Sim City 4 Lagging

[Zanathel 0]

Might be a bit late, but perhaps some of you may find it useful:

My configuration:

Core 2 Duo 2.66 GHz

GeForce 260 TOP

4 GB RAM

Microsoft Windows Vista x64

Sim City 4 Rush Hour with the latest patch is unplayable. It lags horribly, especially when side scrolling.

However, I managed to minimize, if not resolve, my lag issues by switching over to software rendering mode. Fortunately, Sim City is amongst the few games available today that utilises multiple cores efficiently, so the experienced lag is minimal, especially for those of you with quad cores.

When you switch over to software rendering, Sim City will autmatically turn off shadows and automata, but that can easily be turned back on via the options menu.

[JakeMD 107]

I had the same problem.

All I did was change the renderer to Software:

Now it works great.

[jabezscratch 159]

I just purcashed an ATI4870X2 (the dual GPU card) and, sure enough, I have major graphical issues/bugs when I run SC4 in hardware rendering mode. It's very frustrating b/c I was looking forward to running SC4 in hardware mode to get a performance boost. I graduated from an ATI1900GT, which was a decent card but couldn't run SC4 in hardware mode b/c, for some unknown reason, it stuttered and lagged to the point where the game was unplayable except in software mode (no problems at all).

I've looked on the official ATI site's forums and there are some posts re: SC4 and ATi 3XXX and 4XXX series cards. No solutions found or proposed though.

I've tried stripping down the video card settings (no AA, no fancy features on, etc.) but still can't run SC4 well in hardware mode.

If anyone has any suggestions, I'm all ears.

[tungston 19]

I haven't been able to run any of my ATI cards on XP with hardware rendering since the update drivers of late 2005. I have been able on Vista with the X1950 to get it to run with hardware rendering.

[Ryusuke516 1]

That's funny mine doesn't lag on both computers and the new one is and a custom build.

the specs are:

intel core 2 duo @ 2.53 Ghz

4 gigs of ddr2 800 ram (but plan to upgrade it to 8 soon)

windows vista home premium 64 bit

nvidia geforce 9600 GT graphics card

i got little to no lag, beleive me.

well i did notice that others were using ati graphics cards that mite be the problem but i don't know, i'm not saying it is.

EDIT: I am running sc4 right now and on this site at the same time and the cpu usage meter is staying at a constant 55%. i doubt the processor causes problems but the game is minimized.

[DeanChavez 0]

Originally posted by: Vaelin Actually, my 3 year old PC with an older ATI card is fine. However, my new HTPC (which should be perfectly capable of handling SC4) with a 9500GS has problems. I've tried three recent drivers, and I've found that it's choppy whenever shadows are not on low.

I can enable all types of AA, AiF, etc (though I haven't tested all combinations yet) so long as shadows is set to low. It even runs great in software mode (with shadows).

You may want to try turning shadows to low with the new ATI cards. I'm thinking it may have to do with some of the newer shaders conflicting or not being handled correctly or lack of backward computability. Comparing 8XXX Nvidia to 4XXX ATI is mixing generations. If you are running an 9XXX Nvidia card then you have a good comparison feature-wise (similar shader and DX10 support). There also may be a setting that will correct the shadow problem, I'll investigate more in the coming week.

New PC specs are

Intel E7200 (Core 2 Duo),

2GB PC800 DDR2,

some weird mITX motherboard (Intel NB if I recall),

9500GS (not the sharpest tool in the shed, but perfectly capable of SC4) with 512 MB,

Vista 32 Premium.quote>

My specs:

Gigabyte GA-MA790GP-DS4H

DualCore AMD Athlon 64 X2, 3100 MHz 6000+ Brisbane

3328 MB  (2x2GB DDR2-800 DDR2 SDRAM)

Asus EAH4830 256-bit 512MB GDDR3 with ATI Catalyst 8.12 installed

WinXP SP2 Student

After I installed SC4 Deluxe i had the same problem...lag...now it works with hardware rendering only with shadows turned low.

[candyman13 0]

umm well ok i have a 4870+quadcore@3.0+6 gigs ram and lots of hdd space, um the game was a little bit laggy but with the new 8.12 drivers from ATI i think theyve added more openGl support, which sc4 is a OGL game i think lol um it runs perfect now, all settings maxed out and max res i can use, no probs, but is till get the randon CTD. thats never gonna stop i guess lol.

[vanAdamme 0]

I am running an: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3.00GHz 2GB RAM ATI 4870 512MB I had the _exact_ same problem and as soon as I switched to Software rendering mode it ran beautifully.

[RtFusion 0]

Had same problem as well. First of all here are my specs:

AMD/ATi 4870 HD (512MB) (Latest Catalyst 9.1 drivers)

Intel Core2Duo E7300 @ 2.66GHz

4GB DDR2 PC26400 RAM

Asus Xonar DX

I did experience some harsh lag problems with SC4. Then I turned towards the imagecfg program where you can set any software to run 1,2,3,4 etc cores. I force SC4 to run 1 core. Game ran ok, but not by a lot. So then I switched to Software from Hardware render and the game now runs fine. And I also have all the settings maxed out as well.

But as for running in Hardware mode, I just think SC4, even with the latest patch, will refuse to recognize and PCIe card properly. On ym older ADP system, SC4 ran fine in Hardware render mode. That older system had a GeForce FX 5700 LE.

Note: I am running SC4 unpatched.

EDIT: When in Hardware render mode, I DID NOT get any graphical artifacts whatsoever, just really laggy. And the Resolution I am playing at right now is 1600 x 1200.

EDIT2: Whoops, I di have the game patched to .638. My bad. So yeah, I do have it patched up.

[Shadowdane 0]

Ok...  I got this running decently on my GeForce GTX 260!!   Had to add a new rule to the Graphics Rules.sgr file.

I think the newer GF8, GF9 and GF GTX200 series have the problem like the older Radeon cards with very slow Partial Depth Buffer copies.  I used the rule that was setup for the Radeon cards and got it working for GEForce 8,9 & GTX 200 series cards.   I've only tested this on the GTX260, but it makes scrolling smooth again.   Only downside is all the shadows disapear while scrolling, but they redraw again when you stop moving.

Open the Graphics Rules.sgr file, in your SimCity 4 folder. Scroll down to the near the bottom of the file and add this. I added it between the "NoAddSigned" and "Not Slow GeForce" rules.

   partialRule "GEForce 8/9/GTX200 Slow-Down Fix"

stringMatch cardIdentity "*GeForce*"

partialRule "SlowSubrectDepthCopy" -any

stringMatch cardIdentity "*GeForce*8???*"

stringMatch cardIdentity "*GeForce*9???*"

stringMatch cardIdentity "*GeForce*GTX*2??*"

# results in special low-impact scrolling mode.

property noPartialBackingStoreCopies true

end

end

[gaspar 0]

I got the same problem.

LAGGY scrolling

I am using E8500+HD4850+4GBRAM+WIN XP

any solution for this problem right now?

What I can do is to switch it into software mode..

[tungston 19]

Originally posted by: gaspar I got the same problem.

LAGGY scrolling

I am using E8500+HD4850+4GBRAM+WIN XP

any solution for this problem right now?

What I can do is to switch it into software mode..quote>

 

The option for software rendering is in the game graphics options.  Don't forget to restart the game after changing the option.

[Shadowdane 0]

You could try the config I posted, this should work on any of the Radeon HD4000 Series cards.  I don't have a Radeon card to test this with, but give it a try and see if it fixes the problem.

   partialRule "ATI Radeon HD 4000 Slow-Down Fix"

stringMatch cardIdentity "*Radeon*"

partialRule "SlowSubrectDepthCopy" -any

stringMatch cardIdentity "ATI*Radeon*HD*4???*"

# results in special low-impact scrolling mode.

property noPartialBackingStoreCopies true

end

end

[grk1011 1]

what is the difference between software and hardware rendering? Mine was running slow on Vista as well.

[Snowdog 0]

I have a lot of problems now that I have changed my resolution, I have always had bad performance in sc4 really, but sicne I changed my res it has become downright unplayable.

Does anyone know how I can make the game run properly without dropping detail, I know my spec can take it as my ages old ti4200 played sc4 with max details.

My spec is the following:

Q6700@ 3.2 ghz

6GB DDr800 4-4-4-12 CR2

8800GTS 512 ( G92 chip)

2300GB hdd's. Sim City 4 installed on a pair of Raided Seagate baracudda's 7200.10's in a stripe.

Vista Ultimate X64

The game is very slow but playable on 1280x1024.

The game is dog slow/unplayable @1920z1080 on when on ''play'' on large maps.

Software/hardware doesn't help.

[roandr 1]

I have the Deluxe version (Sim City 4 + Rush Hour) and the below code is from the Graphics Rules.sgr file. I had the same problem(s) as others in this thread and initially tried to correct it according to "shadowdanes" instructions. I settled on a different solution that did not involve sacrificing shadows.

Works great now.

PS! I have marked the changes I made in the code with the color red (Almost at the bottom).

EDIT: Seems there is a limit to how long a post can be in this forum. I've added an url to a copy of the file if someone is interested and only added a short snippet below of the code that I changed. Download file from here.

# The Radeon series has a very slow path for partial

   # depth buffer copies. This has apparently been

   # fixed for 9500 and later models in the latest drivers,

   # but cannot be fixed on previous Radeons because of

   # hardware limitations.

   # NOTE: disabling this rule unnecessarily may lead to

   # very poor graphics performance.

   #partialRule "Radeon"

      #stringMatch cardIdentity "*Radeon*"

     

      partialRule "SlowSubrectDepthCopy" -any

         stringMatch cardIdentity "*7?00*"

         stringMatch cardIdentity "*8?00*"

         stringMatch cardIdentity "*9000*"

         stringMatch cardIdentity "*9100*"

         stringMatch cardIdentity "*9200*"

         stringMatch cardIdentity "*9300*"

         stringMatch cardIdentity "*9400*"

         # stringMatch cardIdentity "ATI, Radeon"

         stringMatch cardIdentity "ATI, Radeon VE"

         stringMatch cardIdentity "ATI, Radeon Mobility"

         stringMatch cardIdentity "ATI, Radeon FireGL"

         

         # results in special low-impact scrolling mode.

         property noPartialBackingStoreCopies true

        

         # try to reduce the number of dirty rects.

         property dirtyRectMergeFrames 8

        

         # use black and white cursors. The Radeons seem

         # to work with colour for a while, but in low

         # memory situations revert to flickering.

         option $Cursor $CursorBW

      #end

   end

[SteriloRecover 0]

SimCity 4 Deluxe edition has knowen issues with newer Radeon(ATI) and nVIDIA Drivers, the only way to get the game to work properly is to set the "Renderer option" in the graphics options to software rendering. it will look the same as the dx rendering and will run faster.

[rizzakov 0]

I have the same issue..but hardware software...no change LAGZZ!

[earwax_man 18]

All I did was change rendering to "software". it doesn't lag as much anymore... and I have an nVidia8600GT!

[baptist 1]

hi boys, HARRHARR now i can play it very smooth: bought a new nvidia 260gtx and got very angry cause of the jittering when scrolling and 'laggy game'. now after "playing around a little" in the settings ingame (doesn't helped, only software-mode) and later in the options of the SC4-link i have noticed that it helps to set the mode to "run with 256 colors". ? don't know if these option exists on vista or win7 ?

my hard drive worked a little bit more than normal after i started the link with these option. it seems the game changes something

AND IT WORKS GOOD T_T  - I HAVE A SMOOTH SIMCITY NOW

but one thing: in region-view scrolling is still bad but in-city-playing ROCKS

(no editing of simcity-files or unofficial drivers, game starts in fullscreen mode. after deactivating "256-colors" its working in window mode again and runs still fine in major-playing. before i had 9600gt where it was running without lags - also newer cards and sometimes drivers seems to be the problem! )

system now: i7-860, 260gtx, 4096mb ddr 1333, XP pro. 32bit )

over all i am happy now. i can still play a BIG city with fully employed things in a -high frame way

just try it out and tell the results here please ! (could this be the ultimative-solution 

[baptist 1]

just start simcity a few times and region-view-scrolling gets better and nearly jittering-free hohoho thats a GOOD FEELING TO PLAY SO

[Comma360 1]

I had a problem with SimCity 4 lagging alot on my system aswell.

My system specs:

AMD Athlon x2 7750 2.7ghz

2GB Corsair DDR2 800

GeForce 9600GT 512MB

I disabled shadows and now the game runs fine. Though itd be nice if i had the shadows on. With them turned on, the game is completely unplayable. Ridiculously low framerate of about 1 when scrolling.

[wozzar 154]

I have the same problem. It is very slow in hardware mode. but it works well in Software mode. I have a ATI Radeon HD 5800. Does anyone one know of a fix for this.

[wozzar 154]

I have the same problem. It is very slow in hardware mode. but it works well in Software mode. I have a ATI Radeon HD 5800. Does anyone one know of a fix for this.

[packersfan 666]

The game always finds some way to lag no matter how killer the system. I'm back on my 2 GB laptop with XP and it is running a little more lag than when I played on my 8 GB RAM Vista desktop...but then with Windows 7 on the 8 GB RAM desktop it lagged more than Vista...same system though, different OS. Ugh, haha.

[packersfan 666]

The game always finds some way to lag no matter how killer the system. I'm back on my 2 GB laptop with XP and it is running a little more lag than when I played on my 8 GB RAM Vista desktop...but then with Windows 7 on the 8 GB RAM desktop it lagged more than Vista...same system though, different OS. Ugh, haha.

[Jon Ace 0]

I have the <u>Deluxe</u> version (Sim City 4 + Rush Hour) and the below code is from the <u>Graphics Rules.sgr</u> file. I had the same problem(s) as others in this thread and initially tried to correct it according to "shadowdanes" instructions. I settled on a different solution that did not involve sacrificing shadows.

...

Sorry to necro this thread but...

THIS WORKED GREAT!!!

HD6850

Q9550 CPU

3GB RAM

Windows 7 32-bit

1280x1024 (?)

All high settings, hardware rendering! No lag/stuttering!

[mattijai 7]

I have the Deluxe version (Sim City 4 + Rush Hour) and the below code is from the Graphics Rules.sgr file. I had the same problem(s) as others in this thread and initially tried to correct it according to "shadowdanes" instructions. I settled on a different solution that did not involve sacrificing shadows.

Works great now.

PS! I have marked the changes I made in the code with the color red (Almost at the bottom).

This my dear simfanatik did the trick and now allows me to experience HD beach textures and automata plugins. One cookie for you, or even a baker's dozen!

[505Northman 0]

I had the same problem.

All I did was change the renderer to Software:

Now it works great.

When I turned my settings to hardware it stoped lagging. xD My AMD Radeon HD 8570 does the trick for hardware!

[Indiana Joe 1,750]

When I turned my settings to hardware it stoped lagging. xD My AMD Radeon HD 8570 does the trick for hardware!

Modern graphics cards are more than powerful enough. Six years ago, when the post you quoted was made, the technology wasn't as good yet.