*DISCLAIMER* (for a lack of a better word)
I can not confirm that this will actually work, this is a test that should, in theory work. However, since I have a decent machine myself I cannot infact test if it actually works. It does work in all other games though (in that case more graphically demanding, if anyone was interested why it works then) and should in theory work with EUIV aswell.
I'm not an expert on this stuff by any means. If I have described something wrong, please let me know. But don't go flaming on me. If you do I won't respond.
Hello fellow paradoxians!
I have a theory/test that might help you guys find out what is lagging your EUIV game, along with some potential solutions!
The theory:
Most games rely on three main components: The CPU, the GPU and the RAM.
The CPU is responsible for calculating and running the AI among other things. (basically running the framework that the game is).
The GPU which is what makes us able to see the game and "draw" on the beautiful graphics that paradox has made, on the screen.
The RAM acts as a place for the CPU to dump stuff that it doesn't need at the moment, but will need fairly soon. This game in particular I'd imagine* uses quite a lot of RAM to store stuff when doing AI calculations and such. If you have an integrated graphics card E.G Intel HD 4000, the textures would be put here aswell for quick access. Dedicated graphics cards such as the GTX 480 have dedicated "VRAM" to store textures in, to avoid clogging up your system ram among other things.
This simple test would allow you to test 2 out of these 3 components and find out which of them is the bottleneck (the weaker link, if you will). The CPU or the GPU. Sadly, I do not know of a way to test if you have enough RAM.
My theory is: If we reduce the load on the GPU, or the CPU to the absolute minimum we can see which of them is the weaker component, by slowly ramping up the stress on the components.
The test:
It is quite simple really. As I said before we need to minimize the load on the components. For this test, minimizing the load on the GPU will be enough.
1: Lower the resolution waaaay down (I recommend 800x600) If you're already running at this resolution, I'm sorry, this probably won't help you. You could turn the resolution further down but that is kind of pointless, as you can barely read anything already at 800x600. Then turn all graphics options to minimum.
2: Start a game and increase the game speed. (I recommend going all the way up to speed 4, speed 5 is stupidly fast and it taxes the CPU as much as it can). If you don't encounter any lag, then your GPU is the weak component, cause as far as I know the CPU load shouldn't increase the higher the resolution is, not by much anyway.
If you however encounter lag, then your CPU can't keep up with the game.
That's it, really. You will probably by now have figured out what the weak component is.
If your weak component was the CPU:
If your weak component was the GPU:
Hopefully this will help you at least find out what is causing the lag. I hate to be a bringer of bad news but I guess that it's better for you to know what to change to make things better than to wonder what's actually the problem.
Now remember, that I am simply a forum member and do not have any contacts with paradox (except playing their games) if they have a better explaination than mine, they're probably right. It's their game after all, they made it. What I mean is, don't take any of this as a final word of if you should buy the game, or if you should upgrade. I do not know everything and I might've missed something extremely critical. If something such comes to my attention, I will update this thread.
The EUIV team will probably (note: probably) release optimization patches later down the line, so if you can't run the game now, please check back if one of those patches have been released and see if you can run the game then!
At last: Please, if you did not find a solution to your lagg, and you are UNDER the minumum specs for this game, you are out of luck. You won't get anywhere with the argument "It ran CK2 and EU3 so it should run EU4!" No it shouldn't, you might've gotten lucky with the minumum specs for those other games but sadly, not with EU4.
Minimum specs:
*I do not actually know the code, the engine and such and can only assume that EUIV uses quite a lot of RAM for storing AI moves and such. I do not actually know the RAM usage and what it is used for in this game.
Remember. I only made this thread to help people out. I will try and help out in the comments if you have any problems that are RELATED TO THIS, not graphical issues and such.
I can not confirm that this will actually work, this is a test that should, in theory work. However, since I have a decent machine myself I cannot infact test if it actually works. It does work in all other games though (in that case more graphically demanding, if anyone was interested why it works then) and should in theory work with EUIV aswell.
I'm not an expert on this stuff by any means. If I have described something wrong, please let me know. But don't go flaming on me. If you do I won't respond.
Hello fellow paradoxians!
I have a theory/test that might help you guys find out what is lagging your EUIV game, along with some potential solutions!
The theory:
Most games rely on three main components: The CPU, the GPU and the RAM.
The CPU is responsible for calculating and running the AI among other things. (basically running the framework that the game is).
The GPU which is what makes us able to see the game and "draw" on the beautiful graphics that paradox has made, on the screen.
The RAM acts as a place for the CPU to dump stuff that it doesn't need at the moment, but will need fairly soon. This game in particular I'd imagine* uses quite a lot of RAM to store stuff when doing AI calculations and such. If you have an integrated graphics card E.G Intel HD 4000, the textures would be put here aswell for quick access. Dedicated graphics cards such as the GTX 480 have dedicated "VRAM" to store textures in, to avoid clogging up your system ram among other things.
This simple test would allow you to test 2 out of these 3 components and find out which of them is the bottleneck (the weaker link, if you will). The CPU or the GPU. Sadly, I do not know of a way to test if you have enough RAM.
My theory is: If we reduce the load on the GPU, or the CPU to the absolute minimum we can see which of them is the weaker component, by slowly ramping up the stress on the components.
The test:
It is quite simple really. As I said before we need to minimize the load on the components. For this test, minimizing the load on the GPU will be enough.
1: Lower the resolution waaaay down (I recommend 800x600) If you're already running at this resolution, I'm sorry, this probably won't help you. You could turn the resolution further down but that is kind of pointless, as you can barely read anything already at 800x600. Then turn all graphics options to minimum.
2: Start a game and increase the game speed. (I recommend going all the way up to speed 4, speed 5 is stupidly fast and it taxes the CPU as much as it can). If you don't encounter any lag, then your GPU is the weak component, cause as far as I know the CPU load shouldn't increase the higher the resolution is, not by much anyway.
If you however encounter lag, then your CPU can't keep up with the game.
That's it, really. You will probably by now have figured out what the weak component is.
If your weak component was the CPU:
This is a though one really. As far as I know there is no way to make the load less heavy on the CPU.
So I'd ask myself this:
Did I manage to do away with the lag when I turned the game speed down?
If yes: Am I fine with playing at that speed untill I get a CPU upgrade or paradox patches the game?
If no: I'm sorry bud. You'll probably have to wait untill you get a new CPU or wait for a patch that MIGHT increase performance.
So I'd ask myself this:
Did I manage to do away with the lag when I turned the game speed down?
If yes: Am I fine with playing at that speed untill I get a CPU upgrade or paradox patches the game?
If no: I'm sorry bud. You'll probably have to wait untill you get a new CPU or wait for a patch that MIGHT increase performance.
This is probably the better one to get, because you can turn down the load on the GPU.
Ask yourself this:
Was I able to turn the graphics way down to get rid of the lag?
If yes: That's great! You can atleast play the game and enjoy it's mechanics. I now I recommend playing around with the resolution untill you find a nice balance between playable (not much lagg) and high resolution and graphics! I always recommend going higher on resolution first, then graphics options.
If no: Sadly, there is probably no way to get around this without getting a new GPU, since, as far as I know, there is basically no way to patch graphics to make them less demanding.
Ask yourself this:
Was I able to turn the graphics way down to get rid of the lag?
If yes: That's great! You can atleast play the game and enjoy it's mechanics. I now I recommend playing around with the resolution untill you find a nice balance between playable (not much lagg) and high resolution and graphics! I always recommend going higher on resolution first, then graphics options.
If no: Sadly, there is probably no way to get around this without getting a new GPU, since, as far as I know, there is basically no way to patch graphics to make them less demanding.
Hopefully this will help you at least find out what is causing the lag. I hate to be a bringer of bad news but I guess that it's better for you to know what to change to make things better than to wonder what's actually the problem.
Now remember, that I am simply a forum member and do not have any contacts with paradox (except playing their games) if they have a better explaination than mine, they're probably right. It's their game after all, they made it. What I mean is, don't take any of this as a final word of if you should buy the game, or if you should upgrade. I do not know everything and I might've missed something extremely critical. If something such comes to my attention, I will update this thread.
The EUIV team will probably (note: probably) release optimization patches later down the line, so if you can't run the game now, please check back if one of those patches have been released and see if you can run the game then!
At last: Please, if you did not find a solution to your lagg, and you are UNDER the minumum specs for this game, you are out of luck. You won't get anywhere with the argument "It ran CK2 and EU3 so it should run EU4!" No it shouldn't, you might've gotten lucky with the minumum specs for those other games but sadly, not with EU4.
Minimum specs:
Operating system: XP/Vista/Windows7
Processor: Intel® Pentium® IV 2.4 GHz or AMD 3500+
Memory: 2 Gb RAM
Hard disk space: 2 GB Available HDD Space
Video: NVIDIA® GeForce 8800 or ATI Radeon® X1900, 512mb graphics memory required.
Resolution at least: 1024*768
Sound: Direct X-compatible sound card
DirectX®: DirectX 9
Controller support: 3-button mouse, keyboard and speakers
Special multiplayer requirements: Internet Connection or LAN for multiplayer
Multiplayer: Up to 32 other players in multiplayer mode
Processor: Intel® Pentium® IV 2.4 GHz or AMD 3500+
Memory: 2 Gb RAM
Hard disk space: 2 GB Available HDD Space
Video: NVIDIA® GeForce 8800 or ATI Radeon® X1900, 512mb graphics memory required.
Resolution at least: 1024*768
Sound: Direct X-compatible sound card
DirectX®: DirectX 9
Controller support: 3-button mouse, keyboard and speakers
Special multiplayer requirements: Internet Connection or LAN for multiplayer
Multiplayer: Up to 32 other players in multiplayer mode
*I do not actually know the code, the engine and such and can only assume that EUIV uses quite a lot of RAM for storing AI moves and such. I do not actually know the RAM usage and what it is used for in this game.
Remember. I only made this thread to help people out. I will try and help out in the comments if you have any problems that are RELATED TO THIS, not graphical issues and such.
