Help with game requirements

[Bruno the Bear 48]

Can anyone help?

I have a tower computer:

HP Envy Desktop       GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER          Model  TE01-1177c

Generation: 10 Generation Gen Intel® Core

RAM: 32GB
Graphics Card: 6GB NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1660 SUPER™ Graphics
Operating Sys.: Microsoft® Windows 10 Home (64 bit): the operating sys. has been reduced to Microsoft 7

Sound: 10/100/1000 Ethernet LAN
Communications: Realtek Wi-Fi 5 (2x2) + Bluetooth® 5.0
Processor: 10th Gen Intel® Core™ i7-10700F (8-Core) Processor at 2.90GHz
Memory: 32GB DDR4-2933 SDRAM
Storage Hard Drive: 1TB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive aka HHD
Storage Solid State Drive: 512GB PCIe® NVMe™ M.2 Solid State Drive aka SSD
Writer: DVD Writer

Mostly, I have no idea how all of these specifications will affect SimCity 4 Deluxe.

The only program that will be on this computer will be SimCity 4 Deluxe.

What I would like to know is, will this computer accommodate sufficient storage and speed to create large projects? If not, what items would need to be changed to create sufficient storage and increase speed.

I hope this is not too much to ask but I do not have any other resource.

Thank you

[jeffryfisher 2,176]

Most of your 32 GB RAM will go unused, but you can get something from it by creating a RAM drive.

The 8-core CPU is mostly wasted on SC4; only 1 core can be used because SC4 has bugs in its threading (at least one data synchronization is buggy). If those are 4 physical cores (8 virtual), then turn off hyperthreading and reserve a whole physical core for SC4 (exclude everything else from it).

The SSD can help if you use it.

Win-10 is a problem if you install and run the old CD version of the game.

We need to get your graphics card and settings dialed in.

You need to proof the SC4 launch (command line etc.)

If/when you grow your plugins, then you will probably gain performance from dat-packing.

[Bruno the Bear 48]

jellyfisher
I thank you for your quick and concise answer.
I still have a few questions if you have the time.
Most of your 32 GB RAM will go unused, but you can get something from it by creating a RAM drive.

1) What specifically is a RAM drive?

The 8-core CPU is mostly wasted on SC4; only 1 core can be used because SC4 has bugs in its threading (at least one data synchronization is buggy). If those are 4 physical cores (8 virtual), then turn off hyperthreading and reserve a whole physical core for SC4 (exclude everything else from it).

2) Is the hyperthreading involved in the (8-Core) Processor configuration.

The SSD can help if you use it.

3) I have a 512GB SSD, but I also have a 1TB 7200RPM HDD.
Can I use both together?
Is the HDD strictly storage for the mods and plugins?

Win-10 is a problem if you install and run the old CD version of the game.
4) I have been told Win-7 has been configured into this computer and that should help with running the CD version of the game.
I have tried Steam and I am very disappointed. They seem to be more interested in selling games than support. Do you know of any other system to download the game?

We need to get your graphics card and settings dialed in.
5) I have no idea what this means. Is a new graphics card needed?

You need to proof the SC4 launch (command line etc.)

6) Is this a mod that I can add

If/when you grow your plugins, then you will probably gain performance from dat-packing.

7) I intend to add many mod’s and plugins. Do I install dat-packing or is it built into the computer program?

Jellyfisher,
Thank you again for your help.

[Whte_rbt 1,431]

Hi,

1: Its a part of your RAM fenced off and convinced to think its a hard drive. Think SSD with a mental speed boost. Jeff wrote a thorough guide to this.

2: This is taken care of in the broadest strokes by adding -cpucount:1 to the end of the target box when you right click the .exe and select properties. There are more technical ways to limit other programs from using the core used by SC4 depending upon your system.

3: You can, but your proposed layout will take longer to load. Probably best to have it all on the SSD to keep loading times down.

4: The game will only run on Win7 if a certain update has been disabled (update KB3086255). If you are sticking with Windows then I would recommend Win10 as this still recieves security updates, something that has stopped for Win7 already.

5: No, your graphics card should be usable but it will need to be added to a couple of config files to let the game see it as a valid card. Remember this game was made in 2003, any modern cards need manually added or the game has no idea what they are.

6: Here Jeff is refering to adding options to the end of the exe command target box by the same method as answer #2.

7: The DatPacker is a tool to let you compress large plugin folders of small dat files into faster loading large dat files. It is a separate tool availible in the downloads section.

[jeffryfisher 2,176]

10 hours ago, Bruno the Bear said:

Is the hyperthreading involved in the (8-Core) Processor configuration.

That depends on the wording of your machine's advertising. Sadly, some "8-core" machines really only have 4 physical cores simulating 8 processors via hyperthreading. Caveat emptor.

[davey1775 3]

If using steam, right click SimCity in steam, go to properties, and then "set launch options."  Copy and paste this (without the quotations).  "-intro:off -CPUCount:1 -f -CustomResolution:enabled -r1920x1080x32"  If not using steam there is a way to do this as well which is an easy google. 
This will turn the into scene off (known to cause issues), set the game to run at only 1 core, and enables the game to run at 1920x1080 (or at least get it full screen if you are using a larger resolution). A quick google will show you there are some other options you can put here if youd like. Obviously, if your monitor is not 1920x1080, you can pick something else. 
I would for sure install the game on your SSD. The game does not take up much space. The game also does not use much ram. If you use the Network Addon Mod, that will require a little more ram, but still nothing any modern pc cant handle. 
 

[CorinaMarie 29,774]

11 hours ago, davey1775 said:

Obviously, if your monitor is not 1920x1080, you can pick something else. 

Here's a post which elaborates on the screen resolution options:

 

On 09/03/2019 at 8:45 PM, Cyclone Boom said:

I'm not too sure on its accuracy, but on this resource (Wayback Machine archived as the wiki site is down) it lists 1366x768 as a supported custom resolution along with 10 others also. Perhaps this list isn't extensive if there are others the game can have set, or some of these might not even be correct. It makes sense how there'd be internal code inside SC4 which determines what width and height values can be interpreted and used for a custom screen size.

Posting the list here for reference:
 

Possible SC4 Custom Resolutions
(According to the linked wiki article)

16:9 Aspect Ratio

• 1024 x 576
• 1024 x 600
• 1360 x 768
• 1366 x 768
• 1600 x 900
• 1920 x 1080
• 2048 x 1152
   

16:10 Aspect Ratio

• 1280 x 800
• 1440 x 900
• 1680 x 1050
• 1920 x 1200

 

[Bruno the Bear 48]

I would like to thank all of you for all of your help. I think I will be able to get everything running.