SimCity 4 Timer Keeps Pausing

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Now that's better. I guess it was a matter of choosing the correct URL from the storage site. Used to be a lot simpler. Now, what was your question??? Ah yes, timer ....

Well, the timer (display) will quit when the system is too busy to update it. The simulation takes precedence over the frame display for obvious reasons. This single threaded legacy program can never use more than one core, and I think a hyperthreading machine would probably cause a CTD.

When your CPU goes to 100% you will see a pause in the graphics until the machine catches up. Less likely to happen in the lower gears. Running in high will cause this annoyance more often. Gear down to Rhino (second) and see if things are smoother, if slower overall.

  Edited June 27, 2012 by A Nonny Moose  

[lsrprules2 7]

A Noony Moose: I use this program that patches the EXE file to use up to 4GB or RAM: http://ttcshelbyville.wordpress.com/2012/02/28/make-32bit-applications-use-4gb-of-ram/

Will this 4GB thingie break my computer? I only have 3GB of RAM. Also, is Rome Total War 32-bit? That game's been lagging badly for me too and I'd like to see if this could help alleviate some of the lag in both SC4 and RTW.

[z1 566]

Will this 4GB thingie break my computer? I only have 3GB of RAM.

 

No, because the 4GB refers to the program's address space (virtual memory), not the physical memory on your machine.

 

Also, is Rome Total War 32-bit?

 

Take a look in Task Manager and find out.

[Bdub01 201]

My time doesn't stop per se but I've noticed on my larger cities when I do go to cheetah speed the time will slowdown to turtle speed for a month then pick back up for a couple of months and then slow back down. So I pretty much quit using cheetah, which I only use to get an area going from time to time anyway...

[z1 566]

Yes, that's the traffic simulator running that you're seeing.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

yeah!  Sometimes the system gets so busy it doesn't pass though the clock update routine for a while.  This is common on large cities after you've pass the knee of the performance curve.