Running Civ V or VI on a fairly basic laptop, possible?

uncle_rufus · 22 Apr 2020 at 15:41

Hey all,

Thinking with the lockdown being what it is and his Birthday coming up I might get my Dad a copy of one of the Civ games as I'm sure he would really enjoy it... however his laptop isn't exactly a powerhouse nor is he particularly technically capable (and even ignoring the current lockdown I live too far away to visit and help much) so trying to decide whether it will work without too much issue (and/or whether it might be a sensible move to go for Civ V rather than VI if that would perform better - yes yes, I know VI is a bit marmite, I like both personally)

Anyway, the laptop is a Lenovo z580, which has an i7-3520M, 6Gb RAM and unfortunately I don't think has any sort of graphics card, so will just be the Intel HD4000. Any chance of that being a vaguely playable experience? I can advise him to avoid playing on a huge map with lots of CPU players and to set all the graphical options to low.

pepp77 · 22 Apr 2020 at 15:51

CPU and RAM is more important than graphics for Civ. I play on a laptop (i7-10510u with 16GB of RAM and whatever basic GPU this office laptop comes with) and have no issues playing it at all.

I would also recommend not playing above a standard map (for both the speed of play from a CPU perspective, but also the speed of play from a map size perspective

)

ps - I have about 600 hours on Civ VI

pps - also with the whole shebang being available for about £25 at the moment, it really is a no brainer to get the bundle that includes R&F and GS as well.

uncle_rufus · 22 Apr 2020 at 16:06

That's kind of what I was hoping, and your response is encouraging - but from what you said it sounds like you at least have some sort of GPU... I'm worried that the inbuilt Intel CPU graphics won't cope?

If I pick up the bundle with the expansions I'll have to buy them for myself as well in case we want to play against each other (but I've heard they are great so no worries there)... The only other thing is am I right in thinking there doesn't seem to be an option to buy a copy that installs via DVD (I'm not sure how good my parents internet is... but I'm sure they can cope with downloading it, I'll check they at least have unlimited downloads)

pepp77 · 22 Apr 2020 at 16:11

My laptop just says Intel UHD Graphics (its a UHD screen) - it is just the basic built in one that Dell supply in their UHD laptops.

I've not seen a physical version anywhere, but if there was it would probably be closer to £100

IntMD · 23 Apr 2020 at 10:05

Civ V Minimum Specs...

Here are the Civilization V System Requirements (Minimum)

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo 1.8 GHz or AMD Athlon X2 64 2.0 GHz.
RAM: 2GB.
OS: Windows® XP SP3/ Windows® Vista SP2/ Windows® 7.
VIDEO CARD: 256 MB ATI HD2600 XT or better, 256 MB nVidia 7900 GS or better, or Core i3 or better integrated graphics.
FREE DISK SPACE: 8 GB.

Civ VI Minimum Specs...

Civilization VI System Requirements

OS: Windows 7 64bit / 8.1 64bit / 10 64bit.
Processor: Intel Core i3 2.5 Ghz or AMD Phenom II 2.6 Ghz or greater.
Memory: 4 GB RAM.
Hard drive: 12 GB or more.
Video card: 1 GB DirectX 11 Video Card (AMD 5570 or Nvidia 450)

As long as you match those, it should in theory work. Whether it will work well is another matter. Civ V should definitely be fine, Civ VI will probably work but you might have to tone down the settings a fair amount.

Steven Rimmington · 24 Apr 2020 at 09:46

My works HP laptop with Intel 620 graphics and an i5 works fine however when the game is fully loaded an well into the turn count, it can take around 30 secondsper turn and you can see the map loading while scrolling. You can see it render

it works but not ideal. This is CIV VI.

I think sticking to a smaller map and turning off fighting animation helps.

uncle_rufus · 24 Apr 2020 at 10:12

Cool thanks all, I think considering I can pick it up pretty cheap I'm just going to go for it. If it doesn't work perfectly I'm sure someday when my parents next update their laptop it'll be a bit better. Will probably get my Dad to download TeamViewer or something so I can take care of setting up Steam and all that stuff with him rather than throwing him in at the deep end!

Definitely considered going for Civ V instead but I'd rather go with VI just because that's the one I'm playing/used to (slightly selfish perhaps, but I imagine I might have to help him learn the ropes and we might want to play some games together once he gets the hang of it)