Questions regarding System Requirements

from GalCiv2 Forums

Hi, I'm consiering buying Galactic Civilizations II as I'm a huge fan of Civilization and have been looking for a good sci-fi 4X game for awhile now. The thing is, i have a Macintosh loaptop. It's the newest model MacBook Pro, and below are it's specifications:

 

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo

Processor Speed: 2.4 GHz

L2 Cache: 2 MB

RAM: 2 GB

Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce 9400M GT

VRAM: 256 MB

Operating System: Windows XP Home Edition (through Bootcamp)

 

I may also eventually upgrade to 4 GB of RAM, but that probably won't be for awhile.

 

Now, the question that still stands, is will GalCivII run (preferably very well) on my laptop? As I said above, I'll be using Windws XP through bootcamp to run the application, and from prior experience this works really well. I understand that, as with most PC games, there are many variables such as texture detail, lighting and map size that affect the game's performance. Assume that I would be playing of medium to high graphics settings on a medium to large galaxy with 3-4 AI players.

 

I ask this question because I really want to know prior to buying the game whether or not I can expect a reliable playing experience. I have bought games in the past which are laggy and run poorly on my computers (mainly past laptops), and I have no interest in making the same mistakes again. By looking at the game's recommended system requirements, itwould seem the game should run fine, but system requirements have betrayed me before, so I am wary.>_>

 

Thanks for taking the time to read and reply!

 

7,619 views 8 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top

the comp in itself is enough to run the game

though I don't know about running it through an additional layer (bootcamp)

I also remember people having issues between bootcamp & gc2 but don't remember if they solved it or not

sorry I'm not of a great help

searching google with "bootcamp site:forums.galciv2.com" might lead some interesting results

Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Thanks, that search helped a lot. I tried seaching via the forum search function but it seems to not work so well as all searches regarding "bootcamp" "Mac" "System requirements" and other terms turned up nothing. I've always wondered how you use Google to search a particular website. Thanks.

 

As for Bootcamp, I have been assured by previous experience and other users that it runs Windows as well as a PC can run Windows, unlike any sort of emulator like Parallels, which acts more like a "layer", and is subject to all the disadvantages a layer can provide. I think I'm fairly certain the game will run fine now, I don't see why it wouldn't. Thanks for the help though any further chime ins would be assuring. =)

Galactic Civilizations IV
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top

the issues I remember about were activation problems with the activation executable being unable to get SIDs in certain bootcamp / galciv2 versions

the forum search function is broken since a very long time ...

Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

bootcamp == dual boot. It's XP running natively.

the forum search function is broken since a very long time ...
End of quote

Heh - to be honest, the search on nearly all of the forums on the Internet is broken, and amusingly enough a lot of foums out there encourage their users to use their search function.

The specs look good - but I've learned that laptops tend to be weaker than desktops. In many cases, by an order of magnitude. The 9400M has 16 shader cores, while my 9600 GT has 64. The high end cards have more than 200.

The good news is that GalCiv 2 is not shader heavy, so it won't be that much of a deal. But it can throw a lot of polygons at the larger map sizes - what's really going to hit you is the amount of memory on your system. 2 GB should be good enough for the map sizes you are talking about.

Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting CobraA1, reply 4
Heh - to be honest, the search on nearly all of the forums on the Internet is broken, and amusingly enough a lot of foums out there encourage their users to use their search function.
End of CobraA1's quote

I don't agree, phpbb forums are very common and searches work just fine and that's just one example ...

Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

bootcamp == dual boot. It's XP running natively.
End of quote

Mostly, anyway (it has to emulate the BIOS as windows does not support EFI, and special mac-windows drivers are sometimes needed for hardware due to tweaks apple made).

It should work fine, but Macbooks/Pro have been known to have heat issues under windows. So if you experience any crashes or hangs, that will be the first thing to look into.

Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Well I just installed Windows XP and after some fussing about with the drivers and some EFI updates, it's running perfect! I haen't bought GalCivII yet, but once I do I'll be sure to post how it's working.

I've heard about the heat issues when running windows, but I'm not really concerned, I have a small raise I put my laptop on that circulates air around the computer, so it should be fine.

Thanks for the replies everyone!

Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

I've been playing the gme on my MacBook, similar specs to yours, and it runs just fine.