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Mac Gaming News - Aspyr Issues Civilization IV System Requirements

by , 1:30 PM EDT, May 26th, 2006

Aspyr Media on Friday issued final system requirements for the upcoming strategy game Sid Meier's Civilization IV, which will ship in late June with a US$49.99 price tag. It will be a Universal Binary. The Mac Observer has a Beta of the game and will offer a preview soon.

The title builds on its predecessors by introducing a new 3D world as well as such gameplay improvements as an enhanced interface geared toward making newcomers more comfortable, a flexible tech tree that offers more strategic choices, the ability to grow bigger empires, locked alliances, a map editor that supports XML and Python, new civic and religious options, and more.


Building a grand empire in Civilization IV

Minimum System Requirements

  • Mac OS X 10.3.9
  • 1.8 GHz PowerPC G5, or an Intel-based Mac
  • 512MB RAM
  • 3.5GB free disk space
  • NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 or ATI Radeon 9600 with at least 64MB VRAM
  • DVD-ROM

Recommended System Requirements

  • Mac OS X 10.4.6 or higher
  • 2.0GHz PowerPC G5 or an Intel-based Mac
  • 1GB RAM
  • 128MB VRAM

Aspyr's list of supported video cards includes the NVIDIA GeForce 5200, 6600, 6800, 7800, and ATI Radeon 9600, 9650, 9700, 9800, X600, X800, X850, and X1600 cards.

Observer Comments

Show: Subjects Only | Full Comments
Close Name:Mikuro Posts: 444 Joined: 15 Jun 2002
Subject: Ugh

Remember when games were the quintessential thing that didn't have steep hardware requirements? Man, I miss those days. It's hard to believe game designers can survive targeting only the best machines on the market. Oh well... I loved Civ3, but I guess I won't be playing Civ4 any time soon. Bummer.

Close Name:DawnTreader -   TMO Staff Posts: 13382 Joined: 04 Jan 2002
Subject:

The system requirements are indeed a bit hefty for the game. But it may be quite popular among buyers of the Intel iMac.

View Name:Guest
Subject: Will it run on the Macbook
Close Name:DawnTreader -   TMO Staff Posts: 13382 Joined: 04 Jan 2002
Subject: Re: Will it run on the Macbook

Quote
Anonymous wrote:
What I want to know is whether this will run on a Macbook, or do I need to go for a MBP or iMac.


According to the specs listed, this game will run much better on an Intel iMac or MacBook Pro than a MacBook. The MacBook uses the Intel GMA 950 graphics accelerator which utilizes 64 MBs of DDR RAM shared with the main memory.

View Name:Guest
Subject: umm
View Name:Guest
Subject: dumb question
View Name:Guest
Subject: That'll teach me to buy before looking at requirements
View Name:Guest
Subject: Won;t work on new imac 24
View Name:Guest
Subject: Why reqs much higher on Mac than PC
View Name:Guest
Subject: Mac v. PC Requirements
Close Name:acdc1174 Posts: 666 Joined: 16 Apr 2004
Subject: Re: Won;t work on new imac 24

Quote
Anonymous wrote:
How ridiculous - Apple release an iMac with huge screen a great graphics capability. Upgradeable to boot. BUT - CivIV won't run on the iMac 24! Graphics card (both) not supported. If I'm wrong, please correct me.


Consider yourself corrected. I have a 24" iMac (3 GB RAM, 7600 graphics card) and Civ IV/Warlords runs beautifully. Oh, and FWIW, even though the Macbook isn't OFFICIALLY supported, it will run Civ IV nicely if you absolutely MUST have your fix. I would have 2 GB of RAM though.

View Name:Guest
Subject: imac "24 and civ 4
Close Name:acdc1174 Posts: 666 Joined: 16 Apr 2004
Subject: Re: imac "24 and civ 4

Quote
Anonymous wrote:
Do you have any problems with glitches etc? I am having numerous problems such as flickering, blacked out units etc. Some crashing as well.


No, no problems at all. I am running 10.4.9 wih all available patches/updates to all the software (both Apple and non-Apple).

View Name:Guest
Subject: macbook and video games
Close Name:LaurieF -   TMO Forum Mod Posts: 3463 Joined: 15 Jun 2001
Subject:

Get more RAM and you should be fine.

Close Name:coaten Posts: 2944 Joined: 10 Oct 2001
Subject: Re: macbook and video games

Quote
Anonymous wrote:
I just bought macbook with specification of:
Intel Core 2 Duo Processor 2GHz
667 MHz FSB
4 MB Cache
1 GB RAM
120 GB Hard Drive
SuperDrive (DVD RW Drive)
13.3" TFT Display
MAC OS X v10.4 TIGER
64MB Intel GMA 950 Integrated Graphics

will games like civilization 4 and sim city 4 work?


Actually, yes ... and no. SimCity 4 requires a Universal BInary updater, which is only in beta form. I've downloaded it only to discover that my SC4 installer disk is corrupt, so I can't vouch for it. Try it out, but don't bother running the PPC version of SC4 on your MacBook. It ain't worth the pain.

As for Civ IV ... it's been some time now but I think my Civ IV installer rejected a MacBook I was trying to install it on. Something about insufficient video support. Perhaps you could d/l a trail version of Civ IV to test it out?

I think it would be worth doing some further research.

Me? I play SC4 under Boot Camp. Screams along on a 24in iMac.

And I'v been meaning to install Civ IV for a while on this machine. Might just do it now.

Close Name:coaten Posts: 2944 Joined: 10 Oct 2001
Subject: Re: macbook and video games

Quote
coaten wrote:
Perhaps you could d/l a trail version of Civ IV to test it out?


Or maybe even a trial version.

View Name:Guest
Subject: got it to work
View Name:Guest
Subject: tryin to install civ 4 and it say nt enuf disk spc
Close Name:LaurieF -   TMO Forum Mod Posts: 3463 Joined: 15 Jun 2001
Subject:

I think you'll find that it actually says something along the lines of:

Quote
Not enough disk space

How about posting:

"It's saying 'Not enough disk space', when I have 126gb free."

That would be readable, and make you look just a little bit better.

Are you sure you're installing it on that particular drive?

Close Name:Intruder -   TMO Mac Specialist Posts: 2836 Joined: 07 Jul 2004
Subject:

The irony is that the post came from the University of Ohio domain.


I weep for this generation.

Close Name:macinnerd Posts: 1614 Joined: 15 Jun 2005
Subject: Re: tryin to install civ 4 and it say nt enuf disk spc

Quote
Anonymous wrote:
its sayin nt enuf disk space wen i hv 126 gb free


What Intruder and LaurieF said.

View Name:Guest
Subject:
Close Name:LaurieF -   TMO Forum Mod Posts: 3463 Joined: 15 Jun 2001
Subject:

But he's posting here, where it's not.

View Name:Guest
Subject: install problems mac
Close Name:LaurieF -   TMO Forum Mod Posts: 3463 Joined: 15 Jun 2001
Subject:

Have you tried going to support.aspyr.com, and raising a ticket? It sounds as though you may have a bad quality CD/DVD (in which case you're in for a free replacement), or it may be an known or new issue that Aspyr can help you with.

View Name:Guest
Subject: language issues
Close Name:LaurieF -   TMO Forum Mod Posts: 3463 Joined: 15 Jun 2001
Subject:

What is it with the guest posts in this thread that they almost all seem to have "language issues" - that is, they can't write legible English?

To answer what it is I think you're saying, I have no idea. You haven't said what machine you're running it on, what version of the OS you're using, what font you're seeing…come on, try harder!

Close Name:Intruder -   TMO Mac Specialist Posts: 2836 Joined: 07 Jul 2004
Subject:

I'm curious as to when we became the support forum for Civ IV.

Doesn't Aspyr have support forum? Does anybody ever go THERE to ask these sorts of questions?

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