Simcity 4 not running well

[Mehdic 0]

Simcity 4 delux edition

First time playing on this new computer, and I patched it before I ran it so I dont know if it ran differently before the patch.

XP pro SP 3

4 gigs ram

Intel core 2 duo 3ghz (overclocked running 3.6 I think)

ATI radeon HD 4870 (1 gig)

all drivers up to date and the computer runs much newer games without any problems. very fast and very good frame rate in games such as supreme commander and borderlands.

Simcity 4 is a different story however.... zooming in and out takes forever to load, scrolling the screen left and right is very slow and choppy. It is just running very slowly and poorly and I cant exactly figure out why. I turned down the graphics ALOT and there was barely any noticable difference. Any ideas guys?

[HayleyRenaNemeth 465]

Try using Software Rendering.

[Bones1 96]

Try downgrading to an old version of the ATI drivers. My ATI Radeon with the latest drivers results in horrible scrolling speed in just SC4. The old Catalyst 5.8 version of the drivers is great... SC4 runs really well with that.

[Mehdic 0]

Ok software mode works much better but it still seems kind of odd that I can't use my video card for this...

Also I noticed on both software and hardware I cannot use the 1600x resolution. It allows me to select it but my monitor just switches to 1280x even though my natural desktop is display is at 1920x .

[tungston 19]

You might need to use a resolution your monitor will support.

[Bones1 96]

Software mode should work fine in modern PCs. But, it gives a flatter and duller look to the graphics. I decided it was better to use an old ATI driver, rather than use software mode. It looks better using hardware. The old ATI driver works with all my other games, so I'm not sure if I need whatever is in the latest drivers.

[Mehdic 0]

The resolution is supported by my monitor, its just odd that its displaying at 1280x1024 when the game still says 1600 in the options menu.

I tried to downgrade the drivers but there is only so far I can go back because my card is still kinda new. the older drivers don't work with this new card.

[HayleyRenaNemeth 465]

The reason most newer games run without issues is that these newer games were written to take advantage on todays hardware, by piping a lot of the graphic rendering through the GPU on the video card instead of doing a majority of the processing on the main CPU.

Back when SimCity 4 was in development, video cards had a little bit of memory and a few chips on it, and that was pretty much it.

I believe SimCity 4 has issues because when it was written they had to take shortcuts in the coding due to space limitations of 2001 - 2002 type hardware. Now if someone could get a hold of the games source code and rewrite the code to take advantage of modern hardware and to do all of the graphic processing on the GPU instead of the main CPU. You could open up a whole new world of possiblities.

[DPMorse 2]

SC4 has a problem with ATI cards.

It runs great on my own computer, with a Nvidia 6800 GS card, but lagged badly on a second computer with a much newer ATI card (even though the second has a faster CPU and the same amount of RAM (3GB)).

The lag problem was made much better by turning 'shadows' to low in the video options. (I am still using hardware rendering, but the game now responds nearly as well as my Nvidia machine)

As to your game resolution problem, have you tried forcing your chosen resolution through the command line options?

I run the game at 1680x1050, even though there is no option for that in the game's video options.

Right-click the game icon, select 'Properties'. In the 'Shortcut' tab you will see a field called 'Target'. You can modify this to force the game to use the resolution that you choose.

Here is how mine is set:

"C:\Program Files\Maxis\SimCity 4 Deluxe\Apps\SimCity 4.exe" -l:english -Introff -CustomResolution:enabled -r1680x1050x32

You can copy/paste that to your own, and adjust the resolution to your desktop resolution (assuming your game is installed to the same location - if not, simply input the correct path)

 

[DPMorse 2]

And I see a smiley face where there should be a :

 Make sure (if you copy/paste that line) to paste it into Notepad first, and change "introff" to "introff".

Dam* it!!! Why can't this site simply post what I write????????

Intro : off

No spaces between intro and : and off.

[SC4BOY 20]

Originally posted by: DPMorse

Dam* it!!! Why can't this site simply post what I write????????

.quote>

It's very simple.. before you save the reply, check the "Do not parse emoticons" box 

intro:off

Originally posted by: DPMorse

SC4 has a problem with ATI cards.

 quote>

It has no more problems with ATI cards than with nVidea cards. I've seen people give up on both, and I've seen people make both work. It is a function of the driver and being sure to set to "use application settings" where applicable. I've not seen anyone who can't, after properly settings,  run in hardware mode with ATI (or nVidea or even Intel for that matter)

[DPMorse 2]

Ah, so!

Thanks much.