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Game running poorly on your new PC? Potential fix inside!

Started by docj101, March 16, 2013, 03:30:57 AM

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docj101

My SC4 Deluxe game was running terrible on my new PC.  I have a i5-3570k, GTX660, SSD, etc. running on Win8 64bit.  I had only run the game on WinXP previously on an old P4, but it always ran great.  I was baffled at the choppy performance I was getting from the game.  I could only guess what the reason was; 64bit OS, 4 core CPU, Win8, all of the above?  Well I tried compatibility modes, processor affinity, windowed mode, and a few other things all to no avail.  I was about to resign the game to only being played on my old PC when I found the following suggestion.  Simply modify 2 files to include my video card.  Seemed mundane but I gave it a shot and now the game works great.  I also use a modified shortcut for custom resolution.

Please note:  I offer up this information without any guarantee it will work for you but it did for me.  IF you are running similar hardware then it will most likely help you too.  If you break your game somehow by trying this you accepted that risk yourself by messing with game files. 


Performance tweak for newer video cards:

GO TO:  run > msinfo32 > components > display.  Now on the right hand side you need to take note of your adapter id and adapter type.  Now where it says something like this: PNP Device ID = PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_11C0&SUBSYS..., the numbers after the DEV_ are the id.  In my example the DEV_11C0 is the card id that I need to know.  Specifically the 11C0 is the card (for a GTX 660) and needs to be added with 0x prefix; 0x11C0.  My adapter type is a Geforce GTX 660.


Now knowing this information you will be adding it in 2 files.  My examples are for my config, yours will be different unless you have a GTX660.

1.) In the SimCity directory find and open up Graphics Rules.sgr (with notepad) and find this:


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


Include your graphics cards string to it so It will look something like this:


      partialRule "Fast card" -any
          # We run well on these cards, so up the defaults.
          stringMatch cardIdentity "NVidia*Geforce*"
          stringMatch cardIdentity "NVidia*Quadro*"
          stringMatch cardIdentity "ATI*9700*"
          stringMatch cardIdentity "ATI*8500*"
          stringMatch cardIdentity "Matrox*Parhelia*"
***> stringMatch cardIdentity "GeForce*GTX*660*" <*****
         

(different video cards mean different strings)  Now save and exit.


2.)  Now open up your Video Cards.sgr.  You will be met with a long list of video cards.  In the appropriate list add your video card using the number you found earlier.

   Example is as follows:

           card 0x0253 "GeForce4 Ti4200"
           card 0x0258 "GeForce4 Quadro"
           card 0x0259 "GeForce4 Quadro"
           card 0x025b "GeForce4 Quadro"
           card 0x02a0 "GeForce3 XBOX"
***>  card 0x11C0 "Geforce GTX 660" <*****

(remember different cards, different id)  Now save and exit.


NOTE: You may have an issue writing to these files.  If you do, just copy them both to your desktop and modify them there.  Use save-as and add something temporarily to the filename such as Video Cards.sgr.tmp.  After modifying both files and saving them to desktop delete the original copies.  Now rename your .tmp files back to the original names and copy them back into the source folder, overwriting when prompted.

catty


Thanks docj101 for bringing up some useful information   &apls

I must remember to check this re my own computer, for those people who prefer pictures you will find a similar topic on Simtropolis "How to configure SC4 to work with your new hardware."

http://community.simtropolis.com/topic/33931-how-to-configure-sc4-to-work-with-your-new-hardware/

-catty

I meant," said Ipslore bitterly, "what is there in this world that truly makes living worthwhile?" DEATH thought about it. "CATS," he said eventually, "CATS ARE NICE.

Couchpotato

Found this over at Wiki How
Load up Sim City 4 and wait until the region screen shows up.

2When at the region screen (so everything has loaded nicely) hit Ctrl, Alt and Del and click 'Start Task Manager'.

3In Task Manager click on the 'processes' tab and scroll down until you see Sim City 4.

4Right click on Sim City 4 under processes and click on option that says 'Set Affinity'.

5Another small screen will appear with a small list of all your processors (CPU 0, 1, 2 etc.) each with a small box that is ticked beside it.

6De-select all the CPUs and then re-select just one CPU.

7Hit 'OK', close task manager and click on the SC4 window in the task bar to continue playing.

8This works because Sim City 4 was not designed to be used on systems with multiple processors and so cannot handle the 'threading' that is used causing the game to crash. This solution tells the game to use only one processor thereby fixing the problem.  Needs to be done everytime the game runs.

docj101

Quote from: Couchpotato on April 02, 2013, 11:21:14 PM
Found this over at Wiki How
Load up Sim City 4 and wait until the region screen shows up.

2When at the region screen (so everything has loaded nicely) hit Ctrl, Alt and Del and click 'Start Task Manager'.

3In Task Manager click on the 'processes' tab and scroll down until you see Sim City 4.

4Right click on Sim City 4 under processes and click on option that says 'Set Affinity'.

5Another small screen will appear with a small list of all your processors (CPU 0, 1, 2 etc.) each with a small box that is ticked beside it.

6De-select all the CPUs and then re-select just one CPU.

7Hit 'OK', close task manager and click on the SC4 window in the task bar to continue playing.

8This works because Sim City 4 was not designed to be used on systems with multiple processors and so cannot handle the 'threading' that is used causing the game to crash. This solution tells the game to use only one processor thereby fixing the problem.  Needs to be done everytime the game runs.

Actually you can just add  -CPUCount:1  to your game shortcut to automatically start the game running on a single core.  It works; I have monitored CPU usage with and without it.  In my situation I have a quad-core CPU and I get the same performance running 1 or 4 cores.  I do use that command line argument though; one core runs cooler then 4.

WC_EEND

I have found that giving your CPU clock speed a bump* can help as well. I have an i7-2600K and mine is running at 4.8GHz which really does boost performance as well.

That being said, I'm going to try out your trick in a minute.

*I am not responsible for any damage that may occur when overclocking a CPU, doing so is at your own risk.

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