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pc for sim city 4

Started by tvrcars, December 09, 2014, 04:58:44 PM

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tvrcars

Hi, Im going to be getting a new pc as the one I have now doesn't like sim city 4 anymore, I dont seem to have a lot of luck with pc's and this game...

I have seen this pc http://www.ebuyer.com/517546-pc-specialist-infinity-elite-gaming-pc-pcs-d563907 and thought looks good enough to play sim city 4 without having an issue, it also a good price the only downfall I can see is the on board graphics card  AMD Radeon HD 8570D Graphics.

Any advice would be great or point me in the right direction for getting a new pc just to play sim city 4, I dont need a pc with all bells and whistle's just enough to play sim city4 budget is about £350-400 or cheaper if I can get it. I got a list of gaming pc's from this website http://www.ebuyer.com/store/Computer/cat/Gaming-PC?sort=price+ascending

Many thanks

Indiana Joe

Desktops are less expensive these days, you could probably find a pretty good one for under 400 pounds/600 dollars if you catch a sale.  Prices are always jacked up right before the holidays too (to make the holiday "sale" prices look lower).

AMD integrated graphics don't reportedly have any issues with the game, it's only with Intel integrated chips.  You will see a lot of lag in big cities, but the nice thing about a desktop computer is you can easily buy a graphics card later and pop it right in.

tvrcars

Maybe I will wait for the New year sales, but I was looking more at the ram and the processor speeds and something that might have a good enough graphics card already in it. I having looking over the pc's again and decided that this one stands out for me http://www.ebuyer.com/666627-hp-pavilion-500-desktop-pc-k2f26ea-abu, looks good and won't cost the earth.

mgb204

If you're mainly concerned with playing SC4 then don't waste your money on graphics, the game really doesn't stress a GPU, but boy does it love to eat your CPU. Since the game can not run on multiple cores of a CPU (much CTD fun if you try) the only things to improve performance are the fastest single-core clock speed you can afford (you can't compare ATI and Intel or different years models/ranges like for like on this so it's a minefield) and after that an SSD will improve loading times and make the game a bit more responsive, although frankly the difference may not justify the cost if you are looking for a budget-conscious PC.

Hard to say looking at the two options you listed, the first seems like a well made PC with good branded components and a 3-yr warranty (oddly enough only labour after the first year though), then again the HP has more modern CPU/GPU, USB 3.0 and HDMI ports (I couldn't be without either).

tvrcars

Thanks mgb204 you have given me a few more things to consider.. just outta interest if you have a 4.2GHz quad core processor and the game only uses 1 core how do you improve the performance for the game to use a single core? Im thinking that the 4.2ghz is split over the 4 cores giving only 1ghz per core. I know about changing the shortcut for the game only to use a single core.

I have an old pc that has 2.4 single core not a lot of ram but it is going to be better for playing sim city 4 then paying for a new pc with a quad core processor?

Sorry for all the questions, just looking for a good pc to play on

Thanks

mgb204

This is where it can become a minefield, there are many compatibility issues you may encounter, many players seem to have problems with Win 8/8.1 and various graphics cards. Before going further I should state in almost all cases where users have problems switching the game to Software Rendering will make the game run. The drawback here is that HD mods will not work and the performance will be poorer in game as your CPU has to do the additional work of the GPU at the same time.

Some users have reported that switching to OpenGL rendering fixed this problem, others can't get it to work acceptably though. Ideally you want to run the game in DirectX rendering where HD mods will work and the game performs optimally. If DirectX rendering matters to you, your GPU choice is going to be very important here.

As for Windows 8/8.1 you have little choice, the deadline for new PC's being sold with Win7 has recently expired. So you're stuck with 8 unless you can do something about it yourself.

A quad core rated at say 4Ghz would have 4x4Ghz cores, so running with just one will give you the full 4Ghz for SC4. Generally speaking higher AMD clock speeds are often beaten by lower speed Intel chips in many benchmarks and real world applications. Just like all 2.0l cars do not perform the same or output the same BHP, neither do all xGhz processors. You can set SC4 to run on just a single core, in fact if you don't then regular CTD's will be your reward. You also need to tell the game what GPU you have installed, since it doesn't recognise newer cards.

Whilst I can tell you for sure that my setup, an Intel i7 4770 with a NVidia GTX750ti and Win7 works with SC4 flawlessly, it's impossible to say for certain weather any given combination of O/S and graphics card/driver will do the same. Your CPU choice will only affect performance, the GPU conversely does not, the game is so old and was never GPU intensive in the first place, it wouldn't trouble the cheapest card you can buy today. However, if your drivers aren't compatible your game experience could be less than ideal. Once you've decided on the GPU you want, try seeing if the same card is mentioned by others having problems in the forums here or on the STEX. If you find some examples where people have managed to resolve their issues, you can have more confidence the configuration you will buy will work how you want it to.

Indiana Joe


bluegator4

Thank you for the tip re: limiting SC4 to 1 core!  Really helped my game performance on my Dell laptop which has an Intel i5 CPU.
The adventure continues.

tvrcars

Sorry for the late response, I have been working 12 hour shifts. Thanks for all the information, looks like I got a lot of thinking to do before I can make a choice on the right pc for me. I have also learned a few things on here like the processor speeds and rendering, think I will have to look at getting the game working again on this pc just for the moment and keep an eye out on the sales. Didnt know an old game could be such a challenge.

Again thanks you for all the information wayne

Whte_Rbt

If ur looking for fast performance then u need a processor with a high single thread rating. Fastest I know of for this currently is the Intel i7 4790k. U can check it out here...

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html

mgb204

Well this only applies to SimCity 4 or other content that is not optimised for multi-core utilisation. If your sole purpose in buying a PC is to get SC4 running as well as possible then that's worthy of consideration, that's pretty much what I did 18 months ago.

Assuming on the other hand that you might not want to drop a large sum on a PC to play an old game a tiny bit quicker and that you will want it to run other things well then I suspect you have to make a balance between budget and bells and whistles.

All modern Intel processors will run well with SC4, if you don't need a beast then don't be put off by the cheaper i3's or even Pentiums, they are perfectly sufficient for most users. Get 8GB Ram, because Windows 7+ likes 4+ to work well and one day you'll be glad you did. The Intel built-in graphics can work easily as well, if not outperform (depending on model) some bugdet-midrange GPUs, so why not use this as your main GPU and save cash if you don't need anything better? If your current PC has a PCI Express GPU which does work with SC4, sticking it in your new machine you could switch to that for playing SC4 and you already know it works. Otherwise a budget card for around £50 would not bottleneck SC4.

I would imagine your biggest problem is going to be Windows 8 here, since all new computers come with it. Perhaps you can find some old stock with Win7 PreInstalled kicking around, I'd imagine these would fetch a premium though as there are few options for Windows 7 holdouts when it comes to new PCs.

vortext

#11
Coincidentally I'm looking around for a new pc atm and found Win7 is still readily sold in the business market - either pre-installed or as optional downgrade which comes with Win8.1 pro. Yeah that's right, you have to pay more in order to get a downgrade. .  ::)

Also found a few online consumer retailers btw which still sell Win7. Think I'll have to be quick before it really runs out. .
time flies like a bird
fruit flies like a banana

mgb204

Depends on your skills really, if you can install Windows finding a reasonably priced legit disk is not too difficult either. Of course you have to be sure you can get your drivers to play with Win7 too. My fear of where Windows is heading (just the idea of having to use an e-mail address to login to my own PC is a step too far for me) made me get my current machine, that way I can stick with it in the past for as long as I feel the need. I've always been upgrade-phobic, but I usually cave on Windows after a year, something tells me not this time though.