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jokell82 · Mar 8, 2003, 01:55 AM

So what the hell is the deal with this game? I'd like to get it for my iBook, but even though it's less than a year old, I can't run it. The requirements for the PC are a 500 Mhz Pentium/Athlon/Whatever and a 16 meg video card. For the Mac it's a 500 Mhz G3 with a 32 meg video card. Why the discrepancy?

Also, whatever happened to the theory that at equal clock speeds, a G4 is faster than a Pentium processor? Shouldn't the minimum requirements for this game be a lot lower? Why the hell can't I run it on an iBook 700 Combo?????

This really annoys me...

Ghoser777 · Mar 8, 2003, 02:18 AM

It seems to not be a processor speed issue, but a VRAM issue. Now I won't pretend to know why the manufacturer thinks that 32 megabytes is the minimum on the mac, but it's possible that when they were testing, they found that that amount was really necessary. Two reasons for that off the top of my head: the mac version may not be as optimized as the pc version, or there's an OS X issue where it just needs more video ram for games to look good.

Have you tried it out to see what happens?

Matt Fahrenbacher

JLL · Mar 8, 2003, 06:05 AM

Originally posted by Ghoser777:
Have you tried it out to see what happens?

The game is not out yet, and the 32MB VRAM is the preliminary reguirement - it might be changed.

Gummi Bear · Mar 8, 2003, 11:15 AM

i remember the original Sim City 2000. That was a great game. I'm looking foward to this new release.

ambush · 12:58 PM

Dudes, I have a 700 MHz eMac with 640MB of PHYSICAL RAM with a goddamn Geforece 2 with 32 MEGS OF VRAM, and yet, I'm *sure* this goddamn game will LAG like there's no tomorrow.

Oh and I don't even *think* about running it on my ibook 600 with a mobility radeon.

Nebagakid · Mar 8, 2003, 12:30 PM

It loos nifty, but it will probably be a slow ass hog just like Sim City 3 was unless you have really nice and new system!

MaxPower2k3 · Mar 8, 2003, 01:38 PM

plus, it wont run on a 12" powerbook... look at the requirements: "DVI-based PowerBook." i was pissed when i saw that cause i really want this game...

superfula · Mar 8, 2003, 03:21 PM

Originally posted by Ghoser777:
It seems to not be a processor speed issue, but a VRAM issue. Now I won't pretend to know why the manufacturer thinks that 32 megabytes is the minimum on the mac, but it's possible that when they were testing, they found that that amount was really necessary. Two reasons for that off the top of my head: the mac version may not be as optimized as the pc version, or there's an OS X issue where it just needs more video ram for games to look good.

Have you tried it out to see what happens?

Matt Fahrenbacher

Well it's not really the vram, that I could tell. Tried a GeforceTi4600 and an ATI 9700 on the pc version, and they both lagged pretty bad on cities over 10000. I noticed no difference between the two. But considering the machine I had (p4 2.0ghz, and 768mb ram), I'm not sure what would help.

JVB_2112 · Mar 8, 2003, 03:39 PM

Originally posted by MaxPower2k3:
plus, it wont run on a 12" powerbook... look at the requirements: "DVI-based PowerBook." i was pissed when i saw that cause i really want this game...

They had to have written that before the 12" Powerbook was released. Wasn't it that pre DVI Powerbooks only had 16MBs of VRAM?

If it says that the game will run on a 500 MHz iBook with 32 MBs of VRAM it should better run on a 867 MHz G4 Powerbook with 32 MBs of DDR VRAM.

I think their requirements are only stating that pre-DVI Powerbook owners are out of luck.

JVB

Eug · Mar 8, 2003, 04:19 PM

It seems the PC geeks are recommending:

1+ GB DDR RAM (real DDR, not the faked DDR like on the PowerMacs or PowerBooks)
2.5 GHz P4
Fast video card - dunno what speed - probably any reasonably fast card is OK (since it's not an FPS game).

And it still lags when the population gets into the 5 digits.

Even with 1 GB PC133 SDRAM they say it doesn't run so hot. DDR makes a big difference. I guess the memory bandwidth of PC133 is less than ideal. Similarly, I'd suspect the PC2700 running at half speed on the PowerMac (ie. same speed as PC167) would be similarly less than ideal.

And they say it runs like crap with any computer with 512 MB RAM (any type) or less.

ambush · Mar 8, 2003, 04:43 PM

What the ****? It's so funny - probably NO MAC will be able to run it properly - ahhahahahahaahahahah

requirements - laggy with a DUAL 1.42GHz 2 GB of ram.

ambush · Mar 8, 2003, 04:45 PM

I wonder if it'll be demoed at MWNY

juanvaldes · Mar 8, 2003, 06:19 PM

Originally posted by Eug:
It seems the PC geeks are recommending:

1+ GB DDR RAM (real DDR, not the faked DDR like on the PowerMacs or PowerBooks)
2.5 GHz P4
Fast video card - dunno what speed - probably any reasonably fast card is OK (since it's not an FPS game).

...and then once you hit 30K people the game will crap out. It will get so slow that it is unplayble on todays highest end x86 hardware. SC4 is a dog plane and simple.

Eug · Mar 9, 2003, 12:53 AM

Originally posted by juanvaldes:
...and then once you hit 30K people the game will crap out. It will get so slow that it is unplayble on todays highest end x86 hardware. SC4 is a dog plane and simple.

Yes, it reportedly runs like a dog. That was my main point after all.

Peter · Mar 9, 2003, 06:20 AM

hmph everyone voted and asked for this game on Mac, now no one can use it because of the stupid requirements.

vasu · Mar 9, 2003, 07:49 AM

it will run on a 12" powerbook

When they said a DVI Powerbook needed, they just meant that any computer after the Powerbook G4 DVI, which came out in April 2002. They ran at 667Mhz and 867Mhz and had a 32mb Radeon Mobility.

A powerbook g4 12" has a 867mhz processor, and a 32mb nVidia gpu, so it should run just fine.

An actual DVI port is not needed, they are just referring to a specific time frame, saying no powerbook before the April 2002 ones will work.

-vasu