What CPU would it take to run Sim City 4 smoothly?

[Mavrick]

To put it short, I like this game but it's waaay too slow. I have a 1 GHz Athlon with 512 MB RAM.
Does anybody here have the game running smoothly on a large map with > 150 000 people and max details?

If so, what computer do you have?

(I don't want to upgrade unless there could be a drastic improvement)

 

[hdeck]

everyone has had trouble with it with cities that big. get more RAM.

 

[Adul]

even top of the line CPU have trouble running this game

 

[Mavrick]

Well, I see...
Still, it's sad to hear, since this game is so sweet to the eye at max detail.

I though that an AMD 2400+ would do the thing... but if it doesn't help much, I guess I will keep my money for later...

 

[dawks]

Try getting more ram. that might help..

Or you could send some money to me, so I could upgrade.. Try playing it on a PII 400, with 256megs ram, and a webserver with php, and MySQL running in the background, hosting 5 active websites.

 

[Aves]

I've also heard that more RAM is the key.

 

[civad]

Try playing it on a PII 400, with 256megs ram, and a webserver with php, and MySQL running in the background, hosting 5 active websites.

What? No sendmail??

 

[Evadman]

This system starts to have problems at around 50,000 people. quit your bitchin'

 

[vegetation]

None, it crawls on 3ghz systems even with adequate memory.

 

[Imdmn04]

it doesnt matter what kind of rig you have, theres just too much micromanagement that is going on at the same time.
i got a xp1900, radeon 9700 pro, and 512 ram, it is still choppy after about 20k in population.

i have also played simcity 3000 on my current gig, you think it would run silky smooth since its such an old game, but no, there is still alot of chopiness when the population gets large enough.

so in conclusion, a game with many micromangement stuff going on at the same time such as sim city 4, will never run smooth no matter what kind of rig u have once the population gets to a large amount.

 

[Mavrick]

Originally posted by: Evadman
This system starts to have problems at around 50,000 people. quit your bitchin'

Hehehe, but I'm running at the lowest settings, and it already has a lot of problems...

 

[Mavrick]

Originally posted by: Imdmn04
it doesnt matter what kind of rig you have, theres just too much micromanagement that is going on at the same time.
i got a xp1900, radeon 9700 pro, and 512 ram, it is still choppy after about 20k in population.

i have also played simcity 3000 on my current gig, you think it would run silky smooth since its such an old game, but no, there is still alot of chopiness when the population gets large enough.

so in conclusion, a game with many micromangement stuff going on at the same time such as sim city 4, will never run smooth no matter what kind of rig u have once the population gets to a large amount.

Sim City 3000 runs silky smooth on my rig, even with 2 000 000 people... Try running it in win98 compatibility layer, it really helps a lot

 

[magomago]

That is Simcity 3000 Though.


For the guy with th Radeon 9700 PRO and a 1900+ : Perhaps if you get 512 more megs of ram it'll help


I don't know if the game was coded efficiently, or if it really needs that raw power


EDIT:

Though I must admit for me simcity 3000 gets slightly choppy in the scrolling when i have over 10,000 people...I can't vouch for more because I've never gotten more people

 

[human2k]

Originally posted by: hdeck
everyone has had trouble with it with cities that big. get more RAM.

2 sticks of 512mB PC2100/PC2700 + Radeon 8500 or higher + 1.4GHZ or higher cpu = good performance.

 

[Chadder007]

Originally posted by: Mavrick

Originally posted by: Imdmn04
it doesnt matter what kind of rig you have, theres just too much micromanagement that is going on at the same time.
i got a xp1900, radeon 9700 pro, and 512 ram, it is still choppy after about 20k in population.

i have also played simcity 3000 on my current gig, you think it would run silky smooth since its such an old game, but no, there is still alot of chopiness when the population gets large enough.

so in conclusion, a game with many micromangement stuff going on at the same time such as sim city 4, will never run smooth no matter what kind of rig u have once the population gets to a large amount.

Sim City 3000 runs silky smooth on my rig, even with 2 000 000 people... Try running it in win98 compatibility layer, it really helps a lot

Hmm...thats a good idea. Never though of doing that....

 

[Joony]

hmm, what about a Barton 3000+ ODed with a gig of PC2700 DDR ram with a Cheetah 15.3k SCSI HD with a OCed Radeon 9700pro...drools...

 

[microAmp]

Originally posted by: Chadder007

Originally posted by: Mavrick

Originally posted by: Imdmn04
it doesnt matter what kind of rig you have, theres just too much micromanagement that is going on at the same time.
i got a xp1900, radeon 9700 pro, and 512 ram, it is still choppy after about 20k in population.

i have also played simcity 3000 on my current gig, you think it would run silky smooth since its such an old game, but no, there is still alot of chopiness when the population gets large enough.

so in conclusion, a game with many micromangement stuff going on at the same time such as sim city 4, will never run smooth no matter what kind of rig u have once the population gets to a large amount.

Sim City 3000 runs silky smooth on my rig, even with 2 000 000 people... Try running it in win98 compatibility layer, it really helps a lot

Hmm...thats a good idea. Never though of doing that....

Ditto... Now how in the world did you get 2 million people?! I'm some where at 30-50k (don't remember)... trying to figure out how to pack more people in there...

 

[BurnItDwn]

my xp1800 with 1gb of pc2700 ram runs it well up to like 90K to 100K people .... anything more than that and it starts lagging

Usually around 230K is when it gets so lagged its no longer playable

 

[atusername]

P5 8GHz...... no seriouslly.

 

[0roo0roo]

i don't think you can buy a current cpu that will not hit 100% usage for this game. well withmax settings atleast. 1gb of ram is good ifu want to use huge ass cities.

 

[0roo0roo]

think it also runs smoother(scrolling) better on nvidia cards. sadly

friends 4200 runs smoother then my 9000pro my cpu is 2100 his 1900. both 1gb mmm

 

[paralazarguer]

I bet the earth simulator super computer could run it.

 

[Pocatello]

Hopefully this will nudge people to upgrade their 300MHz system and help lift the IT sector from this doldrum, it could work .

 

[yhelothar]

hmm WTF? i just decided to run sim city after reading this thread.. and when it started up.. it said.. Sim City Formosa, and it showed a silhouette of taiwan in the back...
and all the words turned chinese..

 

[TweakageMan]

Dual processors is the key.

I have a Dual Pentium 3 1.4GHz system w/ 4GB PC2100 DDR (yes, 4GB) and a Radeon 9500 Pro

It runs sim city 4 flawlessly with 125,000 people.