SimCity 4

[theyosh]

Hello All,

I know what the system requirments are for SimCity 4 but do any of you guys know what kind of system you have to have to absolutely have no lag what so ever even on the highest settings? Currently I have a P3 800 with 512 RAM and a GeForce 4 64MB PNY Tech. with an Intel board (not sure which one). When I play on this system even with all the settings to low it really bogs down on the larger maps. I guess the reason why I want to know is so in my upcoming first build I want to be able to build a system that will give me no lag in SimCity 4...... thanks in advance and this site is the BEST!!!!!

theyosh

[Bob42]

I have Sim City 4 Rush Hour running on my P4 1.6 ghz. On small maps, it's fine, but it does lag a lot on really big ones. It really is too much lag. However, it only has 256mb RAM and a GeForce2. This is probably why, and my dad refuses to upgrade.
I think that RAM matters a lot, because what seems to slow it down is when i scroll, and I think that is because it has to swap all the buildings back and forth onto the hard drive's virtual memory, not the real stuff. The U-Drive it missions on rush hour are a bit of a pain, since it zooms in so all the people and cars appear, and the screen constantly moves. However, rampaging with a tank is still pretty fun.
It can mostly handle medium to high in most situations, unlike my friend's computer. I dont know it's specs, but it was laggy once you got over about 3-5 thousand population, while all the lots looked like small cubes on solid green ground.

[doctorgonzo]

I don't know of anybody who has everything set to the highest settings with no lag. Even PCs with 1.5 GB of memory and a P4 3.2 GHz lag some.

Make sure you have the latest patches, that helps some.

A great forum for Sim City 4 is www.simtropolis.com. That forum will have a lot of information on getting things set up for best performance.

[theyosh]

So even with the very best hardware and with the patches you're still going to get lag? Wow I guess all I can do is just buy what I can afford and just run with it huh.....

Do you guys think 1 Gig or RAM is too much? Or should I stick with 512 MB ?

[doctorgonzo]

Generally, there's no such thing as too much RAM. As long as you don't have an old version of Windows, go for it.

Keep in mind, though, that Sim City 4 really taxes the CPU, because of its sophisticated pathfinding algorithms. That's where a lot of the lag is.

[Jaggannath]

IMO, get 1GB of RAM. Games are only going to get more intensive, and you say it's going to be a new build.

[theyosh]

Thanks for all the helpful hints.... Yeah, I thought SimCity lagged because of not enough RAM. Well thanks for all your replies and I'll soon let you know what kind of system I'll put together

theyosh