Update-Upgrade-Semi apology.

[omni2226]

I admit after three weeks of silence I was a bit grumpy. Some of my posting was a bit...trollish. Since then it seems the problems are being looked into and the silence was more EA's typical denial of any culpability on thier end.

Upgrade. I never really liked Nvidia, so went out today and bought myself a Christmas present. An ATI HD 2600XT. And a xi-fi sound card.
I wasnt really expecting a lot of diffrence in this game, but boy was I wrong.

All setings on high except shadows turned off. I dont like the way they look in this game. Draw rates at ultra.
Specular on, bloom off. Resolution at 1280x1024.
So off I go. No lag. No jitters. Mmmm.
Pop at 5,000 no change.
Pop nears 10,000 Im waiting for the crash. No change.
Pop at 20,000 no change.
Pop at 30,000 still going. Worker force over 1,000.

Here are a few pics. As you can see its an ugly city. I dropped a "energy" farm and ignored asthetics as this was more or less a stress test. Placed a lot of buildings that produce smoke and smog to get the particle rate high.

So why does this video card run the game smoothly (so far) and others go boom? I have no idea. Ill attach a new Dxdiag log if anyone wants to look,, just let me know.

[Mudge]

That's great news! I'd seen on these forums that you were having quite a bit of trouble, nice to see that it's finally running well for you. Out of curiosity, what's the RAM on that graphics card? Mine's 256MB and i still get mad stutters at +30k, though not every time, which is puzzling.

[omni2226]

That's great news! I'd seen on these forums that you were having quite a bit of trouble, nice to see that it's finally running well for you. Out of curiosity, what's the RAM on that graphics card? Mine's 256MB and i still get mad stutters at +30k, though not every time, which is puzzling.
Its 512 MB GDDR3 RAM on the card. I believe its based on the Radeon 9800 chip, but I may be wrong on that account.

Pop over 60,000 now with 2000 workers. No lag or slow down until I dip low to take a screenie,slight slow down but not enough to be bothersome, but it picks right back up after I stop moving the camera.
Couple of pics.

[PsYChoWaTrMelon]

hey omni glad to hear you can play i know its not a fix for
everything but it looks like its a start lol. oh and each
series of video card by both Nvidia and ATI are not
base on the generations before. Granted they use technology
from before but they are wholey new beasts. the HD 2600
is based off the same technology as the HD 2900 and HD 2400
HD 2900 XT = 8800GT GTS
HD 2600 XT = 8600 GTS
HD 2400 XT = 8400 GS

but i can say one thing tho i like the use of the statues to get authority lol beautiful city btw :D

[bpsucks]

Conrats! Now I wish I could fit a full size video card! Damn these half-height cards :(

[omni2226]

Well I am glad I can play the game, but the main reason I posted was to eat some crow, and wonder why this video card makes a diffrence.

There are many systems crashing that have a much better card as far as performance specs and pricing go.

So what is the magic bullet? the way it allocates memory? the hyper/multi threading of the pixel and vertex shaders? the way I have my stuffed teddy bear...er nevermind.
Thats what I was wandering about. Maybe there is a clue that can help the de-buggers get this this game fixed sooner.

[PsYChoWaTrMelon]

to be real honest i think it comes down to the fact that this game was not
rightfully QA'ed and i know there are PRO Built machines that crach and
OEM computers that run this fine. I just wonder if it all comes down
to the rushed delivery and problems with .net framework. The only thing
that i can think of that would be worse that this game right now on crashing
would be the love child of outpost and gothic 3.

as for the teddy bear to each their own :D.

[Rubus]

I admit after three weeks of silence I was a bit grumpy. Some of my posting was a bit...trollish. Since then it seems the problems are being looked into and the silence was more EA's typical denial of any culpability on thier end.

Upgrade. I never really liked Nvidia, so went out today and bought myself a Christmas present. An ATI HD 2600XT. And a xi-fi sound card.
I wasnt really expecting a lot of diffrence in this game, but boy was I wrong.

All setings on high except shadows turned off. I dont like the way they look in this game. Draw rates at ultra.
Specular on, bloom off. Resolution at 1280x1024.
So off I go. No lag. No jitters. Mmmm.
Pop at 5,000 no change.
Pop nears 10,000 Im waiting for the crash. No change.
Pop at 20,000 no change.
Pop at 30,000 still going. Worker force over 1,000.

Here are a few pics. As you can see its an ugly city. I dropped a "energy" farm and ignored asthetics as this was more or less a stress test. Placed a lot of buildings that produce smoke and smog to get the particle rate high.

So why does this video card run the game smoothly (so far) and others go boom? I have no idea. Ill attach a new Dxdiag log if anyone wants to look,, just let me know.


Thanks for that post. It's made my mind up.

I've got a 8800 GTS 640MB & it's given me nothing but trouble. Or the drivers have anyway. This is my 1st Nvidia card & it'll be the last.

I don't recall seeing hundreds of threads on the Sims 2 BBS about ATI card problem, I do though about Nvidia.

I'm ditching in in Jan & going to get a mid-high range ATI card.

[Jaydlyn]

I have come to the same conclusion of doing an upgrade. Not only do I have trouble with SimCity, but also The Sims 2 Seasons & Bon Voyage. (I can't play them at all)
It just bugs me that after paying out the nose for so many EA games, and a lot of dough for a perfectly otherwise good nvidia video card... I have to spend even more money on a video card that seems to me that EA caters to.

[ManBilal]

Wait a minutes guys. I got dual 768MB 8800GTX in SLI mode, and I'm crashing like the old Celeron.
Are you telling me these random crashes are limited to Nvidia cards only, and not to the ATI cards?

I'm confused, someone please, shed some light on it.

Thanks.

[FomarTHain]

love child of outpost and gothic 3.

LOL an Outpost reference!! I thought I was the only one who remembered that game!:p What a crash-fest....but.... I really liked the game when it ran. I would love to see something like that again.:)

[tickleonthetum]

This is great news! We have just ditched nVidia due to major problems with The Sims 2 (and other things) and gone over to the ATi HD2600XT, 256Mb AGP card and it is fantastic. We had a 6800GT 256Mb and the ATi one beats it hands down. We will never get an nVidia again. We have had 3 nVidia based cards and they all had to be replaced as they didn't work with certain games or the drivers we're to bugged for that model. (MX440, FX5200 & 6800GT). This is the second ATi card we've had, the first was our first every card and it just got too old for modern use, and of course we fell for all the nVidia hype, never again. Nvidia may win on the graphs and tables for benchmarks, but ATi are plenty fast enough, very stable, and most of all they fix their bugs quickly!

We have been umming and arring over getting SCS and this news has settled that, we're getting it!

[Rubus]

... We have been umming and arring over getting SCS and this news has settled that, we're getting it!

Don't bank on an ATI based system being immune to the problems most users of these boards are having with the game, they're not :(