Wow

[shadowryche 0]

Site looks wonderful guys, been away quite a while.  I've got a new computer running Vista Ultimate 64-bit.  How's SC4 running on the newer machines?

[JakeMD 107]

Newer machines aren't running Vista so good. On my Vista 64-bit PC, it runs slower than my old Pentium III... Really got me down!

[starrychelx 0]

vista home premium dual core processor pc/laptops perform best for OS vista

[starrychelx 0]

vista home premium dual core processor pc/laptops perform best for OS vista

[starrychelx 0]

vista home premium dual core processor pc/laptops perform best for OS vista

[shadowryche 0]

My desktops a Phenom 9850 with 8gb 1066mhz DDR2, and a pair of Radeon 4870's in crossfire.  Took me fifteen minutes to install and update the game.  That little widescreen trick posted here works wonderfully.  Far cry from my old AMD XP 2400+ with the Radeon 9800 and a gig of RAM.

I do have a dual core Intel laptop comming next week, looking forward to seeing how it runs on that.

[Cougar2004 127]

Regarding new hardware and SimCity 4, so far unless someone can make a claim to the contrary, it seems that consensus is generally as follows:

Operating System

Windows 2000 - Works fine

Windows XP - Works fine

Vista 32bit - Works a little less than fine

Vista 64bit - Works but slower than any other and sometimes hassles occur

Theory: Use whatever OS you have or want to, but the sweet spot currently appears to be Windows XP (the OS that was out when the game was released in 2003), use Vista with caution.

CPU Speed

500Mhz CPU - plays very slow, better to upgrade

1Ghz CPU - plays fine, but could benefit from upgrade

2Ghz CPU - plays great

3Ghz CPU - plays great

Theory: The game seems to be CPU intensive at least on 1Ghz and slower CPUs, and no matter what you run more RAM and/or virtual mem (paging file size) seems to improve performance most.  Faster CPUs don't seem to give it much more kick.

# of CPU Cores

Single Core - Works

Duel Core - Works but no better

Quad Core - Works but no better

Theory: SC4 only can use 1 core at a time. Having additional ones can help by taking other computer processes, but the game wont benefit as it was written for 1 core back in 2003.

Memory (RAM) Amount

512MB RAM - works but lags at times for large cities or large plugin forlders or highest settings

1GB RAM - works but may lag for large cities or large plugin forlders or highest settings

2GB RAM - works fine

4GB RAM - works great

Theory: The more RAM the better the game will play - the real limit rests with the OS (32-bit can only address 3.2GB RAM) 

Memory (RAM) Speed/Type

133MHZ SDRAM - works but a bit slow

400MHZ DDR - works

800MHZ DDR2 - works

1600MHZ DDR3 - problems (but probably due to other hardward issues for these people, probably will be fixed in time)

Theory: It doesnt matter which memory you use, but be cautious with DDR3 unless you are a hardware guru.

Video Card RAM (Memory) Amount

VidCard 64MB - barely works for anything

VidCard 128MB - works but slow (okay with no plugins, for small cities, below 50,000 population)

VidCard 256MB - works fine

VidCard 512MB - works excellent but may be overkill as the price per performance seems to level around 256MB

Vidcard 1GB - works excellent but may be overkill as the price per performancne seems to level around 256MB

Theory: The more the better, but you will eventually just be wasting money, however if you play OTHER games, get as much as you can afford.  A warning seems to apply here that newer cards (and/or their drivers) seem to play SC4 worse/slower, so use caution with new stuff.

Advanced Video Card Setups

WideScreen Monitor - Yes!  But requires your VidCard driver to support it, and you cannot set it in the game config section, but rather use the Shortcut Tip found here: SimCity 4 in Wide Screen Mode

Dual Monitor Setup - No, only works on 1 monitor at a time.

SLI - No, does not play any better, and in some cases plays slower

Crossfire - No, does not play any better, and in some cases plays slower

Theory: These do not work for SC4 because the 2003 game was not created for these. It also seems that most users report that Radeon cards tend to work better than Nvidia, but I've seen no scientific proof to that.  It seems that older VideoCards play the game best with older drivers, NOT newer ones - so try many before choosing the right one for you. For more details on how to pick the right new Graphics Card try: SimCity 4 v.s. Best Video Card Selection (Poll Included) 

Note: These proposed theories and stats based on Simtropolis Forum posts which I have observed over the last 6 months. Anyone who has a different opinion is welcome, as these are not sceientific results by any means.

[tahill79 13]

idk bout ure 1gb ram works but badly theory. im only running 512 ram on xp with a p4. it works fine for me and ive had regions over 7 million sims with lil lag. my plugins is about 4gigs

[shadowryche 0]

Anyone around intelligent and bored enough to write a mod for the engine, so the game could learn to utilize Dual/Quad core CPU's, SLi, and Crossfired GPU's?

I'm still highly entertained with SC4 and Rush Hour, not so with that last batch of city crap games EA came out with. And it doesn't look like we're gonna get another SimCity game any time soon.

And finally in reguards to DDR3 systems and their bugs that need worked out. At the shop I work at I just build a Intel Core i7 system that utilized DDR3. That fracking computer needed sets of 3 sticks of RAM to operate. One of the sticks was bad and it took me four hours to trouble shoot which one it was. Not looking forward to making a 12gb RAM system anytime soon, and we're not far off from the 24gb systems.

[High5flyier 7]

So I did good back in summer of 95 buying my Dell 8400 pentium4 3ghz and now with 2 gb of ram. I bought this machine just to play simcity on and its been a great performer. Last year I bought another Radeon X700 pro 256mb video card just because some day their not going to be available. The only thing that never gets upgraded is the video card driver,same one since August of 95. Have tried the current drivers but poor performance. Makes since though the game hasn't upgraded so no need to upgrade driver. I should buy some quantities of ram because in 5 years it may be hard to find. Plus 1024mb ram sticks are now only $20. I need to look into getting a back-up power supply since the original has been running for 3.5 years almost non stop. I have a MAG Innovision 19" CRT Monitor and have tired flat screens but find the CRT easier on the eyes over long periods. So looks like I need to keep this baby running if I want to continue enjoying trouble free SimCity play with overall good performance.

[Boycey08 0]

sc4 deluxe works fine on my vista home premium 32bit machine with 2 2.8ghz CPU and 1gb RAM

but i close pretty much every other application before running sc4, if you experience problems make sure you also close all applications (DO NOT close explorer.exe, this will cause your system to crash)