Is my system just too weak for this game?

from GalCiv3 Forums

My specs:

Intel Core i7 940 @ 3.8 Ghz

2X ATI 5830 HDs stock clock in crossfire

8GB DDR3 @ 1333 Mhz

rest is trivial.

Game setup:

Tiny, Midgame, 2 factions, ~20 ships

My performance:

Ambient Occlusion, Bloom on, 2X AA, 1920X1080: 25 fps Zoomed out video cards usages: 79% + 15%, 30 fps zoomed in, video cards usages: 84% + 0-15%

Ambient Occlusion Off, Bloom on, 2X AA, 1920X1080: 40 fps zoomed out video cards usages: 85% + 25%, 40 fps zoomed in, video cards usages: 85% + 25%

Ambient Occlusion Off, Bloom Off, 2X AA, 1920X1080: 63 fps zoomed out video cards usages: 87% + 25%, 63 fps zoomed in, video cards usages: 87% + 25%

 

The game performs acceptably only with AO off, and I'd figure in larger maps, I'd need to turn off both bloom and AO to get acceptable frame rates, or even lower settings. There is not much on the screen at all.

 

TLDR:

I've played many games with much better visuals than this and gotten smooth gameplay out of it.

Is the game currently way under-optimized, or is the game already close to what the optimized performance would be and that my rig needs an upgrade?

 

13,519 views 24 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

ATI cards have been having trouble running this game, so it's not just you.

This is, I'm assuming, a compatibility issue. Try updating your drivers

Reply #2 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting ParagonRenegade, reply 1

ATI cards have been having trouble running this game, so it's not just you.

This is, I'm assuming, a compatibility issue. Try updating your drivers
End of ParagonRenegade's quote

 

Alright, updating now. I doubt it's the drivers, it rarely is.

ObjectDock - Access shortcuts and frequently used applications from an animated dock.
Reply #3 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting ParagonRenegade, reply 1

ATI cards have been having trouble running this game, so it's not just you.

This is, I'm assuming, a compatibility issue. Try updating your drivers
End of ParagonRenegade's quote

I updated my drivers, no frame rate change on all settings.

Reply #4 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Found a post by the forum guy "Fate";

EDIT: IF ANYONE IS HAVING THIS ISSUE RUNNING AN AMD/ATI UPDATING TO BETA DRIVERS FIXED IT
End of quote


Reply #5 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting ParagonRenegade, reply 4

Found a post by the forum guy "Fate";

EDIT: IF ANYONE IS HAVING THIS ISSUE RUNNING AN AMD/ATI UPDATING TO BETA DRIVERS FIXED IT


End of ParagonRenegade's quote

 

Just tried that, the GPu usage went up slightly, however frame rate didn't change :(

Reply #6 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting Replicators, reply 5


Just tried that, the GPu usage went up slightly, however frame rate didn't change
End of Replicators's quote

You're just a Leviathan of bad luck, aren't you?

I'm sorry I can't help more, I'm not using an AMD card myself. Best of luck man/woman

Reply #7 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

What I have done is use my integrated Intel HD Graphics 4000  instead of my Radeon 7970m.

Reply #8 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Hvae you disabled the crossfire setup? It appears to be ill supported by the game currently

Reply #9 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

I have an FX quadcore, and the game is gouging my performance, completely swallowing one core, more than half of a second core and making the other two cores twitch a lot for a 50% or so total CPU demand and some 3.8 of my system's 8 GB of RAM.  Creating a new map takes quite awhile, and frame rate isn't grand even after a new map loads.

Reply #10 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting Chibiabos, reply 9

I have an FX quadcore, and the game is gouging my performance, completely swallowing one core, more than half of a second core and making the other two cores twitch a lot for a 50% or so total CPU demand and some 3.8 of my system's 8 GB of RAM.  Creating a new map takes quite awhile, and frame rate isn't grand even after a new map loads.
End of Chibiabos's quote

The game is currently very cpu intensive. its likely a side effect of the AI plus a somewhat sub-optimized graphics pipeline.

Reply #11 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting satoru1, reply 8

Hvae you disabled the crossfire setup? It appears to be ill supported by the game currently
End of satoru1's quote

Yes, tried it, my framerates drop from 40 to 30 when bloom is on but AO is off

Reply #12 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

With my ATI I still had issues with crashes and choppyiness after I updated to the beta drivers, what finally produced a stable and smooth game was to disable "bloom" in the video settings in game.

 

That'd be my next bet, but if that doesn't work then I'd try disabling the crossfire and just running a single card, alpha might after all not be fully optimised to deal with that.

 

Fate,:beer:

Reply #13 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

I'm running an amd setup ATM and haven't noticed any major problems 

I don't have the specs on me but the only thing I disabled was the gel ui

my graphics card is fairly

my processor is out of date I think it was a phenom 1 

only have 4 gigs of ram

it takes about 30 secs to start the game or generate a new map i would call that an acceptable time

Reply #14 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Something that can cause unexpected performance problems is adware and/or browser hijackers. Some antivirus programs don't pay any attention to these, so you have to use other methods to find them. One is "malwarebytes", which will find adware and browser hijackers, but it should be used very carefully. Get only the basic version, not the pro. If you run the pro and another antivirus program together they get into each other's way. Run only the scan of malwarebytes and check the log. If you find a ton of PUPs you have a lot of work to do to get rid of them.

Reply #15 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Hi Guys, performance problems on following machine:

MSI GT780R

i7-2630QM, NVIDIA GTX 560M/1.5GB GDDR5

1920x1080

RAM: DDRIII 8GB

 

I'm getting 13-14 FPS with AAx2 and 14-15 FPS with no AA.

Frame rate is stable and low even if scrolling out to icons map...

 

I have no problems with performance with more demanding games, so raising this as an issue.

 

Reply #16 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

They have mentioned this is an alpha and the engine needs a lot of optimisation still one of the reasons the current build is still limited to the smallest two map sizes at the momement.

At the moment I belive the batching in the 3d engine is really poor they mentioned something along those lines I believe that is due to be drasticly improved as they go into beta I believe.

Reply #17 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

I'd also say the graphics card is likely a bit underpowered by today's standards.  I know that StarDock has said that any DX10.1 card will be playable, but the 560M is equivalent to the GeForce GT 450, which is a mid-range card THREE GENERATIONS back. 

I suspect you'll do better playing at a size below Full 1080p HD.  Try 1680x1050 or the like.

Reply #18 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

I also would not assume a stratergy game 3d engine would require less power than an fps, they have talked about that before an fps is generally showing realtivley few detailed objects at once. A stratergy game has to display a relatively large selection of  different  objects at generally lower gpu.

 

However from what they have said the alpha engine is extremly non optomised so would expect substantial performance gains in later versions.

Reply #19 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

This is exactly the kind of feedback I think they are looking for in Alpha so they can optimize their engines, keep the feedback flowing!

Reply #20 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Don't get me wrong, I'm not criticizing :) I'm not comparing to FPS, but more to strategies or RTS.

 

As Stalker0 said, getting feedback is the purpose of Alpha, even if it means that they will raise minimal requirements.

Reply #21 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Not sure what kind of problems he could really be having with that monster of a system... I'm running Windows 7 on a 2.66 quad Xeon (Server CPU) on a Asus P5B Deluxe 1.03 motherboard(all bought in 2007) with 8 gigs of DDR2 ram paired with an 2gb Asus Radeon R9 270, with normal 7200rpm SATA drives (No solid state) and it handles everything GC3 can currently throw at it. I'd tell you what the FPS where if I had any idea how to test for it on GC3...


*Only area where my system trumps the OP is in the Video Card, which is ATI as well. Though I'd think the crossfire config + Memory speed/CPU speed advantage would tip it all back into his favor*


Reply #23 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Is your system running HOT ?. Check your MEMORY for a bad stick. my system runs it fine and my video card is older than yours. and I have a AMD PHENUM 2 quad core. Clean our yor fans. and check that 4 pin connector for your CPU the one from the POWER SUPLY !. has it MELTED ?. I added fans to get the HEAT out of my system !.

Reply #24 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Get some FANs and pull the HEAT away from your VIDEO CARD and out of your case if you can take those coves off the back and put a FAN sucking the air out of you case and away from your video card..