How does it run?

[SpharV2]

I'm running a P4 3.2 GHz, 2 GB RAM, XP SP3. I meet the minimum requirements, but looking at the scale of this thing, I'm a bit worried about it to be honest. I've been burned by games lowballing their minimum specs before, where sure, the game is playable, so long as you don't mind it being choppy and waiting half an hour for things to happen. Anyone running a similar system? I'd hate to buy, then realize afterward that I can only make it through half a game before it bogs down so much it's unplayable.

[HsojVvad]

So far i am having no problems on my laptop, with 4gigs of ram, a dual core 2.0ghz. Then again, I only started so who knows how it will run in the mid and end game with many many units on the field.

I remeber reading to play the 700+ stars you will need 2 gigs of ram. Since you on XP I think you will be ok, since Vista is a memory hog, and Windows 7 runs better than Vista. I am no expert so wait for other opnions to be said. I believe a few people play on XP still so wait for thier comments.

[lordxorn]

I think your P4 has enough Ghz to make the game playable, there are scalability options, plus it runs fine on my non gaming laptop. You failed to list your graphics card though.

[SpharV2]

ATI Raedon 1650 512 MB, nothing spectacular, but can keep up with most anything not new gen FPS.  I'm more worried about the processor load than I am the graphic load really, especially in the late game.  I know Civ IV is a dog once you get into the later part of the game, I would hope it wouldn't end up anything like that.

[DarkWraith]

Your processor will be fine. You might have trouble running the biggest galaxy sizes due to your RAM, but other than that you'll be fine with the game from what I've seen of it.