some advice on graphics settings that
will
> > give me the smoothest frame rate. I have a lowly Athlon 2200+ and 4600Ti
> > graphics card. I could experiment but I'd rather spend time playing the
> > game, and hope therefore that someone can give me some advice.
>
> Lot's of memory helps the game out. I have an Athlon 2100+ and a GeForce4
> Ti 4200 graphics card and the game runs great. I recently upgraded the
> system memory from 512MB to 2GB and noticed a big improvement in the
> graphics in the game. Notably the speed I could scroll and the buildings
> refresh themselves. No more slow refresh with the boxes being replaced
> with the part of the city I just scrolled to.
>
> Dave
> --
> We are the US military. Your asses will be kicked. Resistance is futile.
>
> US Army Signal Corps!!
> http://www.geocities.com/davidcasey98
>
> Remove "IH8SPAM" to reply!

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.simcity (More info?)

On Sat, 15 May 2004 10:16:29 +0100, Paul Jager wrote in alt.games.simcity:

> Thanks for the reply. Excuse my ignorance but when you mention memory do you
> mean RAM?

Yes, sorry should have put RAM at the end.

Dave
--
We are the US military. Your asses will be kicked. Resistance is futile.

US Army Signal Corps!!
http://www.geocities.com/davidcasey98

Remove "IH8SPAM" to reply!

 

[Moo]

Archived from groups: alt.games.simcity (More info?)

Hello SimCity 4 fans!



I recently got Rush hour expansion pack, great game love the concept of
driving cars while your taxes pay for everything, although driving cars -any
car - can be a hassle. Because of the lag I end up driving into other cars,
trucks (making me explode) and missing turns. I am currently on the lowest
settings possible - the buildings go blurry - and I can only 'play' in
sunlight time because it takes about a full minute to zoom in when I click
on a quest - not to mention zooming out after it auto zooms in.

I have a Geforce4 MX440 or something along those lines, is the lag coming
from this graphics card? (That's what I originally thought because on best
settings I may as well not play SimCity4 at all) So RAM is the thing that
helps? I have about 256 RAM, would that be the problem?



"David Casey" <sgtcasey@cableoneIH8SPAM.net> wrote in message
news:7fo1f4fo4plf.dlg@sgtcaseycableone.net...
> On Sat, 15 May 2004 10:16:29 +0100, Paul Jager wrote in alt.games.simcity:
>
> > Thanks for the reply. Excuse my ignorance but when you mention memory do
you
> > mean RAM?
>
> Yes, sorry should have put RAM at the end.
>
> Dave
> --
> We are the US military. Your asses will be kicked. Resistance is futile.
>
> US Army Signal Corps!!
> http://www.geocities.com/davidcasey98
>
> Remove "IH8SPAM" to reply!

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.simcity (More info?)

On Mon, 17 May 2004 14:31:40 +1000, Moo wrote:

> Hello SimCity 4 fans!
>
>
>
> I recently got Rush hour expansion pack, great game love the concept of
> driving cars while your taxes pay for everything, although driving cars -any
> car - can be a hassle. Because of the lag I end up driving into other cars,
> trucks (making me explode) and missing turns. I am currently on the lowest
> settings possible - the buildings go blurry - and I can only 'play' in
> sunlight time because it takes about a full minute to zoom in when I click
> on a quest - not to mention zooming out after it auto zooms in.
>
> I have a Geforce4 MX440 or something along those lines, is the lag coming
> from this graphics card? (That's what I originally thought because on best
> settings I may as well not play SimCity4 at all) So RAM is the thing that
> helps? I have about 256 RAM, would that be the problem?

I had 512MB and it was very laggy. Upgraded to 2GB and it's much less
laggy. Of course, I turned up all the details to as high as they could go,
so it's still somewhat laggy.

Dave
--
We are the US military. Your asses will be kicked. Resistance is futile.

US Army Signal Corps!
www.geocities.com/davidcasey98

Remove IH8SPAM to reply by email!

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.simcity (More info?)

Its strange that this game relies so much on RAM rather than just CPU or
graphics card. I wonder if those with high spec machines, but moderate
amounts of RAM (ie 256mb - 512mb) have the same laggy issues?

PJ
"David Casey" <sgtcasey@IH8SPAMcableone.net> wrote in message
news:nfkh2y2cbj1m$.dlg@sgtcaseycableone.net...
> On Mon, 17 May 2004 14:31:40 +1000, Moo wrote:
>
> > Hello SimCity 4 fans!
> >
> >
> >
> > I recently got Rush hour expansion pack, great game love the concept of
> > driving cars while your taxes pay for everything, although driving
cars -any
> > car - can be a hassle. Because of the lag I end up driving into other
cars,
> > trucks (making me explode) and missing turns. I am currently on the
lowest
> > settings possible - the buildings go blurry - and I can only 'play' in
> > sunlight time because it takes about a full minute to zoom in when I
click
> > on a quest - not to mention zooming out after it auto zooms in.
> >
> > I have a Geforce4 MX440 or something along those lines, is the lag
coming
> > from this graphics card? (That's what I originally thought because on
best
> > settings I may as well not play SimCity4 at all) So RAM is the thing
that
> > helps? I have about 256 RAM, would that be the problem?
>
> I had 512MB and it was very laggy. Upgraded to 2GB and it's much less
> laggy. Of course, I turned up all the details to as high as they could
go,
> so it's still somewhat laggy.
>
> Dave
> --
> We are the US military. Your asses will be kicked. Resistance is futile.
>
> US Army Signal Corps!
> www.geocities.com/davidcasey98
>
> Remove IH8SPAM to reply by email!

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.simcity (More info?)

On Mon, 17 May 2004 18:09:23 +0100, Paul Jager wrote:

> Its strange that this game relies so much on RAM rather than just CPU or
> graphics card. I wonder if those with high spec machines, but moderate
> amounts of RAM (ie 256mb - 512mb) have the same laggy issues?

I think with SimCity4 there is *so* much stuff to keep track of that it
taxes the heck out of the CPU keeping track of hundreds, then thousands,
tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, and even millions of Sims. Their
path to and from work, the city itself, the disasters, when to start a fire
somewhere, the budget, etc. SimCity4 is such a detail oriented game (one
of the reasons I like it so much) that it needs large amounts of memory to
keep track of it all.

The lag is SimCity loading up the part of the city you just moved into view
back so you can see it. Sometimes I'll even see the little boxy graphics
just before the program refreshes them with the actual buildings and such.

I would imagine a super nice graphics card might speed up your screen
refresh a bit, but not do much for the lag since SimCity isn't really a
game which requires a lot of FPS. Graphics does take a lot of CPU power,
and a good graphics card will relieve the CPU of much of the burden, but
again SimCity isn't a game like say Halo or something which needs lots of
frames per second. At least that's my opinion. I'm surely not a graphics
expert or anything.

Dave
--
We are the US military. Your asses will be kicked. Resistance is futile.

US Army Signal Corps!
www.geocities.com/davidcasey98

Remove IH8SPAM to reply by email!