What's the "cardIdentity" string for Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050

[sct_0 7]

Hi there,

so I was following Indiana Joe's Guide for running SC4 on Windows 8 and subsequently Mysteryous' Guide on configuring SC4 to run with newer hardware.
All was going well until I had to edit Graphics Rules.sgr:
I cannot for the life of me figure out the correct string for my  Nvidia. No matter what I put in so far the game never runs on the card.
I am assuming the problem is in Graphics Rules, since editing Video Cards.sgr is semi-optional.

And on a side note: I noticed that Logic Bomb's Launcher overwrites my Graphics Rules.sgr every time I use it to launch the game, therefore I did the testing by launching the game without it.
For the future though it would be great if someone can tell me how to disable that, I couldn't find a setting in the launcher itself.
(I find a bit odd that this isn't mentioned in Joe's guide, but maybe that feature got added after the guide was written.)
 

Specs
Laptop: Dell XPS 15 9560

System: Windows 10 Pro Version 10.018362 Build 18362

CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-7700HQ CPU @ 2.80GHz, 2801 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 8 Logical Processor(s)

GPU 0: Intel(R) HD Graphics 630

GPU 1: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 (0x1c8d)

All these specs were pulled directly from "System Information".
Tell me if you need any more info, any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Handyman 792]

2 hours ago, sct_0 said:

No matter what I put in so far the game never runs on the card.

Normally the game can only use the graphics system (card) that is chosen in the bios of the computer. You also may require a specific driver for the NVidia system, that supports Directx. Your computer / motherboard manual should explain the process.

[CorinaMarie 29,922]

I did some Googling and it seems your model laptop is quirky with regard to setting it to use NVidia. Check out the 2nd reply by ejn63 here. For how to force it to use the NVidia card you can look here. I have no experience with setting up a laptop, so you'll have to decide if those linkys provide any useful information.

As @Handyman says, if the laptop itself isn't set to use the NVidia system then SC4 won't be able to see it.

 

3 hours ago, sct_0 said:

And on a side note: I noticed that Logic Bomb's Launcher overwrites my Graphics Rules.sgr every time I use it to launch the game

Another program I'm not familiar with, but have you tried setting the Graphic Rules.sgr file to read only? That might prevent it from being overwritten.

[jeffryfisher 2,176]

8 hours ago, sct_0 said:

I was following Indiana Joe's Guide for running SC4 on Windows 8 and subsequently Mysteryous' Guide on configuring SC4 to run with newer hardware.
All was going well until I had to edit Graphics Rules.sgr:
I cannot for the life of me figure out the correct string for my Nvidia. No matter what I put in so far the game never runs on the card.
I am assuming the problem is in Graphics Rules, since editing Video Cards.sgr is semi-optional.

And on a side note: I noticed that Logic Bomb's Launcher overwrites my Graphics Rules.sgr every time I use it to launch the game, therefore I did the testing by launching the game without it.
For the future though it would be great if someone can tell me how to disable that, I couldn't find a setting in the launcher itself.
(I find a bit odd that this isn't mentioned in Joe's guide, but maybe that feature got added after the guide was written.)
 

Specs
Laptop: Dell XPS 15 9560

System: Windows 10 Pro Version 10.018362 Build 18362

CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-7700HQ CPU @ 2.80GHz, 2801 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 8 Logical Processor(s)

GPU 0: Intel(R) HD Graphics 630

GPU 1: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 (0x1c8d)

All these specs were pulled directly from "System Information".
Tell me if you need any more info, any help would be greatly appreciated.

IIRC, one of those SGR files determines what card your system has given to SC4, assigning a value to card ID. The other SGR then uses the card ID to decide what default graphics options to set. But neither file has any control over the choice between two graphics accelerators, so if your laptop has both built-in and expansion-card graphics, then you have a sysadmin task to coax it into treating SC4 as an application needing the more powerful card.

SC4 produces (or can be told to produce) a config-log file that lists all of the system info that it sees, which should tell you which graphics support it thinks it has.

Once you get the card you want, you can edit the SGR files to taste. You'll discover that you can greatly simplify them because you'll never need any of the branches aimed at other people's hardware. Note: On a modern system, you might need a legacy graphics driver in order to get support for SC4's old DirectX version (I think you need DirectX 9c).

Don't know launchers; don't need'em. SC4 is old-school with command-line parameters, so all you need is a shortcut with the right arguments.

 

 

[Prophet42 1,503]

Have you also tried going into the NVIDIA control panel to set SC4 to use the graphics card.  Open up the NVIDIA control panel and go to 'Manage 3D Settings", chose the Program settings,  and under 'Select a program to customize', select SC4 and choose the preferred graphics processor to the NVIDIA card.

My laptop and both the integrated graphics and the NVIDIA card.  So far I have just let SC4 use the integrated graphics and it is working fine.  I may someday play around with trying to get it to use the graphics card.  Then again, why risk screwing something up that is already working.

[sct_0 7]

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Have you also tried going into the NVIDIA control panel to set SC4 to use the graphics card.  Open up the NVIDIA control panel and go to 'Manage 3D Settings", chose the Program settings,  and under 'Select a program to customize', select SC4 and choose the preferred graphics processor to the NVIDIA card.

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For how to force it to use the NVidia card you can look here. I have no experience with setting up a laptop, so you'll have to decide if those linkys provide any useful information.

I did that, as it says in the tutorial. (I mean, otherwise I can't even test properly if it's working or not.)
Unfortunately it doesn't make any difference, which is why I first thought the String in my file was faulty.
 

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Normally the game can only use the graphics system (card) that is chosen in the bios of the computer. You also may require a specific driver for the NVidia system, that supports Directx. Your computer / motherboard manual should explain the process.

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As @Handyman says, if the laptop itself isn't set to use the NVidia system then SC4 won't be able to see it.

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SC4 produces (or can be told to produce) a config-log file that lists all of the system info that it sees, which should tell you which graphics support it thinks it has.

BUT I somehow didn't know yet that that there is a specific BIOS setting for the card and switching between cards (I fiddle around in the BIOS quite often, I'm surprised I never noticed that).
I'll check out the config-log thing and fiddle around with the card settings some more.

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I did some Googling and it seems your model laptop is quirky with regard to setting it to use NVidia. Check out the 2nd reply by ejn63 here.

Thank you for that one, that's really useful info I never came across before.
In the 3D settings for the card there is an option for an activity indicator. That indicator as well as the Task Manager so far have shown me correct positives about software running on the NVidida (and I've never had a false positive), but maybe I'm getting a false negative in the case of SC4. Highly unlikely imho, but we are talking about ages old software here, so anything that can go wrong is game, I guess. I'll keep that in the back of my head.

Currently I assume the problem is that SC obviously doesn't support hybrid video because of its age, so I'll have to fiddle around some more in that direction.
I read about that specific problem before, but I assumed I could "hard set" it to use the settings by editing the files and the NVidia settings as the tutorial suggested.
That was apparenlty wrong in my laptop's case.
As mentioned by Handyman, I'll try "hard setting" it in the BIOS next.
 

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Another program I'm not familiar with, but have you tried setting the Graphic Rules.sgr file to read only? That might prevent it from being overwritten.

That idea came to me sometime yesterday, I'll try that out as well once I get SC4 to see the card and go to edit the sgr files.

 

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Don't know launchers; don't need'em. SC4 is old-school with command-line parameters, so all you need is a shortcut with the right arguments.

I tried the command-line parameters in a shortcut first because I do like to keep things "pure" and as little 3rd party reliant as possible, but that didn't work out at all and really like the launcher, so I wanna try to make that work first. If doesn't, I guess I'll try the parameters again.
 

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My laptop and both the integrated graphics and the NVIDIA card.  So far I have just let SC4 use the integrated graphics and it is working fine.  I may someday play around with trying to get it to use the graphics card.  Then again, why risk screwing something up that is already working.

Unfortunately my internal card does struggle with SC4, especially once a city gets bigger.
It also struggles more ever since I started testing out mods. Once the LEX is online again, I'll get my hands on one of the DATPackers to see if that'll help.
I have quite the affinity for pottering around with computers, and in my experience you'll be hard pressed to fully wreck a system when you stay on the software layer of things.
Usually a Live Medium will safe the day if nothing else can.
But I totally get the sentiment, I'm only doing this currently because I know I have the free time to fix things in the worst case.
Back when I needed my laptop for uni, I was a lot more concerned about this stuff because I couldn't afford malfunctions.

Anyway, big thanks to you all of you, I really appreciate the help.
Will post updates of the situation here when I get around to it, I'm kinda hoping that this'll be helpful for some other folksin the future too.

Edit: Thanks, not things. xD

[sct_0 7]

First tiny update on this issue: It turns out that my unit does not have a BIOS setting relating to the GPU, due to the setup mentioned by CorinaMarie (the discrete GPU not having any actual hardware connection to the display).
It also seems that in my unit's case, a program starts either using the the Intel or the NVidia GPU and once it's running, it does not change which one it uses based on the power the software needs.
So I gotta scrap the BIOS idea and figure out how to make SimCity and my card recognize each other in another way.

[CorinaMarie 29,922]

4 hours ago, sct_0 said:

So I gotta scrap the BIOS idea and figure out how to make SimCity and my card recognize each other in another way.

I wonder if there would be a way to swap out the intro video with something 4k intense and if that would even toggle the software decider to jump to the better GPU.

[jeffryfisher 2,176]

6 hours ago, sct_0 said:

my unit does not have a BIOS setting relating to the GPU

Look in the power settings for "high performance" options. Prepare to need a power cord attached while gaming (running from battery tends to shut off a laptop's graphics card to conserve power).

[rsc204 21,868]

8 hours ago, sct_0 said:

It turns out that my unit does not have a BIOS setting relating to the GPU

No laptop/portable hardware contains such options. On desktop machines, often there is a setting to simply disable the on-board graphics, but little more.

8 hours ago, sct_0 said:

It also seems that in my unit's case, a program starts either using the the Intel or the NVidia GPU and once it's running, it does not change which one it uses based on the power the software needs.

Again this is pretty standard stuff, bear in mind how hybrid graphics are today a mainstay of computers. There should be an option in the NVidia control panel to override the default on a per application basis. Instructions for that are in the "Running SC4 on Windows 8" tutorial...

On 08/12/2014 at 7:56 AM, Indiana Joe said:

I have a Laptop with both Intel HD Graphics and a NVidia Card

FIRST: Follow the steps in the above "Desktop" section to add your card's info to the game's files.

This combo is now popular with laptops. Both cards are used, and the NVidia one is supposed to take over for heavier graphics tasks. Unfortunately SC4 is too old to work with this switching mechanism, and it can be a pain to get it to use the NVidia graphics card. As mentioned in the Intel section, integrated HD Graphics 4xxx don't run SC4 very well.

The first step is to manually set SC4 to use the NVidia card in the NVidia control panel. Right-click on your desktop and click "NVidia Control Panel." On the left menu, choose "Manage 3D settings." Click "Add," navigate to the SC4 EXE, and select it. Then set it to use the NVidia card rather than Intel HD Graphics. (Image of this)

This option alone may work. If it doesn't, continue:

In the NVidia control panel, go to the top bar (with File, Help, etc.), and click the "Desktop" menu. Check "Add 'Run with graphics processor to context menu." Then right-click the SC4 icon, "Run with graphics processor," and click "High performance NVIDIA processor." If your computer rudely informs you that you don't have permission to do that, you need to disable Windows User Account Control temporarily.

After forcing the game to run on the NVidia card once, I personally was able to double-click the SC4 icon normally and it has always used it ever since.

If none of that works, then it could be customisations or restrictions on your computer prevent this from working as it should. This has come up too in the same thread, see from this post onwards for details:

 

[sct_0 7]

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No laptop/portable hardware contains such options. On desktop machines, often there is a setting to simply disable the on-board graphics, but little more.

Thanks for the info.  I've come to notice that a lot of posts about GPU laptop issues actually do talk about BIOS options, with the result usually being that the OP doesn't have such a setting. I wonder why so many people say there is one as if it's the norm, even though usually there isn't. Oh well.

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Look in the power settings for "high performance" options. Prepare to need a power cord attached while gaming (running from battery tends to shut off a laptop's graphics card to conserve power).

If you mean the one in the Windows settings, I did come across that setting yesterday, but as I guessed, it didn't change anything.

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Again this is pretty standard stuff, bear in mind how hybrid graphics are today a mainstay of computers. There should be an option in the NVidia control panel to override the default on a per application basis. Instructions for that are in the "Running SC4 on Windows 8" tutorial...

Yeah, as I said in my first post: I pretty much did all the "standard stuff". Went through that entire Tutorial and it didn't work. Which isn't the fault of the tutorial, obviously.
Short rant: I'm honestly starting to get annoyed at the amount of other, tech-focused websites (Dell Forums, certain Subreddits, NVidia sites) presenting the NVidia Control Panel as the be-all-end-all solution even though it obviously isn't. I even came across someone saying that the program doesn't have any choice other than to use the NVidia if you force it via the Panel.
Yeah, tell that to SC4, defying all odds, apparently.

8 hours ago, rsc204 said:

If none of that works, then it could be customisations or restrictions on your computer prevent this from working as it should. This has come up too in the same thread, see from this post onwards for details:

That could be helpful, thanks! While fiddling around yesterday I figured that maybe some digging in the Registry could help. Luckily I have the Pro version, so maybe that'll help me out?
On the other hand, it's Windows 10, so who knows if that still works. On the other, other hand, the registry is ancient, and iirc, not much changed there since it's first conception.
Anyway will look into that.

[CorinaMarie 29,922]

32 minutes ago, sct_0 said:

I wonder why so many people say there is one as if it's the norm, even though usually there isn't

My guess is all those peeps have desktop comps and are used to having such a setting and therefore assume a laptop will too.

 

33 minutes ago, sct_0 said:

Short rant:

My guess here is that on other laptops with higher screen resolutions and/or different internal graphics and that panel might actually be the Holy Grail. Ofc, on a laptop where it doesn't work it is frustrating to see everyone saying it'll be the magic cure.

[rsc204 21,868]

8 hours ago, sct_0 said:

Short rant: I'm honestly starting to get annoyed at the amount of other, tech-focused websites (Dell Forums, certain Subreddits, NVidia sites) presenting the NVidia Control Panel as the be-all-end-all solution even though it obviously isn't. I even came across someone saying that the program doesn't have any choice other than to use the NVidia if you force it via the Panel.

7 hours ago, CorinaMarie said:

My guess here is that on other laptops with higher screen resolutions and/or different internal graphics and that panel might actually be the Holy Grail. Ofc, on a laptop where it doesn't work it is frustrating to see everyone saying it'll be the magic cure.

Well in this case to be fair, those users are absolutely correct as this is the method for forcing it. It's nothing to do with resolutions or even the hardware for the most part. If it's not working, something is configured wrong or badly, it's ultimately a software issue.

For example, this could be related to insufficient access rights to save this setting:

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The Nvidia Control Panel controls which GPU will be used in 3D applications. It saves its settings under "C:\ProgramData\NVIDIA Corporation" . Which is bad since a local "user" cannot write to this directory. The solution is to log in as "administrator" and give the "users" group write access to this directory.

Afterwards, make sure you start the Nvidia Control Panel and set the preferred processor to Nvidia.

Of course if this were the problem, simply trying to alter this setting, then returning to the settings should verify if it's actually been set or not.

It's also important to know that the dedicated GPU is set to switch off under the following conditions:

• Power management settings that try to increase battery life
  In short this means when running on the battery, without the power cord, you may have problems using the dedicated GPU.
  Likewise your Power Management settings in Windows may be overriding any settings you've made elsewhere.
• Overheating events
  Should the system be running hot, it's unlikely the dedicated GPU will be available.

Some people report that installing or updating the Intel Drivers can cause problems. The logic being the NVidia drivers must be installed AFTER the Intel ones. Honestly, I find this unlikely, since Hybrid setups are so common, I can't imagine the Intel drivers wouldn't be able to detect the presence of the dedicated GPU. However, you may find updating either the NVidia or Intel drivers may resolve driver issues which could be a factor in your problems. As always, whilst theoretically newer drivers would be preferable, sometimes it's older drivers which actually work.

9 hours ago, sct_0 said:

That could be helpful, thanks! While fiddling around yesterday I figured that maybe some digging in the Registry could help. Luckily I have the Pro version, so maybe that'll help me out?

"Digging" in the Registry is rarely a good idea, unless of course you understand what you are looking at/altering.

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On the other hand, it's Windows 10, so who knows if that still works. On the other, other hand, the registry is ancient, and iirc, not much changed there since it's first conception.
Anyway will look into that.

The registry is still a thing and that it's not changed much is because it works today just the same as it always did. Ultimately all the registry does is store settings which you can typically adjust elsewhere using a GUI (Control Panel for example). The only reason to edit the registry would be for options you can't set elsewhere. I'm not saying this won't work, but I do think in this instance it shouldn't be necessary.

[sct_0 7]

Thanks for the input, @rsc204 that is really helpful.
 

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Well in this case to be fair, those users are absolutely correct as this is the method for forcing it. It's nothing to do with resolutions or even the hardware for the most part. If it's not working, something is configured wrong or badly, it's ultimately a software issue.

Fair point, what mostly bothers me is just that these posts rarely reflect the complexity these issues can reach.
They are like "Here's the setting, just do this and that's it", without any further points about these other software issues that can occur.
On the contrary, a lot of Linux distros' wiki pages have little paragraphs inbetween and whole troubleshooting sections dedicated to things that can typically/possibly go wrong and how to go about them.
Something I really miss relating to this topic.
 

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• Power management settings that try to increase battery life
  In short this means when running on the battery, without the power cord, you may have problems using the dedicated GPU.
  Likewise your Power Management settings in Windows may be overriding any settings you've made elsewhere.
• Overheating events
  Should the system be running hot, it's unlikely the dedicated GPU will be available.

I'm already sure it's not the overheating issue, because other pieces of software (games mostly) run just fine on the GPU even if the laptop gets hot.
(Which it usually does, although it gets hotter when using the Intel card, than it does on the NVidia one. Which is good as far as I am concerned.)
Regarding the power issue, I have my laptop set on full performance when it's connected to a socket, and I never play games that need the GPU on battery because...well the battery would be empty fairly quickly.
I would generally be surprised if it was a general/system wide issue that inhibits SC4 to use the GPU, because other software does that just fine. I'm guessing it's something more specific.
 

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"Digging" in the Registry is rarely a good idea, unless of course you understand what you are looking at/altering.

Well, so far it's always worked out fine for me when it was the solution to a problem, and the part of the thread you linked does suggest it as a solution.
I'll see if I can find those settings otherwise first though.

[sct_0 7]

So, I finally got around to trying what @rsc204 suggested, by editing the registry like it was instructed in the post they linked.
Unfortunately, that did not work either, in the log it's still referring to the Intel card.
But it did raise a question for me:

If the problem is, as rsc204 said, related to power settings or permissions, because otherwise the PC cannot resist a force via the control panel,
then why is this "rogue setting" only a problem for SC4 and none of my other games/programs?

[rsc204 21,868]

3 hours ago, sct_0 said:

If the problem is, as rsc204 said, related to power settings or permissions, because otherwise the PC cannot resist a force via the control panel

Well that's why I mention Permissions, because if you are changing a setting, but it isn't being changed, that's typical of a Permissions issue. You'd be surprised how much of your PC, Windows 10 doesn't not give you Permission over. Sometimes forcing that is a PITA too, it really doesn't like to relinquish this control. It's certainly a possible explanation for why changing this setting isn't having any effect.

It may help to know exactly what's happening in respect of these changes. For example, if you alter things in the NVidia Control Panel, having closed and re-opened the same properties, does it still show your change? Likewise, if you edit a value in the Registry, upon re-entering the Registry does it retain the altered value?

3 hours ago, sct_0 said:

then why is this "rogue setting" only a problem for SC4 and none of my other games/programs?

I understand why you'd think this way, but that's a red herring really, since SC4 has nothing to do with this. As an application it just takes it's cue from the system itself, as to which hardware to utilise in the case of multiple GPUs. There are other such affected applications, but they are not overly common, since most older/legacy games run fine on the Intel GPU. Whilst newer titles, which absolutely require the extra power of the dedicated GPU, will typically work with it automatically. Not to mention, many such titles will be coded in such a way to tell the System to use the dedicated GPU where present. 

But these multi-GPU setups are designed with the option of a user override, which for reasons not absolutely clear, is being ignored. This suggests to me that the same setting would be ignored, regardless of game/application it was applied too. It's just simply that in your case, SC4 is the only such application that requires this setting to work. Even if it were only ignoring this setting for SC4, we're still talking about the NVidia driver software, SC4 has no control of this setting.

Going back to the Dell help threads (linked by @CorinaMarie), it appears before a Windows 10 update this setting did work for users. This is for me one big flaw in the auto-update model of Windows 10. An update may break software or drivers on your system, which either takes time to patch or worse, such patches never become available. This setting is part of the NVidia software ultimately, but that needs to interact with what are almost-certainly Dell customised Intel drivers. Outside of recommending ensuring both are updated and perhaps also checking for any BIOS updates from Dell for your machine, there isn't a lot else I can think of.

Perhaps Dell simply never fixed an issue?, it wouldn't be the first time hardware was hobbled by bad software. Back in the old world, I'd advise removing the Windows update, some updates simply don't work for everyone, this is nothing new. But this really isn't an option, even just to test if that update is really the problem.

[sct_0 7]

On 21/07/2019 at 3:38 PM, rsc204 said:

For example, if you alter things in the NVidia Control Panel, having closed and re-opened the same properties, does it still show your change? Likewise, if you edit a value in the Registry, upon re-entering the Registry does it retain the altered value?

It does keep the changed settings for both. I mean otherwise I couldn't say that changing the settings didn't work, because in that case, they were never actually changed from my computer's perspective (which obviously is what matters here).

 

On 21/07/2019 at 3:38 PM, rsc204 said:

But these multi-GPU setups are designed with the option of a user override, which for reasons not absolutely clear, is being ignored. This suggests to me that the same setting would be ignored, regardless of game/application it was applied too. It's just simply that in your case, SC4 is the only such application that requires this setting to work.

But, I never said the setting was being ignored, and SC4 also isn't the only application that requires the override to work. I'm not sure where you got that from.

SC4 is the only program (I know of) for which the NVidia forcing doesn't work, all other programs I've tried so far let me force the NVidia card.
It works even if the global setting is forcing the Intel card, or if the global setting is "auto" and the software isn't usually coded to use the NVidia card automatically.
Programs I did this with are Divinity Original Sin, Sims 3 and Firefox, just to name a few.

 

On 21/07/2019 at 3:38 PM, rsc204 said:

Even if it were only ignoring this setting for SC4, we're still talking about the NVidia driver software, SC4 has no control of this setting.

That seems to be the case here, so my question still persists: Why is this setting only being ignored (aka the NVidia software causing problems) in regards to SC4, and no other program?

[jeffryfisher 2,176]

1 hour ago, sct_0 said:

Why is this setting only being ignored (aka the NVidia software causing problems) in regards to SC4, and no other program?

Could SC4 be the only one that needs legacy DirectX support? As I mentioned in message #4 of this thread, your NVidia driver might be too new to support ... I think it's DirectX 9c. The system (or DirectX) might actually be smart enough to switch you onto the lesser GPU if it has that support.

Research your NVidia driver''s support for legacy versions of DirectX. You might need to downgrade your driver.

[twalsh102 1,601]

3 hours ago, sct_0 said:

SC4 is the only program (I know of) for which the NVidia forcing doesn't work, all other programs I've tried so far let me force the NVidia card.
It works even if the global setting is forcing the Intel card, or if the global setting is "auto" and the software isn't usually coded to use the NVidia card automatically.
Programs I did this with are Divinity Original Sin, Sims 3 and Firefox, just to name a few.

So, an immediate question that comes to mind is:  How much of the other software you've tested was published in 2003? 

The issue that @jeffryfisher references above is a notorious one with SC4.  Glitches that occur range from "simple" visual glitches, to the game just not running.  As he alludes to, the game may be seeing that the NVidia driver currently installed doesn't provide the necessary support, and simply reverts to the only other video card present, the Intel one.

Unfortunately, there is no simple way to determine how far back you may need to go with the driver.  It's going to be an issue of trying different ones, until you find one that works...or not.

[sct_0 7]

@jeffryfisher @twalsh102 That could be a good direction to go to! Through the number of suggestions and the time that has passed, that quirk didn't stick in my memory, thanks for reminding me!
Since I don't have any visual glitches when using the Intel card, I'd guess it is likely that it does have support for that version, but I think I'll check first if the NVidia card really doesn
Wouldn't wanna spend time testing drivers if that's not the issue.

 

4 hours ago, twalsh102 said:

Unfortunately, there is no simple way to determine how far back you may need to go with the driver.  It's going to be an issue of trying different ones, until you find one that works...or not.

Is that for sure? I'd guess there must be some documentation for that kind of stuff buried somewhere on the interwebs.
In my experience, if there's no official sources, you can bet that there's unofficial ones.
Either way, I'll look/try around and post a resource if I find anything conclusive.

By the way, if this is the culprit, it could explain why there's so many older threads with people saying that a lot of suggestions I already tried worked for them: They most likely had drivers with legacy support.

(I can already see myself patching together a simple Windows PC with a good graphics card solely for the purpose of playing SC4. xD )

[CorinaMarie 29,922]

4 minutes ago, sct_0 said:

(I can already see myself patching together a simple Windows PC with a good graphics card solely for the purpose of playing SC4. xD )

(That's exactly what I did. I have an old Dell running XP just for the game.)

[Barroco Hispano 26,973]

I use a Nvidia GeForce GT 710 and this configuration works for me

Video Cards.sgr:

card 0x128b "GeForce GT 710"

 

Graphics Rules.sgr:

stringMatch cardIdentity "NVidia*GeForce*GT*710*"

If you want to check if SimCity 4 uses your graphics card do this:

 

Antialiasing OFF:

Antialiasing ON:

 

[twalsh102 1,601]

I just double-checked my system specs:

Dell XPS 8930

Microsoft Windows 10 Home  Build 17763

Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-8700 CPU @ 3.20GHz, 3192 Mhz, 6 Core(s), 12 Logical Processor(s)

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti / Driver Version    23.21.13.9125

cardIdentity = NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti  (taken directly from the config-log file mentioned by @jeffryfisher)

Intel(R) UHD Graphics 630 / Driver Version    25.20.100.6615

The big difference is that with a discrete card on a desktop, I was able to plug my monitor directly into the Nvidia card, and thus didn't need to worry about disabling the Intel Card.

I didn't have to jump thru any hoops at all to get SC4 to recognize the Nvidia card.

You might want to check out this thread from the Dell Community web pages.  It's the closes I could find to what you're experiencing:  https://www.dell.com/community/XPS/XPS-15-9560-Video-Card-Issue/m-p/6244746

BTW, have you checked out device manager.  You can disable just about any device, including the Intel Video card from there (at least on my desktop).  If that doesn't work, and you haven't done so already, its time to call up Dell Tech Support to see if it's even possible to disable the Intel Card

[sct_0 7]

10 hours ago, twalsh102 said:

BTW, have you checked out device manager.  You can disable just about any device, including the Intel Video card from there (at least on my desktop).  If that doesn't work, and you haven't done so already, its time to call up Dell Tech Support to see if it's even possible to disable the Intel Card

I think I could, but I didn't try it because I came across a thread where someone did that (because their NVidia card also didn't wanna work with SC4, I think), and it kinda broke the game because it now couldn't access either card and ran on some other internal thing that is really not equipped to run graphical stuff.
Someone else also said that this technique should be avoided because it can break other programs that don't use the NVidia card.
Of course all of this is temporary, but since it didn't work in their case, and likely won't in mine either (from what I've gathered from this thread so far) I didn't feel like dealing with it anyway.
I might do that still if the driver thing doesn't yield any results.

Anyway, thanks for all the quick replies! I'm heading to sleep for now, it's almost 4am in my woods. *yawn*

[Raymond7cn 6,776]

On 2019/7/23 at 7:54 AM, Goldman Sachs said:

I use a Nvidia GeForce GT 710 and this configuration works for me

Video Cards.sgr:

card 0x128b "GeForce GT 710"

 

Graphics Rules.sgr:

stringMatch cardIdentity "NVidia*GeForce*GT*710*"

If you want to check if SimCity 4 uses your graphics card do this:

 

Antialiasing OFF:

Antialiasing ON:

 

Hi Goldman Sachs,

May i see your whole snapshot of the Nvidia settings, Thank you very much!

Kind regards,

-Raymond

[Raymond7cn 6,776]

On 2019/7/23 at 9:42 AM, sct_0 said:

think I could, but I didn't try it because I came across a thread where someone did that (because their NVidia card also didn't wanna work with SC4, I think), and it kinda broke the game because it now couldn't access either card and ran on some other internal thing that is really not equipped to run graphical stuff.
Someone else also said that this technique should be avoided because it can break other programs that don't use the NVidia card.
Of course all of this is temporary, but since it didn't work in their case, and likely won't in mine either (from what I've gathered from this thread so far) I didn't feel like dealing with it anyway.
I might do that still if the driver thing doesn't yield any results.

Anyway, thanks for all the quick replies! I'm heading to sleep for now, it's almost 4am in my woods. *yawn*

Hi sct_0,

Unfortunately, I have the same problem with you, we have almost the same specs especially two videocards, just different brands(HP). And also i tried every suggestions from ST,  but all of these solutions didn't work on my pc. May i ask you do you figured out how to deal with this problem yet? if so, pls tell me. Thank you very much!

Kind regards,

-Raymond

[jeffryfisher 2,176]

2 hours ago, Raymond7cn said:

i tried every suggestions from ST

Then you have seen a copy of your log file. Please share it inside a "code" frame.

[Raymond7cn 6,776]

14 hours ago, jeffryfisher said:

Then you have seen a copy of your log file. Please share it inside a "code" frame.

Hi jeffryfisher :

Thanks for the reply, here is my log recently:

Log generated on 10/10/2019, 14:46

Flags
-----
hardwareDriver = true
DXT = true
fullscreen = true
MMX = true
FPU = true
backingStore = true
forcedFSAA = false

Strings
-------
userName = Raymond
appName = SimCity 4
version = 1.1.641.0
osVersion = Windows NT 6.2
computerName = DESKTOP-0QDQEDK
CPU = GenuineIntel
sglDriverName = DirectX
sglDriverVersion = 2.0
driverName = igdumdim32.dll
driverVersion = 21.20.16.4542, GUID: D7B78E66-1A5B-11CF-8C73-17A2ABC2CD35
cardName = Intel(R) HD Graphics 630
cardVersion = Vendor: 8086, Device: 591b, Board: 8217103c, Chipset: 0004
cardIdentity = Intel(R) HD Graphics 630
soundDriverName = 
soundCardName = 主声音驱动程序
buildType = Release

Numbers
-------
cpuSpeed = 2495
memory = 4096
freeMemory = 4096
screenWidth = 1920
screenHeight = 1080
screenBPP = 16
videoMemory = 128
textureMemory = 128
textureStages = 4
bogoFPS = 0
bogoMPPS = 0

Rules
-----
applying Sound
applying high sound detail
applying City Detail and Day/Night Settings
applying low computer power>
applying high computer power
  option 9 = 3
  option 13 = 1
  option 15 = 3
applying Texture Quality and Building Variety Settings
applying low memory>
applying high memory
  option 3 = 3
  option 14 = 3
applying Variable Speed Automata
applying default
  option 10 = 1
applying Standard hardware
  option 0 = 1
  option 1 = 1
  option 2 = 1
  option 4 = 0
  option 5 = 1
  option 8 = 1
  option 7 = 1
  option 6 = 1
  option 11 = 0
  option 12 = 0
applying Standard hardware>
  option 1 = 2
applying Standard hardware>>
  option 0 = 2
applying Standard hardware>>>
  option 2 = 2
applying Standard hardware>>>>
  option 4 = 1
applying Standard hardware>>>>>
  option 11 = 1
applying Two stages
applying Lotsa vidmem
applying Poor color cursor
  option 7 = 0
applying Not Slow GeForce

Options
-------
Visual Effects       current:   3 recommended:   2
Cars/Sims            current:   3 recommended:   2
Shadows              current:   3 recommended:   2
Atmospheric effects  current:   1 recommended:   1
Water effects        current:   1 recommended:   1
Software/Hardware    current:   1 recommended:   1
Cursor               current:   1 recommended:   0
VariableSpeedAutomata current:   1 recommended:   1
Translucent UI       current:   1 recommended:   1
Graphic Detail       current:   3 recommended:   3
Building Load Speed  current:   3 recommended:   3
Texture Quality      current:   3 recommended:   3

Properties
-------
forcesoftwaredriver = false
renderdynamicview = true
renderstaticview = true
renderwatereffects = true
rendercloudsandfog = true
forcepointsampling = false
forcebilinear = false
forcenoalphablend = false
forcenoalphatest = false
rendershadows = true
renderdecals = true
usesecondstage = true
forcedebugtexture = false
renderparticleeffects = true
renderflorashadows = true
renderterrain = true
showupdateregions = false
usecursoreffects = true
drawlottextures = true
drawlotfoundations = true
drawlotwalls = true
forcetexturerepeat = false
usescreenshake = true
renderui = true
useupdaterectclipping = true
usevertexbuffers = true
showboundingboxes = false
useoverlayculling = true
rendersnapshot = false
noaddsigned = false
nopartialbackingstorecopies = false
usescreenflash = true
renderautomata = true
preferopaque = false
displayalertborders = true
drawlotopaquetextures = true
useviewcleanup = false
doautozoomandrotationchanges = true

viewoffsety = 0
viewoffsetx = 0
texturebits = 32
lodoffset = 0
shadowdebug = 0
maxparticlestarget = 10000
particlelodoffset = 0
effectprioritylevel = 5
backingstoremaxzoomall = 5
backingstoremaxzoombuildingsprops = 5
backingstoremaxzoomterrain = 5
backingstoremaxzoomflora = 5
shadowquality = 2
minvehiclezoom = 3
minpedzoom = 4
cursortype = 1
depthoffset = 2
debugtexture = 0
dirtyrectmergeframes = 4
sounddetail = 2
buildingvariety = 2
buildingloaderspeed = 1
modellodoffset = 0
stringtexturecachesize = 1024

particleeffectslod = 5
splattexturescale = 50
texbindmaxfree = 8
particledensity = 1
particledamping = 0
particlescale = 1
lightingupdatedelta = 0.0001
shadowmodelthreshold = 12
demolishmodelthreshold = 12
rendermodelthreshold = 6
rendermodelthresholdscroll = 40
particlesizethreshold = 300
maxvehiclepct = 1
maxpedpct = 1
opaqueuialphavalue = 0.55

And as you can see, my log here shows i am using the Intel GPU:

cardName = Intel(R) HD Graphics 630
cardVersion = Vendor: 8086, Device: 591b, Board: 8217103c, Chipset: 0004
cardIdentity = Intel(R) HD Graphics 630
soundDriverName = 

But i want my Nvidia GPU works, and i have modified Graphics Rules.sgr and Video Cards.sgr:

      partialRule "Fast card" -any
         # We run well on these cards, so up the defaults.
         stringMatch cardIdentity "NVIDIA*GeForce*GTX*1050*"
         stringMatch cardIdentity "NVidia*Geforce*"
         stringMatch cardIdentity "NVidia*Quadro*"
         stringMatch cardIdentity "ATI*9700*"
         stringMatch cardIdentity "ATI*8500*"
         stringMatch cardIdentity "Matrox*Parhelia*"
		 stringMatch cardIdentity "AMD*"

vendor "NVidia" 0x10b4 0x12d2 0x10de
   card 0x1c8d "GeForce GTX 1050"

I think the Video Cards' s part maybe not has the problem, below:

Sorry about some info is chinese, but i think the key info is correct.

I think SC4 can't detecte the FAST CARD by my Graphics Rules.sgr ,  I have searched the log file, there is no "Fast Card" state in "Rules" section or somewhere.

And also i have configured the Nvidia ControlPanel, below(also some chinese parts but please ignore these):

And my Shortcut's parameter  now is : "E:\Program Files\SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition\Apps\SimCity 4.exe" -CustomResolution:enabled -r1920x1080x32 -intro:off -CPUCount:1

I did added d:DirectX before ,but unfortunitely it didn't work .

Can anybody help me about this problem ? Speak honestly when the game is running, the effect is not too bad, But maybe it's all mental, I really want the game running with my independent graphics card. Thank you for reading my post eventhough my english is bad.

Kind  regards，

Raymond

[Raymond7cn 6,776]

Hello Everybody!

After the post above, I did some tests by myself. When i open the SimCity 4.exe with hex editor (HxD), I found that there is "DDRAW.DLL"  references. So i google the DDRAW.dll(directx 7.0) from WINE,

Then copy ddraw.dll and wined3d.dll in the game's APP directory, and run the game, then i sam the NVIDIA GPU Active Panel shows SimCity.exe. below:

But my computer working hard by the sound, after waiting for 2 minutes, the game's start screen shows up, but i have to say it's very slow, and after i loaded my city for 10 minutes, i have to use CTRL+SHIFT+DEL to end the SimCity. Then i opened the log file below:

Log generated on 10/10/2019, 17:33

Flags
-----
hardwareDriver = true
DXT = true
fullscreen = true
MMX = true
FPU = true
backingStore = true
forcedFSAA = false

Strings
-------
userName = Raymond
appName = SimCity 4
version = 1.1.641.0
osVersion = Windows NT 5.1
computerName = DESKTOP-0QDQEDK
CPU = GenuineIntel
sglDriverName = DirectX
sglDriverVersion = 2.0
driverName = nv4_disp.dll
driverVersion = 6.18.13.4052, GUID: AEB2CDD4-6E41-43EA-941C-8361CC760781
cardName = NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050
cardVersion = Vendor: 10de, Device: 1c81, Board: 0000, Chipset: 0000
cardIdentity = NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050
soundDriverName = 
soundCardName = 主声音驱动程序
buildType = Release

Numbers
-------
cpuSpeed = 2495
memory = 1024
freeMemory = 1024
screenWidth = 1920
screenHeight = 1080
screenBPP = 16
videoMemory = 2044
textureMemory = 2044
textureStages = 8
bogoFPS = 0
bogoMPPS = 0

Rules
-----
applying Sound
applying high sound detail
applying City Detail and Day/Night Settings
applying City Detail and Day/Night Settings>
applying high computer power
  option 9 = 3
  option 13 = 1
  option 15 = 3
applying Texture Quality and Building Variety Settings
applying Texture Quality and Building Variety Settings>
applying high memory
  option 3 = 3
  option 14 = 3
applying Variable Speed Automata
applying default
  option 10 = 1
applying Standard hardware
  option 0 = 1
  option 1 = 1
  option 2 = 1
  option 4 = 0
  option 5 = 1
  option 8 = 1
  option 7 = 1
  option 6 = 1
  option 11 = 0
  option 12 = 0
applying Standard hardware>
  option 1 = 2
applying Standard hardware>>
  option 0 = 2
applying Standard hardware>>>
  option 2 = 2
applying Standard hardware>>>>
  option 4 = 1
applying Standard hardware>>>>>
  option 11 = 1
applying Two stages
applying Lotsa vidmem
applying Not Slow GeForce
applying Fast card
applying Fast card>
  option 12 = 1
applying Fast card>>
  option 1 = 3
applying Fast card>>>
  option 0 = 3
applying Fast card>>>>
  option 2 = 3
applying Fast card>>>>>
  option 4 = 1

Options
-------
Visual Effects       current:   3 recommended:   3
Cars/Sims            current:   3 recommended:   3
Shadows              current:   3 recommended:   3
Atmospheric effects  current:   1 recommended:   1
Water effects        current:   1 recommended:   1
Software/Hardware    current:   1 recommended:   1
Cursor               current:   1 recommended:   1
VariableSpeedAutomata current:   1 recommended:   1
Translucent UI       current:   1 recommended:   1
Graphic Detail       current:   3 recommended:   3
Building Load Speed  current:   3 recommended:   3
Texture Quality      current:   3 recommended:   3

Properties
-------
forcesoftwaredriver = false
renderdynamicview = true
renderstaticview = true
renderwatereffects = true
rendercloudsandfog = true
forcepointsampling = false
forcebilinear = false
forcenoalphablend = false
forcenoalphatest = false
rendershadows = true
renderdecals = true
usesecondstage = true
forcedebugtexture = false
renderparticleeffects = true
renderflorashadows = true
renderterrain = true
showupdateregions = false
usecursoreffects = true
drawlottextures = true
drawlotfoundations = true
drawlotwalls = true
forcetexturerepeat = false
usescreenshake = true
renderui = true
useupdaterectclipping = true
usevertexbuffers = true
showboundingboxes = false
useoverlayculling = true
rendersnapshot = false
noaddsigned = false
nopartialbackingstorecopies = false
usescreenflash = true
renderautomata = true
preferopaque = false
displayalertborders = true
drawlotopaquetextures = true
useviewcleanup = false
doautozoomandrotationchanges = true

viewoffsety = 0
viewoffsetx = 0
texturebits = 32
lodoffset = 0
shadowdebug = 0
maxparticlestarget = 10000
particlelodoffset = 0
effectprioritylevel = 5
backingstoremaxzoomall = 5
backingstoremaxzoombuildingsprops = 5
backingstoremaxzoomterrain = 5
backingstoremaxzoomflora = 5
shadowquality = 2
minvehiclezoom = 3
minpedzoom = 4
cursortype = 1
depthoffset = 2
debugtexture = 0
dirtyrectmergeframes = 2
sounddetail = 2
buildingvariety = 2
buildingloaderspeed = 1
modellodoffset = 0
stringtexturecachesize = 1024

particleeffectslod = 5
splattexturescale = 50
texbindmaxfree = 8
particledensity = 1
particledamping = 0
particlescale = 1
lightingupdatedelta = 0.0001
shadowmodelthreshold = 12
demolishmodelthreshold = 12
rendermodelthreshold = 6
rendermodelthresholdscroll = 40
particlesizethreshold = 300
maxvehiclepct = 1
maxpedpct = 1
opaqueuialphavalue = 0.55

I think the game can detect my NVIDIA card, also i found FAST CARD in the log file. But i realized i didn't use OPENGL, it's DirectX and WDDM2.0, then i added -d:OpenGL. This time the game running as normal, But when i loading my city, the screen became this:

or this:

Eventhough the screen is abnormal, nevertheless i have to say the game running very very fast than i've ever seen before. when i zoom in or out, or move focus to somewhere, there is no delay, and some building looked like more clearerly and smooth than before. This city's population is 1.4M, and there are many HD trees and buildings(I use terrain and my Plugins is 3G).

Then i closed game,  the log file below: 

Log generated on 10/10/2019, 18:31

Flags
-----
hardwareDriver = true
DXT = true
fullscreen = true
MMX = true
FPU = true
backingStore = true
forcedFSAA = false

Strings
-------
userName = Raymond
appName = SimCity 4
version = 1.1.641.0
osVersion = Windows NT 6.2
computerName = DESKTOP-0QDQEDK
CPU = GenuineIntel
sglDriverName = OpenGL
sglDriverVersion = 1.1
driverName = NVIDIA Corporation
driverVersion = 4.6.0 NVIDIA 436.48
cardName = NVIDIA Corporation
cardVersion = 4.6.0 NVIDIA 436.48
cardIdentity = NVIDIA Corporation
soundDriverName = 
soundCardName = 主声音驱动程序
buildType = Release

Numbers
-------
cpuSpeed = 2495
memory = 4096
freeMemory = 4096
screenWidth = 1920
screenHeight = 1080
screenBPP = 32
videoMemory = 2040
textureMemory = 2040
textureStages = 4
bogoFPS = 0
bogoMPPS = 0

Rules
-----
applying Sound
applying high sound detail
applying City Detail and Day/Night Settings
applying low computer power>
applying high computer power
  option 9 = 3
  option 13 = 1
  option 15 = 3
applying Texture Quality and Building Variety Settings
applying low memory>
applying high memory
  option 3 = 3
  option 14 = 3
applying Variable Speed Automata
applying default
  option 10 = 1
applying Standard hardware
  option 0 = 1
  option 1 = 1
  option 2 = 1
  option 4 = 0
  option 5 = 1
  option 8 = 1
  option 7 = 1
  option 6 = 1
  option 11 = 0
  option 12 = 0
applying Standard hardware>
  option 1 = 2
applying Standard hardware>>
  option 0 = 2
applying Standard hardware>>>
  option 2 = 2
applying Standard hardware>>>>
  option 4 = 1
applying Standard hardware>>>>>
  option 11 = 1
applying Two stages
applying Lotsa vidmem
applying Radeon
applying Not Slow GeForce

Options
-------
Visual Effects       current:   3 recommended:   2
Cars/Sims            current:   3 recommended:   2
Shadows              current:   3 recommended:   2
Atmospheric effects  current:   1 recommended:   1
Water effects        current:   1 recommended:   1
Software/Hardware    current:   1 recommended:   1
Cursor               current:   1 recommended:   1
VariableSpeedAutomata current:   1 recommended:   1
Translucent UI       current:   1 recommended:   1
Graphic Detail       current:   3 recommended:   3
Building Load Speed  current:   3 recommended:   3
Texture Quality      current:   3 recommended:   3

Properties
-------
forcesoftwaredriver = false
renderdynamicview = true
renderstaticview = true
renderwatereffects = true
rendercloudsandfog = true
forcepointsampling = false
forcebilinear = false
forcenoalphablend = false
forcenoalphatest = false
rendershadows = true
renderdecals = true
usesecondstage = true
forcedebugtexture = false
renderparticleeffects = true
renderflorashadows = true
renderterrain = true
showupdateregions = false
usecursoreffects = true
drawlottextures = true
drawlotfoundations = true
drawlotwalls = true
forcetexturerepeat = false
usescreenshake = true
renderui = true
useupdaterectclipping = true
usevertexbuffers = true
showboundingboxes = false
useoverlayculling = true
rendersnapshot = false
noaddsigned = false
nopartialbackingstorecopies = false
usescreenflash = true
renderautomata = true
preferopaque = false
displayalertborders = true
drawlotopaquetextures = true
useviewcleanup = false
doautozoomandrotationchanges = true

viewoffsety = 0
viewoffsetx = 0
texturebits = 32
lodoffset = 0
shadowdebug = 0
maxparticlestarget = 10000
particlelodoffset = 0
effectprioritylevel = 5
backingstoremaxzoomall = 5
backingstoremaxzoombuildingsprops = 5
backingstoremaxzoomterrain = 5
backingstoremaxzoomflora = 5
shadowquality = 2
minvehiclezoom = 3
minpedzoom = 4
cursortype = 1
depthoffset = 2
debugtexture = 0
dirtyrectmergeframes = 4
sounddetail = 2
buildingvariety = 2
buildingloaderspeed = 1
modellodoffset = 0
stringtexturecachesize = 1024

particleeffectslod = 5
splattexturescale = 50
texbindmaxfree = 8
particledensity = 1
particledamping = 0
particlescale = 1
lightingupdatedelta = 0.0001
shadowmodelthreshold = 12
demolishmodelthreshold = 12
rendermodelthreshold = 6
rendermodelthresholdscroll = 40
particlesizethreshold = 300
maxvehiclepct = 1
maxpedpct = 1
opaqueuialphavalue = 0.55

As you can see, it's OpenGL but no GeForce 1050 and FastCard. So i really confused by these results, can anybody analized and teach me how to deal with? Thank you very much

Kind Regards,

-Raymond

[rsc204 21,868]

5 hours ago, Raymond7cn said:

But i want my Nvidia GPU works, and i have modified Graphics Rules.sgr and Video Cards.sgr:

The information there doesn't help the game to detect or use the dedicated GPU.

5 hours ago, Raymond7cn said:

I did added d:DirectX before ,but unfortunitely it didn't work .

Well, the log file clearly shows you were already using DirectX, so adding the command wouldn't alter anything.

51 minutes ago, Raymond7cn said:

I think the game can detect my NVIDIA card, also i found FAST CARD in the log file. But i realized i didn't use OPENGL, it's DirectX and WDDM2.0, then i added -d:OpenGL. This time the game running as normal, But when i loading my city, the screen became this:

So the good news here is unlike many users with this issue, you've managed to force your system to use the NVidia card when running SC4. As has been stated many times, this is nothing whatsoever to do with SC4 and purely a system/driver issue. For whatever reason, some combinations just don't do as they are told.

DirectX performance isn't very good but OpenGL is, but that is unlikely to help you, since the OpenGL renderer in SC4 is notoriously problematic for most setups. Rather than try to fix OpenGL, which is likely an incompatibility between your hardware/drivers and the archaic version SC4 uses, I'd switch back to DirectX and try to get that performing well with the NVidia card. Theoretically your hardware is more than capable, so again I think we need to assume the slow-running is primarily a result of driver incompatibility. In the first instance, try restoring the Graphics Rules and Video Cards files to their defaults or comment out the lines you added. Perhaps somewhere when you edited these, something went wrong. After that it's off to the NVidia Control Panel to check everything there is set optimally. My setup won't work for everyone, but is as follows, which serves as a guide:

If that still fails, it's possible with some tweaking of the .sgr files you can make the NVidia perform better. But such improvements are far more likely to come from using an older, more compatible driver, if such a thing exists. The problem being, newer cards either through hardware or drivers, may not support legacy DirectX code, necessary for SC4 to work. OpenGL and Software rendering are never ideal, it may well be using the Intel GPU is your best bet. SC4 is not graphically intensive in any way, a HD630 shouldn't have problems running it. The biggest drawback with using the integrated GPU is that it shares the system RAM, usually slower than dedicated V-RAM on dedicated cards. But even that's probably faster than any videocard you could have bought when SC4 was released, so again shouldn't be hugely detrimental.