Good System, Poor Performance, Help!

[Padinn 0]

I'm running Simcity 4 Deluxe edition with the latest patch from EA, no other add-ons at 1280x1024, max details.

My system is:

Athlon 64 X2 4200+

2.0 GB DDR2 Ram

X1900XT 512

I can't seem to get the game to run well, it seems to be jumping all over the place performance-wise. I turned off shadows, AA, and AF, and that helped some but it's still choppy. I'm using the 6.9 drivers, any ideas?!

[keelia 0]

Yeah, i got me a system like that and the same thing happened... The problem is the dual core processor. When sim city 4 was released they were merely a dream in a crazy hobo's mind.

What you need to do is start your task manager (ctrl-shift-escape is the easiest way to do this), then start sim city, then press alt-tab to get back to the desktop, go to the task manager, and right click on simcity4.exe, then set processor affinity to either 0 or 1 - not both.

Unforutenately, you have to do this pretty much every time as far as I know... still it is not too much of a hassle.

Hope this helps!

[dadyrghluv 8]

i do know the game hates ATI drivers for some reason, and also, your CPU, is it dual core? if so turn it to affinity. SC4 doesnt like the fancy shcmancy stuff. i have almost the same steup except i use NVIDIA 6800 ultra's and i have a 3800+. i do know the game is resource hog at its best. doesnt matter how much RAM or what CPU u have, it will utilize every bit of it. try

try changing drivers to a lower one and see if that helps. also check virtual memory size, max for windows is 4096mb, or just over 4 gigs.

[prince_of_sims 0]

1. Turn CPU Affinity to 0 in the Task Manager once SC4 has loaded.

2. Install 3rd party drivers for your graphics card. The Omega Drivers are the best. Just search for them on google and you should get a hit.

3. Turn off ANY AND ALL advanced features of your graphics card. This includes Anti-Aliasing. If you don't have an OFF option, turn the settings to APPLICATION SELECTED. Also, I've noticed that SC4 is a little overclock sensitive. So if your graphics card is overclocked, downclock it.

4. Make sure your Paging File is set to 4096MB minimum/4096MB maximum. 4GB of virtual RAM is recommended for someone with 2GB of physical RAM. If you don't know how to set your paging file size, go do a search on google.

As others have mentioned, the game is a resource hog. AFAIK, there is no system that can run SC4 perfectly smoothly. You're just going to have to deal with the lag.

[thenext88 102]

Go from "Hardware" to "Software" rendering. Just means your CPU will do most of the graphical work. I have a C2D E6600 with a x1900xt and had horrible performance with hardware mode, but on software mode I'm nearing 100k sims in one city and the game is still running very smoothly.

[joshsiao 0]

I run Rush Hour with:

Intel Core Duo 3.4Ghz

2.0 GB DDR2 RAM

512Mb ATi Radeon X1900XTX

Almost same specs as the thread starter. I found a useful fix in a thread in page 4 for ATi graphics cards. https://www.simtropolis.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=24&threadid=81568&enterthread=y

Apparantly, SC4 dosen't reconginse ATi video cards later than the 9800 series so it will lag even on your dear powerful X1900XT. You need to follow the instructions further down in the thread written by mart_wood to get the game to recongise the card. Oh, also make sure AA, AF and all the whiz of the Catalyst Control Centre is switched off.