City lagging severely

[lazerous_11 0]

I have a largish city going very well, however, it's been running very slowly recently. Ever since I hit about 70,000 citizens, the cheetah speed is about the same as the regular old play button. It's not even big population wise, I just filled up a large city tile. I tried turning graphics all the way down, but it didn't help at all. I haven't had this problem until I used a large tile. It shouldn't be lagging for any good reason, really.

Specs: Core i5 quad core at 2.5 ghz, turbo boost to 3.1 ghz

8 gb RAM

Intel HD graphics 4000 ( these have been impressive so far, even for integrated graphics) with 2 gb video RAM

Windows 8

Running on software rendering: for some reason, when using hardware, SC4 runs VERY slowly

I don't see any reason it should lag EVER, so why with a city still fairly small?...

Also, demand is nearly maxed out for almost everything, but when I put new zones in highly desirable areas, they take an abnormally long time to begin to develop.

[KradenX 0]

A few things. SC 4 is old, therefore it can only utilize one of those 4 cores. Most software is still this way. Its hard to write parallel codes. Serial is so much easier for programmers.

 

If you have a video controller program (ATI/AMD uses Catalyst Control Center, dunno what Intel uses) change everything in that to application controlled. Are you playing regular(vanilla) SC4, SC 4 with Rush Hour, or Deluxe? Is it the Steam version?

 

 

[lazerous_11 0]

Simcity 4 deluxe on a disc, with NAM installed. Not sure how much I can change with graphics, ill have to look.

Any idea why it runs so badly on hardware rendering?

[KradenX 0]

There are several reasons. I usually don't start lagging til I get around 400k sims or more... right now I have several cities with well over a million. I am using an AMD Radeon 6900 Series with 2GB GDDR5 and I still get video lag. There are a couple threads that might help on this page... mainly the one labeled "Configuring SimCity 4 to run on your new hardware" or something similar. Basically new hardware is a bulldozer to this game. To run older software with new hardware sometimes you just have to suffer with lower specs. Especially if its not a first person shooter. Turn off shadows, that helps me the most.

[lazerous_11 0]

There are several reasons. I usually don't start lagging til I get around 400k sims or more... right now I have several cities with well over a million. I am using an AMD Radeon 6900 Series with 2GB GDDR5 and I still get video lag. There are a couple threads that might help on this page... mainly the one labeled "Configuring SimCity 4 to run on your new hardware" or something similar. Basically new hardware is a bulldozer to this game. To run older software with new hardware sometimes you just have to suffer with lower specs. Especially if its not a first person shooter. Turn off shadows, that helps me the most.

Thanks for directing me to that topic; I followed the instructions and my city is now running lightning fast.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

You should be aware that when your city gets over 100,000 Sims you can expect the game to start going slower.  You will simply run out of processor cycles on your single core.  This legacy game was written for hardware available in the windows 95/NT/XT time-frame (10+ years ago).  Simulations with large numbers of objects simply run out of oomph, and will just run slowly. 

 

Best thing is to start a new city and run it up to the knee of the curve as well, and continue in the region.  Play the whole region, and think of it as a complex regional municipality or a collection of small towns.  You'll have more fun this way.

 

The only cure for the ultimate lag would be a quantum switching processor, of which there are none to speak of right now.

[KradenX 0]

You should be aware that when your city gets over 100,000 Sims you can expect the game to start going slower.  You will simply run out of processor cycles on your single core.  This legacy game was written for hardware available in the windows 95/NT/XT time-frame (10+ years ago).  Simulations with large numbers of objects simply run out of oomph, and will just run slowly. 

 

Best thing is to start a new city and run it up to the knee of the curve as well, and continue in the region.  Play the whole region, and think of it as a complex regional municipality or a collection of small towns.  You'll have more fun this way.

 

The only cure for the ultimate lag would be a quantum switching processor, of which there are none to speak of right now.

 

I overclocked my fourth core to 3.5 GHz and I was able to get up to 750,000 sims before I started getting lag... but running any of my cores that hard with stock cooling isn't worth it. Especially the way SC 4 runs it up to 100% even when it actually doesn't need it. There are all sorts of tweaks and things that help, but eventually if the city gets big enough you will lag, just as this Moose guy from Canada says.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Its a good thing that I am not a moosesse, but I dislike being called a scarecrow.